Susan Adams - Diary Entry #4
The rain’s really coming down now. I just answered a knock on the door to a little old lady, who said “You’d better go meet your friends at the Hall”. I offered her a cup of tea (thinking I could maybe find out a bit more information) but she said “no, thank you dear”) and disappeared into the night. It’s dark and pouring with rain. Thank goodness my winter coat was in the Institute - that should hold off the worst of the rain, and I’ll pack this journal, grab some food and I’m gone. I thought I saw an umbrella tucked in a cupboard somewhere…
I’m cold and wet, but that doesn’t matter because Alice and Peter are OK! But I mustn’t get ahead of myself - a lot has happened and I promised to document it all as ordered as possible.
As I set out from the house I was lucky enough to spot a £20 note blown under the side hedge. It was soggy but useable, so I tucked it in my pocket and kept walking. I decided to walk instead of taking a taxi to save the cash - I am, after all, feeding five people. This seems insignificant but the cash’ll be useful, and as luck appears to be in such short supply I’m making of note of what I can to make myself feel better!
So there I was, soaked to the skin and suddenly Dave drives past. I know it was him - I was almost deafened by the music and he had the windows up! He can’t have seen me, because he didn’t stop so I kept going, and thankfully he came back five minutes later and picked me up. I was a little depressed due to being wet through, but he’s such a lovely guy I couldn’t stay down for long. I think he’s the only person who can get away with calling me “Suze”.
We pulled into Juniper Hall behind a mini-bus. Through the downpour I saw Alice and Peter get out, so I threw myself from the car and gave them both a massive hug right there in the rain. My sudden (and exuberant) appearance was a heck of a surprise to them - I had been missing for eight months after all - but when we got into the Hall all questions had to wait. All our friends and family were ushered into a side room (hopefully for an honest explanation) while Brimble walked in.
Basically, they need our help again. Quel supris! They want Costa killed. And they want us to do it for them. There was a fair amount of arguing back and forth (I kept quiet, though I don’t want anyone’s death on my hands). I guess that the “mission” was successful, as we weren’t berated.
Just before we all went to bed we found out that our friends had only been held a week or so. I’ve been talking with Alice and Peter since then, but it’s getting pretty late so I’d better finish writing and get some sleep.
Great. Only an hour or two later and we all get woken up - needed in the briefing room urgently. We all stumbled in (except Dave) and awaiting us was Brimble and the woman we recognised as Professor Marlowe! I think that has to be only time that I, a pacifist, have ever actually swung a punch at anyone - maybe it’s a good thing I missed. In an effort to calm down, I went and woke Dave. That man could sleep through a bomb strike, I think.
Marlowe asked us whether we knew what we could do. Obviously we knew James’, Dave’s and Harry’s new abilities, but she filled us in on the rest. Mike can go paper-thin, sliding under doors and through narrow gaps (though we discovered much to his embarrassment that he leaves his clothes behind). Amy is essentially a human lie-detector. All she has to do is ask someone a question while touching them and she knows the truth. And me? I can disguise myself as anyone I like. An immaculate copy, right down to the voice. Oh, and I caught a knife thrown at me by Brimble - he wanted to find out what else we could do. I tucked the knife into my pocket when I went back to bed.
The alarm went off this morning at 7.30, but after the late and interrupted night there was no way I was getting up that early.
When I woke again, I could hear the others having breakfast downstairs, so I decided to put my plan into action.
I disguised myself as one of the service men that are always wandering around here, dressing as close to them as possible. It was remarkably easy to just walk out - Bruimble even nodded to me as I left. I walked to the nearest Tube and got the train back to Alice and Peter’s flat (I knew yesterdays £20 would be useful). When I got there I changed to look like Alice and knocked on the door of old Mrs Turner next door, whom I knew had a key for emergencies. She let me in, after I told her that I didn’t have my keys.
The flat was a bit untidy but the rats were in a worse state, so I gave them food and fresh water before cleaning them out and sorting the flat a bit. I dusted and sorted my room and immediately felt a little better. They must have been taken by surprise because the washing up was half done, so I finished it off.
I didn’t know when any of us would actually make it back, so I put the rats into their travel cage, popped it in a cardboard box and packed some clean clothes into a rucksack for the three of us before heading back to the Hall.
When I got back I could hear gunfire from the back of the house. Not gunfight levels of fire, more like a practice range. That together with the fact that there was a keypad lock on the front door convinced me to head round and see what’s what. So I became a goon again and walked round. Amy approached me (with a loaded gun, which I thought was a bit much!) so I dropped the mask and went to my room to settle the rats.
Whilst there I tried non-humans. I tried to turn into a cat and got stuck with a huge ginger beard. In getting rid of that I grew a moustache instead. When Brimble came to get me for lunch he a) wasn’t happy I’d gone off grounds and b) told me that I had to take part in a mock-building storming in preparation for going after Costa. I went downstairs with him as a man, all the while trying to get rid of the facial hair. I must have looked a little on the trippy side, like a human kaleidoscope.
The building storm (held in one of the buildings in the grounds) was a bit stressful. Harry “looked” to see six men waiting for us - one in the kitchen, two in the front room and three upstairs. Dave went up the wall to find a skylight and the rest of us readied ourselves to go in. I “shot” the agent in the kitchen while the rest were dealt with, and then sat on the worktop until it was all over. I left the gun on the floor - I only went through the storming because I was told I had to.