Chapter 3 – Page 083
So apparently everybody can time travel now! Like it’s no big deal! This country, seriously.
↓ Transcript
Panel 1:
Everyone crowds round the telly where a lectern with the Home Office logo in front and a view of the river behind is set up, along with a large projector screen. Carol is addressing the press.
SOLOMON: What’s Carol doing in front of a camera? I thought she was a sneaky Machiavellian behind-the-scenes person?
RUSSELL: She’s the most ostentatious “sneaky Machiavellian behind-the-scenes person” I’ve ever met, Des. You expect someone whose hair glows by itself to work in a basement their whole life?
SOLOMON: They can’t even fit her job title in the ticker-!
WORDING: Shh! I’m trying to listen!
Panel 2:
Carol speaks from the podium with rigorous enthusiasm.
CAROL: Earlier today, a Jubilee Line underground train carrying twenty-seven passengers and crew disappeared into a quantum fissure. Operation Pandora responded to the incident as it was unfolding with swiftness and efficiency.
CAROL: You will have heard that a member of this unit located the missing train and attempted to return it to normal space, and was consequently involved in a firearms incident involving the fugitive Nancy Brilligan. This officer has been suspended pending further review.
Panel 3:
A sepia photograph appears on screen, showing Solomon and Russell standing at the window on Bond Street in 1901, complete with “Bond Street 1901” scribbled in the corner.
CAROL (box): “However, what I can reveal to you now is that Operation Pandora successfully located the source of the disruption and dismantled it.”
CAROL (box): “This disruption caused not only today’s incident and the Bakerloo Line incident of 1994, but also seven earlier train disappearances that went unreported due to quantum interference, as well as ongoing disruption of Crossrail development at Bond Street.”
Panel 4:
Pandora is staring at the telly in various forms of slack-jawed.
SOLOMON: Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww?!
CAROL (box): “The source of the disruption was a scheme concocted in 1901 by Enid Johnson, daughter of early 20th Century railway entrepreneur John Johnson IV, to artificially expand the underground railway into other dimensions in order to stem financial losses.”
Panel 5:
Back in 1901, Carol Derrider in fetching Edwardian gear is snapping a photograph from street level, wearing a massive grin on her face.
CAROL (box): “This photograph, recently discovered in the London Metropolitan Archives, demonstrates the extraordinary risks that members of Operation Pandora underwent in order to investigate the disruption and eliminate it.”
CAROL (box): “Thanks to these efforts, Operation Pandora has prevented the loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.”
Panel 6:
Back in the present, Carol in austere 21st Century gear lays out her thesis.
CAROL: That this disruption was allowed to persist for over a century, and that it was not detected until it threatened the lives of twenty-seven of our citizens, demonstrates not only the importance of Operation Pandora but also the inadequacy of our current police infrastructure to handle these threats.
CAROL: Threats beyond human understanding.
CAROL: Threats that, due to advances in global communications and digital technology, are increasing in intensity.
Everyone crowds round the telly where a lectern with the Home Office logo in front and a view of the river behind is set up, along with a large projector screen. Carol is addressing the press.
SOLOMON: What’s Carol doing in front of a camera? I thought she was a sneaky Machiavellian behind-the-scenes person?
RUSSELL: She’s the most ostentatious “sneaky Machiavellian behind-the-scenes person” I’ve ever met, Des. You expect someone whose hair glows by itself to work in a basement their whole life?
SOLOMON: They can’t even fit her job title in the ticker-!
WORDING: Shh! I’m trying to listen!
Panel 2:
Carol speaks from the podium with rigorous enthusiasm.
CAROL: Earlier today, a Jubilee Line underground train carrying twenty-seven passengers and crew disappeared into a quantum fissure. Operation Pandora responded to the incident as it was unfolding with swiftness and efficiency.
CAROL: You will have heard that a member of this unit located the missing train and attempted to return it to normal space, and was consequently involved in a firearms incident involving the fugitive Nancy Brilligan. This officer has been suspended pending further review.
Panel 3:
A sepia photograph appears on screen, showing Solomon and Russell standing at the window on Bond Street in 1901, complete with “Bond Street 1901” scribbled in the corner.
CAROL (box): “However, what I can reveal to you now is that Operation Pandora successfully located the source of the disruption and dismantled it.”
CAROL (box): “This disruption caused not only today’s incident and the Bakerloo Line incident of 1994, but also seven earlier train disappearances that went unreported due to quantum interference, as well as ongoing disruption of Crossrail development at Bond Street.”
Panel 4:
Pandora is staring at the telly in various forms of slack-jawed.
SOLOMON: Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww?!
CAROL (box): “The source of the disruption was a scheme concocted in 1901 by Enid Johnson, daughter of early 20th Century railway entrepreneur John Johnson IV, to artificially expand the underground railway into other dimensions in order to stem financial losses.”
Panel 5:
Back in 1901, Carol Derrider in fetching Edwardian gear is snapping a photograph from street level, wearing a massive grin on her face.
CAROL (box): “This photograph, recently discovered in the London Metropolitan Archives, demonstrates the extraordinary risks that members of Operation Pandora underwent in order to investigate the disruption and eliminate it.”
CAROL (box): “Thanks to these efforts, Operation Pandora has prevented the loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.”
Panel 6:
Back in the present, Carol in austere 21st Century gear lays out her thesis.
CAROL: That this disruption was allowed to persist for over a century, and that it was not detected until it threatened the lives of twenty-seven of our citizens, demonstrates not only the importance of Operation Pandora but also the inadequacy of our current police infrastructure to handle these threats.
CAROL: Threats beyond human understanding.
CAROL: Threats that, due to advances in global communications and digital technology, are increasing in intensity.