LONDON CALLING

"I don't think that's what he meant," Angus said. "I think he was talking about all those shapeshifters we battled back at Brian's estate, the ones who set fire to the main house. I think Fenrir say telling us they've moved on to France to set up housekeeping. The Alsace region of France is one of the most important wine producing regions in France, which means it's known for being a rural area, and where else would it be easier for someone like Gelding to get lost in than out in the country where an army of shapeshifters could conceal him indefinitely. I think he's telling us that Gelding is working on a prison break, and if he does that, we'll be right back where we started from."

Marcus was nursing a large glass of firewhiskey. He was sitting up in the very top floor of Robert's library, slouched out in a cream colored leather club chair. Robert had given him the afternoon off, and Khaat was with him. He had lured her away from him with the promise of a chess game, but they had never gotten to that. She was sitting beside him with her head on his shoulder, his arm around her. They hadn't spoken. They were just sitting in the quiet. And that had given Marcus some time to himself.

He heard someone the library on the ground floor, and he peered over the railing on the top floor to see Ruby there. She seemed to be looking for something or someone.

"If you're looking for a book , you'll do better if you actually look on the shelves," Marcus said, finding the acoustics were good enough that he didn't have to yell for his voice to carry downward.

Ruby sighed and looked up at him " I was hoping you'd not say that" she said making Jack chukle as he ported back to the farm.

Walking around Ruby chuckled looking up at where the disembodied voice was coming from. Heading up the stairs to where she had heard him. " oh not interupting am I" she asked seeing Khaat resting with Marcus " I was wondering if you'd thought any more about the gun yet." she asked hoping to take his mind off everything and palce it someplace different.

"Do you have any contacts where we could get the gun for Angus." she asked leaning on the railing in front of him.

(oops. sorry, wasn't clear. khaat is with robert, which is how marcus got the afternoon off. sorry--didn't make that clear.)

"Not interrupting a thing," Marcus said, "And, I have the gun already. Khaat and I nipped into London earlier, and we picked it up. I have it in my room. My gift wrapping skills leave much to be desired so you'll have to do that yourself, I'm afraid. But the pistol I chose for him is one of my personal favorites. Highly accurate, well built, easy to clean, easy to maintain, easy to aim and fire, aims true and has a decent range. And I got him some ammunition, but Robert does stock that size in the armory, so Angus will have access to plenty more. You can have it whenever you like. That's one of the easier things I've dealt with today." He flashed her a smile of amusement. He caught a flash of movement outside and he glanced out the window.

"Oh, Michael's back," Marcus said "He went out. Said he was helping Kate with supper tonight and he was treating us all to chateaubriand, of all things. He makes his with this incredible red wine sauce and all the trimmings, and he says he's already put a tiramisu in the fridge for dessert. Not sure what the gourmet dinner is for, but it certainly isn't going to be a dinner to miss...."

He was interrupted by the sound of a little barking dog.

"Buggar. They haven't caught her yet?" Marcus sighed. He looked down to the bottom floor of the library to see Abbey still dashing around on four feet, and this time she was running like the devil through the library. And then, right on her heels, was Nigel. "Uh oh. She's about to be nabbed by Nigel."

"

Ruby smiled widly " thank you so much" she said and gently gaev him a hug. Is it okay if I wrap it in your room then we ca give it to him at dinner, which by the way sounds devine, I've not had that before, and tiramisu?" she said " not heard of that desert, might have to look it up." she said and glanced around him. " so many books." she said then heard the barking and lasughed seeign Abby running around as a labrador again. " well he'll have his work cut out for him." she said laughing.


Heading to Marcus room she made sure not to be seen by Angus, slipping in she sat on the bed and smiled seeing teh wooden box it had come in. It was perfect her fingers ran over a brass plate on top of the box. thinking deeply she cast a spell that engraved the small brass plate with ' To the one I love, hope this keeps you safe when I can't, love Ruby' she smiled then began to wrap it. Once done she moved down to the kitchen passing Jes and Jacks door where Jes was trying to get Jack to rest but he was having none of it.

"Absolutely," Marcus said. "Its in the box on my dresser. Help yourself."

Nigel saw the puppy, and he shook his head.

"Come here, you," he said, timing his capture so that he could basically just reach down and pick her up as she tried to dash by him. He scooped her up and looked at the wiggly little pup. "Well, little Miss Abigail, what was it today? A bathtub? A pool?"

"A chihuahua," Marcus leaned over and replied to Nigel, and, at that, Nigel laughed.

"Found a friend, did you? Who was it? A neighbor boy? Someone down the block?"

"No, just a chihuahua," Marcus laughed.

"Oh. A real dog. I see," Nigel said. Nigel changed her back and sent her to the kitchen to go find her "gam."

Angus, meanwhile, had gone outside with a couple of pints to talk with Brian. he had taken Brian and pint and had brought one for himself and had discussed Fenrir's words with him. Brian had concurred, believing that the danger of Gelding's escape was going up dramatically. He knew Michael had warned Daphne, but how did one protect a prisoner from a shapeshifter? That wasn't such an easy thing to do. He was starting to think that perhaps a wing similar to the psychiatric wing at St. Mungos, where magic was prohibtted and protected by defensive spells that prohibited spellcasting of any kind, maybe that was the ticket.

