Chapter One
There was a crash from downstairs.
Jess rolled her eyes and set her hairdryer down. She took the stairs at a leisurely pace, and stuck her head around the corner at the bottom to look at her friend.
A small mountain of books were piled high and amongst them sat Robynne.
"The books committing suicide again? Throwing themselves recklessly from the shelves?" Jess quipped. Robynne's big brown eyes looked indignant.
"Hardly…" she started muttering under her breath while excavating herself from the pile. Jess giggled and turned to head back into the flat they shared above the library.
The library was their business, a quaint little place full of book nooks to nest in with a hot beverage and book. Their rules were a lot more relaxed than most libraries, but then so were the girls. To everyone else The Manuscript Bureau was a popular library. Behind the doors of their office, Robynne and Jess were not your typical librarians. Yes, they both wore thick black rimmed glasses but that is where the stereotype ends.
"Ahhh," Jess sighed happily, "There is nothing like a proper brew"
Robynne wrinked her nose up in disgust. "And THAT is nothing like a proper brew" She picked up her own mug and inhaled the strong aroma.
It was Jess' turn to make a face.
"I don't know why you're pulling a potato face," Robynne added. Potato face – When one pulls one's chin into one's neck so that multiple chins appear as face merges with neck. Gurning mouth and crossed eyes are optional.
Jess pursed her lips before sweeping her long bright red hair over her shoulder with an immaculately manicured hand. "I don't know what you mean…" She drank deeply from the large floral mug and left a red lipstick stain on the rim when she was done. In Jess' opinion Robynne's preferred hot beverage of Earl Grey with cream (of all things) was an insult to British-ness. Trust a Canadian to ruin a perfectly good cup of tea…
Robynne crossed her eyes and flared her nose in response. This was the typical morning routine. It would take Jess around 3 cups of tea and a few biscuits til she was actually sociable enough to converse without sarcasm in a morning. Robynne chuckled to herself and smiled at her friend. Tucking a wisp of her cropped brown hair behind her ear and adjusting her glasses on her nose, Robynne returned her attention to the computer screen in front of her and tapped the keys quickly.
A few hours passed this way in silence. Robynne let Jess reach maximum tea hydration level before continuing their conversation. She tapped a rhythm on her desk. She shuffled some papers in a vain attempt to match Jess' OCD level of organisation. The two desks opposite each other in the office could not have been more different.
While the shabby chic, white painted, distressed vintage desk closest to the door belonged to Jess and was immaculate, the other positioned opposite was Robynne's. Papers piled high, pens in every available gap, and even some sketches littered her desk. There was a chain of mugs too, which edged ever closer to the far side of the desk, in various stages of neglect. She knew where everything was though, there was method to her madness and even Jess had to admit it worked.
Robynne clicked her pen and sighed. She hated doing the admin. She watched Jess for a while, who sat in deep concentration, chewing away at her bottom lip.
"You'll ruin your lipstick," Robynne commented, carefully noting the tea level in Jess' cup before proceeding. Jess sucked her lips in rapidly and sat back in her chair, folding her arms.
"We're mean to be having a visit today you know," Jess replied, running her hands through her hair again and blinking hard. She hated the emails almost as much as Robynne but at least she felt satisfied once they were done. "Sorry about earlier too," She added, "Did you hurt yourself at all falling off the ladder?"
A smile played across Robynne's face, wide and immediately lightening the tense office. She knew Jess' better than she knew herself at times, and she noticed that it had only taken two cups to bring Jess intoto civilization this morning.
"Na, I'm okay. I was just looking at the list HQ sent through for us to take a look at." She paused, noticing the grimace on Jess' face. She'd forgotten it was the start of the new roll call checks for books. "But what about this visit? I haven't had an email…." Robynne checked again quickly, clicking the keypad with one hand and clicking her pen in the other. She was sure she hadn't missed it.
