Is it a kind of magic...

Having successfully contained the incident at the Blind Beggar public house and defeated the enhanced criminal gang, MI6s team of special individuals have just completed their mission debrief with Major Sawdon. MI6s 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, August 1949

As we are exiting his office Major Sawdon tells us to go and speak to the 'boffins' about the two brass balls that were discovered on the bodies of the enhanced criminals, and so we head straight to the bases laboratories where we are greeted by a trio of nervous looking scientists and engineers. They inform us that the pair of new balls are similar in design to the previous two, but that one of them has the faint tracing of a pair of rectangles on what they assume is it's base and the other is notable for the twin slightly serrated disks that protrude from it's sides like a pair of small wheels. The objects were found in the possession of Jack Comer and Frankie Fraser.

As the three laboratory coated individuals looked on concerned Madeline asked about the other two brass spheres, there was a long moment of difficult silence before one of them spoke up. He went on to explain that they had dismantled the brass sphere that had been marked with the faint hint of an 'H', Madeline had discovered that when wound fully and placed on the ground the 'H' would pop out with great force and the sphere would leap into the air, the engineer continued;

But we have been unable to reassemble it.

The engineer then found something on the floor that grabbed his attention, managing to avoid the stern gazes from us, after all we had insisted that there were assured that they they could put it back together again if they pulled it apart. One of the scientists piped up that they had arranged for an expert horologist to come in and assist them, all they had discovered so far was that there was no makers mark and all of the parts were expertly handmade.

With an angry look upon her face, Madeline holds her hand out for the pair of new brass spheres and once they are in her hand she heads off into the explosives testing room. Sealing herself in she transformed into her shadow form and wound the key on the brass ball with the twin wheels. After ten tense clicks of the clockwork key she placed the sphere on the floor and watched as it whizzed across the ground and slammed into the wall. As before the ball then reset itself. Next Madeline turned her attention to the ball with the faint outline of two adjacent rectangles. Ten more clockwork clicks and Madeline placed the sphere on the table in the middle of the room.

The two rectangles pop out of the bottom of the sphere, looking like a pair of tiny feet, and the brass ball starts to walk across the table top. When it gets to the edge of the table Madeline reaches out as if to catch it, but the ball does not fall, it continues to walk down the side of the table and then around and along the bottom of the table. Madeline looks on in surprise as the tiny legged sphere defies the laws of physics with no clear visible means of supporting itself upside-down. After ten seconds of movement the sphere resets itself and drops to the floor. Madeline exits the room and informs the rest of the team, and the 'boffins' what she has discovered.

Two days later we see a new face sat in the mess on his own, he is a man in his late forties with a pinch face wearing a brown laboratory coat, and the table he is sat at is covered in pencil sketches and clasped in his hands is a small note book that he keeps referring to. We approach him and introduce ourselves, and in a distracted fashion he introduces himself as Horst Landrock the horologist brought in to examine the brass spheres.

While Sven bristles at the obviously German sounding name, Madeline questions him about the craftsmanship of the clockwork and the lack of a makers mark. Horst replies that it is clearly custom work, and of a very high standard. He explains;

I have to admit that I have never seen anything like it before. The mechanisms are over complicated and I have no idea how they work. The only way that I can solve this puzzle would be by taking the other spheres apart to get more information.

Madeline explains that we would rather he prove his ability to put the one already dismantled back together again before he considers pulling apart the others, but he looks like a man who is trying to solve the unsolvable. As Madeline engages him in conversation about the spheres and their workings I reach across the table and gently touch his hand, borrowing his skill as an horologist, and immediately everything that he is saying starts to make sense. Madeline also starts to see a potential pattern that might well link to her interest in the occult, and in particular to Aleister Crowley's study of geometric magic. Madeline had not been a believer in such stuff but had studied it to better understand the Nazis interest in the subject. But then that was before she started to transform into a shadow.

With permission from the Major we pull Desmond Sutherland, one of the captured non-enhanced gang members, into one of the secure interview rooms. Madeline and I sit across the table from him while Sven stands by the doorway looking menacing. Madeline questions him about a number of topics that we know the answers to already and while she does I use the borrowed ability to read minds to push into his surface thoughts. I nudge Madeline when I have made the connection and she asks;

What do you know about 'The House'?

Desmond looks confused for a moment and then looks straight at me. Locking eyes he says;

You have the ability to read minds don't you?

I have to admit that it took me by surprise. But I recovered quickly and responded;

If you know that, then you also know that there is no point in lying to us. Tell us everything that you know.

