Matthew Ernst heard the screw rattling in its drawer and took it out. He held it to his ear so that he could hear Teddy speak to him about their new client.
This wasn’t spying, Matthew reminded himself, this was vetting. They couldn’t be too careful after the last assassination attempt.
Teddy was just one of the many, many ghosts who repaid Ernst, Morton, and Glass with favors. Joseph Morton was fond of joking that the three of them were modern Necromancer kings collecting an army of ghosts to one day siege Parliament with. Martin Glass hated that joke, as it reminded him that people feared that the Ror Raas really would one day lead an army of spirits to overthrow the government, but his hatred of the joke made Joseph want to repeat it all the more.
The screw, though seemingly nothing more than a rusty, bent piece of scrap, was tied to the spiritual components of Theodore “Teddy” Boseman. It was once part of the mechanical buggy he operated as a cavalryman under general J.E.B Stuart, but when an artillery shell blew the vehicle and its operator apart in 1863, what was left in the wreckage was a ghost.
The scrapped buggy became like the ghost’s body. He could make it move, even with a shattered engine, and when Federal salvagers took the field and tried to take the buggy apart for parts, they found that it wouldn’t stay still. The parts jerked from their hands. One soldier described it as trying to skin an animal that wasn't all the way dead yet.
The American Manesological Society, better known as the Poeists, was called upon by the Federal government to investigate, but various factors prevented them from conducting a proper investigation. The Ror Raas put an end to the American Civil War in 1863 (poor Teddy had nearly survived the war) by placing baleful fires in the sky over the Battle of Shiloh, but tensions between the Union and Confederacy persisted. Skirmishes still broke out along the Federal-Confederate border drawn out by the Treaty of Shiloh. Whether the scrap belonged to the Confederate or Federal government was a matter of dispute, and the Poeists were afraid of appearing as favoring the Union over the Confederacy if they took the case. And so in late October of 1865, the call was made to England, to Blackwall, to Ernst, Morton, and Glass, and the three thaumaturgists quickly responded, crossing the Atlantic in moments with the aid of one of the many ghosts they befriended over their adventures.
It wasn’t the first time Ernst, Morton, and Glass visited America--that had been in late September of 1865, when they were called by Mexican statesman Miguel Lerdo de Tejada to investigate a haunting at Mission San Castulus. A powerful ghost in the form of a black fox had manifested to attack tax collectors and bankers spearheading the dissolution of communal property owned by the Catholic church and Indigenos. The manesologists were able to resolve the haunting, though not in a form Miguel Lerdo de Tejada expected.
Ernst, Morton, and Glass were sure they would return again and again to the continent to “pick up the Yanks’ slack,” in the words of Joseph Morton. America was a large continent, but even it didn’t seem to have enough room for its many, many ghosts. But Ernst, Morton, and Glass wondered if they would ever take anything home from the American continent quite as useful--or as colorful--as their haunted Confederate mechanical buggy, complete with operator.
The buggy was certainly the largest thing they had ever transported, and would have given them no end of trouble getting it through customs…if they had transported it through conventional channels. But they had not, and the government of Blackwall knew better than to raise a fuss with Ernst. Morton, and Glass over the legal minutia of shipping laws.
Teddy’s ghost, like many ghosts, had no legal property to his name due to the Manes Charter, which was adopted by the United States shortly after it was penned in England in April of 1865. To repay Ernst, Morton, and Glass for their help (and they did have to go through a good deal of trouble helping him, as the Union claimed him as a POW and demanded he reveal to them the secrets of Confederate battle buggies under pain of being buried un-alive), he became their informant, and was quite a good informant. A driver could hear quite a bit from his passengers, after all.
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Parts of Teddy’s buggy were incorporated into a new civilian version of the mechanical buggy built by Hermes Transportation, who didn’t charge Ernst, Morton, and Glass for the service. Ernst, Morton, and Glass had performed more than a few favors for Hermes Transportation’s parent company, National Reclamation, the largest company involved in the ongoing construction of Blackwall and the reconstruction of London, and National Reclamation was glad to be able to balance the books, though the company knew very well nothing they could do could possibly balance Ernst, Morton, and Glass resolving the Gog and Magog haunting.
Gog and Magog were powerful ghosts who manifested shortly after the London fireball. They helped many of the lost souls created by the fireball find peace, and together they created a small community of ghosts amid the ruins. But just as the human survivors of the London fireball eventually settled in Blackwall, so too did the ghosts of London start to drift to the new city, leaving the ruins of London, and Gog and Magog, behind.
The two ghosts, lonely and hurt, lashed out at National Reconstruction operations around London. At first, they knocked down a steam beast named Longneck John, but when Longneck John righted itself, to the surprise of not only Gog and Magog but National Reclamation, Gog and Magog beat the steam beast until it stopped moving. The lights that burned through the seams of the steam beat faded, but try as they might, Gog and Magog couldn’t so much as dent the Longbeck John’s plates. They hammered on the steam beast day and night without success. Angered that they could only break, but not destroy, Longneck John, Gog and Magog began to hurl large stones all the way from London to Blackwall. The craters created by these missiles were unlike anything modern artillery could make.But though their power was great and their tempers ferocious, Gog and Magog were pacified by Ernst, Morton, and Glass. And so, Hermes Transportation didn’t think anything of it when Ernst, Morton, and Glass asked that they stick parts from an old war vehicle into one of their new civilian models.
A few Hermes Transportation mechanics said a couple of things to management after a man showed up in the buggy they were assembling and began driving it around the garage floor, but their fears quickly abated. Teddy was quite personable for a ghost. He was an excellent storyteller, and the mechanics quickly came to appreciate his company--and management quickly came to appreciate his inability to tire.
Teddy was a ghost, and ghosts made people nervous, but he could also work his shifts without rest. So long as Teddy’s vehicle was moving, Teddy was happy, and Hermes Transportation could certainly keep him moving as their newest mechanical buggy operator.
Ernst, Morton, and Glass allowed Hermes Transportation to employ Teddy on one condition--that Hermes Transportation kept Teddy assigned to jobs transporting people to Blackwall, which wasn’t a hard thing to ask of Hermes Transportations since traffic into Blackwall had been ceaseless and enormous since it opened to the public in early August of 1865.
Teddy proved to be a loyal employee of Hermes Transportation and a loyal informant for Ernst, Morton, and Glass. Through the screw kept in Matthew's desk, Teddy kept the manesologists informed on all incoming clients that rode in his buddy.
As he had done many times before. Matthew held the screw to his ear and heard Teddy’s voice clear in his mind.
His colleagues Martin Glass and Joseph Morton watched anxiously, but held their questions until he put the screw back in its drawer.
“Please tell me it’s a client coming.” Martin Glass said. “And not another assassin.”
“It’s a client.” Matthew answered. “His name is Mr. Carter.”
“Oh, thank God.” Martin shut his eyes and gave a sigh of relief. “I like it so much more when we have guests that bring paychecks instead of bullets.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re happy.” Joseph said. “Personally, I was rather looking forward to another spot of gunplay.”
Joseph cupped his large wrinkled hands to his mouth. “Esmee! Nick! Come hear about the new client!”