Jess waved her arms rapidly, "No, no don't worry. They only sent it to me to pass on the message since we're a joint office or something." She picked some invisible dirt from under her nails, today they were light lavender colour. As she opened her mouth to continue the door to the office opened and in swept an alarmingly tall man with broad shoulders and salt and pepper flecked hair.
"Agents," He spoke coolly and nodded to each of them in turn. His angular face only flickered when he glanced down at Jess' blouse (emerald green and opened a one button too many) and his mouth turned down, "That is not appropriate work wear Agent,"
Jess pulled herself up in her chair and carefully crossed her legs, smoothing her pencil skirt very slowly and deliberately. When she looked up at the man through her eyelashes and over her glasses Robynne had to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh.
"I find it appropriate for my workplace, 'A', and I'm terribly sorry that you don't," Jess replied (with a voice that clearly said she wasn't sorry at all and he could stick it somewhere unpleasant) He was visibly uncomfortable. Robynne pinched her lips.
Jess could be a total badass when she wanted to be, particularly with men, and even while she wore dresses and heels. But when they weren't on official duty, even the tomboy tastes of Robynne agreed with Jess' anything-goes attitude for work wear. They were after all, meant to be 'librarians'. Still, she carefully shuffled her feet under her own desks and hid her slippers behind the waste paper bin. (Just in case.)
"So 'A', what's the deal?" Robynne decided she should save him from Jess' whithering glare.
The man they had addressed as 'A' shuffled his suit jacket (probably a very expensive jacket knowing the Agency) and cleared his throat.
"You should have had the new book list through by now," He began, the girls looked at each other across the desks, "And I was sent to check you'd started the work." The girls exchanged another look and Jess bit her lip nervously.
"We've got it but we've not started yet because we still have the books that you sent across from the other Bureau" Jess pulled out a drawer and selected a bulging file to illustrate her point.
"They are to go back to HQ with me and you are to focus on the new list" 'A' continued almost as if he had expected that answer. Robynne furrowed her brow and clicked her pen again. Jess shot her a look. She clicked the pen once more (for good luck) and set it down on her desk carefully.
"I do not need to remind you, ladies," His voice became patronising and they lost their official Agent title, "That the work we do is very important in protecting the literature of this world, from itself and from people who would otherwise use the magic the books contain for less than noble purposes."
Jess sniggered. She found the word 'purposes' amusing since finding various Loki memes online about him being 'burdened with glorious porpoise.' 'A' glared at her and felt the full force of Jess' steely stare in return. He quailed.
Robynne pressed him on, "We know all that 'A' that's why we're in this job!"
"And so you need to complete the list. Some of these books have had a very popular following due to recent films and TV series and we need to keep on top of this. Can you imagine if the secret got out?" He pulled a face similar to Jess' potato face earlier and Robynne rolled her eyes.
"We know, we know…" She said, attempting to relieve the tension starting to show between Jess and 'A'. He turned towards her and pulled a neat folded wad of papers from his jacket pocket (expensive paper too, to match the expensive jacket).
"Anyway, here's the list in case you've lost your copy and I suggest you start quickly. We must keep the magic within the books and keep them as the writers intended. We CANNOT comprehend what would happen if someone found out that the books could change." He handed the papers to Robynne, nodded to Jess (scowling again at her cleavage) and turned on his heel and left. Jess watched him leave with a smirk.
"Do you think there are Agents 'B' and 'C' somewhere too?" She wondered aloud, still looking after him with a thoughtful expression on her face.
Robynne's brows were knitted together again as she read through the list, "What? Hmm, maybe… probably in a different country or something…" She trailed off and Jess turned back to face her, and her expression soon matched the one Robynne wore (If Robynne looked perplexed it wasn't normally a good sign).
