1910 was a watershed year for the London Branch. Between promotions and transfers, the staff levels were high enough for a reorganization of traditional duties. The sweep teams were expanded on all shifts. Juniors of less than four years' experience reaped with single Mentors in unprecedented safety. Their demon detectors insured that any attack received an immediate response from both angels and the sweep teams. Fourth and fifth-year Juniors began intensive battle training. Those who were deemed exceptional fighters began serving on the sweep teams as a prelude to promotion.
London began exporting Seniors to other Branches who wished to learn London's methods. Several Branches enquired about the Operations Department. Humphries met with them, explained the public and hidden functions, the cooperation with Admin, Scientific, Supplies, and that most secret of all Divisions, Maintenance, who could go anywhere in perfect invisibility. Alan helped set up a number of War Rooms concealed by Administrative functions.
Franklin and Cole achieved promotion, escaping a repressive mentor. Within a month they produced a small desktop portal which brought communications and the Alarm Screen to every Director. The Research promotion path would have assigned them to distant laboratories doing 'stupid stuff'. They elected to stay with the London Lab Monitors, to study their angelic devices and continue to upgrade communications equipment country-wide.
Knox and Sutcliff threw a small party at Midsummer to celebrate Iris Quirke's promotion. She partnered with the quiet, competent Adam Roberts, promoted at the same time by Vanderveldt and Gupta. Randall Harmon also achieved his Seniority, highly recommended by Fairbairn and Jacobs. The party expanded to include most of the Thursday Nighters, yet remained restrained; the first years of Seniority were statistically dangerous. The breaking up of the training triads was bittersweet.
Engineer Crawford decreed that it was time for Smitty to design and build a personal scythe. Smitty told him of Supplies' interest in something slightly better than the basic model available to them. He described a sickle or brush cutter, an Angel metal blade rather than scythe metal, designed entirely for defense. ("We could ask, couldn't we? Worst that can happen is the Angels say no and we bind another force someday.") A shallower curve, scythe metal enclosed in the handle for distance porting. A longer handle and heavier blade, a little more effective in a fight, but still utilizing the same motions and strategies ("not much retraining needed").
Crawford looked into his Junior's eyes and saw the fire of inspiration. This project was rather above the usual level for a first attempt, but there was no doubt the kid was on to something. Crawford did not believe in squelching enthusiasm in an apprentice unless it was focused on something truly disastrous. He thought for a moment, stroking his mustache.
"Hum. Hah. Build me a standard scythe-metal version to begin with. You need the experience. I am required to witness your proficiency with those tools and materials. The prototype will expose any weaknesses in your design. Version Two or Three might be just the ticket for Supplies. The handle could still hold an additional amount of scythe metal that would allow extra-weight porting, as long as it doesn't affect balance or weaken the whole. Might work for some conservative or physically large Reapers, too.
"Do not request the Angel blade yet. It would delay your promotion. That would keep you out of your next set of classes. I won't allow that. Your education must progress on schedule. There will be a great deal of discussion in both Realms about the Angel version of your design.
"First reason; the Angel blade will be too long for this Realm's comfort. Snapped out of the handle, it's easily converted into a very illegal Angelic short sword. That's happened with ordinary student scythes at the Academy, because the tang's short and weak. Bullied students have converted broken scythe blades into daggers, to kill their tormentors and anyone nearby. It's one of the reasons why bullying is so harshly punished there. Too much collateral damage. Your scythe-metal design, which will include a blade with a heavy heel and long, strong tang, will correct that fault.
"Second reason; the Angels will not be interested in participating in a Junior Reaper's student project. They will dismiss you as impertinent and be very unlikely to accept future communications from you.
"Third reason; it's designed to kill demons instead of Reap humans. That's the Angels' job, and this request implies a dissatisfaction with their performance. You can see the debates this will cause at all levels in both Realms.
"Fourth reason; if the new blade is Angel metal, you give up most of your porting ability. To retain that, the Angelfire would have to be bound to an existing scythe-metal blade. Might not be possible. But if it is possible, and if they agree—" the mustache bristled—"it might give us a clue as to how they do it.
"Wait until your scythe-metal Supplies model is finished and registered as your Junior scythe project. It will be accepted and approved without argument. You will be awarded Artificer status. You will then sit your exams for Senior Engineering Candidate. The Smithfield Supplies Scythe will go into production, beginning to build your reputation as someone other than my Junior Apprentice.
"As a Senior Engineering Candidate and Artificer with a proven production model to your credit, you may then submit your request for the Angels to bind Angelfire to your Supplies Scythe blade. You will probably be denied. Many will want you to drop this line of research. But nobody will be able to threaten to block your promotion or interfere with your training. Understand? Very well, Smithfield. Approved. Draw up the specs."
Senior Admin Marisa Solway's duty included reviewing the daily reports filed by the Reapers of London, whom she considered to be her Reapers. Late in the fall of 1910 she noticed that Agent Slingby was reporting an increasing number of demonic attacks during his Sweeps. Something about it niggled at her memory. She went back over Sweep reports for the last six months. There it was; attacks on other Sweep Reapers, broken off shortly after they were begun. One report mentioned a demon comment of "Wrong one." The reporting Reaper was Agent Fairbairn, who resembled Slingby in build and coloring. Section Manager Solway compared these attacks to the frequency of incursions around the country. She drew a line chart. She put all of her notes and the chart in a folder, and thought.
If she took this to Slingby, he'd dismiss it.
If she took this to Humphries, Slingby would not forgive her.
If she took this to Spears, neither Slingby nor Humphries would ever forgive her.
