Dead ends...

MI6s recently reformed team of enhanced individuals have completed their investigation at London Airport and have confirmed the possible involvement of unknown enhanced individuals with links to the sabotage at Hanslope Park. They are now preparing to interview three of the six Flying Squad members. The team consists of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mimi Dubois, maîtresse of skills; Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter.

London, England, March 1948

Charlie parks the car just beyond John Franklin's house and Madeline and Sven, transformed into a doppelganger of Superintendent Chapman, walked up to the door with a bottle of scotch in hand. When Franklin answers the door Superintendent Chapman introduces Madeline as a member of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. As they enter the property, Alfie and Charlie both turn their doleful eyes to me and after a moment I succumb and get my cigarettes out.

Sven's performance as Superintendent Chapman is very convincing and as he sits down he says;

How are you doing John? Unfortunately, this lady from internal affairs needs to ask you a few questions.

Madeline starts to question Franklin, while the disguised Sven watches very closely, committing all of Franklin's mannerisms to memory. Madeline makes sure that John Franklin believes that he is not a suspect in the investigation, but that he is being interviewed as an eye witness. The officer is very reserved with his answers but Madeline persists with her questioning and eventually learns that he and Draper stayed back near the truck and could not see much due to the corner of the building blocking their view. He tells her about the flash of light and the sound of an explosion, and Madeline thinks that it is unusual that it was described in that way, but as she told me later she believed what John Franklin told her.

Madeline pushed further with her questions, taking that line of a professional not wanting to go on record about the oddities of the case, and asking Franklin to explain the burnt footprints, Franklin makes eye contact with Sven and the Superintendent nods. Franklin looks back to Madeline and says;

Micky would have seen it better. He went in. I didn't.

Madeline continues to question him and ascertains the order in which the Flying Squad officers entered the gun fight, but is unable to get any further information from the reluctant officer. And so after half an hour Madeline and Sven leave. Sven gets Charlie to drive us to Donald McMillan's house and as we are on route Sven transforms once again. Within thirty minutes John Franklin's doppelganger is knocking on McMillan's door. Mrs McMillan answers and tells John that her husband has been informed by the doctor that he has to stay in bed and rest, Sven is insistent and Mrs McMillan heads inside. She reappears a few minutes later and tells Sven;

Don isn't up to seeing anyone, even a colleague. Sorry!

Sven leaves and gets Charlie to head for George Draper's, but he has no luck there either. With Draper telling Franklin's doppelganger that his wound is playing him up and that he isn't up for talking. He then shuts the door in Sven's face. Dejected at the continual dead ends that we keep hitting we head back to Scotland Yard to collect the requested information on Jack 'Spot' Comer and his known associates from Superintendent Chapman. We then headed back to Canning Place Mews were Madeline read through all of the intelligence on Comer and discovered that everything had gone quiet eight weeks prior to the Battle of London Airport. Another dead end.

We decide to contact Major Sawdon via Corporal Jonny Baldrick and inform him that the investigation is not going well. The Major replies via Corporal Alfie Baldrick and tells us;

If you are struggling through official channels, then I suggest that you go back to unofficial channels.

He also asks that Baldrick keeps him constantly updated on what we discover. And so around midnight we set out once more for John Franklin's house, but this time we plan on a little bit of breaking and entering. I guess technically there was no breaking as, once I had borrowed Madeline's shadow form ability, we both just slipped in under the door. But a search of Franklin's house turns up nothing of interest, no hidden cash, jewellery, or gold bullion. And the same thing happens when they turn over Draper's and McMillan's. With our frustration building we turn our attentions towards Superintendent Chapman's office.

Madeline slides up the outside of Scotland Yard and in through the window of Detective Superintendent Chapman's office. Once inside she starts to search the room and, finding his desk drawers locked, Madeline produces a set of lock-picks and skilfully opens them. She discovers a file on the Battle of London Airport and quickly leafs through. She discovers that the laboratory reports have been passed to Chapman, but that he has not yet passed them onto us, she also discovers that Special Agent Philby is ordering Chapman to delay his own investigation into the incident at London Airport. Madeline removes the letter from Philby from the file and tucks it into her bag, she then replaces the file and locks the drawer before leaving the way she entered.

Back in Canning Place Mews, and still in communication with Major Sawdon via the Baldricks, we discussed talking to Special Agent Philby in the morning, but Sawdon says that he doesn't believe that we should because he feels that Philby isn't qualified to command us. Yet again I find myself stuck between two factions of the same organization fighting for power over resources. It is just like being back in France, back in the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage and the spiralling internal bureaucratic disputes. I thought that it would be different back with MI5, back with the enhanced team, back where I thought I belonged.

Just before midday the following day we received a telephone call from the National Hospital in London informing us that Alan Brody had been moved from intensive care as his wounds were no longer considered life threatening. When questioned, the lady on the other end of the phone confirmed that she had already informed Detective Superintendent Chapman. Knowing that it was imperative that we questioned Brody before Chapman Sven transformed into a raven and flew directly to the hospital while the rest of us jumped into the car and Charlie drove like a man possessed.

Sven lands in a dark alley near to the hospital and transforms into a doppelganger of the Superintendent. He walks boldly into the hospital and finds out what room Alan 'Jock' Brody has been moved to, when he gets there he ducks into an empty room and transforms back into himself and looks into the ward to find that Jock is asleep. Thirty minutes after Sven had arrived we entered the hospital and with a quick flash of her credentials Madeline finds out what ward Brody is on. We are met by Sven in the corridor outside the ward and he confirms that no one has spoken to Jock. Madeline requests the Sister on the ward move Brody to a private room so that we can talk to him, and she wheels him into one.

Madeline introduces herself as a member of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary again and then turns on the charm. Jock Brody responds to Madeline's sultry tones and happily tells her that he recognised the gunman who had shot him;

It was Sammy Ross who shot me. I would recognize that ugly mug anywhere. He runs with the Billy Hill mob! But he was different, his shots were almost casual, as if it was no effort to hit us, as if he didn't need to aim.

Madeline continues to question him, she confirms that he was teamed with Donald McMillan and that they had made it around the corner into the fight, she asks him what he saw and he looks thoughtful for a moment and then says;

It was pandemonium! Guns blazing. I heard the explosion and I saw Bob go down.

Madeline confirms that he is referring to Bob Acott and Jock nods;

That was Big Alfie. But when Big Alfie punched Bob he had an odd sheen on his skin, like he was bronze or something.

Madeline looked away from Brody and locked eyes with me, I knew what she was thinking, there were more enhanced in play that we knew about.