‘Ah Margo. The very lady.’
She wasn’t often lost for words around Toby; it’s just she chose not to waste many on him. Due to the manner of his current approach though, both her mouth and brain were left flapping soundlessly at the front of her head. His broad grin seemed genuine enough, but why was he addressing her so cordially when usually he favoured “Madge”, “Marjorie” or his ultimate piss-take, “Margerine”?
Seeing her pull up a good ten feet away, he smiled again. ‘You’re into all this dance hall stuff aren’t you?’
Normally she’d rise to any jibe about her musical taste. Based on what she’d so recently overheard in the canteen however, it simply didn’t compute that Toby would now be being pleasant to her. She continued to eye him warily, obliging him to repeat his query.
‘You like to shake a tail feather down the discotheque with the best of them if my sources are correct?’
Margo remained dumbfounded though for once it wasn’t by his bizarre, public school turn of phrase. In no way was this scene playing out how she would’ve expected. Was Toby referring, however obliquely, to their encounter outside ‘Sin’?
On auto pilot she managed to make some vague noise in the affirmative as he pressed on.
‘We were hoping you could advise me. What sort of things do they typically project onto the big screens in those places?’
|Does fuckwit ʼere realise I took ʼim home Saturday night or not?|
Her mind was racing. Naturally he’d embellished his story to impress the lads. But if he had discovered something identifying her, why go through this charade? As she went to respond, it was testament to all the coaching they’d received that she could mask her concerns.
‘Umm it depends. A whole load of visuals really. Like footage taken from music videos, montages of old black and white photos. Random symbols sometimes. Pictures of famous people. I dunno, grabs from cartoons ….’
As her explanation petered out, she cursed her inner devil for summoning an image of Bugs Bunny, massive carrot bursting from the front of his boxer shorts. Luckily Toby gave no sign he could read minds. Nonetheless she remained as baffled by what appeared genuine interest on his part as by his ongoing line of questioning.
‘So it’s done in time to the music?’
‘Never thought about it’ replied Margo. ‘Varies I guess.’
‘Do they ever flash things up?’ he persisted.
‘Waddya mean?’
‘You know. Text? Quotes? That sort of thing. Messages to be read by people?’
‘Maybe. Can’t say I pay attention to what they all say. Shouldn’t imagine anyone does.’
‘Hmm.’
Later on she would marvel that this was the most civil conversation the two of them had enjoyed. At the time though her pulse finally quietened enough for curiosity to begin reasserting itself.
‘Why d’you ask anyway?’
‘Oh it’s nothing, I’ve just stumbled across this rubbish lead. About these utter nobodies, much as I or anyone else can tell. So on a whim at the weekend I decided I’d have a stab at chasing them down. Not that I progressed far with it. Truth be told I hadn’t considered the awfulness of attending one of those rave thingummys.’
She couldn’t help but recoil.
‘…. So I went and got totally blotto instead I’m afraid.’
Not buying his protestations about the tip-off whose value, clearly, he was trying to downplay, it wasn’t acceptable to her that he now resort to silence.
‘Yeh? What of it?’
Toby glanced around, checking no one was approaching him from behind.
‘I shouldn’t be telling, but I’ve been given the new guy.’
‘The who?’
‘The new source.’
Margo stood gawping for so long that he repeated himself.
‘I’ve been given the new agent to run. Marvellous isn’t it?’
Tumbleweed from her.
‘Surely you’re abreast of what’s been circulating in our section?’
Still nothing.
‘Well you’re obviously busy with something else. Sorry to disturb and all.’
‘You got Stoat?’
It sounded too tinny to be her own voice but, regardless, Toby seemed genuinely stung.
‘Well there’s no need to be quite like that. So you did hear something? Because when I went to collar Duncan about it last week he informed to me the new operation is about hooking into people’s psyche or some tosh along those lines. He also mentioned with a smile that they needed to appoint someone young and hip. Someone who could slot straight into this whole rave milieu thing.’
She didn’t even know where to begin searching for a response to that one.
‘So you should’ve heard the tale I proceeded to spin to our boss man about my misspent youth’ he continued eagerly. ‘About my psychology research at university into drugs and that. And would you believe it, he bought it all. Because he’s handed me the case.’
His exultant expression made her feel nauseous.
‘Anyway. Gotta rush.’
She jabbed a thumb a couple of times over her shoulder in some nondescript direction.
‘Oh okay, right you are.’
He looked crestfallen that she wasn’t sticking around to congratulate him. ‘Thanks again for all the intel’ he called towards her rapidly-disappearing back.
For her part, all Margo could think was that she had to get away from the rank unfairness of what she’d been hearing. To breathe some fresh air.
That and to speak first of all with Bobby.
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