At the morgue Number Seven did his best stern face at the man on the front desk and Sorrow stood behind him, looming more than should be possible at six foot tall.

'He's in his office. You should go straight in. He's just dealing with some unexpected guests, ' said the man.

'I don't like unexpected anything,' said Seven as soon as they were out of earshot of the desk. He reached for his gun but Sorrow put a hand on his wrist.

'Hold off on that for a minute. Let me go in first,' she said.

He didn't like it but he had to find out if she was up to the job. If she was going to get herself killed better that she did it now before he got too attached.

She pushed the door open, seeming to fill the whole doorway for a moment. Seven half expected to see the back of her head explode into a fine red mist but, 'Fuck's sake, Jude,' she said, 'it's not a race.'

She stepped to one side and revealed the office. There was a man in surgical scrubs, presumably Dr Green, behind the desk. Between the desk and the door were two others. Number Four and her bodyguard. Four was seated, looking back over her shoulder at Seven. Standing next to her was a blond man in white holding a partially unsheathed sword cane.

Seven wondered exactly how fast he was with that blade. Hopefully they wouldn't have to find out.

'You do the job your way,' said the man in white, 'and I'll do it mine.' The man relaxed, slid the blade back and locked it into the cane.

'Sit down, Seven,' said Four. 'This is Doctor Willard Green, Home office pathologist and possibly the most apologetic man in Christendom and he was just about to explain what happened.'

Seven eased himself into a seat next to Four. 'And?' he said. Jude walked round him to stand behind Four.

'Someone stole the mobile morgue,' said Dr Green.

'The what now?' said Sorrow. She was standing next to the door, clearly intending to make sure that Dr Green wasn't disturbed further.

Dr Green sighed. 'We had a major breakdown in the electrical system on some of the fridges. We've had workmen in upgrading the computer network and they cut a cable they shouldn't have. To preserve the cold chain we called in the Mobile Morgue.

'We normally only use it for major emergencies. It's a huge refrigerated trailer. We parked it out the back and put the bodies from the affected fridges inside. That was yesterday morning. When your colleague was brought in, she went into the mobile morgue. When the other one arrived today we were going to put him in too but we discovered that the whole trailer had been moved. There's 15 bodies in there including your,' he looked down at the paperwork on his desk, 'Number Two.'

'Someone just drove the thing away?' said Four.

'Our CCTV cameras weren't working. Disabled by the same accident as the fridges. The police are investigating further but they tell me that the street cameras show someone driving up in an Eddie Stobart lorry cab then driving away with the cab connected to something that looks like the Mobile Morgue with a 'Farm Fresh Frozen Meals' sign stuck on the side. They think from the traffic cams it was headed for Dover.’

'And no-one noticed anything till you went to store Number Three?' said Seven.

'We had no reason to go out there,' said Dr Green, 'Your colleague was the only one in there that hadn't had an autopsy yet'.

Seven fought back the rage that demanded that he leap over the desk and throttle the man.

'Please tell me that you at least took samples?' said Four.

'Of course. We did that as part of preparing the body for the autopsy. We have all kinds of samples. We just hadn't started to cut yet. I was called away before I could start and she was too important to leave the job to anyone else. I'm so sorry,' said Dr Green.

'Have you run the samples from the dart yet?' said Four.

'We have, and we sent some to a more specialised toxicology lab but it turned out we didn't have to. We were able to match the poison exactly.'

'Already?' said Seven.

'It's a fast acting curare derivative.'

'So Number Two was already dead when the roof came in?' said Seven.

'Oh most definitely. She had enough curare in her to kill an entire troop of lifeguards and their horses,' said Doctor Green.

'How can you be so sure?' said Four.

'Oh I recognised the poison as soon as I saw the first results from the mass spectrometer. Our toxicologist concurs. It's one of ours.'

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Four and Seven exchanged a look. 'In what sense is it ours?' said Four.

'In the sense that you'll have some of it in your own kit. It's the Quartermaster's favourite. Kills nearly instantly.'

'Could it have come from anywhere else?' said Seven, 'Could some other chemist have brewed their own? Is it used by any other agencies?'

'It could have been reverse engineered but they'd never have got the formula so close. That exact mix is really only used by SIS and Department Y. Most foreign agencies use cyanide but the Quartermaster doesn't like it. Says it's too detectable and not fast enough. And of course not sure enough for the sort of things the Department tends to use it on.'

'You realise that you've just said that this is an inside job?' said Jude.

'I'm so sorry,' said Doctor Green. 'I didn't mean to sow suspicion.'

'I don't think it's you that's sowing it,' said Sorrow. 'I think it's pre-sown.'

'I want to see where the morgue was,' said Four.

