One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (15 page)

“Do you think this is about the Racy Novel peace talks?” I asked a French Wilkins Micawber who was there on an exchange trip.

“
Mais oui.
But I think ze CofG is being a leetle jittery ’bout Racy Novel,” he explained in a pointlessly overblown French accent. “Zey think zat zere may be fizz columnists eager to cause—’ow you say?—mischief. I’d not like to be without shirt and medallion while Barry White plays in ze background right now, I can tells you.”

“Reason for visit?” asked the Plaid on guard duty.

“I have to report to Mr. Lockheed regarding a crashed-book investigation.”

“Very well,” said the Plaid. “And what’s with the mechanical butler?”

“To lend tone to the proceedings.”

This was enough for the Man in Plaid, and with a gruff “Welcome to the Classics, have an eloquent day,” I was allowed to pass. On our way out of the station, I noticed a small group of characters who had been pulled aside. Some of the women wore miniskirts, tube tops and stilettos, and the men had shirts open to the navel. It seemed as though anyone even remotely resembling someone from Racy Novel was immediately under suspicion. They were protesting their innocence and complaining bitterly about the unfair character profiling, but to little avail.

We took a tram along Austen Boulevard and got out just outside the gates to
Sense and Sensibility.
This was a large compound, and a high wall topped with barbed wire surrounded the many settings that made up the book. On each corner were watchtowers, from which armed Plaids kept a constant lookout. Such tight security wasn’t just to protect the Dashwoods—the residence of Norland Park within
Sense and Sensibility
was also the headquarters of Jurisfiction, Fiction’s policing agency.

Waiting at the gates was a group of characters with day passes, ready for the tour. For some reason those in Sci-Fi had a thing about the classics, so of the twenty or thirty characters waiting, at least two-thirds were aliens. Since most of them hailed from the poor end of the genre, they had a lot of tentacles and left sticky trails after themselves, which caused no end of cleaning up.

“No clockwork automatons,” said one of the guards on duty. “You should know better than that, Miss Next.”

I had to explain that I wasn’t
that
Miss Next, and the guard peered closer at me, grunted and then explained that a Duplex-4 had suffered a mainspring failure several months before and killed eight bystanders, so all cog-based life-forms below the Duplex-6 had been banned.

“The Six has been released?” asked Sprockett, who had a vested interest in the competition. To sentient machines the primary cause of worry was obsolescence, closely followed by metal fatigue and inadequate servicing.

“It was launched just after the remaking,” said the guard, “but I’ve not seen one yet.”

“They must have rushed them into production,” murmured Sprockett. “A risk, if they’re still at the beta-test stage.”

I suggested to Sprockett that he nip into the local Stubbs and not have a coffee or two until I returned, to which he gratefully acquiesced.

After signing the visitors’ book and a risk assessment that included “erasure, swollen ankles and death by drowning,” I was issued a visitor’s pass and allowed to walk up the graveled path towards the house. Since we were now actually
within
the backstory of
Sense and Sensibility,
the view upwards was not of the rest of the BookWorld—the curved inside of the sphere and books moving about—but of clouds and a clear blue sky. The trees gently rustled as though in a breeze, and the herbaceous borders were alive with a delicate symphony of color. This was one of the better attributes of the Reader Feedback Loop. When readers imbue a book with their own interpretations, the weather always comes first, then colors, symmetry, trees, architecture, fixtures and fittings and finally texture. Birdsong, however, is generally not something brought alive by the reader’s imagination, so the birds still have to be provided. Since we were now in the unread zone of the novel, the birds were either off-duty or populating another book elsewhere. There is a certain degree of economics within the BookWorld; Austen birds are the same as Brontë ones—listen carefully and you’ll hear.

I stopped at the front door to Norland Park and gave my name to the footman, who looked as much like a frog as you can without actually being one. He gazed at me for a long time and opened his eyes so wide I thought for a moment they might fall out, and I readied myself with a pocket handkerchief in case they did. But they didn’t fall out, and after another minute’s thought he relaxed and said, “You do look like her, don’t you?”

I thought of telling him that he looked very much like a frog but thought better of it.

“You’re the first person not to confuse me with her for a while,” I remarked. “How did you know?”

