The X-Project

As per Wyngarde's instructions, Adrienne attends a party of the London Hellfire Club and meets the Blue Queen in order to get the information he requires.


The London chapter of the Hellfire Club was a sight, decked out in the red and blue colours of the court, with a full complement of revelers moving between the sumptuous ballroom to the darker parlors beyond. The invitation Wyngarde had provided indicated that this was the court’s Samhain festival, although the designers had taken liberal interpretations with Celtic origins. Flames danced in pots of beaten copper and bronze, subtly accentuated to make the shadows long in the room. Most of the attendants were masked, and several sported costumes somewhere between mythic beasts and fetish wear. Through the crowd, clad in little more than loincloths and paint, servers ferried drinks and food through the party, stopping at some clusters of couches to serve the reclining figures.

“Ms. Frost?” An unmasked man approached her, dressed in an old-fashioned suit, complete with spotless spats over his mirror-bright shoes. He was very old, although moved with the agility of a younger man. “My name is Rutledge. I have been asked to present you to the Blue Court, as per the Black Court’s request.”

"Alright then. Present away, Rutledge," Adrienne answered with a raised eyebrow, not really seeming to take in much of the surroundings. She kept a firm hold on the envelope of documents she'd been sent to deliver as she followed the butler-type person into an alcove and through to a side chamber to where a woman sat waiting for her.

Emma Steed smiled mildly from her seat, an elaborate high-backed chair that mimicked the long lines of her body. Her evening dress was immaculately tailored, and wrapped around her in sparkling folds of blue sapphire.  She gestured for Adrienne to approach.  "Welcome Ms. Frost.  I'm told you have something for me."

"Ms. Steed, I presume?" Adrienne questioned as she approached. She shifted the envelope to her left hand and held out her right to the woman, offering an uncharacteristically meek smile. "It's a pleasure. Yes, I was instructed to deliver these personally to the Blue Court from the Black. Can I just say what a magnificent affair this is here tonight?"

"You presume correctly. Emma Steed, reigning Queen of the Blue Court." She graciously accepted Adrienne's hand, rising just slightly from her chair before settling back on the wooden structure.  "It is a lovely night.  We take such pride in our celebrations."

Adrienne shifted the envelope from one hand to the other again when Steed didn't take it right away. "The costumes are especially intriguing," she commented, still smiling widely. "Yours in particular. Blue certainly suits you." She smirked just a little, playfully, as she said it. "Who designed it, if you don't mind my asking?" Okay, yeah, maybe she was laying the compliments on a bit thick, but the psychometrist knew she didn't have time to play the long game with Steed, and from what Wyngarde had told her of the woman's proclivity for taking 'conquests', she hoped her lack of subtlety wouldn't be a turn-off for Steed.

"You wouldn't have heard of him,"  Emma replied, reaching out her hand for the envelope. "Johann designs exclusively for myself and the blue court.  Mostly myself.  These gowns take months to create.  He gives me a hundred different ways to wear blue each day."  She smiled, as if sharing a secret with Adrienne.  "Do you enjoy fashion Ms. Frost?"

"Very much, yes," Adrienne answered, visibly beginning to relax a little as she felt she'd found some common ground with the Blue Queen. "It's been a driving force for most of my life, actually. I began modelling as a teenager, then built up my own international agency after Harvard, and then a few years ago I began dabbling in design. Shoes, mostly," she added, turning slightly and upturning a foot at the knee to show off her most recent creation to Steed, which, because Clarice had altered the dress she was wearing to allow for a very long slit up the side, gave the woman a flash of the leggy brunette's thigh.

"May I have a closer look?"  The woman in blue stood then, approaching Adrienne with great interest.  She bent to examine the proffered shoe, placing a hand gently beneath Adrienne's bare leg to steady her.  "You have a wonderful talent Ms. Frost. I should like to snatch you up for myself."

A shiver had gone through Adrienne at Steed's touch and she gave a breathy chuckle at her last comment. "It would be my very great pleasure to be... snatched up by yourself, Blue Queen."

Emma smiled wickedly, letting her fingers trail idly up Adrienne's leg as she stood once more.  "Then it is settled.  You shall be my personal guest tonight, and we will endeavor to make the rest of your Black Court very jealous."

***
It had been rather a long time since Adrienne had slept with someone she didn't feel an emotional connection to (it wasn't that she felt nothing for Steed, but they had just met) so she'd been nervous about this evening when she realized she was a little rusty at performing the post-coital bailout. Somehow throwing her dress back on, stuffing her underwear in her purse and hailing a cab with a generic comment about meeting for coffee sometime soon didn't seem like it would work in this situation. And of course, what needed to happen was for her to somehow get Emma to leave so that she could Read the data key in the room. But how to accomplish this? The question had been niggling at her since her meeting with Wyngarde.

Falling asleep had definitely not been what she'd planned on doing. It hadn't even been an inkling of an idea when she'd been trying to prepare for this, because how was she going to fall asleep in some stranger's bed in the middle of performing this sort of intrigue while being blackmailed by Wyngarde? Not exactly a recipe for relaxation. Adrienne rarely ever even fell asleep in front of people she trusted even when she was relaxed. And she hadn't even thought about pretending to fall asleep, because Steed was a former MI6 spy for Christ's sake! Adrienne was certain she'd be able to see through such a cheap ruse. 

And yet sometime close to dawn she had actually dozed off. Maybe it was the jetlag causing her usual paranoia, the deep-seeded fear of bad things happening to her when she closed her eyes, to be replaced by simple physical exhaustion.

Whatever the reason, Adrienne awoke in surprise, tense and a little confused. She relaxed slightly, however, when she realized that she was quite alive and unharmed. The Blue Queen had vacated the room, the door to the room was slightly ajar (indicating that she hadn't been locked in), and her handbag and garment bag with her changes of clothes, along with her dress and shoes from last night were all set up tidily in a corner of the room. So not only hadn't she been imprisoned, attacked, humiliated, or killed, but now she didn't even have to think up an excuse to get Steed to leave! Excellent.

Comfortable in her own skin, Adrienne didn't bother covering up as she left the bed to pick up the note that had been left for her, apologizing for Steed's absence as she had some business to attend to and suggesting that Adrienne remind her some time to tell the story of tracking down a Ukranian spy during Fashion Week in Paris. There was a separate card in the same handwriting inviting her to morning tea in the garden. Aww. She felt a stab of guilt when she saw it and took a moment to let the feeling sink in before pushing it aside. She had to do what she came here to do. She could be sorry about what she was doing to Steed later.

The key wasn't incredibly difficult for Adrienne to find with the help of her powers. She only had to read one wall to determine where Emma kept the safe. After that it didn't take long to uncover the safe and Read the combination to it to get it open. Ignoring the documents inside, Adrienne focused only on the key. That was all Wyngarde had asked for, so that was all he would get. 

It was such a tiny object in her hand, but revealed reams of information to her thanks to the psychometry. When it had revealed all of its workings to her, she replaced it as she'd found it, went to her bag to get a cloth for wiping her fingerprints off everything, and closed everything back up. Without feeling much joy at her success, however, she headed for the adjoining powder room to take a shower. The stab of guilt was back and she needed to scald it away before tea.