Daphne had no place like that, not so much as Brian knew. She would try to get Gelding transferred to St Mungos if they could not find any place else to hold him, and Brian didn't like the idea of Gelding being in such close proximity to Robert.

He was wondering if they needed to find a way to stop the shapeshifters from helping Gelding in any way. But how? that was the question. He was starting to think the team needed to meet--maybe for a few minutes after dinner.

Ruby walked out looking for Angus it was now she over heard the two men talking and sighed " you'd be putting so many innocents indanger by putting him there." she said sitting down and resting the wrapped box on her knee. " isn't Askaban design ment to do that anyway, stop magic being used in and form?" she asked looking at them both " and wouldn't a shapeshifter just change their appearance and walk right in, there has to be something spacific to only those aloud that would give away shapeshifters in an instant." she mused almost to her self " it couldn't be a mark it could be copied, even our medallions could be forged." she stood up pacing as she thought about it but then her stomach rummbled and she paused. " oops sorry."

Jess finally got Jack to rest and he fell into a deep much needed sleep. Now with him out like a light she headed to the kitchen for a well earned cup of Roberts special coffee, basicaly reguler coffee with a splash of firewhiskey in it. Taking a sip she walked out to see Brian and Angus with Ruby talking. " good place for a meeting." she said " Jacks fine, hes sleeping now."

"Hi, Jess," Brian said. "You might as well join us. We were just discussing Gelding and some sort of secure alternative to his current situation in France. I know that eventually, someone is going to ask about St. Mungos as an alternative, so that's one of the options that is worth discussing.

"I know the risk to patients," Brian continued. "And I know it wouldn't be the best solution, but there have been escapes from Azkaban. It isn't all that secure. When Robert was minister, we had some control over the security there. However, that isn't the situation now. We do, though, have control at St. Mungo's and Robert has made it one of the most secure places we have. When the restrictions say no magic, it means no magic--period. Shapeshifters aren't going to get in there unless they can find an old school muggle way to get in."

"Well," Michael said, coming out to join them, "I have a moment between fixing courses for dinner. I have an idea but it isn't all that righteous of a plan. It is rater dark and twisted."

"I'm all ears," Brian said. "What is it?"

"I say, we fire up James that Gelding betrayed him. Promised Khaat to him and then didn't deliver."

"Well, that's true, basically," Brian agreed. "He got so tunnel visioned into trying to get Robert himself that, for all practical purposes, he violated the agreement he made with James."

"Well, that's how I see it. So, if we can rile James up a tad, we can get him to go after Gelding because he didn't deliver. And since Gelding is a weenie, he'll be too busy running from James to worry about us." Brian thought about it for a moment and then he laughed.

"You really do have some twisty bits in your brain, dont you?" Brian asked. "But, seriously, that isn't a bad thought."

Ruby sat and listened along with Jess when Micahel walked out and spoke they both grinned and looked to Brian. "Sounds good to me." Jess said with Ruby nodding beside her. " but how do we set this in motion?" Jess asked " how would we get James to belive Gelding conned him and broke the contract."

" yeah, Might be fun, better than having our own prison in the basment." Ruby said " besides im guessing James will be super pissed at Gelding after he got beat by Fenrir and still have him on his ass." Ruby said shifting the wrapped box on her knee as she thought about the conversations.

"Well, we'd have to be able to discuss it with Daphne, first of all. After all, France still has him."

"Yeah, but all we have to do is to get close to Gelding and give him the idea that James is really infuriated with him."

"That's relatively easy at this point," Michael said. "We can come up with some fradulent documentation and show it to him--phony intel reports and the like. Disguise someone as a guard to go in and simply have a discussion or two or three with him and tell him that James is now targeting him. James doesn't actually have to be targetting him. Let him keep running from Fenrir. Let's focus on Gelding for the moment."

"That might work. And who would you send in?"

"I'll get Daphne to let me do it myself," Michael said.

"It might work," Brian said. "I think we should discuss it with Robert after dinner. A bit of a break from both of those crooks would give us time to heal and for Ruby and Mira to get trained before we have to go after anyone for a little bit. And as long as our disabled list is getting, we need to be able to pull back a little."

Ruby chuckled and looked at Brain " oh how I'd love to be a fly on his prison wall" she said " sounds, a realy good idea, if you need help Michael I'm avalible between training and caring." she told him nodding to his plan " yeah we all need a litle down time to recharge." Ruby said as she looked at the box. She looked at Angus deciding to give him the gun after dinner but she would keep hold of it unless he asked of course.

"Okay now thats decided I have a husband whose worse than a three year old at staying in bed" Jess said smirking. " he might be sleeping now but trust me two minets after I left the room he'd be in the kitchen helping himself" she motioned to where the back door was open and you could see Jack leaning on the counter with a cookie. Seeing Jess looking at him he quickly disapeared towards the stairs making Jess and Ruby laugh out loud. " oh Ruby whats in the package?" Jess asked intenshionaly bringing evryones attenshion to it.