“The real Thursday always ignored me,” he replied, “walked past without a word. But never in a bad way—she always did it respectful like.”

“Do you get ignored a lot?”

“I do, and not just by ordinary citizens. I’ve been ignored by some of the greats, you know.” He then proceeded to list twenty or so major characters who hadn’t acknowledged his existence on a regular basis. He had a particular fondness for David Copperfield, whom he had escorted almost three hundred times “without a glance in my direction.”

“That must be quite upsetting.”

“I’m a footman,” he explained. “We’re trained to be not-there-but-there. Being ignored is the yardstick of a footman’s professional abilities. My father was sixty-seven years in the employ of the first Lord Spongg and wasn’t acknowledged once. He went to his grave a fulfilled man. If you want to be ignored by the movers and shakers of the BookWorld,” concluded the frog-footman proudly, “this is the place to do it.”

“You’ve very fortunate,” I said, humoring him. “Some people don’t get to be ignored at all.”

“Don’t I know it,” he replied, licking the end of his pencil and consulting his clipboard. “Now, reason for visit?”

“I’m to see Mr. Lockheed at Accident Investigation.”

“Correct. This way.”

The entrance hall was large and empty except for a round mahogany table in the middle, upon which stood a vase of flowers. The way to Herring’s office took us past the ballroom, from which Jurisfiction’s agents were given their instructions and posted to all corners of the BookWorld to face adversaries so dangerous that it was truly astonishing that anyone ever survived. I had been in there a few times when I’d been a trainee of the real Thursday, but I hadn’t visited since I failed my training day. I slowed my pace as we passed, for the door was open and I could see Jurisfiction’s elite talking and laughing. I recognized Emperor Zhark and a large hedgepig that could only be Mrs. Tiggy-winkle. The Red Queen was there, too, and several others.

The frog-footman coughed his disapproval, and we made to move on. But at that moment a short man in late middle age and dressed as a big-game hunter stepped out of the open door. He was wearing a pith helmet and a safari suit, and across his body was slung a Sam Brown belt and holster, with the outfit finished off by a pair of brown leather riding boots. Since Thursday’s disappearance, he was probably the third-most-important person in the BookWorld after Senator Jobsworth and Red Herring. His name was Commander Bradshaw, and his expert guidance at Jurisfiction had kept the agency at the top of its game for almost as long as anyone could remember—his exploits ensured that he was hardly ever off the front page of
The Word,
and his much-updated
BookWorld Companion
was the definitive work on the BookWorld, both before and after the remaking.

He was deep in conversation with a youngish agent. I felt out of place, so I looked straight ahead and quickened my pace. But he noticed me and without pausing for a second took me firmly by the arm and steered me to an alcove.

“Thursday,” he hissed in an agitated manner, “why are you dressed in those ridiculous clothes, and where in heaven’s name have you been?”

“I’m not her, sir. I’m the one who looks after her series. I’m actually A8-V-67987-FP.”

He frowned, then stared at me for a moment. “You’re telling me you’re the
written
one?”

I nodded, and he burst into laughter.

“Well, strike me pink!” he said. “You gave me a turn and no mistake. I was . . . ah, expecting Thursday to be here any moment,” he added, looking at his watch in an unsubtle manner. “I suspect she has been delayed.”

His explanation didn’t ring true at all. Thursday was
definitely
more missing than he would like me to know. We returned to where Bradshaw’s companion was waiting for us. He was studiously ignoring the frog-footman, who for his part was accepting the snub with quiet dignity.

“I’d forgotten just how identical you looked,” he said. “Are you keeping well?”

“I am, sir,” I managed to mumble. “I trust you are well read?”

It was a stupid gaffe; Bradshaw’s brand of jingoistic Imperialist fiction hadn’t been read for a half century. But he took no offense.

“Not read anymore, and quite right, too,” he said laughingly, then stared at me for a while before saying to his companion, “You’ve met the other Thursday, the real one?”

“Sure have,” he replied. “One helluva goddamn fine operative.”

“Look alike, don’t they? Apart from the clothes, of course.”

“Like two peas in a pod.”

Bradshaw thought for a moment. “Has Thursday been down to see you recently?” he asked me with an air of feigned nonchalance.

“Not since the remaking, sir,” I replied. “May I ask a question?”

