35. Stamping the Lead
In which Gimbal surprises Fenella…
As everyone went to look at the prints, @Hedgehogforshort and Gosie took up their conversation at the exact point where @ErrolTheDragon had interrupted it.
“Do you think we have put the gerbils in danger?” said Gosie.
“Not yet,” said Hedgehog. “Nothing they have done can be seen from Fenella’s side of the bench. Graphic’s drawing is filed as an open copy, so nothing looks missing. Stamp 23 went back into its compartment. Griffin has touched nothing but her own work. Danger starts on the day something shows.”
“Then we need an extraction plan before that day,” said Gosie. “If it goes wrong, how do we get them out?”
“They will just leave.”
“You read their contracts and said there is nothing in them about leaving. You said Fenella Burnish could sack them on a Friday and they could never resign. You said, ‘we’ll deal with it if it comes up’. Well, it’s come up. What’s the plan?”
“The first thing to say,” said Hedgehog, “is that the clause operates in one direction only, which in practice means...” She stopped and slumped. “There isn’t a plan. I found the clause, I said it out loud in front of everyone, and I assumed something would turn up if we needed it to. I’m sorry.”
“They’ll have to get sacked then,” said Gosie.
“Or they could just not go back to work,” said Hedgehog. “It’s not prison.”
The following morning, Fenella stood at the bench with Graphic. The old panel lay on the left, without its frame and next to it was Graphic’s drawing of the marks that had been inside the old lead: E.W. 1716. On the right lay the unmarked new lead.
“Every mark in the old lead goes into the new,” said Fenella. “Get Halcyon to check the Stamps spreadsheet for E.W. 1716. It will have a reference number, and that number will correspond to a number on top of a stamp in the stamp box. Bring me the stamp.”
Graphic went over to Halcyon who was sitting at the laptop with Griffin. Halcyon opened the Stamps spreadsheet. More than half of the rows were virtually empty, holding only a stamp number, with the details of the die, its title and date left blank. E.W. 1716 was not in the spreadsheet.
Graphic went back and told Fenella who stopped what she was doing and came over to see for herself.
“Half empty,” she said. “Half. Every job in this workshop crosses that sheet. I have a panel on the bench and a mark to match and the catalogue is incomplete. How does a catalogue stop in the middle?”
“I couldn’t fill it in,” said Halcyon, “because the stamps were jumbled. Gimbal is sorting them.”
“Then how am I to find anything at all?”
“I’ve nearly finished,” said Gimbal, from the stamp box. “One more chain to go.”
Fenella looked at her. “I don’t have time to wait until you have finished. I need E.W. 1716.”
“Yes. Stamp 90.” Gimbal went to compartment 90, took out the stamp, and handed it over.
Fenella turned the die to the light and saw that it read E.W. 1716.”You remembered that?” she asked Gimbal.
“Yes. Do you need anything else?”
“G.R. 1857.”
“Stamp 176.” A second compartment was located, and a second stamp was handed over in the same way.
“Remarkable,” said Fenella. She looked at Gimbal as if she had been keeping something from her. “Sit with Halcyon and help her fill in the spreadsheet. The rest of the chain can wait.” Then she looked at the clock. “Halcyon. The courier for the crate. It must go out tomorrow.”
“Doing it now,” said Halcyon.
Fenella went back to the bench with the two stamps, and Graphic went with her.
Halcyon pulled the laptop towards her and muttered, “Fussbucket”, under her breath barely loud enough for Griffin to hear her.
Halcyon opened the Courier tab on the spreadsheet and scrolled down the list. Realising that what she wanted wasn’t listed on the sheet, she closed the tab and opened the Dispatch tab. She quickly found the reference she was looking for and clicked on it which led to the grey sheet with the password box in the middle. Halcyon typed once, looking down at the keys, and Griffin watched the keys instead of the screen. Only the left hand size of the keyboard was visible, and Griffin saw the capital F first. She missed the next letter, then saw two 5s together, and a b. A letter she did not catch, then c, another letter she didn’t catch and then, near the end, a £, and last of all the t. Ten keys.
The sheet opened. Halcyon scrolled a long way to the right, found what she was looking for, and copied a phone number onto the notepad beside her. Griffin could see that the rows that had been red were now amber, and the destination column held new information. Halcyon closed the sheet before Griffin could read it. Halcyon then tore the top sheet off the notepad, folded it once, took it into the office and shut the door.
Gimbal looked at the office door, then at the empty chair where she was meant to sit and help fill in the spreadsheet and decided she could not begin until Halcyon came back. She went back to the box of stamps.
The last chain ran through nine compartments. Gimbal worked it the way she had worked all the others, stamp by stamp: number noted, die read, compartment assigned. Seventh in the chain, from a compartment near the bottom of the box, came a stamp heavier than the rest. She turned the stamp over to look at the die.
A circle, with three lines struck through it. The number on the top of the stamp read 106
Before she could move it to its compartment, Graphic arrived at her side and asked for H.W. 1674.
“Stamp 17,” said Gimbal, locating the compartment and handing the stamp over to Graphic without putting down the stamp she was holding.
Graphic took it, and as she went back to the bench, she spotted the notepad by the laptop. The top sheet was blank, but she could see a line of indentations pressed into the paper. Without pausing for breath she tore the blank sheet off the pad and put it inside her pinafore pocket, then returned to her work with Fenella.
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