Chapter 12

I still hadn't a clue where Morgana's manse was, though I was beginning to suspect it wasn't a regular world, or not one that any Mage could simply run across via a scan, it also wasn't in a pocket dimension either. That I could get there was due to Morgana having placed the co-ordinates into my mind during my apprentice days, not that I could read them, I simply thought about it and then ported, it was a clever trick and one which I worried over mentally every so often, determined to find out how she did it. Yes, Morgana knew I was curious, but she simply let me get on with it, telling me 'you'll either figure it out or you won't. A little frustration is a good teaching aid.' That was over forty years ago, I'm still frustrated, though determined to find out.

Morgana, Arch and Seer Jemima were waiting for me in her study and listened carefully as I filled them in with what I'd discovered so far and where my suspicions as to the leaks source now lay.

"At first I thought it must be Mage Cadmus, though with further thought I now suspect that it is probably one of his subordinates in the Section, though possibly acting in his, or what they think might be in his, interests with regard to a possible Council review and a new broom sweeping clean. It may be that he simply does not know. I haven't traced the how of it yet though," I finished.

"I know Cadmus quite well," said Jemima. "I'd be very surprised if anything was going on in his Section that he doesn't know about or hasn't sanctioned. Though he may be unaware of the actual details."

"I still don't know how or where the person behind the leak is getting his information though, though it's definitely somewhere in our Section and it appears to be being passed on via the Soviet Embassy," I added. "Do we know who might have visited there around the 12th or 13th of September 1955?"

"I doubt it will have been an official visit, John," Morgana said. "The Diplomatic Section has no official ties with the Soviet Union anymore, the Coalition are dug in too deep."

"I'll keep looking," I said.

"Do that," said Morgana. "Now bring me up to date with the audit and your proposals."

I spent the next few hours going over my conclusions for the various Sections and answering Morgana's, Arch's and Jemima's in depth questions. Finally the session was concluded and we sat down to a simple meal and a bottle of wine from Morgana's cellar, though again, despite having lived in her Manse for twenty years, I still hadn't a clue where it was, or the kitchen for that matter and believe me I'd looked. Both food and wine came up and out of a dumb waiter system, except that I'd been below her study and there was nothing there. Again Morgana was simply waiting for me to figure it out and enjoyed herself immensely at my frustrated efforts to do so.

"I'll set up a meeting with the Section heads to go over the audit tomorrow, John," Morgana said. "Please attend and be prepared to answer questions."

"Yes, my Mage," I replied.

The following day I sat to one side of the conference table in Morgana's office as the Section heads went head to head over the audit proposals. It was fairly obvious that my talks with the various heads had produced a sort of consensus, or rather with the heads of the Research, Seers and Security Sections. Mage Cadmus of the Diplomatic Section was of course trying to enlarge his power base at everyone else's expense and becoming increasingly frustrated at being prevented from doing so. Yes, the current proposals were for the Seers to move into the Research Section and for the Diplomatic Section to get their offices whilst Research itself moved to new premises. Mage Roxanne was to get added powers for her Section and to take over the apprentice interviews and minor misdemeanour admonishments, taking some of Enforcement's staff with her and handing over a list of security people who wanted a new opportunity to try out for Enforcement after gaining more experience in Security. Essentially it was all going to plan and I was frankly bored and my eyes wandered around Morgana's office for the umpteenth time when something caught my eye. Mages don't need heating, we can warm the air itself with our powers or simply control our body temperature as we desired. So I was looking at the blocked in fireplace in Morgana's office and the air vent built into it and started to wonder, could it really be that simple?

"I need to excuse myself, Mage Morgana." I sent via a hidden telepath channel I was now capable of using.

"Is it important John?" she sent back.

"Yes, I think I know how the information is getting out of our Section."

"John, could you arrange for some refreshments whilst we continue to sort out the details here?" Morgana asked out loud.

"Certainly, my Mage," I replied and took various orders, before slipping out and handing the list to a surprised Róisín.

"Could you start on this?" I asked. "I'll be back in a minute.

"Yes, John, but where are you going?" she asked.

"Diplomatic." I replied and hurtled down the stairs and to Mage William's 'boiler cupboard' in the Diplomatic Section.

