LONDON CALLING

"Yes. Spread the sauce evenly across the top and stick it in the oven. I'll see Jess after I get the pork on. It's going to take a bit to cook. I can't waste any more time." He got out six large pork tenderloins and made a large batch of a sauce using Herbs De Provence, garlic, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper, and juice from oranges, lemons and limes. He rubbed all the tenderloins with olive oil and added his herb sauce, put them into two very large baking pans and put them into one of other ovens.

"Ruby? Can you make the soda bread?" Michael asked her. He scribbled a quick not and tossed it into the floo and cleaned up the mess that was always left by handling raw meat. By the time he had cleaned up the mess, two canvas bags arrived by floo--one held an Italian lemon ricotta cake and the other bag held a huge peach-raspberry slab pie and a gallon of french vanilla ice cream for on top.

"I decided to take the dessert help where I could get it. Dessert from Sparks. I'd better put the ice cream in the freezer, though, or it will be French Vanilla soup."

Michael headed out of the kitchen to go find Jess, and he ran into Nigel in the hallway. Nigel immediately spotted the blood filled glove, and he took hold of Michael's wrist.

"What on earth did you do?" Nigel frowned.

"Oh, its just a cut. I cut my finger prepping vegetables," Michael said

"So you slapped a glove on it and kept cooking," Nigel sighed.

"Well, no. There's a couple plasters under there too."

"Well, clearly they didn't do the job. Come with me. This is going to need a sink." He took Michael downstairs to the sickbay room, and he took Michael to the sink where he pulled off the glove, letting the blood go into the sink. He cleaned Michael's hand and then got a better look at it. "Its a good thing you're not a muggle," he said. "It's not very big, but it is deep, and in an awkward spot. It would be a buggar to stitch shut. Fortunately, we don't need to do that." He used a healing spell and closed it. "I want this to heal from the inside out. It should do the trick in a moment. There we are, right as rain again. So where did Robert go?"

"I noticed the outside guard got pulled off the house, so I mentioned it to Robert, and he and Le went over a short while ago to provide some backup."

"You suspect trouble?"

"Possibly. I did notice something moving through the woods, but I couldn't see what it was. We do have a lot of wildlife here, though, so its hard to say. Clearly the guards saw it too and went to check it, but I didn't like the lack of security around the house, so I mentioned it to Robert. Since they're still over there, I take it that the guards haven't come back yet...

"Michael!" They were interrupted by the sound of shouting from the floo upstairs. Michael left the sickbay and went upstairs to the floo.

"Robert?"

"Yeah. One of Lee's men went too far into the northwestern quadrant..."

"Don't tell me. He fell off that sharp rise up there."

"I won't tell you, then. Get Hiss and see if you can get to that man. Let's see if we can't bring him back."

"Okay. I'm on it."

"Take someone with you," Robert said. "Marcus climbs. I don't remember if Jack does, but with those wolves up there, you shouldn't go up without him if you can help it."

"How are things over there?"

"Fine. We're just hanging out til Lee gets a couple back up men here. Let me know what you find."

"Will do," Michael replied, closing the floo, and went hunting for Jack.

"Yeah, Ruby has promise, but she's got some sort of fixation on needing to get working on a climbing wall. I don't know what that's about, but, then again, I don't always understand women anyway. I do have a bigger problem, though.

"One of Lee's men went to check some sort of shadow in the woods and went out to that northwest sector without one of us. He's fallen off one of those sharp cliffs. I'm gonna have to get to him. I know Brian bought one of those rescue basket litters in case someone fell and we needed to haul someone up, but I don't know where it is. Could that thing be out in the barn, do you know? We probably are going to need it.

"I'm going to get my climbing pack and Hiss, and I probably should tuck one of the first aid kits in my pack. And I'll probably take a gun too, just to be on the safe side. You know that sector better than probably anybody, and if we have to pull someone up, it does help to have more than one man, especially if there is any chance that we have an intruder on the grounds. Care to come with me?"

He was hoping that if Jack would get the basket stretcher, that would give Michael time to go get his climbing pack and Hiss and a first aid kit.

Michael apparated into the house, got his climbing pack, tucked in extra ropes and carabiners, a couple bottles of water, and a first aid kit. He whistled for Hiss, and the rope came slithering down the stairs from Michael's room and met him in the kitchen. The rope coiled itself diagonally across Michael's shoulder like a sash, and Michael headed outside.

"I'm ready if you are," Michael told Jack. "Suppose we should try apparating up there and pray we don't apparate ourselves off the cliff right along with him? I'm guessing its one of the men who were guarding outside Angus's place. There were a couple outside, but they took off into the woods earlier, and Robert and Lee went over to Angus's to add some extra protection temporarily. I think Brian's going to have to think about doing some fencing along that cliff edge. I know that would be expensive, but it might save some of these accidents up there."

"Robert and Lee are at Angus's as it is, and Nigel is over at the house. I thought Kaden was at the main house too, but I don't know for certain. Andrew is a trained agent, so I'm sure he has a weapon of some sort. And there are four men inside. 2 inside at Angus's and 2 inside at Edward's, so they still have plenty."

"Hiss," Michael said, "use that tree as an anchor. Let's be quick about it." The rope slithered off Michael and lashed itself to the tree while Michael put on a harness and got ready to go. "Why don't you wait up here and let me go down first and see what we're into?" He put the backpack on and then clipped himself to Hiss. "Okay, Hiss, are we good?" He tugged on the rope and the rope tugged back as sort of a signal that it was ready. Michael repelled down the rope and went over to Lee's agent and knelt beside him and checked him. And he didn't like what he saw.

"Jack," Michael called, "we have a problem. He's dead. And it wasn't from the fall, either. There's a switchblade sticking out of his chest. I'd say we have an intruder--or we did have. Looks like he was killed and then shoved off the cliff to try to get rid of the body. Bloody sloppy job, if you ask me. We still need to get him up out of here, though."