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feisty android called Madeline Bull and now
they were experiencing this remarkable feistiness first hand. They
smiled at each other and desperately wanted her autograph but knew
it would be completely unprofessional. They wanted to touch and
fondle her… again, but now she was awake she might zap them with
some secret weapon they didn’t know about. Her fart gas was
legendary as was her laser finger but who knows what else she had
in her arsenal.
    ‘You’re in safe
hands. Our government paid for you so we thought it high time we
got to know each other... have a little chat as it were.’
    ‘Go on, I like
little chats,’ said Madeline.
    ‘Put simply,
you are ours, we built you so we thought it fit that you actually
work for us.’
    ‘Who are you
then, MI 5 or 6 or something? Do I get an O, O number? More to the
point, do I have a choice?’
    ‘Actually MI 7
and no, you don’t’, said Nuttall.
    ‘MI 7? …Never
heard of it.’
    ‘Officially MI
7 closed down after the war but unofficially it’s a top secret
department that...
    ‘Don’t tell me,
does top secret things? Anyway, I thought I worked for a secret
government department with Brownsword – before he was
exterminated.’
    ‘We work
differently here. Naturally, assassination has become your forte
but often there are ways of getting results without chopping people
up into bits and poisoning them.’
    ‘Lets get
cracking then, untie me and give me my first mission.’ Madeline
falsely feigned eagerness.
    ‘As I’ve said,
we do things differently here,’ said Nuttall
    ‘How
differently, exactly?’
    ‘We will show
you.’

    Madeline was
untied. She did her best to hide the pain as she rose from the
table but unavoidably a wince formed across her pretty face. The
Madeline automaton had not moved for a long time mainly because the
operator, Poppy, had not been conscious. Oil or what ever it was
that lubricated Madeline’s moving parts needed to spread and
circulate, so her first few step were almost geriatric. If Madeline
did decide to run for it, now was not a good time. Surprisingly
quickly, however, she became fluid in her movements although
bearing the pain remained a challenge for Poppy in her stainless
steel tank. And then all her pain stopped and she felt wonderful,
agile and in control. This was mainly because Barton had increased
the flow of morphine into Poppy’s veins.
     
    ‘Adam… it’s
Barton, where are you?’
    ‘Just gone
through passport control.’
    ‘Good. You need
to get to Cheshire, something’s going on.’
    ‘…Makes a
change, how’s Poppy?
    ‘Remarkable,
she really does have the constitution of an ox - apparently
Madeline’s in the company of MI 7.’
    ‘Didn’t know
there was such a thing - have you told her?’
    ‘She’s just
found out from a chap called Nuttall.’
    ‘Nut oil?
    ‘Nuttall!’
    ‘Okay Prof,
cool it… Adam to the rescue!’
     
    Barton pressed
the end button on his mobile before he said something he would
almost certainly regret. Poppy was indeed remarkable, not by any
means indestructible but certainly many would have died many times
over going through what Poppy had gone through over the last year.
She was, however, still very ill despite controlling an automaton
now in the peak of mechanical health.
    Barton had to
make a tough decision. He was all too aware of her fragility but it
was imperative that she had to be moved to a more secure location.
She had been moved before and was almost unaware of it but this
time a barrow load of life support equipment was attached to her
frail form.
    Her new home
had to be completely secret, not even Adam could ever know.
Madeline’s greatest weakness was the human being who controlled her
and Poppy’s greatest threat was from Madeline’s enemies. There had
to be a firewall and Barton knew this.

Chapter 7:
Capesdown Hall
     
    Apparently there is no such thing as MI 7, at least
that’s what they want people to think. Apparently MI 7 is so
top secret