12th July 2012
16:38 GMT
I cut the connection to Grayven's mountain and sit back in my chair. Hard-etched instinct causes me to scan my office for threats, but there's no one here. Prime Ministers don't get a lot of time to themselves, but I generally chivvy people out for this sort of secure telephone call. Grayven's got an impressive network of contacts, but I rather imagine that he'd rather it didn't come to wider public attention.
MI5 is another matter. The
secret squirrels we didn't get rid of are going out of their way to make themselves useful. Damn close thing between keeping them on and firing the whole lot of them and building a new intelligence service from scratch. But I don't like punishing people who didn't personally commit the crime, no matter what the back of my head's saying about guilt by association. That's not how
Joint Enterprise works.
I don't feel bad about using the intelligence service to obtain information on him. I might have done, before Joanie. Now it's just clearly
necessary. Anyone in power needs someone watching 'em, and I can't do that personally all of the time.
My desk phone rings and I pick it up. Back to the grind.
"Talbot.
"
"Prime Minister, you have a call from a Mister.. 'Doom'?" Ernest, my secretary. My
actual secretary, as opposed to the civil service mandarins. "He's on the priority approved list, but-."
"Yes, yes, I know the man. He's a wizard. Put him through.
"
"Yes sir."
Good man, Ernest. Grandparents on both sides came over on the
Windrush and put up with the terrible reception to make a life for themselves, he graduated with a First in Business Administration from LSE. And rather than go into industry with it he decided he'd rather work for the government. People like him are why I didn't just burn Downing Street down and piss on the ashes.
"Prime Minister."
"Mister Doom. Any trouble?
"
"Perhaps. Several of my worldwide wards have been tripped."
"World wide?
"
"That's not as significant as it sounds. The Earth's thaumosphere forms a natural boundary. Setting a spell to notify the caster when something crosses a boundary is a simple business. Setting them to notify the caster when something occurs
within the boundary is only a little more taxing."
"Alright. What triggered it?
"
"After a number of…
Incidents in the recent past, I set a ward which would inform me if a locus of significant power suddenly became active. Loci.. in this instance referring to either an artefact or individual which had previously been inert. An artefact which could grant an individual tremendous power, an eldritch abomination breaking into the world or an ancient magician who had been hibernating."
"Is that common?
"
"Common? No. Twice a decade, perhaps. We still don't know where Dracula is."
"Alright. Which is it?
"
"I don't know. As I said, the ward simply alerts me to an event. I've been trying to scry the location of whatever it was for several hours, but I haven't been able to locate it. That implies either an object designed to conceal itself and its user, or a magician of considerable skill and finesse."
"The Justice League hasn't sent out an alert.
"
"Giovanni Zatara's skills are dissimilar to mine. He hasn't ever had to learn subtlety in the way that a jumped up street magician like myself has had to. And to be honest, 'something is happening, somewhere, probably' isn't much to go on. It might not even
be a problem."
"Do you honestly believe that?
"
"Not for a second. I'm going to keep looking, but you may wish to pass my alert on to them."
"Thank you. I will. Let me know if you make any progress.
"
"I will. Thank you, Prime Minister."
I put the phone down. Blast. Grayven didn't say anything, and he's usually fairly good about letting me know when something catastrophic is happening. Or when there's an advantage to be gained. Which means that he isn't aware of it.
I dial Jasmine's number. With a fairly limited number of experienced parliamentarians to draw on, the top government jobs more or less assigned themselves. She got the Home Office, which means that if things were running normally Doom would be phoning
her. But they're not, and I haven't forgotten that she
knew how bad things were and didn't try to raise the alarm until we forced her hand.
I don't think that life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is an appropriate punishment for moral weakness. But I'll be more content if she joins Boris once some of the new intake have a little experience under their belt.
"Prime Minister?"
"Cursitor Doom just contacted me.
" A light appears on my desk and I press the button that lets my entourage know that they can't come in just yet.
"Apparently, something big and magical just activated and is now hiding itself. Please pass that along to the Justice League.
"
"Does he have any more details?"
"No, but he's going to keep looking.
"
"I'll have my department send out the alerts."
"Thank you. Goodbye.
"
I put the phone down, and then I dial
Professor Larissa. It's nine in the morning over there so she should be awake but classes shouldn't have started just yet. Grayven gave me her number as an expert magic consultant, and I suspect that she has a little more oomph than Doom does. With that Sunset girl of his, he simply wouldn't trouble himself with her otherwise.
"Hello?"
"Professor Larissa? This-
"
"Yes?"
"-is Prime Minister Geoffrey Talbot.
"
"Ah, of course. I'm afraid that I have a ring-back system for world leaders."
"Quite sensible. Speak to you in a moment, then.
"
I put the phone down, and a moment later it rings again.
"Mister Prime Minister. How can I be of service?"
"The British government's chief magician just gave us a vague premonition of doom. Supposedly, something magically powerful recently became active and is now hiding itself. Our capacity for magic investigation is somewhat limited, and Mister Grayven suggested that I contact you.
"
"Did he say
how powerful?"
"A twice-a-decade event.
"
"Hm. I haven't noticed anything, but I'll look into it and get back to you."
"Thank you. I appreciate it. Goodbye.
"
"Goodbye Mister Prime Minister."
I put the phone down, then press the button to summon my staff. I've still got a legacy to obliterate.
Ah, Geoffrey, you have no idea...
