INTERCEPTED: ATTN MINISTER OF STATE SECURITY, DEVA

Overheard conversation between the Minister of State Security and Doctor Allan Lawrence.

FS: Lawrence, who the devil is this dark-haired creature they’re saying is Xanthe?
AL: Let me look. (Laughs)
FS: I mean they’ve got so much else wrong, why not her hair colour?
AL: Mind you this could almost be Xanthe, couldn’t it?
FS: You mean Sunlight in her I’m not going to that horrid Octagonal Hall ever again. And no-one is going to make me way. Poor girl, she has a lot to put up with. and I’m the poor fool who has to make her.
AL: And how do you propose to do that?
FS: By guile and cunning, Lawrence.

It’s a pity she’s not a flight machine, then she would have come with a manual. Felix Skryker of Xanthe Chance.

 

RESTRICTED ACCESS
FOR Q’S EYES ONLY
RE: A POSSIBLE RIFT BETWEEN XANTHE CHANCE AND FELIX SKRYKER
FROM: AH
We finally have someone in place close to the lady in question. To penetrate the lady’s quarters is difficult and cannot be guaranteed at this stage. However, we hope the current operative will be capable of striking up a relationship with the young woman. The alternative is to gain access to the Minister himself. However, he has proved elusive to these sorts of approaches.

What is now clear and is widely rumoured is that there is a rift growing between Lady Xanthe and the Minister. Their earlier camaraderie appears threatened by the Minister’s insistence she be present on State occasions in Deva. The first of these took place three nights ago on the Light Solstice, Midsummer’s Eve. Coincidentally this was Lady Xanthe’s eighteenth birthday. The Minister ordained the lady appear properly attired and take her place on the dais in the Octagonal Hall. Reports from a number of sources say the lady all but refused, behaving in what appears to be a very childish manner.

The attached photogram reveals the lady in one of her sulks. She is not an easy creature and  she is resistant of any control. Our operative stands ready to exploit this situation. For the present, we welcome this rift.

The sooner these two are separated for good, the better. See it done. Q