William wasn't in and the room was locked, but locks don't really stop a determined Mage and so after a short burst of mental effort I entered the room and looked around. At first, all I could hear was the clattering of the extraction fan and I looked around to find a switch for it, once it was off I could hear faint sounds and headed over to the old flue and checked it over. Initially I couldn't make out anything from the noises until I opened the sliding catch of the air vent. Then the conversations in the office upstairs came out very clearly. I closed the vent, switched the fan back on and locked the room. I now had a suspect in my sights, but decided to be cautious. If I could gain access to William's office, others could too.

Back upstairs I thanked Róisín and took the refreshments into the office and we took a break, with the Mages talking animatedly amongst themselves whilst I joined Morgana and Arch to tell them of my findings.

"Ye Gods!" said Arch. "How could we have missed something so simple?"

"Because we're Mages and don't do simple, not anymore," said Morgana with a slight smile.

"We need to set a trap whilst identifying every user of that room," I said. "Just because it's William's office doesn't mean it's him."

"Yes, John," said Morgana. "Don't worry I have something in mind."

After a short while the meeting carried on and I was called upon to go over several points raised as the various Mages wanted to know how I'd reached my conclusions. I got a particularly hard time from Mage Cadmus as he sought to undermine my conclusions, though he ended up rather frustrated as I demonstrated that I knew far more about how Diplomatic Section worked through my time there with Mage Robert, his second-in-command, and possibly the next Section leader, if the information flow was being found to be used for Cadmus' aggrandisement with his knowledge or approval. I had to admit I was hoping it would, I liked Mage Robert, though was wise enough to realise that Robert was in the frame too, as were most of the Diplomatic Section, though I couldn't see how William would not have noticed the noise from the vent.

The biggest shock to the Section heads came when Morgana announced that Arch would be stepping down as her second-in-command and her request to Geoffrey to provide a couple of his people to sort out the paperwork and assignments on a skills basis rather than the current first come first served method. Cadmus did offer some of his people, but had to accept Morgana's point that the Diplomatic Section was already struggling under its workload. After that the meeting wore down to its natural conclusion, though it was fairly obvious that all Sections were quite happy except for Diplomatic, who had simply gained more room, not more power and privilege as Mage Cadmus had hoped for. The Section leaders were given a week to come up with proposals for implementing the various moves and, in the case of Security, their new duties.

When they had all left Morgana called Róisín into the office and we all ported out to her Manse which seemed the best place to discuss anything securely now that we knew Morgana's office was compromised. Róisín was filled in on the details of my investigation as Arch's assistant and simply nodded, apparently not totally surprised, seems most of the Enforcement Section had been thinking along the same lines after some not so great successes in the past few decades.

"I cannot believe how we missed that, Morgana," said Arch after we had sat down in her study.

"We're so used to looking for a magical means of spying that we overlooked the obvious," said Morgana. "It's why in part that I chose John to look into it, I knew he wasn't compromised and that he would look at alternatives to magic too. Well done by the way for confirming via Brianna that our Diplomatic Section is less than clean over this matter, John."

"Thank you, my Mage," I replied. "It's a pity she didn't know more, but I doubt Merlin would have told her, no matter her abilities."

"Yes, I know Merlin and his habitual secrecy quite well, the man practically invented 'need to know' before anyone else had come up with the concept," she said.

"So, how are we to trap our spy?" I asked.

"That's why I invited Róisín," Morgana said. "I'm going to put her on placement in Diplomatic for a short while whilst Arch ostensibly goes on a leave of absence somewhat similar to what I had you do, John, for this investigation. It's not unusual and no eyebrows will be raised and hopefully Róisín will be able to keep an eye on the room and let me know so we can discuss certain 'missions' which will flush out our traitor."

"Of course, Mage Morgana. It will be an honour," said Róisín.

"Do not go looking for trouble, Róisín," Morgana said. "Just try to keep an eye on the room and let me know when it's in use and more importantly who is using it. If possible let me know what they do next, but do not attract unnecessary attention."

"Understood, Mage Morgana," said Róisín.

"John, you will be the bait in a series of traps which I'll be 'talking about' to Arch in my office when the boiler room is occupied," Morgana stated. "It will mean travelling here and there to various locations where I believe that the Coalition will attempt to ambush you. I, along with Arch and a few others, will be on standby to intercept any such traps; you need simply do your best to survive. Please be careful, John. I suspect after your taking down of Zhang Jue they will not be gentle."

"Yes, my Mage," I replied.

"In the meantime do not discuss any sensitive information in my office. I'll make sure that case files and the like that need my attention are only discussed at the Mage's desk," Morgana said. "Until this is resolved though, do not discuss this case with anyone not in this room, save Seer Jemima."