From the epilogue for my sp00qy fic ‘phantom’, called November.
November 12
8:37 p.m. GMT
MH: Mummy wants to know if that article on neural network theory was yours. She says the use of non-linear thresholds for perceptron aggregation was ‘elegant’.
AS: Aunt Elinor shouldn’t spread such conspiracies.
MH: Asking me is hardly spreading conspiracies. Shall I tell her you can neither confirm nor deny?
AS: I’m not you. Fine. Tell her thank you.
MH: Sherlock says this new alias is the worst one yet, and I have to agree.
AS: He would. And you haven’t cottoned on yet, have you?
MH: I’m sure I have no idea what you mean.
AS: Well, with another alias or two it will be more apparent. Tell Sherlock congratulations on the latest. I saw the writeup in the Times.
MH: I am not a carrier pigeon.
AS: And yet you started this text with a message.
MH: Mummy doesn’t text. Sherlock, on the other hand prefers it to all other means of communication.
AS: Fine. I’ll tell him myself.
MH: And how is the agent? It seems the breach was more confined than we first feared.
AS: Recovering. As to the rest, I can neither confirm nor deny.
MH: Very well, cousin. Shall we expect you for dinner on the 4th? Mummy is apparently going to some trouble just on the rumor we might all attend.
Q rubs his eyes under his glasses and then looks around his flat. Ada is curled up with him on the sofa, but it still feels quiet and bit lonely.
AS: Maybe. Baring a mission pulling me in.
MH: I’ll let her know.