Episode 6: For the Ghost, Chapter 3

"It's gonna be a long day," sighed Eve Baird, watching her three charges explode from the stable the door had opened into and head in three different directions. Cassandra had made a beeline for the ancient boat carriage in the stable next door. Flynn had been distracted by the castle itself just around the opposite corner of the stable building. Jones had wandered off down the hill toward a path leading down the cliff to the beach. "Jones, get back here!"

"But, crime scene," the thief pointed at the cliff.

"The cliff our murder victim fell from was round the other side of the castle," Baird pointed out.

"I have gone over the grounds of this place as clearly as if I'd lived here," replied Jones. "There's no easier way down to the shore that I can find."

"Fine, take Cassandra with you," she relented, shooing the scientist away from the invention. "Just remember there's a headland between your stairs and the crime scene. Don't get cut off if the tide comes in. Flynn and I will try to find where he fell from."

"Yeah, where is Flynn?" Ezekiel smirked. He watched Baird glance over her shoulder, glare back at him, then hurry off. Cassandra fell into step beside him and he turned to her. "Is it weird being on a case without him?"

"Not until you asked me it wasn't," she smiled. "Jacob would love this place. The buildings alone are stunning."

"I'm guessing he's loving spending time with the great maestro too, though," Jones replied, leading the way down the stairs. "The dude has been spending so much time with Flynn over the past six weeks, he must be glad of the change too!"

"Not just Flynn," Cassandra reminded him. "Da Vinci did disappear with Jenkins for a week almost, then the two of them were left more or less alone when we all went out to investigate those quakes in China and New Zealand."

"Trying to keep in touch with two different time zones was not fun!" Jones recollected, vividly. "And then I dragged Flynn back to the dig for a few days. Where was Stone then?"

"We were dealing with demon in Des Moines," said Cassandra, holding on to the rail for support as they descended the worn steps to the bay. "Eve came too. We got a lot of planning done."

"Oh no," Ezekiel groaned and turned on the steps to face her. "You ganged up on him, didn't you. Please tell me you at least left him some leeway for the stag night!"

"I don't know what you mean," sniffed Cassandra, her nose in the air. "I'm sure Eve and I wouldn't dare dream of interfering with you boys and your stag party."

"Oh, he won! Good on ya, Stone!" Ezekiel laughed. "What was it? If we can't have such-and-such, neither can you?"

"Nothing so mercenary," replied Cassandra, moving past him and leading the way down to the beach.

XXXX

Eve caught up with Flynn in the courtyard of the castle, contemplating a cannon. She slowed to a walk and was surprised to see a small, slightly balding, portly man walk up to him and greet the Librarian as an old friend. She quickened her pace.

"Darling!" Flynn called out, spotting her approach. "Come and meet Professor Wilkins! You remember me telling you about that dig in Norway we're funding."

Without missing a beat, Eve broke into a bright smile and relaxed her military bearing a little. "Professor Wilkins," she beamed. "Of course. We were just speaking of you a few days ago. Is the dig over? What brings you here?"

"Oh, my deal lady, I am merely conferring with a colleague on a small but urgent matter," replied the professor ingratiatingly. "She just happened to be staying at the hotel here for a wedding."

"There's a hotel here?" Eve asked, her voice going up a notch. She was sure she knew now where Ezekiel had booked for them to stay.

"You didn't know?" The professor asked back. "But of course, you'll be here to tour the house and grounds for the day. I should let you get back to it."

The little man hurried off towards the main part of the house. Eve turned to Flynn. "Remind me again what cover Jones faked for you for the dig team?"

"I am one Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart," said Flynn, reciting from memory. "And he's my secretary, Mr John Smith. You he did not come up with a name for."

"Hmm," smiled Eve. "Just as well. I don't think I could see myself as a Sarah-Jane."

"Huh?" Flynn's brow creased.

Eve laughed and shook her head. "Doesn't matter. We'd better tell the others though. Don't really want Cassandra accidentally blowing our cover if she bumps into him without someone around to clue her in."

"It'll mean Ezekiel and I will have to go by our cover names for the duration," Flynn reminded her. "I don't know what name he booked our rooms under, but if they're here, which I think they might be, and he booked them under Jones, which I think he might have done..."

"I guess I'll just have to be Martha Jones for the time being, then," Eve chuckled. That made the penny drop.

"Isn't she a character in..." Flynn began.

"Yes, dear," Eve cut in, trying not to laugh.

"Were they all characters in..."

"Yes, dear."

"Wouldn't somebody have spotted..."

"No, dear," Eve shook her head. "Apparently archaeologists are about as interested in modern television as you are dear."

"Hey, I did my time watching those DVDs of it with him while he was ill."

"Apparently you didn't watch enough of them, dear."