Her position was very important to her, but so were her Reapers.
Right. She consulted the schedule and her watch.
She went to the Senior Housing Common Room and gathered up the rest of the newly promoted Thursday Nighters; Mitchell Sorenson (Reaper-Senior, seventh year), Donald Cole (Research-Senior, seventh), Lesleigh Franklin (Research-Senior, seventh), Frances Ferris (Supplies-Senior, seventh), Iris Quirke (Reaper-Senior, sixth), Randall Harmon (Reaper-Senior, sixth), Adam Roberts (Reaper-Senior, sixth), and Frederic Brock (Admin-Senior, sixth) Ops Section Manager Bookkeeping.
She then proceeded to the Junior Housing Common Room, and requested the presence of Samuel Terry (Reaper-fifth year), Edward 'Smitty' Smithfield (Scythes-fifth), Stephen Holbert (Admin-fifth), Diederik 'Dutch' Ten Hagen (Reaper-fifth), and Ephraim 'effie' ffoulkes (Reaper-fourth). She took them all to the office, locked them securely in the meeting room farthest from Ops, and laid out the numbers.
"Well, shit," said Mitch. "This is deliberate."
"No question. Enemy action," said Les.
"Why Slingby? Are they hoping to catch him escorting the Director?" asked Donnie Cole.
"If so, they'd disengage when they found the Director wasn't with him. Instead they attack and most of them get killed. They've given him several injuries, but nothing serious enough to put him out of action for more than a day or so."
"They've put a price on his head. Otherwise they'd just avoid him and go after the rest of us," said Dutch. "He's a fearsome fighter, but this? For at least six months? I don't believe it. There's got to be a reason beyond just ridding themselves of a particular nuisance. We've got a lot of greenies Reaping right now. They'd be easy targets if the demons wanted to get sneaky. Instead they are concentrating on seasoned Reapers, leaving when Slingby's not present, and getting killed when he is."
"So," said Smitty. "Suppose they manage to remove him. If he's gone, what breaks? What process fails?"
"Well, he teaches others to fight. He arranges apprenticeships country-wide. He guards Spears, Humphries and the Admin side of Ops," said Holbert. "Others could step up and carry those responsibilities. He's the best but not the only."
"What happens when he's injured?" asked Iris.
"Somebody else steps in," said Brock. "In Personnel, Birch and Garraway. His Admin Assistant. A group of assistant teachers at the Academy. Don't know about his sweeps."
"Jacobs, Fairbairn, D'Acres, Fitzwilliam, Sutcliff and Knox have all taken sweeps for him," said Roberts. "Every so often, Humphries sneaks a turn. He does hate being benched."
"Yes," said Iris. "There's your real target. When Slingby is in the Infirmary, what does Humphries do? He either stays in his office or at the Infirmary, right, and nobody sees much of him?"
"Wait, what has that to do with anything?" asked Harmon.
"Humphries?" asked Frances. "Is that the little fellow who arranges Blade deliveries?"
"Yes. He's also Slingby's partner, London's Assistant Director and head of Operations, plus he teaches at the Academy," said Franklin. "He started the Thursday night open table at the Scythe and Skull. But what he mostly does is give people ideas and opportunities. He takes snippets of information from various sources, thinks about them, then asks somebody what if."
"I've seen it in action," said ffoulkes. "Humphries plans things which make life difficult for demons. Angel blades, the bipartisan Monitor labs, the demon detectors, new uses for portals; it's all Humphries, even though you can never quite catch him at it, and he never takes any credit."
"Humphries and Slingby are bonded." Iris said. "It's not just a partnership, strong as those can be. When Slingby is hurt, that bond draws on Humphries for strength and healing. It's tiring. It can be incapacitating if the injury is severe. If one dies, the other will die or be rendered helpless for a very long time. There's your underlying reason, Dutch. The demons know who's causing all the improvements here. Because he's deskbound, Humphries is too hard to get at. Slingby, as deadly as he is, is the easier target."
"You sure about the bond, Iris?" asked Cole. "I've never heard of them."
"I'm sure, Donnie. Alys McCain taught me, rest her soul. If you remember the Midsummer Ravenings of 1906, you'll remember Mr. Slingby was injured. I was in the Meet-and-Greet tent when the bond drew on Mr. Humphries. No question at all. Kill one, kill both."
"So it looks like the enemy is hitting areas at random, trying to coincide with Mr. Slingby," said Mitch. "We need to keep the response to alarms as quick and as effective as possible. And if Mr. Humphries sneaks out for a walk on the rooftops we need to be right behind him."
"And we need to tell nobody." Brock leaned forward. "Because a couple of years ago, someone was spying. That's got to be how Hell learned that their problem wasn't Spears, but the nearly invisible man standing behind him. Somebody was selling Spears' schedule, reporting when he would be in the human realm with Slingby as a bodyguard. Now that Ops is locked up tight, that's stopped. But if our little plan gets out, it will be passed along and Hell's strategy might change."
"I know a couple of people who might hold a grudge," said Terry. "No way to prove or disprove. I'll watch, though."
"No. You'll get caught." Frances Ferris of Supplies made a note. "I know people who are even more invisible than Humphries. They see everything. Nobody ever sees them. They access every inch of your Branch's layout, behind every locked door. Humphries has always treated them with respect."
"As have we," said Smitty of Scythes. "Perfect. Want to make a multi-division appeal for oversight? Were you thinking Richards, or maybe Cartwright? Or Williams?"
"Um, what?" asked Sorenson. Smitty and Frances turned to him with shark-toothed grins. "Maintenance."