Agent Crew

Penny for your thoughts

Penny Books was not the sort of place Clancy went to that often, if he were honest. He was nowhere near as avid a reader as Ruby, and most of his reading material was in fact pilfered from his mother and sisters. Not his father. His taste was a little too... well, Ambassador-y. Penny Books was exactly the sort of place he would have turned his nose up at. Clancy didn't think his father had ever purchased anything second-hand in his life.

Still, as Clancy pushed his way between groaning shelves and precarious piles of books he felt a strange sense of calm. The noise of the street felt very faraway, and the smell of paper-and-glue was comforting. He came to a standstill in front of the counter - at least, he assumed it was the counter. It was hard to tell under all the books.

"Hello?" Clancy called uncertainly.

A head popped up from between two book stacks, and Ray Penny greeted him with a smile. He held out a hand for Clancy to shake, realised there was a book in it, and withdrew it again.

"Hello," he said instead, still grinning. "And what can I do for you today?"

Clancy drew a deep breath. He knew, logically, that his request was not in any way weird or dangerous. But it felt like a definite step. The sort of thing Ruby would do, right before everything went pear-shaped.

Of course, everything had already gone pear-shaped. Weirdly enough, this thought did not make Clancy panic, and instead gave him just enough courage to press on.

"Er, I'm looking for any books by an author called Hugo Winter?" he said, his courage fleeing the second he started talking, and descending into a questioning tone.

Luckily, Ray just nodded.

"Gotcha," he said. "Bit obscure, but I think I've seen a few knocking about somewhere. Anything in particular you were after?"

Clancy shook his head wordlessly.

"I'll just be two ticks, then," promised Ray. "Feel free to browse."

And with that he ducked back into the forest of books behind him.

What followed was ten minutes of agonised waiting. Clancy tried hovering by the comics for a bit, in case there was anything interesting, but soon became to restless. In the end, too nervous to go outside in case he missed Ray returning, he ended up circling the shop.

When Ray still hadn't returned at the end of these ten minutes, and after a tall, bespectacled man in a suit had glared at him, Clancy decided this method wasn't quite working to pass the time quickly.

So he grabbed the nearest book that he could extricate without causing some kind of avalanche, and started to read. It turned out to be a romance (and not a particularly good one at that), but Clancy couldn't quite find the right place to put it back, so he kept reading.

He was getting quite engrossed in the exploits of Daisy Singer, the 'rambunctious chocolatier of Venice', when he was startled by a tap on his shoulder.

The book fell to the floor. Eyes glared at him from behind spectacles. Ray held up two books.

"S-sorry," stammered Clancy. He made to pick up the book, but Ray stopped him by shoving the ones he was holding into Clancy's arms. He scooped the romance up himself with a delighted grin.

"Been looking for this," he confided. Then he pointed to the two books Clancy was now holding.

"Only ones I could find," he said. "I looked the guy up, and apparently he only published one other book anyway. Running Scared. I can order it in, if you like?"

For a second, Clancy couldn't breathe. Then, he coughed the creepy sensation away.

"It's fine," he said, flashing Ray a wobbly grin. "These are perfect. Thanks."

"Bit of a character, by all accounts," Ray said, seemingly not noticing Clancy's unsubtle shifting of his feet. "Disappeared, apparently, before he could finish the series. Supposed to be five books."

Now that was interesting. Although it could mean anything. Clancy was beginning to learn that people could disappear for a lot of reasons. Not all of them awful. (Most of them were awful, though, and Clancy thought about them probably more than was healthy.)

"Not that the books were very well received," Ray added, with the air of someone sharing a secret. "So maybe it was all for the best, ay?" He winked.

Clancy was spared having to find a response to this by the glare-y man in the spectacles coughing pointedly from where he was stood at the counter, clutching a pile of thick books.

Ray gave Clancy a last wave before strolling over to tend to his customer.

As Clancy finally got a proper look at the books in his arms, he felt his heart beating unnecessarily fast.

The first one had a black cover, the title in white lettering, with a mock-reflection stretching out from it. Running Still. The second one was yellow, the title this time arranged vertically. Running on empty.

Not a very original theme, but then again, nothing about the books was particularly original. It was almost as if they were designed to be forgettable. Clancy wished he'd had the foresight to bring Mrs Digby's copy of the third book, but he supposed these two would have to do for now. He could always head back for it later, but right now he needed answers. He couldn't wait.

So he knelt down and opened Running Still to the contents page, carefully balancing it on his left knee. If there was some sort of elaborate code here, Clancy was screwed. However, it soon became clear that this was not the case. The code practically leapt out at you. For Running Still:

1. In the dark
2. On his own
3. Well met
4. Not a problem
5. Secrets never stay secret
6. Perfect trap
7. Everyman
8. Call me a fibber
9. Time to choose
10. Remember me
11. Under the hammer
12. Maybe tomorrow

I OWN SPECTRUM.

Clancy was starting to get the impression that Hugo Winter was not just code for the 'big boss'. In fact, it seemed more and more likely that Hugo Winter was the big boss himself. Especially when he remembered the fear on Hitch's face. Fear, Clancy felt, really didn't become high-ranking and capable-of-killing-if-they-had-to secret agents. He put Running Still down, and opened Running on Empty in its place.

1. One dead body
2. Nein
3. Seven for luck
4. For love
5. In deep
6. Welcome to hell
7. Instincts
8. Love or money
9. Love and money
10. Rolling in it
11. Everything ends
12. Think of me
13. Upset stomach
14. Rough day
15. Never say never

This time, it took Clancy a second to realise what he was looking at. Then, the pattern of the first four chapters opened up before his eyes.

1974 I WILL RETURN.

Clancy couldn't help gulping at that. 1974. That was now. It was only once he'd had a second to calm down that Clancy thought to ask himself: why now?

Running Still was the most recent book (the order was on the page opposite the chapter titles), yet it had been published in 1954. That was twenty years ago. How come, twenty years ago, Hugo Winter was bitter enough to leave a playground code in a series of books, yet not willing to act on his threats.

Clancy had a hunch it was because he wasn't able to.

And if he was going to find out why that was, he was going to have to think like Ruby. Which, really, meant there was only one place to go, now.

So he went back over to the counter to buy the two books. Just in case of... something Clancy wasn't sure of. It felt like a Ruby thing to do. (Besides, he would feel bad for making Ray go to all that trouble without buying them.)

Upon consideration, he asked for the romance book to. He hated not to finish something.

Then he left the bookshop, three books heavier than when he came in, and went to find some more. Because really, where would one find out about a shady, possibly-non-existent supervillain, if not the library?