Jess chewed on her lip waiting for Robynne's eye brows to un-knit themselves. When her face looked like that Jess liked to leave her to work through whatever problem before trying to join in. You could practically see the cogs whirring. Jess sipped her tea nervously but coughed as she swallowed the clap cold brew (nothing worse than wasted tea). While she waited Jess dived under the table for her handbag and pulled out a small silver compact mirror and lipstick. She peered around the mirror watching Robynne (but hiding behind the mirror at the same time, just in case) and powdered her nose again. Once Jess had re-applied her red warpaint, the knot between Robynne's brows had lessened and Jess dared to ask her.
"So… what's the damage?" She winced inwardly and went to chew on her lip but stopped herself.
Robynne looked up, her brown eyes dark and her once wide smile set firm.
"It's… not too bad." Jess flopped back in her chair and blew a breath up which made her fringe flutter. But Robynne continued, "It's just…" She pulled a potato face, and tugged at the long burgundy knitted sweater she wore.
"It's just the fangirls." Robynne announced eventually. Jess' blue eyes went wide behind her glasses, and Robynne laid down the list and rubbed her face.
"It's only ever okay when we do it," she continued, and Jess smiled at her over the desks. She laughed, "I mean, we are professionals!" This time Jess laughed too, a big, noisy, belly laugh, the kind that was infectious.
"So what's first on the list?" Jess asked, wiping under her eye (for the tear of laugher that had escaped and so she could check her eyeliner was still in place). Robynne looked thoughtful.
"Sherlock…" Jess winced and Robynne looked at her in sympathy. "But it's cool and we both love Sherlock anyway, a good mystery never hurt anyone…but it is the Cumberbitches, Cumberbatches, Cumbercoconuts whatever it is they're called. The girls that watch it for Benedict…"
Jess was nodding wildly and tapping like a woman possessed on her laptop. "We've had a marked increase in the loans of the Sherlock collections since the series started…" She was peering over the top of her glasses and (obviously) checking the library's logs. "Particularly in the time between series'…" Jess looked up at Robynne and smirked. Robynne pulled another face. She pushed her glasses onto the top of her head, making her hair frame her face like a lion. Jess only needed her glasses for long distances, so here on the computer they were useless but made her head ache.
"Do we have to start with that one? I can see why it's at the top since it's a big risk, but…It's a pretty hefty collection," Jess asked thoughtfully. Robynne clicked her pen twice and tapped it on the paper. Her expression became suddenly lighter, eyes full of mischief.
"What about The Hobbit?" She probed. Jess tilted her head and made an appreciative noise. She knew Robynne was playing on her weakness for fantasy, and Jess was finding it hard to make an excuse not to say yes. Robynne was practically hopping off the edge of her seat. She'd got her.
"Fine, fine fine, The Hobbit it is!" Jess announced, she held her hands up in defeat, secretly thrilled to have a chance to delve into Middle Earth again. Robynne punched the air in satisfaction and began typing out a mission log and statement.
"You go find the book then and see which point we've got to hop in at…" she started saying but Jess was already out of the door.
The library looked (satisfyingly) tidy after Robynne's accident earlier. Jess edged around the librarian's desk which fronted their office, and made her way into the rear of the library and deep into the fantasy section. She smiled politely at the other residents, and sent up a small thank you up to whichever genius invented the automated self-check service so that she & Robynne no longer had to check each book out manually. The Manuscript Bureau was always busy these days. Jess blamed the quality of the coffee machine they had just had installed and the extra squishy nook areas they had built into the book shelves. No other library offered that kind of solace.
The smell of the books hung heavy here and she let her fingers trail over the bindings of the books; touching leather, textured papers and soft worn spines. It wasn't a dark place, but light and fresh; shabby with a vintage feel much like their office. It felt like home. Well, it should do when their flat was above the library.
Jess trotted to the section she was looking for, the heels of her patent nude shoes clicking on the wooden floor. She pulled out a book without hesitating and began flicking through the pages. A frown soon twisted up her face and Jess sighed in annoyance.
More than half the book was blank.