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.Outside, the world turned.Rush hourwas approaching: a sharp buzzing on the air,a rumbling beneath our feet, the time of daywhen every sorcerer s heart beat faster, andyour teeth ached like you d washed them invinegar.There were now Aldermen in thefoyer of Harlun and Phelps, also on thephone, looking fraught.A gaggle of suitedmen and women was forming by the en-trance, some holding briefcases, most withnothing, moving with the herd gracelessnessof startled deer.More were arriving withevery second, and now there were men inyellow bibs, herding office workers towardsthe main door like dogs controlling a flock ofsheep.My phone rang but, seeing Kelly sname, I didn t answer.I watched from overmy newspaper and, as the lights started 316/1048going out on the top floors of the building, Icouldn t hide my smile.Imps weren t usuallytrouble; but who could blame them if some-times they nibbled through the wrong cableto the wrong circuit?The building started clearing in properfashion now, the men in yellow bibs acquir-ing signs that said Muster Point A and Evacuation Officer to wave above theirheads.The street was a roiling mass of suits,only the black-clad Aldermen still inside;most of the workers were giving up rightthere and slinging their coats on.They beganto disperse towards the Underground andbuses, or bickered over who was first to haila particular cab.Around this scene of discordance the cityflowed, not oblivious, but far too self-ab-sorbed to give a damn, or worse, be seen togive a damn.Staring was for tourists, andthis was not a tourist part of town.Except& 317/1048Except, there were one or two men show-ing more interest than they should.Sorcerersare, regrettably, far too busy learning themysteries of the arcane arts to catch eveningclasses in espionage, but find yourselfhunted long enough and you start to spot thesigns.Was it normal for utilities vans to beparked for so long on a double red line likethat, next to a sign proclaiming Danger Works in Progress, with no signof a worker working on anything more than amug of tea? Sure, there was the British workethic to consider, which valued the cuppamore than myrrh or gold, but this was theCorporation of London, where tomorrowhappened now, and yesterday was a land forlosers.And how handy that the van wasparked just opposite Harlun and Phelps,with an excellent eye-line to both the maindoor and the service entrance.And, now Ilooked again, was that woman in a suit reallytaking so long over one cup of coffee, when 318/1048she d been sat by the long café window for aslong as I d been here?What had Templeman said?Nothing helpful or precise, but he d beenafraid enough to warn us against the fairygodmother.Don t blow stuff up, don t doanything spectacular, don t get caught by thegodmother.Would they really be so pissed off thatthey d try and lift the Midnight Mayor fromunder the Aldermen s noses?It took a lot of balls to cross an Alder-man, let alone a whole bunch of them, and asstake-outs went, it didn t get much moreballsy than this.If they were here for me,they d be armed against the usual spells Iwore to distract the casually wandering eye.Something more extravagant would be calledfor.I reached for my mobile and dialled 999. Hi, yeah, um, look, I don t know if this isthe right number to call or anything, butthere s like, this van parked across the street, 319/1048yeah, and there s been these men going inand out of it for a while now and I didn tthink it was anything, I mean, it may not beanything yeah, but they ve been like, parkedthere for ages now and I, uh, I work just op-posite yeah and they re like not workingaround here or anything and I just thinkthey re a bit suspicious, you know? How do you mean suspicious, sir? asked the emergency operator. Well, you know, they re parked on adouble red to begin with, I mean, what thehell is that about, and they ve been like put-ting stuff in the back of their van in, like, thisreally odd way, you know, like, making sureno one s watching or stuff.I don t know,maybe they robbed a hardware store orsomething, because I saw some of the stuffthey re putting in there and it s all like nailsin these big big crates and big barrels ofchemicals and stuff. 320/1048I prayed for a bright and yet not toobright operator, and struck lucky. Whatkind of chemicals, sir? Did you see anylabels? I really don t know, I said [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.Outside, the world turned.Rush hourwas approaching: a sharp buzzing on the air,a rumbling beneath our feet, the time of daywhen every sorcerer s heart beat faster, andyour teeth ached like you d washed them invinegar.There were now Aldermen in thefoyer of Harlun and Phelps, also on thephone, looking fraught.A gaggle of suitedmen and women was forming by the en-trance, some holding briefcases, most withnothing, moving with the herd gracelessnessof startled deer.More were arriving withevery second, and now there were men inyellow bibs, herding office workers towardsthe main door like dogs controlling a flock ofsheep.My phone rang but, seeing Kelly sname, I didn t answer.I watched from overmy newspaper and, as the lights started 316/1048going out on the top floors of the building, Icouldn t hide my smile.Imps weren t usuallytrouble; but who could blame them if some-times they nibbled through the wrong cableto the wrong circuit?The building started clearing in properfashion now, the men in yellow bibs acquir-ing signs that said Muster Point A and Evacuation Officer to wave above theirheads.The street was a roiling mass of suits,only the black-clad Aldermen still inside;most of the workers were giving up rightthere and slinging their coats on.They beganto disperse towards the Underground andbuses, or bickered over who was first to haila particular cab.Around this scene of discordance the cityflowed, not oblivious, but far too self-ab-sorbed to give a damn, or worse, be seen togive a damn.Staring was for tourists, andthis was not a tourist part of town.Except& 317/1048Except, there were one or two men show-ing more interest than they should.Sorcerersare, regrettably, far too busy learning themysteries of the arcane arts to catch eveningclasses in espionage, but find yourselfhunted long enough and you start to spot thesigns.Was it normal for utilities vans to beparked for so long on a double red line likethat, next to a sign proclaiming Danger Works in Progress, with no signof a worker working on anything more than amug of tea? Sure, there was the British workethic to consider, which valued the cuppamore than myrrh or gold, but this was theCorporation of London, where tomorrowhappened now, and yesterday was a land forlosers.And how handy that the van wasparked just opposite Harlun and Phelps,with an excellent eye-line to both the maindoor and the service entrance.And, now Ilooked again, was that woman in a suit reallytaking so long over one cup of coffee, when 318/1048she d been sat by the long café window for aslong as I d been here?What had Templeman said?Nothing helpful or precise, but he d beenafraid enough to warn us against the fairygodmother.Don t blow stuff up, don t doanything spectacular, don t get caught by thegodmother.Would they really be so pissed off thatthey d try and lift the Midnight Mayor fromunder the Aldermen s noses?It took a lot of balls to cross an Alder-man, let alone a whole bunch of them, and asstake-outs went, it didn t get much moreballsy than this.If they were here for me,they d be armed against the usual spells Iwore to distract the casually wandering eye.Something more extravagant would be calledfor.I reached for my mobile and dialled 999. Hi, yeah, um, look, I don t know if this isthe right number to call or anything, butthere s like, this van parked across the street, 319/1048yeah, and there s been these men going inand out of it for a while now and I didn tthink it was anything, I mean, it may not beanything yeah, but they ve been like, parkedthere for ages now and I, uh, I work just op-posite yeah and they re like not workingaround here or anything and I just thinkthey re a bit suspicious, you know? How do you mean suspicious, sir? asked the emergency operator. Well, you know, they re parked on adouble red to begin with, I mean, what thehell is that about, and they ve been like put-ting stuff in the back of their van in, like, thisreally odd way, you know, like, making sureno one s watching or stuff.I don t know,maybe they robbed a hardware store orsomething, because I saw some of the stuffthey re putting in there and it s all like nailsin these big big crates and big barrels ofchemicals and stuff. 320/1048I prayed for a bright and yet not toobright operator, and struck lucky. Whatkind of chemicals, sir? Did you see anylabels? I really don t know, I said [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]