The Q Files: Danger at Lichthorpe.
Scrabbletales is a new game invented by Mogmother and Optimist on the Run on 19/11/2017. It works like this...
Play a game of Scrabble (proper rules or not...) Record all the words used. Use all the words in a short story.
Mogmother then wondered what to do with her stories once she’d got them... Puzzle caches, of course!
Having created the Boy Named Q series in Shropshire, Mogmother then went on to write another series.
The cache is not at the given co-ordinates. It is at: N52 (109.4, 410) W002 (39.2, 1545.8)
This is my first attempt at a night cache. Stealth will be needed... and beware of massive potholes in the road.
(Scores for: word for animal hair, the visitor's name, both words containing Z minus name Q calls his mother, Q's middle name; word meaning opposite of bad, word for small birds, city nearest to Lichthorpe less two plus name of nuclear power plant, word meaning lifeless; name of the goat plus two, word using Q, word for animal enclosure.)
[where ‘word’ is mentioned, this refers to words from the original Scrabble game, not extra ones added to make up the story. However, some of the names were too useful to leave out...! Ignore the possibility of Double Word Scores and Triple Letter Scores etcetera: just add up the letters.]
(words: faints, dozes, twites, thy, jobs, inert, tax, size, mew, incite, paved, maw, taxi, glow, quilt, discordant, pen, brink, obey, do, on, halted, naval, pah, if, fur, good, do, grime, rule, rule, (i))
Chapter 9
‘THEY didn’t like prescribing without seeing her,’ Hammurabi reported, handing over a packet to Freya. ‘Go on- take it straight up to her-‘
Freya vanished.
‘But the doctor talked to her on the phone, and agreed to do it, so- antibiotics.’ He sat down at the table and blew on his hands. ‘At least it’s stopped, and you’ve made passages through the yard: the snow’d be above my head in some of the lanes near the village, you can’t tell where it’s paved and where it isn’t even where it’s been cleared, and there’s a taxi from Carlisle been stuck there since Thursday night; the vicar is putting up the driver … I’m almost sorry I didn’t let you come, James, but at least there was one person left here at the Grange who could ski, if anything happened... Did you do many jobs while I was out?’
‘We moved the stock.’ Jason looked at Jeremiah for confirmation. ‘Put them in the Garden Room in the East Wing: took them through the scullery and the still-room. Lots of straw. Easier to get water to them, but I don’t know what the Missus’ll say…’
‘And Freya’s found a problem.’ James hesitated. ‘Not a serious problem- well, not in the same way, at least. She said “it feels warm in the fridge”, and I said, well, fridges run at about four degrees, and it’s colder than that in the scullery, so it will feel warmer- but then I checked, and the stuff in the freezer’s started defrosting-‘
Hammurabi said something regrettable. ‘The Mater chose it: I should’ve made sure she got one with independent thermostats like the last one- of course, the fridge is cold enough, so the thermostat shuts down, because it’s in the fridge- but that shuts down the compressor so the freezer stops working too… And I bet Mrs. O. was going down with this for a day or so before she admitted defeat, and never noticed the fridge ‘cos she was ill… Well, what’ve you done about it?’
‘Boxed up as much as we could find boxes for, and buried them in the snow.’ James grinned. ‘Then moved the fridge-freezer in here and defrosted it: Freya says we can’t use it till tomorrow because it’s been moved, but we’ve been cooking everything that’d really gone soft: there were boxes and boxes of stuff cooling on the windowsill, every size box we could find, and we shut the cat out till we could lid them… and they’re in the snow too now, in shopping-bags. We ate the ice-cream- there wasn’t much of that anyway, and it was like cold custard- and Jeremiah and Jason had two pieces of haddock each for tea… This is yours; it’s been keeping warm in the bottom oven. We’ve not let Mrs. O. know; she seems pretty inert.’
‘She will be. Infection of the middle ear; it affects your balance. Better if she dozes and hears nothing but good news…’ He grinned, accepting a plate of fish and mixed vegetables and a mug of tea. ‘Thanks: I’m not too cold, and I managed to ski most of the way…’
‘Talking of ears, there’s a suspiciously Sellafield-looking glow around yours.’ James grinned back. ‘Sure you only went to the village?’
Hammurabi nodded. ‘I wish I could’ve stayed to help dig people out, but I think that knowing I’d skied from here made people realise there was a lot they could actually do, rather than just sit indoors complaining…’
‘So you’ve been inciting an uprising.’ Freya came back in. ‘She’s very grateful… What did you say to them?’
‘Oh, nothing much; I didn’t actually incite, just got them organised. Ringing round people to make sure they were okay, sharing bread and milk and stuff: I said if anyone was really peeved about having to, they could come up here when it melts and I’d reimburse them- but I bet no-one does, they’d have to face the Mater unless it was a weekend…’
‘They’ll obey you?’’ James was surprised.
‘Ninety percent will,’ Hammurabi said calmly, not quite with his mouth full, slipping a small piece of fish to Nigella who was under the table, ‘because I am Mortmain. And they’ll shame another nine percent into behaving… look, you lot, just mew if you want some: it’s like having five cats round me!- the one percent’s usually our local Naval officer, who spends his retirement saying ‘Pah!’ and arguing about the rules and disapproving of everything, but he’d got his fur hat out and was telling me about clearing ice off the decks in the Arctic fogs, and seemed to enjoy being tougher than some of the younger men, so I have great hopes…Oh, and there was a flock of twites in one of Micklethwaite’s fields: goodness knows what they’ll find to eat, there can’t be much seed left even if they can get at it…’
‘Shut up an’ eat thy tea.’ Jeremiah advised. ‘We’ve bread rising, to bake tonight…’
‘Grand.’ Hammurabi turned casually to James. ‘Did you get the message I forwarded?’
