“Go ahead,” Alice said, watching as Daniel untiedthe suspicious housemaidAgent M.
“We have discovered... will... absolutely ghastly!... you must... at once, before the whole... crashing down!... disaster!”
“It’s a bad connection,” Alice replied. “Say again.”
“Imperative that you... stop... or else...”
Sparks began flashing from the gun’s barrel. Alice instinctively tossed it from her, and even before it reached the floor, the whole thing erupted in flames. Alice grabbed a nearby blond wig and applied it to extinguishing the fire. She managed to do so quickly, but there was no hope of using the device again.
“Any idea what Mrs. Kew was saying?” Daniel asked.
“None. You?”
He shook his head. Then Agent M began to stir, moaning a little. Daniel immediately attended to her.
“You attacked me!” she gasped as he helped her to her feet.
“Er, yes,” he confessed. “Sorry about that.”
“You actually used a choke hold on me!”
“Well, something of the sort. Apologies.”
Her dark eyes widened. “Agent B rendered me unconscious using a specialist maneuver! I cannot believe my good fortune! Just wait until V-2 hears, she will be so jealous! Would you autograph my—my—” She looked about her person for something to be signed, and finally rolled up her sleeve, revealing a decidedly un-housemaid-like tattoo of a bird. “Just sign my arm,” she said. “The name’s Mia Thalassi, and if you wanted to fold—”
“Listen, Mia,” Alice interjected before Daniel could getcalmagain. “Do you know why Mrs. Kew was calling?”
“No, ma’am. Shall I ask Dr. Snodgrass for another device?”
“No!” the agents answered in immediate unison, causing Mia to take a cautious step back from them.
“No,” Daniel said more sedately. “We must get that information. But we can’t risk sending a telegram—the network is completely infiltrated with enemy spies.”
“You mean employees of the British government,” Mia said.
“Exactly. Someone will have to go to London and speak to Mrs. Kew in person.”
Mia thrust her hand into the air. “I volunteer as traveler!”
“Hm,” Daniel said, crossing his arms as he regarded her.
She stared right back. “If you’re trying to daunt me, just know that I currently share quarters with Agent V-2 and have to spend half the night listening to her read out scenes from theMoby Dickretellingshe’s working on, written from the perspective of the whale. It starts with, ‘Call me Dick, Moby Dick. I am a sperm whale.’ As a result, not much unnerves me these days.”
“Fair enough,” Daniel said, easing his stance. “Very well, return to headquarters and bring us back the information. But be quick about it. Any moment now, the Wisteria Society might—”
“Find the weapon and use it for nefarious purposes,” Mia said, nodding somberly.
Daniel frowned. “I was more thinking they might—”
“Discover your identity and force you to walk the plank?”
“Make us play another parlor game,” Alice said, and both she and Daniel shuddered.
They sent Mia off, but any further searching they might have undertaken was forestalled by the ringing of the luncheon bell.
“It would help if we’d been told who exactly amongst the staff is on mission support,” Alice complained as they headed for the dining room.
“I trust no one,” Daniel said. “Except you, of course.”
