Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

       "What are you doing back?"

Which was, as far as these things went, not the worst greeting you could get off a welcome witch on five. Silas smiled warmly at the old girl as he made his way past the desk.

"What's the world coming to, Stella?" he pocketed his gloves. "A good Englishman's bound to miss England, isn't he?"
       "I'll tell you when I see one," she replied archly.

There was something to that.

Of course she wasn't to blame for being surprised, when he was meant to be rubbing elbows with New York's political elite this very moment. That had all changed when his current mark, Thomas-bloody-Daylight, took off for their shores[1] without warning.

And wherever the mark went, so did Silas.

"Does his majesty have a moment to spare?" he was half-perched on the edge of the desk, addressing Spectre's secretary in his overly familiar way. "For a pauper on his doorstep. Nickles and dimes, if you please."

1.	14th April - Drove Seven Princes From Their Thrones

Yesterday, Carstairs had shared the truth about the incident in the States with the relevant Department Heads. Winthrop, like Godric’s Hollow, was home to both wix and muggles, but was more of a tourist destination for the skiing and nature at Methow Trails. Other than that the average British wix wouldn’t have given it a second thought if it hadn’t been for the news. A sudden and fatal illness had been reported there, on a scale of two hundred deaths. It wasn’t picky on victims with the muggles, but the majority of wix cases had been children, perhaps the resilience and supposed genetic differences between them and their non-magical cousins had saved them. It was yet to be confirmed.

This morning the British papers had confirmed the name of one of their own lost, while travelling alone for pleasure. The muggles were all over it, speculating one thing then another. None of them of course knew that it was an act of domestic terrorism created by the American magical government, of course. They were pointing in the correct direction of the water supply, which was a cause not worth disputing for lack of a better reason.

Gabrielle was due back in the next day from her official business, and in the meantime he was in charge of Five, something he was more than capable of doing. To run the show with their American allies reeling from a death toll that would ensure the day went down in history was an additional but one that the less palatable side of Johann was quietly pleased with, not that he’d ever speak it.

Sebastian Orr was at his door, announcing the unscheduled arrival of Silas Carstairs. Oxford born, articulate and intelligent like all the Carstairs clan were. When he was granted permission to cross the threshold, Johann stood behind his desk, and gestured not to the visitor’s chair but more to suggest Silas should do something. He raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“I expect my subjects to bow,” Johann elucidated, the manner in which his time was requested having been conveyed by his assistant. His serious tone was replaced with the hint of a smirk, the offer of a handshake and the proper gesture to invite a seat. Only once Silas had taken it would Johann retake his own to scrutinise his guest.

“What’s the latest, I thought you’d be over there not here.”

Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

He laughed, shaking Spectre's hand.

Silas preferred the deputy to his head - but he always did like a more acerbic personality giving him orders, it felt appropriate considering his line of work. Nowadays moreso than ever.

       “What’s the latest, I thought you’d be over there not here.”

Ah. So he didn't already know. Which meant either Morgenthau hadn't let on or Morgenthau himself was not aware. Silas allowed himself to feel a little smug at the idea of knowing something the Head of Mysteries did not.

Even if it did pose other problems.

"I'm going where the work is," he replied as he crossed his legs and leaned back, rubbing the back of his neck. "Late on the fourteenth, I had word that Daylight was crossing the pond."

Thomas Daylight was Hawthorne's man in the bureau - insofar as they could tell from the outside, Daylight was the one keeping tabs on the Agency's progress with weapons development. This sudden trip to London was unplanned.

"Naught to do with the G8, far as we can tell." Silas explained with a slight wrinkle in his brow. "One of my eyes places him at Pendragon, under the name Ishmael."

He hesitated and then pushed on. "I thought Morgenthau might have told you. His pet was spotted visiting Daylight's suite."

“… I had word that Daylight was crossing the pond.”

Thomas Daylight was a senior at the Federal Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-Maj Obliviation at CAWW. You would have thought they might come up with a catchier or shorter name for the Bureau, but that’s what they had chosen. It didn’t even make for a pleasing acronym to verbalise, so they’d taken to calling it ‘the Bureau’, which admittedly made Johann initially visualise a piece of furniture when he’d first encountered it.

Bit early for an arrival at the G8 3/4 given the convenience of international floo. With the great big Atlantic Ocean between them, and the size of their country the American’s didn’t really go in for train travel. Silas rejected the suggestion it was to do with the meeting a moment later.

“… at Pendragon, under the name Ishmael.”

Was there significance in the choice of cover name? Ishmael was son of Abraham according to ancient muggle religions, considered a messenger and a prophet. Or perhaps Daylight was a literary man.

“I thought Morgenthau might have told you. His pet was spotted…”

If this was something that was meant to nettle Johann he tried to show no sign of it. He wondered if Virgil had been sent in to try and glean something of Daylight, or to pass a message. Nine had their own operations and didn’t often have the courtesy to avoid Five’s toes.

“I can’t comment.” He replied instead, lips pressed into a straight line. “Other than that has he left, or had any other visitors? Is he travelling alone?” Daylight was married, but his children were both grown up.

Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

Can't comment or won't?

Or perhaps it was beyond Silas' pay grade. He picked at an offending piece of lint on his trouser leg and did not let his curiousity show, though they both knew it was there.

"Oh yes, he did leave." Silas answered easily. "Took a lovely little trip to our very own Ministry if you believe it. Goblin Office. Paperwork, it seems, though I'll be damned if I know what for."

Even if it was his place to ask around four, he very much doubted they would get anything out of the goblins themselves. It was very peculiar.

"It's peculiar," he echoed his thought and affected a puzzled smile. "Daylight goes out of his way to travel incognito, doesn't even want anyone on his side to take note of his being here. And then walks right into our atrium after a tête-à-tête with my towheaded cousin."

Something was going on. Annoying enough that Mysteries sent their meddling spies to CAWW last year.

Silas had a nose for trouble brewing and his nose would be twitching up a storm if it weren't metaphorical. "Would be nice to know, I think, if Mysteries was making a play. Least they could do."

Daylight had been in the building. Interesting. What business did he have in their Goblin Office? Johann reached for a Ministry memo, scrawled a note on it to Cepheus Gamp. The Goblin Office was under him in Beings and as Gobbledegook speaker he’d be able to find out with little inconvenience, or so Johann saw it.

“… after a tête-à- tête with my towheaded cousin. Would be nice to know… ”

Again, was this an attempt to rile him against Morgenthau, or Virgil, both or just Silas being Silas. Whatever way, Johann would play it cool, like he knew everything (because he generally did, or worked it out soon enough).

“You haven’t asked him, then?” Johann dropped his quill back on its rest and folded the memo, letting it flutter about the closed door, awaiting release. If it was one of Johann’s relatives caught in surveillance he’d find a way to ask, and it wasn’t like Virgil was all that innocent, with his relationship with Morgenthau.

Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

He ran his tongue along his teeth, gaze narrowing at the other wizard. Nothing got under Spectre's skin.

"No..." Silas tapped the arm of his chair and fell into a brief, thinking pause. "No. I have this, shall we say, this feeling that if I approach Virgil, he's going to tell me to keep it to myself. And as far as I can tell, he's not turned up to work on nine since Daylight showed up."

You didn't stay in the game for this long without learning to trust your instincts. And Silas knew Angie's boy.

"Let me give it to you straight, sir?" he gestured frankly with both hands, sitting forward. "I don't think Morgenthau knows my cousin is visiting Daylight and I don't think Virgil wants him to know."

Which could mean a number of things.

Not that Silas believed the young Carstairs was a turncoat. "Now I could tell Morgenthau myself," he shook his head, lifting his gaze to the ceiling. "But I don't think that decision falls into my purview."

It wouldn't do if it got back to Virgil that he had gone to Yavin. Johann Spectre, however, would simply be doing the responsible thing with intel provided.

"If I'm wrong," he added in his husky, devil-may-care voice, "you'd only be telling Morgenthau what he already knows."

“… far as I can tell, he’s not turned up to work on nine since Daylight showed up.”

And Daylight showed up late on the fourteenth, or at least that was when word had reached Silas. This might be significant or coincidental, annual leave, illness or similar. But Johann didn’t like coincidence.

“… I don’t think Virgil wants him to know… could tell.. myself… but…”

Johann steepled his fingers before himself in thought, considering the chess pieces on the board and the potential movements.

“… you’d only be telling Morgenthau what he already knows.”

“What makes you think he doesn’t already know?” Johann asked, almost overlapping his visitor’s words. Morgenthau had eyes, ears - literal ones even built into the walls - and a whole group of seers, a prophecy keepers at his disposal. “He’s not above denying all knowledge of his own operation.” Johann extended a pale finger towards Silas, now hinting that the dynamic of the conversation had shifted to more of a dialogue than an interview.

“What was Daylight up to before his unscheduled visit? Surely he’s missed, three nights over here?”

Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

They both, at the very least, had a good handle on Morgenthau's slippery nature. The Head of Mysteries liked his mysteries.

Daylight, on the other hand, was more stolid. Silas had been watching the bureau administrator for some time now -  a very real person, someone who understood the political world he occupied and all its trappings.

A family man with ambitions and goals. And flaws.

"Engaged in Winthrop business, mostly." Silas gestured airily, meaning the poisoning that had been talked of in the Prophet yesterday. "Keeping his watchful eye on the muggle end of things, local papers. Not an ideal time to be taking a short vacation with his wife, especially considering the wife in question isn't actually with him."

That was what hinted to him the possible true nature of Daylight's visit. He was here for something he wanted to hide from both the bureau and from Aria Daylight.

Silas retrieved a cigarette from his cardigan jacket, rolling it idly between his fingers. "As for Morgenthau..." he sighed softly, gaze unfocused. "If he wanted to hide this from us, he could have, surely?"

And Virgil was a clever lad: he was playing all this out in the open, as himself. Playing it cool like he had nothing to hide. Who was that performance for, if not Yavin Morgenthau?