Eve sat down on a bench and dialled Jones on her cell. She filled him in on the details and, by the time she returned to a still sulking Flynn, she was back to her serious self. She took Flynn by the arm and led him through to the gardens. The extensive walled gardens filled the space below the land-side face of the castle, with a path at the far end leading back round to the cliffs on the other side of the building. Eve dragged Flynn around the glass hothouse and down to the grassy lawn around the ornamental ponds, where he would be less distracted by rare or interesting plants.

"We'll stick with Eve Jones for the moment," she told him, linking her arm through his and walking slowly through the meandering tourists. "He did book the rooms here and in his name. He'll fill Cassandra in on our covers, but there isn't really any need for one for her. We have a suite of rooms on the top floor, so it'll make conversation easy. I dread to think what it's going to cost us, but since Jones booked it there's a good chance it'll be considerably less than everyone else. Knowing Jones, we probably won it in a crossword competition or something!"

"Probably," agreed Flynn. "Where are they?"

"Working their way round the shore," said Eve. "The good thing is, if Cassandra doesn't need a cover and Stone decides to join us, he won't need one either."

"So we should be safe," added Flynn. "Panic averted. All systems go. Full speed ahead."

"Who's panicking?" Eve breezed. "I wasn't panicking. You weren't panicking..."

"Flynn Carsen," called a female voice behind them. "It must be ten years! What a lovely surprise!"

Eve stopped walking. "Now I'm panicking."

XXXX

"You're serious? That was you?" Jacob Stone's voice echoed through the vault. It was almost as new to him as it was to da Vinci. The Library was as big as they needed it to be. It added rooms as they needed them, fully furnished. A month or two after being re-anchored to their reality, the Library had produced The Vault. It was like a Library-sized security blanket. Pandora's box had been mysteriously removed into The Vault, followed by a number of other items the Library had deemed too dangerous to be left lying out in the open. Most of them, including the Crown of King Arthur itself, Stone recognised. Of some items, collected during Flynn's decade alone as Librarian, he knew the stories of their retrieval well enough to recite them to Leonardo. Those, such as the crown, that he had helped gather himself, he was still enjoying the novelty of having someone to tell their story to. By other objects he stood enthralled, listening as Leonardo recounted their rescue. There were empty places also. Places where the Library knew something ought to be. Places where objects removed during the Serpent Brotherhood raid had still not been replaced. He explained as much to da Vinci.

"Since we got the Library back it's been one thing after another, and the heist got put on a back burner," said Stone. "The kid seems to know what he's doing, but I'll admit I haven't been around much to find out where he's at with the plan."

"You seem to think it a novelty to have an accomplished thief working for an institution such as this," mused da Vinci.

"Jenkins certainly didn't seem to think it a good idea at first," Stone nodded. "I guess I just assumed it was ne for him, and therefore new for the Library."

"You forget," said the old man, "Jenkins resigned himself to the annex for a long time before you arrived. He didn't know everything that went on in his absence."

"And you do?" Stone raised an eyebrow.

"I know what went on in my time. I know some of what has gone on since," replied da Vinci. "Not everything, I grant you, but some. And I know some things that I know Jenkins does not know, for all his bluster and bravado."

"Like the Library using a thief for a Librarian before?"

"More than once, my boy," said the artist. "More than once."

XXXX

Flynn turned and burst into a broad grin. "Emily Davenport! What a small world! What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the wedding," smiled Emily. "Half the archaeological community is here, if they could get away, of course. Isn't that why you're here?"

"Not really so much a part of that community these days," replied Flynn, shaking his head. "The job just takes up so much, well: you know."

"She knows?" Eve did a double take as Emily smiled and nodded.

"Oh, yes, she knows," said Flynn. "Sorry. Eve, this is Emily Davenport. I met her on a journey to track down King Solomon's Mines, well I say to track them down, Judson had actually specifically told me not to track them down..."

"Got it," snapped Eve, glaring.

Flynn gaped like a fish, his mind reversing and trying to get back on track while at the same time working out why Eve's glare was so much sharper than usual, turned and looked back to Emily. "Emily, this is Eve Baird. She's my Guardian..."

"Fiancée!"

"And fiancée," he continued smoothly, "and we're on a case right now so it would be great if you'd think of us as Eve Jones and Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart."

"Oh, like the Brigadier! How clever," beamed Emily. "I didn't know you were a Doctor Who fan!"

"He's not," replied Eve sweetly. "He didn't even work it out until I pointed it out for him. Like so many other things..."

Flynn glanced sideways at Eve. He was still being glared at. He swallowed and looked back to Emily. "Well, it was lovely to run into you like this, Emily. We're probably staying the night, so we might bump into you again. Must dash just now though: we have a cliff face to investigate. You know how it is. Um... À bientôt, and all that jazz."

Still waving and smiling, Flynn allowed himself to be dragged away by Eve. When they were out of earshot he finally decided to just give up and ask. "Okay, what did I do wrong?"

"Next time," said Eve, keeping a much tighter grip on his arm as she propelled him forward. "Start with fiancée!"