James nodded.
‘So Parker reckons it wouldn’t be a massive detonation, even if it is peroxide. Not a container that size…’ Hammurabi stopped scratching the goat behind the ears and fiddled with his phone. ‘Here we are: local damage, 3 metre radius if contained: possible structural damage; blast felt up to 100 metres away… That would be most of the house, but… I think we’d better risk it. Now we know it’s there…’
‘How do you suggest we do it?’ James enquired, expecting some intensely technical solution.
‘I think,’ Hammurabi was scratching Amalthea again, ‘that we ought to go and stand at the far end of the coach-house loft, which is about five metres long, and throw things at the relevant wall till something happens. Bricks, axes, logs, lumphammer… You up for that?’
‘Need to keep the others well clear,’ James pointed out, ‘but yes, count me in… Wouldn’t Jason be the best one to do it? He’s the strongest of us by a long way…’
‘Mm, but I’ve seen him chopping wood, and it’s not really safe to be in the same room. Lots of enthusiasm, but he’s big and relatively clumsy with it, and we’d have to explain… Once it’s gone off, if it does, then I’d be happy to let him pull the boards down.’ Hammurabi patted the goat affectionately and climbed out of the makeshift pen. ‘That’s it, old girl: no more fuss tonight… Well, let’s get started. Freya was going to sit in with Mrs. O. and mend a quilt; Jason’ll watch television, like he does most evenings, and Jeremiah’ll man the house phone and see to the bread; I’m amazed the landline’s still working, but it is… we’ll tell them what to expect, and what to do if it all goes horribly pear-shaped, but it won’t. Come on.’
They collected quantities of missiles from around the coach-house and hauled them up through the trapdoor, which to James’ relief was at the northern end of the building.
‘Right: we know what to do if it breaks and one of us faints… Bucket’s there, with cloths in it. Here goes-‘ Hammurabi swung the lumphammer a couple of times, and threw it. It thudded into the false wall and dropped onto the floor. There was a discordant clang as a sieve and a bucket fell too.
‘Hope the floor can take it…’ James picked up a brick. ‘As a rule, I don’t do street-fighting, but it’s all good practice.’
The brick bounced back and broke as it hit the floor.
‘My turn… We might have to smash through the boards and hit the actual door to get it to go.’ Hammurabi hurled a log. ‘I hope this works, or we’re going to look completely stupid… but I don’t want to have to build something and detonate it to force a second detonation, in case it’s inert after all… Once we’ve run out of ammo, we’d better go back to the other end and I’ll nip down and see if it’s broken.’
James threw another brick, bent to pick up a third…
‘D’you hear that?’ Hammurabi halted him. ‘It sounded like glass breaking. I think you’ve done it!’
‘Now we wait for the nerve gas…’ James muttered, sniffing cautiously.
Nothing happened.
‘Might as well use everything, in case…’ Hammurabi picked up an axe. ‘Ever thrown one of these? Stand back-‘
He sent it spinning down the room to embed itself in the false wall with a thwack.
James picked up the other and weighed it experimentally. ‘Like this?’
It struck Hammurabi’s weapon and both fell to the floor.
‘Nice one.’ His host picked up the bucket of water and cloths. ‘Come on: let’s go and check the other side.’
They stood looking down into the dark maw of the passage.
‘Right: it’s wedged open, and I’ve put wet cloths along the bottom of the door.’ Hammurabi said quietly. ‘I’ll go carefully, try not to disturb anything…’
‘I’ll go first.’ James said abruptly as he began to climb in. ‘Yes, Q: I’ve done stuff like this before. Lots of people have my skills. You’re unique.’
Poised on the brink, Hammurabi hesitated for a long minute, and James thought he would argue, but at last he sighed and moved to allow the older man to precede him. James went swiftly down the ladder, his hands cold and covered with grime.
‘Alpha bravo charlie delta echo foxtrot…’ he recited slowly, loudly enough for Hammurabi to hear him, alert for a change in the taste of the air, hoping that whatever the white powder was it would not react badly with water if they had to use their improvised face-masks. Down and down with the other behind him, along, right at the branch in the passage, right again… where did the rest of it lead? Not now; time for that later, if there ever was a later… and there was the little room full of boxes, and there was the glass container, on the floor in several pieces among a litter of whitish accretions and the cork.
Whatever it was, at least it hadn’t been peroxide… though it needed identification and careful disposal. That could wait. He picked up a box and set off back through the passage, still reciting the alphabet, held out the box to Hammurabi. ‘Here you are. First instalment… It’s broken all right. No sign of anything else having happened…’
‘I’ll go down tomorrow and get a sample for the lab.’ Hammurabi sounded relieved. He took the box. ‘No idea what all this is, James, but- we’re sharing it, okay? Your place needs doing up as much as mine does…’
‘Let’s get back to the surface.’ James growled. He had no intention of claiming any of the loot, unless some of it really was a model railway… ‘Need to let them know we’re okay… And Parker.’
Hammurabi nodded. ‘Yes: we definitely need to tell Parker.’
FTF 2 Nosy Parkers FTF