The ABC Affair- Stonehenge, Chapter 8 Letter H

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Prompts: henge, human, healer

Alexander Waverly was quite peeved when Kuryakin rudely closed down his communicator without so much as a by your leave.

His top two agents were well past their check-in and now to hear from one of them and suddenly be cut off put the Old Man in one of his moods.

Flicking a switch on his console; he spoke into his handheld microphone.

“Get me through to Agent Kuryakin,” he was rather abrupt.

“Yes sir, right away sir.”

Seconds dragged on until Waverly spoke again.

“Is there a problem?”

“Sorry sir, Mister Kuryakin is not responding. I tried Mister Solo’s communicator but no response from him either.”

“Very well then...keep trying.”

“Affirmative sir.”

At that moment the pneumatic doors to the conference room opened and Lisa Rogers came in carrying a silver tray with a porcelain tea service. It was a Japanese motif...a gift from Mrs. Waverly.

“I thought you could use something soothing sir...camomile and some shortbread?”

“Ah Miss Rogers, tea and biscuits. He looked at the tin of shortbread, Stewarts with an Aston Martin embossed on the lid. Waverly harrumphed to himself, suddenly thinking of Bond and his car, no doubt 007 would be rather prideful, seeing his model car displayed in such a way.

He dismissed that trivial thought,” You are a wonder at anticipating my needs Miss Rogers.”

“Thank you sir. Any word from Napoleon and Illya?”

“Not really, though for a brief second Mister Kuryakin called in but then he was cut off.  I’m concerned as to what’s going on at the henge. Our scientist from Edinburgh gave me a very bizarre report, saying they’d found what appeared to be bodies from the Neolithic period.”

“An archaeologist’s dream, I would imagine to be able to examine the remains of an ancient human,” she held out his cup of tea.

“Here is the conundrum Miss Rogers, the bodies are shall we say ‘fresh,’ and apparently the victims of some sort of ritualistic murder.”

“Fff-resh? How’s that possible sir?”

“A question I hope can be answered my dear.”  Waverly took a sip of the calming tea before nibbling on one of the cookies.

The console sprang to life, as a green light flashed. Waverly swallowed the last of the biscuit before answering.

“Yes?”

“Mister Waverly I have Mister Kuryakin online but the signal isn’t very strong.”

“Mis__ Waver____ has gone missing. __strange comet___ electric___ surge______murders_______”

“You’re breaking up Mister Kuryakin, say again.”

“Solo____”

“Mister Kuryakin? Dash it all! Get him back.”

“Mister Waverly,” the communications specialist spoke.”I’m sorry sir but we’ve lost his signal again. He wasn’t on long enough to get a location.”

The Old Man’s brow furrowed as he flicked another switch on his console, until he realized Lisa was still present.”

“Get me Agents Dancer and Slate.” He was rather abrupt with her, but that never phased Rogers as she was accustomed to his ways. That was the reason why she’d lasted so long as his assistant. She knew him well enough to anticipate many of his moves, something he was well aware of.

“Right away sir...more tea?” She held up the pot.

“Ahem, yes please.” He softened his tone and held up his teacup as she poured before she walked over to the communications panel set back in the wall behind them.

Lisa sat down in the black leather chair, and after pressing several buttons she made a call to the Agents who were on assignment in Calais, France.

A video screen lowered from the ceiling and the image of April Dancer slowly appeared. Slate stepped up behind her; he was wearing a grey turtleneck and that corduroy hat of his. All in all he looked rather nondescript, which in essence was perfect for a secret agent.

Dancer was dressed in a rather fetching sleeveless brown wool tweed mini dress and beneath it, a long sleeve black turtleneck. It was quite sedate for April who tended to favor bright colors and modern patterns.

Only Waverly would think of woman in tweed as 'fetching.'

“You called sir?” April distracted him from his thoughts.

“Yes, ahem... I need you and Mister Slate to drop what you’re doing and head to Salisbury, England, specifically to Stonehenge. Mssrs. Solo and Kuryakin are on assignment there and something seems to have gone awry. They were there to investigate some odd goings on.”

“Stonehenge? That seems like a strange place for an assignment. THRUSH? Details?” She asked.

“Strange is the operative word my dear. There’s no clear indication that THRUSH is involved, no chatter from them at all. It’s a rather complicated situation; I’m having the information we have sent via facsimile to you there at the Calais field office. You can familiarize yourself with the situation on the way to Salisbury. Remain on high alert; something drastic may have happened as communications have been problematic. I have a backup team from the London office rendezvousing with you both. Keep me informed. Waverly out.”

April turned to her partner, eyes wide with curiosity.

“Darling, have you ever been to Stonehenge?”

“When I was a young lad, went with my sister as well as my mum and dad.”

“What did you think of it?”

“Well It didn’t look like it does now. A lot of the stones were toppled over, the grounds were a mess. I wasn’t impressed at the time as I was too young to appreciate its significance. My sister Marie Suzette was fascinated by it, then again everything fascinates my sister,"he snickered.

“What was Stonehenge for? I’ve never really read anything about it.” April asked. She ignored what her partner had said about his sister as she didn't want to open that can of worms. *

“Nobody knows for sure luv; I’ve always heard it had something to do with the druids or somesuch, you know a pagan religious thing.”

“Druids, really? That’s rather intriguing,” April made a silly face.”Sacrificing goat and cows? Ewww!”

“Don’t know about that. They were supposed to be members of an educated class of ancient Celts; they acted as priests, teachers, judges and healers from what I’ve heard.”

“Well Mark dear I’d say you’re the closest thing to an expert that I have.”

“Wouldn’t say that. I do know there've been so-called druid ceremonies at the henge going back to 1949, maybe earlier, but I don’t think it involved anything dangerous...just a lot of blokes parading around in white robes carrying staffs with weird symbols and such.”

They walked together to the communications room just as the facsimile arrived from Waverly.

Setting the page down on a nearby desk, they read it together. When finished, April and Mark had only one word to say.

“Wow…”


* ref to "Reaping Mary Sue Or How Reapermum finally got published."

Comments

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Another good one. Nice bit with the disrupted communication.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Glad you approve of the 'disrupted communication,' as I wasn't quite sure how to write it.