The Meeting

Granger and Blurb sat on the park bench, overlooking the sprawling park of Parliament Hill. They could see London in the distance, and each of the paths leading up to the bench. It was the most obvious, and safe of all locations. Around them, joggers ran past, dog walkers called after their pets and cyclists rushed through.

It was one of those cyclists hurtling past that casually tossed the mobile phone at their feet. Within seconds, it rang. Granger bent down and picked it up.

“What exactly were you hoping to prove?” the voice calmly spoke. “put this on speaker phone Granger, I want Blurb to hear as well”.

Granger pushed the buttons.  “Blurb, can you hear this” the voice calmly spoke again.

“Yes” said Blurb “but who are you – I don’t recognise your voice.”

“My name isn’t important to you, but my message is.  I know that you – and your colleagues – are the subject of attention from a couple of organisations.  We know this because we are watching over you.  We were asked by a friend of yours to ensure that no harm came to you both; for years we have maintained that.  However, we are also aware that you are now considering action against them….”

“… and how would you know that? Have you been spying on…”

“Granger!  I’ve not spoken to anyone abou this – and I’m pretty sure that you haven’t either… unless…”

“Before you get into a fight on such a lovely day, let me explain.  We know that you have thought about this action because we bugged the house.  We bugged the house because we were asked to.  By your / our friend.  In addition, we have been following you – and your colleagues to make sure that they come to no harm.  Yes, Edward did get hurt – my associate wasn’t ready and we couldn’t prevent that one from starting – but we were there to get him to you quickly.  We hope that he is feeling better.  It just shows that something is coming”

“So what now?” asked Granger.  “You know we’ve set up a meeting between the Rag Dolls and the Book Club – which is why you’re here also.  What I would like to know is what your involvement is and….” 

The line suddenly cut off with a blip.

“Mr Evermore? You called a meeting with us.  I’m surprised that ‘they’ are here also, but I’m sure you have a reason for it.  So you have called us here, so please, tell us why”.

Granger and Blurb turned from looking at the mobile phone, now lying unused on the bench, to face the four characters in front of them. Two wore the shell of Paddington Bear and two wore the shell of Winnie the Pooh – however, it was clear that they were not these characters as their movements suggested a slackness of stuffing that came from a costume being worn.  Blurb spoke

“Actually, we both called you here.  Over the last few days you have both invaded our peaceful lives and caused both us and our friends harm and distress.  We know that you are merely representatives of the organisations that you represent, and perhaps you may know the history of each of us.  We want to be left in peace, to live our lives without worrying about who is watching us, who will jump from the shadows, who will cause us problems again.

“What you may not know is that there is a third organisation and they are watching us now.  Indeed, they phoned us just before you got here and rang off when you arrived.  They told us they were watching out for us, so let’s keep this peaceful.”

One of the Paddington Bears laughed.

“Good grief Blurb, is that really the best you can do?  You were much better when you part of our organisation, we could always ensure that your threat would always be what you would do, not what someone else could.  That doesn’t disarm, that just disappoints”  With that Paddington bear reached into the case.  Granger saw the butt of a gun.

“Look, I have no idea who you actually are, but Blurb is not kidding.  Please, just take the message back….”

Paddington bear continued to draw the weapon.  Suddenly, the gun flew from his hand, and a faint “crack” was heard in the distance.  The phone by the bench rang again.  Blurb answered, nodded and switched the phone once more to speaker phone.

“To the four who are standing in front of Blurb and Granger, please listen carefully.  We have just shot the gun from your hand.  I should point out that you cannot see us as we are currently….  seven hundred and thirty six metres away from you; that’s as the crow flies of course.  As you are quite clever, please turn to your left.  We will now blink a light three times…. …. …. …. hopefully your trained eyes will have seen that.  Please nod if you did”  All six nodded.

“Good.  Before we carry on, Paddington Bear, please retrieve your gun; we don’t want these things littering the park.  It creates… problems.  Bearing in mind that we have at least one gun trained on each of you, please put it back in your bag.  Thank you. Now put the bags down on the ground.  Now Blurb and Granger have asked you to take a message back to your bosses.  Will you do that please?  Oh and please tell them that we are also watching out for them, we know what damage that they can cause to your organisations and know exactly how we can get them into and out of your data centres and headquarters without you ever knowing.  In fact, we don’t actually need them to do that – we ought to point out that because of the agencies you used to set up your data centres the data is already in our safe keeping… should you want it to stay safe.  Oh, I know what you’re now thinking – please call us ‘The Button Club’.  Finally, should you agree to these instructions, please have your bosses deliver something to the Raven’s house.  Book Club, I think a single yellow rose; Rag Dolls, four yellow Daffodills.  Just leave them on the front step.  Now go, before we do something that will just ruin your day.”

The phone went click. No-one spoke and the sounds of dog walkers, cyclists and children filled the air.  The two Paddington Bears and the two Winnie-the-Poohs walked back down the hill.  When they were at the bottom of the hill, the phone rang again.

“Granger, Blurb, you know that this isn’t over.  Whilst the Button Club is just maintaining its contract, you know that those two groups will not rest – they don’t like being made fun of.  Expect the flowers, but don’t expect the peace.”

 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————-

At the Book Club’s headquarters, a shadowy figure slammed his fist down on the table.

