Free Pax Britannia: Human Nature by Jonathan Green Page A

presume," he called up to the galleries, trying to locate their welcomer, his own voice bouncing back to him from the crumbling plaster walls.
    "You presume right, Mr Quicksilver," the voice confirmed. "At your service, sah."
    "I highly doubt that," Ulysses muttered under his breath.
    He was struggling to place the accent. The metropolis of Londinium Maximum was a melting pot of cultures and nationalities, even if outwardly it appeared to be British to the core. But in reality there wasn't a more cosmopolitan city on the planet. Off-planet, that was a different matter, but on Earth the empire of Magna Britannia ruled supreme, governed from the seat of power that was old London town.
    Ulysses continued to try to penetrate the dark spaces between the swaying lights. He could see that the apes that obviously gave the place its name were everywhere, larger orders of primate, including whey-faced chimps, slouched on the higher walkways or with their over-long arms wrapped around the supporting pillars of the tiered balconies, while the smaller simians scuttled and bounded between swinging rope ladders and branch-like perches with gay abandon. None of them seemed particularly interested in the presence of the two interlopers.
    When Ulysses said nothing else, the master of this den of thieves spoke up again instead.
    "So, Mr Quicksilver, what can I do for you?"
    "I thought you said you had me right where you wanted me ," Ulysses pointed out, scanning for ways out, should the opportunity arise for them to make their escape.
    "So I did, Mr Quicksilver. So I did." The Magpie chuckled.
    And there he was. A shadow, a silhouette, no more. The Magpie had positioned himself directly in front of a bright electric light, legs apart, hands on hips, surrounded by a suffused angelic glow. It was a stance that screamed confidence. It said, you are in my domain. I am king here. Here my word is law. Watch your step .
    The master thief's tone only served to enhance the idea that this was an individual you didn't want to mess with. Not here, not anywhere.
    Nonetheless, trying to avoid making any obvious sudden movement, Ulysses slowly angled the muzzle of his gun upwards, aiming it at the silhouette.
    "I should watch where you're pointing that thing, if I were you, Mr Quicksilver," Magpie warned, his intent as clear and as lethal as arsenic.
    As if on cue, a myriad pairs of simian eyes turned and locked on him from out of the darkness, the flickering light of the oil lamps reflecting redly from their corneas, tiny coals in the semi-darkness. A raucous chattering and screeching swelled from every corner of the space, reverberating from the enclosing walls and setting Ulysses' nerves on edge. He took his eyes off Magpie to glance at where his manservant stood tensed behind him; he looked just as perturbed as Ulysses was feeling. There was also the unmistakeable fleshy thumping of simian fists beating their chests.
    Ulysses' hand stopped moving.
    Gradually the cacophony subsided, but the inhabitants of the House of Monkeys had made their feelings plain.
    "Tell me, Mr Quicksilver. What did you hope to achieve by coming here?"
    Ulysses realised he had been given an unprecedented opportunity to find out more, to have his theories about this puzzling case confirmed or denied, one way or the other.
    "Very well, then," he began. "Word is that you were involved in the theft of the Whitby Mermaid."
    "Well now, you heard right." He wasn't even going to make a show of denying it. The flagrant arrogance of the man! It also only went to show how supremely confident he felt within his own petty kingdom.
    "So, how did you do it?" Ulysses went on, remaining outwardly cool, calm and collected, despite feeling riled by the man's arrogance on the inside, his words slow with cold anger.
    "He can't even see it," Magpie said, as if he was speaking to someone else. "It's right before his eyes, and he can't even see it."
    As if in response to his comment the apes started