Private Message to Rachel Lamont

[alt_lana]

Say, I've been meaning to ask you how Montague's fitting in with your unit. I mean, he's sharp, but he can be too sharp sometimes, if you take my meaning.

And there was something he said last week while we were harrying the cadets... I got the idea that you and M are locking horns. Or, anyway, that he's chafing a bit, having to take orders from you?


Even if you don't want to talk about M, do write me back. Sitting surveillance is six times as dull as usual after last week's entertainment.

Comments

[alt_lana]

Too right about that.

Still sitting surv, obv. Seriously, you know: empty safe houses are the very definition of Nothing happening HERE.

[alt_rachel]

In fairness to Montague, I'd swap for a day if I could. (But! I'm currently going through the records for all the request-for-reimbursement. It's actually a lot like surveillance because eventually, it'll probably get interesting, but at the moment...)

[alt_lana]

Hope yours pays fruit soon. Things are looking up here, which is excellent since I'm a bit groggy after pulling dead of night watch.

[alt_rachel]

Oh?

I'd best not distract you, then.

[alt_lana]

Sorry to leave you hanging.

Maybe you've heard? We got a major break. Took down a significant smuggling op.

Really excellent payoff for all the hours invested.

[alt_rachel]

I've been head down in paperwork all day so I'd heard only the barest outlines.

Utterly brilliant! What were they smuggling? More Diviner's Mint?

[alt_lana]

This wasn't millenarian crackpots. It was people smuggling. A gaggle of muggles and one mudblood. Truncheon's got them to say they were 'helped' to escape from camps in East Anglia.

Actually. You could help. You've got access to those files. What do they show about recent escapes or dips in census?

[alt_rachel]

Sure. It would help if you could tell me which camps, though -- escapes are the sort of embarrassing information a lot of administrators try to bury.

[alt_lana]

I've got a bit more. The camps they've named are Bawsey, Mid-Suffolk, and Waveney.

Truncheon has them singing, but naturally we want to know how these disappearances went undocumented or, anyway, weren't referred to us.

[alt_rachel]

Right. Found three reported missing from Bawsey one night about ten days ago, all under the age of ten.

Mid-Suffolk and Waveney don't list anyone missing who shouldn't be. The parents of the missing kids were out on a work detail, and the camp administrator seemed to think they might have run off to look for their parents.

The work detail the parents were on was near Southwold. It was one wizard; he requested a rather large crew of muggles to process potions ingredients. There's a note in here from the camp administrator suggesting that if the children were to find their way to their parents, they might get turned into potions ingredients by the wizard in question.

[alt_rachel]

Were there sprogs, with the group you found?

[alt_lana]

Yes. Six.

Twenty-seven muggle adults. One mudblood. Three wizards. One witch.

So nothing listed from Mid-Suffolk or Waveney?

Someone's been lying, then.

[alt_rachel]

Nothing listed from either, but Waveney doesn't appear to keep a very careful count.

[alt_rachel]

Perhaps the wizards stole an entire work detail? The muggles might be lying because the wizards have them all under Imperius -- alas, killing the wizards to ensure that's not it is not exactly practical.

[alt_rachel]

(Unless you're done asking them questions, at least.)

[alt_lana]

I'm sure there's something short of killing them that can get the truth out of the wizards. Even if the muggles are well useless.

[alt_rachel]

No doubt.

Were they with some sort of organised group, like the Millenarians were? (I'm wondering if MEU is going to be sent around to take a very close look at camp censuses next week...)

[alt_lana]

Could well be. But no one's saying if they've got evidence of anything that organised.

Something for Montague to look forward to: a week in camp records offices. I'll have to warn Sarah he's likely to be in a spectacular mood.

[alt_rachel]

Tell him I'll trade him Corax Mulciber for camp admins any time he likes.

Anyway. Cheers. Congratulations on all that watching paying off.