“Of course.”

“Am I to understand that Thursday Next is . . .
missing
?”

“She’s currently on leave in the RealWorld,” he said in a dismissive manner, “enjoying some time off with her family before the peace negotiations on Friday.”

“Are you sure about that? I saw—”

I checked myself. I could get into big trouble for sneak-peeking the RealWorld, and the Lady of Shalott could get into bigger trouble for letting me.

“What did you see?” asked Bradshaw.

“Nothing. I must have . . . dreamt it. I’m very sorry to have wasted your time, sir.”

He looked at me for a long while, trying to divine what, if anything, I knew. Finally he said, “You are keeping the Thursday Next series dignified, I trust?”

“Yes, sir—even at the expense of readability.”

“Being read isn’t everything. Some of the best people are hardly read at all. Listen,” he said thoughtfully, staring at me with his intelligent blue eyes, “would you do something for me?”

“Of course.”

Right then a man draped in the white linen robes of the most senior senatorial office walked briskly through the front doors of Norland Park and into the entrance hall in which we stood.

“Oh, crap,” said Bradshaw under his breath. “Just what we need: Jobsworth.”

If he was over here in person, it would be for a very good reason—probably about the Racy Novel peace talks.

I thought of dropping to one knee and averting my eyes as the frog-footman had done, but for some reason I didn’t. The Thursday part of me, I suppose. Jobsworth was not alone. As well as the usual phalanx of staff, hangers-on and deputies, there was Barnes, Jobsworth’s executive assistant; Colonel Barksdale, the head of the Avoiding War Department; and Commander Herring, who was busy reading a report and hadn’t yet seen me.

“Good morning, Bradshaw,” said Jobsworth. Bradshaw wished the senator good morning, then the same to Commander Herring and Colonel Barksdale. Barnes was too far down the pecking order to be greeted, as were all the other members of Jobsworth’s staff. The senator began to speak, then saw me. His eyes opened wide.

“Great Panjandrum!” he said. “Thursday?”

Bradshaw looked at me, then at the senator. I opened my mouth to reply, but Bradshaw held up a hand. In such company it was
strictly
speak-when-spoken-to. Protocol in the BookWorld was like grammatical rules—rigidly structured, arcane and fiercely defended by librarians wielding wooden rulers with painful accuracy.

“No, Senator, it’s the
written
version.”

“Truthfully?” asked Jobsworth. “She looks an awful lot like her.”

“If she
were
the real one, do you think she would be here accompanied by that . . . that—what’s your name?”

The frog-footman looked startled at being spoken to. “Wesley,” he said in a quiet voice.

“Right,” said Bradshaw, not really listening, “ being shown around by frog guy? If this
were
the one, she’d be in the office discussing the peace talks and the metaphor crisis.”

“I’ll vouch that she’s the written one,” said Herring, who had just looked up. “Are you here on JAID business, Next?”

“I am, sir.”

“Then you can take your findings direct to Lockheed.”

It seemed a good moment to leave, so I bobbed politely and began to withdraw.

“Wait,” said the senator. “Bradshaw, why were you speaking to her if she’s just the copy?”

For a fleeting moment, Bradshaw looked uncomfortable.

“I was asking her if . . . she could ask Lorina Peabody to head up the Talking Animal Division of Jurisfiction.”

“Who the hell’s Lorina Peabody?”

“She’s a dodo,” I said.

Jobsworth stared at Bradshaw suspiciously, then me. “Introduce us,” he said after a pause.

“Very well,” said Bradshaw with a sigh. “Senior Senator Giles Jobsworth, head of Fiction and emissary to the Great Panjandrum, the written Thursday Next.”

“Hello,” he said, shaking me by the hand and giving me the smile of somebody who was considering how best one could be exploited.

“Honored, Senator, sir,” I replied dutifully.

Jobsworth was perhaps sixty or sixty-five, graying at the temples and with the look of someone weighed down heavily by responsibility. He stepped forward and put a finger under my chin. I should have been more overawed in his presence, but I wasn’t. In fact, I had every reason to dislike him. When the senior senator was merely a senator, he had blocked my series from having Landen in it. He had said having no Landen was “as the author intended,” but that didn’t really help, to be honest.