Desmond continues staring into my eyes for a couple of heartbeats and then he looks down and sighs, resigned to his fate. He goes on to tell us that he has never visited the House himself but that knows that the enhanced gang members went there. Madeline shifts tack and starts to question him about the gang itself, Desmond admits that he was recruited recently by Jack Comer and names the leaders of the gang as Comer, Billy Hill, Frankie Fraser, and George Chatham. Madeline questions him about The Doctor and Sutherland responds;

The Doctor was also known as the Barghest, coz he was a guest in the bar.

Sutherland laughs at his own joke, while the rest of us realise that this man was not recruited for his keen intellect. Madeline studies him carefully and believes that the prisoner is holding something back, but she also thinks that it may well be that he is just trying to cover up his own lack of knowledge and look more important than he really is, and so she brings the interrogation to an end.

After a short break, we go through the same process with Graham Brownrigg. As Madeline interrogates him, and Sven glowers at him, I use the borrowed enhanced power to push into his thoughts. He is not the sharpest tool in the box and his mind opens up before me like a flower facing the morning sun and I am able to see that everything he is telling Madeline is truthful. Brownrigg had been recruited around the same time as Sutherland, as a getaway driver, and under questioning confirms everything that Desmond had given up during his interrogation. When Madeline questions him about The House he explains that he had never visited it, but that he is sure that those that did walked there from the Blind Beggar as they never called upon him to drive them and that was unusual.

Brownrigg keeps looking at me and in his mind I can see memories of him seeing me on the front page of the newspaper and then the memory jumps to one of the gang walking into the bar of the Blind Beggar and telling the gang that I am sat outside the public house in a car, and then they start on their violent rampage. While I have been shifting through Brownrigg's memories, Madeline has continued to question him and has discovered that he was aware of the brass spheres, and had seen the walking sphere recently, but he had no idea of what they were or how they worked. And so Madeline ended the interrogation.

As we exit the interview rooms I am approached by one of the medical scientists and asked if I can assist them in cataloguing the enhanced powers of the captured gang members, and so while the others go over the information that we have been able to gather, I accompany the scientist and begin to use my power to push into each of them in turn and let them know what I find. I work through all five of the subdued and captured gang members and detail their powers, as well as the more obvious physical and mental quirks. When I am finished I briefly discuss with the scientist the method of creation for the enhanced gang members, and am told by her that all of them have been enhanced using the new Pathogen B method.

The following morning I am awoken as excruciating pain shoots through my arm, and I look on as my hand regrows over the period of ten seconds. I rush to the medical building to get it checked over and the doctors and scientists are fascinated by what has happened, they confirm that it appears to be completely new bone, muscle, and skin. And is without blemish. I eventually catch up with the others and discover that Isy has contacted Alfie to let him know that Superintendent Chapman has left a couple of messages for us to contact him and so we agree that it is time to head back to London.

And so on the morning of the 30th August 1949 we all climb into the borrowed Flying Squad car, with Charlie behind the wheel, and drive for Scotland Yard. On the way I tap Alfie on the shoulder and tell him that what I am about to discuss should in no way make it back to anyone official and is to be kept to ourselves. I explain to everyone that I have been thinking for a couple of weeks that we need to put in place an escape plan, off of the books, to escape the country should things become problematic with the authorities. Madeline agrees, and Sven says that he would be able to put in a good word with the Norwegian Government should we wish to flee there. We agree to start setting in place a plan whenever time allows.

Once we arrive at Scotland Yard we are shown in to see Superintendent Chapman and go through a full debrief of the Blind Beggar incident, Madeline once again leads our side of the discussion and obfuscates all of the enhanced activity and to his credit, Chapman does not push her on the subject. After a few hours we take our leave, leaving the Superintendent a pleased man with the closing of the Battle of Heathrow case and the breaking up of the very lethal gang. On our journey back to Canning Place Mews Madeline suggests that we should arrange to meet Special Agent Philby and so Alfie contacts Isy and gets him to contact the Smartly Dressed Man to arrange a meeting. Isy is informed by the Smartly Dressed Man;

I am afraid to inform you that Mr Philby has been transferred to the British Embassy in the United States of America. I have been left with instructions to provide you with assistance. How may I help?

Isy informs him that we require a pool car and he agrees to have one dropped off at Canning Place Mews as soon as he is able. Over the next couple of weeks while the others work on our under the radar escape plan, myself and Charlie begin a search pattern spiralling out from the Blind Beggar public house while I push out with my senses to see if I can pick up any enhanced in the area. We know that it is a long shot, but given that we believe that the gang walked to The House, we are willing to take the time. On the 15th September the telephone rings and when Isy answers Superintendent Chapman says;

Something has happened in Sidney Square Gardens, we need you there.