#

Number Seven stood in the empty space left behind by the missing mobile morgue and wondered how this looking for clues thing was supposed to work. Number Four, standing at his side, turned circles on the spot looking up at the blank walls overlooking the space as if willing a working CCTV camera into existence.

Jude lounged against the back wall of the morgue building watching them. Sorrow stood next to him. She wasn't quite standing to attention but it was clear that she was ready should that be required.

Four's apparently random circling moved her away from the bodyguards. Seven followed. He turned so his broad back blocked Sorrow and Jude's view of Four and said, 'How's yours?'

'Polite,' said Four. 'And he seems useful. Managed to get us here from HQ in seconds. How's yours?'

'Enthusiastic. Maybe competent. Too early to tell if I can trust her.'

'Mine seems appropriately cut up about Three. Didn't know the details. Or claimed not to,' said Four.

Over by the wall Jude said, 'They talking about us?'

'Aye,' said Sorrow.

'Can you hear the details? Anything I should know?'

'Yes and not really. They don't trust us yet but they're not specifically worried about anything. You could be in trouble though. They've both just agreed that you have an excellent bum.'

'It's a popular opinion but in this instance I think not. How did you get on with the shagger-in-chief?' said Jude.

'He's not what I was expecting at all. He likes my shoulders,' said Sorrow.

Jude leaned away from Sorrow then looked her up and down. 'They're good shoulders but I'm not sure I'd list them amongst your best features.'

'Yeah. That's what threw me. What about yours? How much trouble are you in with Alex?' said Sorrow.

'Not what I was expecting either. She has the filthiest brain but physically she looks so young I feel guilty just looking at her.'

'I think SIS have been up to something with her. She doesn't smell like an adult woman.'

'Adult women have a smell?'

'Yeah, It's a puberty thing, I can't explain it but I know it when I smell it.'

'You think they've been messing with her hormones to keep her looking prepubescent?'

'Would they do that?' said Sorrow.

'I'd believe just about anything of the current Chief. If ambition was graphite you could sharpen Emma Smith's head and use her as a pencil. And it's a weird kind of ambition too. Ruthless and unyielding and directionless all at once,' said Jude.

'You've shagged her then?' said Sorrow.

'What? Why would you think that?' said Jude.

'Sounds just like Alex.'

'Alex isn't ambitious for ambition's sake. It's just that, deep down, she wants to know everything and she knows she can't and it drives her mad,' said Jude. 'Smith is very different. She was with us for a while but she never quite fit in.'

'Now I know you're bullshitting me. Everyone fits in with the Department,' said Sorrow.

'I didn't quite see it at the time but I could feel something was off. She clashed with a few of the old guard and I didn't know why. They either couldn't or wouldn't explain it, but I think I get it now,' said Jude. Sorrow expected him to go on but he tailed off, staring at the two spies as if worrying that they could hear him.

'You going to enlighten me?' said Sorrow.

'We all want to be better at what we do. The most ambitious of us want to be the best. Alex wants to know everything, Cepha thinks she should be able to protect everyone, you believe that every fight can be won and by you. We strive to improve but we know that it's a fight we can't win. Smith would rather change the win conditions than accept a loss. Even if that means completely losing sight of what she was fighting for in the first place.'

'Are you saying that she's a psychopath?' said Sorrow.

'I think it's more like a kind of task blindness. And I can't tell if she was always like that or if it's an occupational hazard. Seems like SIS has been like that as long as I can remember and she's just a particularly egregious example.'

'Are they talking about us?' said Seven.

Four was looking past him and squinting as she tried to lipread. 'They were but now they're talking about the Boss. Did you know her first name's Emma?'

'I barely know her second name. She's just like all the rest,' said Seven.

'Women?'

'Bosses.'

'This whole thing feels familiar,' said Four. 'The frozen meals sign...'

'Is pure Six. If I didn't know for a fact he was tied to a bed at the time,' said Seven. 'And cutting through the cables to get them to move the body...'

'Is the sort of idea we rely on Five for but...' said Four

'He couldn't be faking a coma, surely, and even if he was, he's been locked in,' said Seven.

Four reached up and patted him on the shoulder. 'We can check on that first thing in the morning.' She walked past him calling to Jude, 'Hey, white knight, time to take me to your safe house and show me your etchings.'

'Could you at least try to remember my name?' Jude drew the sword from his cane and slashed at nothing. The blade left a dark gash that just hung in the air. Jude reached into it and opened it wider as if he was parting curtains. Four ducked under his arm and stepped into the hole he'd cut. 'We're taking the Beta safe house,' said Jude as he went after her, 'leaving the Alpha house to the Alphas.' The gash closed behind him as if it had never been.

'Show off,' said Sorrow.