“NO! We do not walk away from this!  Who is ‘The Button Club’?  What makes them think that they have the power and control to run our organisation – hold us to ransom?  So they’re looking after Granger and his dumb friends – well Granger’s just bought himself  a demonstration.  What were we supposed to leave? A yellow rose? What dumb signal is that? What is the other idiot organisation supposed to bring, four daffodills?  Right – buy four Daffodills and leave them on the door.  We’re not backing down – but we’ll play along for the moment.  Now go and do that for me.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

At the Rag Doll’s headquarters, a shadowy figure slammed his fist down on the table.

“NO! We do not walk away from this!  Who is ‘The Button Club’?  What makes them think that they have the power and control to run our organisation – hold us to ransom?  So they’re looking after Blurb and his dumb friends – well Blurb’s just bought himself  a demonstration.  What were we supposed to leave? Four Daffodills? What dumb signal is that? What is the other idiot organisation supposed to bring, a single yellow rose?  Right – buy a single yellow Rose and leave it on the door.  We’re not backing down – but we’ll play along for the moment.  Now go and do that for me.”

———————————————————————————————————————————

Early the next morning, a Paddington Bear approached the step and laid his offering on the step.  He looked up at the Winnie-the-Pooh holding the other flower.  Winnie-the-Pooh laid the flower down by the side.  They both stood up slowly, gently nodded, turned and both walked away. 

At the end of the street was a black car, with the rear windows blacked out.  Inside, the passenger could see the drama unfurl and quietly chuckled to himself.  He picked up his phone and pressed the buttons.  “Yes, they did as expected.  Time to lose power for a couple of minutes”.

Blurb Makes the Call

“Yes.  The RavensChest is contacting Bear Factory”…..  “Kanga and Roo” ….  “Pooh Sticks. Thank you”

“Hello? Yes, this is… okay, you know who it is – and so you’ll know why I’m calling.  We agreed that I could leave and that you would leave me and … yes, that is true, but… hand on, we promised…. YOU promised… oh, come on, that’s not… look, do we need to meet and agree this all again?  Do I need to prove what is sensible – again?  Can you really afford that right now?  Thank you.  You’ll be in touch – I thought so.”

Blurb hung up the phone quietly.  He sighed a long sigh of relief… and then there was a polite cough – which came from behind.

“So - not so much the pacifist then?” asked Granger, and he quietly closed the door behind him.  It closed with a click. “So, what do you think you ought to tell me; remember that I can tell when something isn’t quite right – as you probably already knew”

“OK, as you’ve revealed your membership to the Book Club, I ought to reveal my membership – not to the Book Club, but to the European Organisation – the Rag Dolls.  I am aware that between the two organisations they have worked quite well together, but of course, we also know that they have kept secrets from each other.  What we have now revealed to each other – our memberships of these organisations – makes us both quite powerful but it also puts the whole Ravens Chest Order in considerable peril – as Edward found out.  You managed to leave the Book Club by “disappearing” until recently – however I managed to walk away from the Rag Dolls by mutual consent.  Until now, of course”

“How did you leave?  What happened to cause them to just ‘let you go’ – or have they just made you a sleeping agent?”

“I guess I was originally in the wrong place at the wrong time.  My father – here, this is a photo of him – was close friends with Tough Ted. They both served on the merchant ships, before transferring onto other jobs.  Both showed exemplary skills and knowledge – so it wasn’t long before they were recruited by the Rag Dolls.  They had been tasked with a mission in Germany – would have been quite a major event, but I so wanted to be like my father that I tagged along.  I had been secretly reading all his training materials, practising stalking, hiding, tracking for many months and had become quite good at it.

“We had boarded the train from Munich to Bavaria – I could see my father talking to another Rag Doll agent.  They had both exchanged secret passwords and thought that the carriage was clear.  Unfortunately, the train shuddered to a stop and a small feather just floated onto my nose.  As hard as I tried I couldn’t hold back the sneeze – and suddenly it was as if something catastrophic had happened.  All the Rag Dolls suddenly started screaming ‘It’s a Trap!’ and the Rag Doll my father was talking with seized him.  He put a bag over his head and two other Rag Doll agents dragged him up the carriage and into the next one.  Meanwhile, Tough Ted had dropped to the ground, saw me and then stood up between me and the other agents and started wiping his nose.  He apologised for the sneeze – but asked if we could continue talks.  The remaining Rag Doll agents laughed – the pulled the emergency stop cord and ran to join their colleagues.  Tough Ted stood his ground.

“Once the agents had gone, Tough Ted told me I could come up.  I stood up – and Tough Ted made me promise that I would never follow my father again- and I would not try to find my father either as it would almost certainly be not to the benefit of my father.  After I made that promise, with tears in my eyes, Tough Ted then made me make the same promise – but for him as well.”

Granger stood and looked at Blurb, the tears flowing freely from his eyes.  Blurb sniffed and wiped them clear.

“Blurb, things change.  You made a promise for two people – both of which had deep meaning in your life.  But even you must realise that sometime we have to make decisions that we don’t want to in order to protect and save the new members of our family.  Whilst you have lived up to your side of the bargain – that of not trying to find your father or Tough Ted – it would seem that they have tried to contact you.

“So now, we have to make a new plan.  By the way though – how did you leave the Rag Dolls by mutual consent?”

“Ah.  They did recruit me many years later and being young and foolish I joined.  They found I was really quite quick with computers… but I also generated a lot of static.  One lightning bolt mistimed…. and I wiped their main computer.  It took them three months to recover all the data… so they let me go.”

“Hmm” said Granger “I wonder if we need to go play with some computers.  How’s your skills at Pacman?”