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Chapter Nineteen

While I drove, Winter called just about everyone he knew Unfortunately half of his ex-colleagues were already in Uffington and had their phones turned off so they didn’t get distracted The other half proved equally elusive It seemed that no matter how hard Winter tried to reach the his calls; he was either persona non grata or they were incredibly busy Truthfully, either was possible It was a requirement that all phones were checked in at the front of every Order building to avoid untoward accidents caused by hly unlikely scenario but, if they didexplosions and catastrophic disasters would make Blackbeard’s efforts to spread horror look like a five year old dressing up for Halloween

‘Phone the Ipsissimus,’ I said, with my foot down to the floor ‘If his phone is with him, he’ll take your call He can’t wait for you to o back to the Order’

Winter’s mouth flattened ‘He was the first person I tried’

Oh Well, that sucked I threw out naes all over the place but there wasn’t a soul picking up When Eve didn’t answer, it was clear that everyone we knew in the Order was either at Uffington or buried inbut he didn’t pick up; that was probablyup on him mid-sentence earlier

It was clearly time to take drastic action ‘Take my phone,’ I said ‘Call Iqbal’

‘He’s not in the Order, Ivy He’s not even a witch’

‘No,’ I said ‘But he can get to the da’

‘Okay’ Winter dialled and I waited with bated breath When Winter started speaking,their damned phone

‘He’s in Manchester,’ Winter said ‘He’s even further away than we are’

I let out a strangled scream I never should have broken that bloodythe bloody Order, even if we had to set signal fires or send out carrier pigeons There had to be a bloody way

‘Try the h to soned for non-witches to use when they required ical intervention It was notoriously inefficient but ere running out of options

‘Good idea’ He nodded and found the number After a moment or two, he swore violently

‘What’s wrong?’

He turned the phone onto speaker A tinny voice chiered an oical abilities Press five if…’

I passed a hand over rief ‘Screw that,’ I said ‘Call the police Tell theet them to the Order’

Out of the corner of rio It won’t matter what I say to the that happens on Order grounds without direct orders from the Ipsissimus’

‘So pretend to be hiiven the circumstances, anyway’

‘There’s a code word Only the Ipsissimus knows it’

Bloody hell Order geeks didn’t half likelife difficult for themselves Plonkers

Winter pressed nine Apparently this was for eh a few beats later the same recorded voice happily informed us that ere thirteenth in the queue but that our call was being taken very seriously The melody for I Put A Spell On You kicked into action

‘Thirteenth,’ I muttered under my breath ‘Of course we are’

Winter opened his ain that ht better of if it No wonder, given our current predicament Instead, he switched subjects while I continued to speed back down the motorway towards Oxford Three speed cao doell for hed Whatever

‘What istered under at the hotel?’

I ignored the angry gesture from the motorcyclist in the lane next to me as I overtook hi away at me that we kno clever Blackbeard is We knohat he’s achieved so far Would he really allow himself to be surrounded by both police and witches?’ The heavy weight that had settled acrossup on Tarquin increased ‘I should have thought of it earlier I should have asked about it earlier’