"Oh," he added, coming to with a funny smile. "And he's missing a hand. Virgil, that is. Trying to hide it from general view, too."

If Johann had been drinking tea he might have spat it out at that detail dropped in so late for the context.

“Missing a hand?” Johann repeated, just to be sure Silas hadn’t stuttered. “What, since visiting Daylight or throughout?” His eyebrows had migrated north up his pale face, finally betraying that he was surprised by something Silas had imparted. “Hang on, you’re absolutely sure it’s Virgil?”

There was a one-handed wizard in Johann’s past that he hoped every night was dead and buried like the others in his past who he’d take to his own grave. A one-handed wizard who had impersonated Johann to save Hannah Bombay’s life but almost end Ignan’s in the process. The memory breathed ice down Johann’s spine, and his busy mind hurried to dismiss it - against the suggestion that coincidences didn’t happen.

So, here unannounced, without his wife, under a false name, visiting the Goblin Office and visited by a one-handed Virgil Carstairs on seemingly personal business. He reached for the memos again, scrawling Lix Mordent one. She was down on Nine now, and although didn’t work in the same team as Virgil Carstairs, she still got about. He drew his wand and summoned back the memo flapping at the door, scrawling PS Spoken to your ex on nine lately? Heard he’s been lending a hand. He stopped short at ‘perhaps involuntarily’.

Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

Ah, excellent, so Spectre was human after all.

"Since before Daylight," he clarified as he tucked his cigarette behind his ear. "And I'm... well, fairly certain it's him. Whoever it is, is living Virgil's life, and only so many people can do that faithfully."

Mind-reading theatre kid who had his eager fingers in everyone's bloody pies, Merlin help the poor soul who tried to impersonate that.

Silas watched the other wizard scribble down memos, which was both gratifying and fascinating an act. It was said that Spectre was a very well connected wizard but one didn't always see him in action.

"There's something else, something that could explain why Daylight is here..." he continued and cleared his throat. "He has a lovechild. One Natalie Morrow. I don't believe he's always known about her but it's possible he does now. The girl's been missing for as long as he's been here - and she is an intimate friend of my cousin's."

That, he assumed, Johann already knew from Silas' report of Virgil's activities in New York[1] last year.

The Morrow girl answered a lot of questions but it did muddy the water, when personal motivations crossed professional ones.

1.	21 July 2017 - A Different Kind of Thing Now

“… He has a lovechild… Natalie Morrow…”

“Nemo.” Johann recalled, putting down the quill again, mind clearly busy behind his blue eyes. “Well that’s as clear as…” Daylight “… then. It’s to do with her, and Virgil’s wrapped up in it, as it pleases him to be in so many things.”

The conclusion of his statement was delivered with the tone of rolling eyes though the gesture didn’t accompany. “When you say she’s missing, has that been reported? How do you know?”

Silas had been holding out, seemingly testing the waters to see if this was old news to Johann. In truth he’d been a bit bloody preoccupied with other matters than Daylight’s secret daughter and her disappearance. If she was one of the victims then that changed things, but if she’d done a dramatic exit after confronting her blood father then it meant that the CAWW wizard was knocked off his steady stride. Such vulnerability could be put to use maliciously…

Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

It was messy, all this. Silas snorted softly as the deputy head summarised what was now shared intel.

"No report," he answered with a twitch of the lips and gestured airily at one of his ears. "Word on the street, as they say. The little lady was meant to perform someplace[1] on the twelfth, never showed. Her flatmate was asking around, stopped shortly before a visit from Virgil."

Of course she was a runaway by nature and had evaded detection before, overstaying her legal welcome.

Silas leaned back again and bothered the curls at the back of his head, sighing. "Whatever the reasons, Daylight is on our territory for the time being..." he raised his eyebrows at the other wizard.

None of this was ideal. Ideal would have been his cousin telling someone - Morgenthau, Spectre, anyone - about all this so that they could have better used it to their advantage instead of being caught unawares.

But young wizards did stupid things where witches were concerned, he supposed.

1.	Dirty Laundry Aired in Diagon

Whatever the reasons? That was one of the points of Silas, to know.

If she’d not officially been reported missing, then was she pretending to be missing? Was she and Virgil up to something to try and guilt trip or blackmail Daylight? The corner of one of the memos creased beneath his shift cuff.

“Anything else, Silas?” Johann asked, finally sounding ever so slightly peeved.

Silas Carstairs, DIMC Liason for CAWW Affairs.

Anything else?

He took this question at face value, and searched his memory for anything else that might be of use to Spectre. All of this could have been a report, of course, but Silas had wanted to deliver the news in-person. It bothered him, the things Angie's boy got up to - it wouldn't with anyone else.

But that was why he had come to Spectre. This was too personal.

"No," he answered with finality and got up with a grunt. "I'll keep you in the loop, sir."

Silas hesitated just then, giving the other wizard a searching look. "I don't like it, any of this."

It wasn't clear whether he meant Virgil and Daylight specifically, or the more ominous business with CAWW. He wasn't certain if he knew what he meant.