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.