Chapter Five: Scene-setting

-Note...this chapter is shorter than it would have been, because otherwise you wouldn't get it for at least another week...if not longer.

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His mother picked him up outside the station, and he was mildly surprised to find out that it had only been three or four hours since he had gone in.
“Well?” his mother said expectantly, glancing across at him. “How did it go?”
Theo, who had been staring out the window and turning his experiences over in his mind, jerked back to reality and grinned.
“Better than I thought. I have a position, and they’ve even offered me free accommodation.”
It was standard practice for new recruits, Mr Adfair had told him, so they could easily be trained and also weren’t likely to get overexcited and blurt things out that no-one outside the Society needed to know. He’d have a sizeable suite of rooms, apparently, although he’d have to share the living room, bathroom and kitchen with someone else.
Mrs Hunt looked a little startled at the news that her only son would be leaving the nest so suddenly after showing slightly less than no inclination to do so previously.
“So you’ll be moving out, huh? See, I told you this exercise was profitable! How soon will you be taking up your position?”
“As soon as I like, they said. Which I guess means as soon as I can pack up all my stuff and move.”
“Well! This is all very sudden, but I’m pleased for you, love. Your father will be pleased as well.”
“Hah,” was Theo’s only answer to that. His father had been telling him to pack up and leave for some time now, disguising it in jovial enquiries about when he’d be getting a girlfriend and setting up a home with her. Mr Hunt liked to think these things were amusing, but they’d been grating on his son since the second repetition.
A thought seemed to strike his mother.
“What does this ‘MyHunt Society’ do, anyway? I don’t believe I’ve heard of it.”
Theo stiffened and thanked his lucky stars he’d been briefed.
“Oh, um, it’s about environmental protection and stuff…you know…conservation,” he said as casually as he could manage. His mother blinked, then shrugged.
“Well, you always have been good at science,” she said happily. She liked to believe this, although it was evident to most other people that Theo’s scientific skills were quite solidly grounded in the ‘average’ compartment. “So what does your new job entail, exactly?”
“Uh, well, I’ll probably be doing quite a bit of travelling…to…collect samples and whatnot, and…yeah.”
His mother darted him an amused glance. “Okay, love, so you don’t want your mother poking around in your life. ‘Travelling to collect samples’ will do me.”
Smiling gratefully at her for the cessation in interrogation, Theo nevertheless entertained dark suspicions that she’d be doing some clandestine internet searches as soon as possible. Thank goodness the Society was prepared, with a whole network of expertly faked internet contacts and a whole website with as much solid scientific veracity as any inquisitive parent could possibly wish for.
These Society people were clever, he thought, and felt the first stirrings of pride at being a member of such a great organisation.
The news was broken that night at dinner. His father, as predicted, was immensely pleased and proud and did a lot of back-slapping and almost as much insinuation about new girlfriends. He did this so much Theo was half-tempted to believe his father thought he was gay. His little sister, who was approximately four years younger than him, gave him some grudging congratulations and a sharp stare in an effort to detect any falsehood in his story. She never believed anything he said; but then she never believed anything anyone said, and was an inveterate creator and propagator of conspiracy theories. It amused him that she was right about hidden secret societies, although she hadn’t yet claimed mythical beasts were real. Ah well; give her time and she’d probably bring it up in connection with something.
As soon as possible he escaped upstairs and began the arduous task of deciding what to pack. Reluctantly he decided against the videogames, reasoning that he’d be living it so he didn’t have to play it.
He did, however, manage to wedge in the Monty Python TV series box set. There was no guaranteeing that anyone else in the Society had the same sense of humour.
He ended up having to pillage his parent’s room for suitcases. He’d never realised that a sports bag, while perfectly capable of handling a two-week holiday in France, fell sadly short when asked to contain everything necessary for leaving home. They tended to split at the seams if so much as one excess fantasy novel was wedged inside.
Two days later (it would have been the next day, but his mother had insisted they do one last thing ‘as a family’, leading to Theo spending several hours trooping around some old manor house, listening to his parents banter about how much they’d like to live like this and his sister seeing ancient cults in every painting and secret passages in every vaguely misshapen wall panel or bit of plaster.), he was once again standing outside Paddington Station, this time carrying suitcases and knowing exactly what he was getting into.
He’d declined his mother’s invitation to drive him there again, because he just knew she’d want to hug and kiss him and he wasn’t overly keen on having that in public. Plus, she’d already gone overboard with the goodbyes at home. He’d got the bus instead.
Taking a deep breath, he walked into the station, nodded at the suspicious man in the station uniform, and sauntered with exaggerated nonchalance over to the broom cupboard that wasn’t a broom cupboard.
To his relief the key they’d given him fitted straight off and turned easily, and he didn’t have to make a fool of himself wandering about trying to unlock apparently private cupboards. The lift bore him steadily downwards with its barely-audible quiet hum, while he fidgeted nervously and picked at a loose bit of plastic on one of his suitcases. What was he doing? This could still turn out to be a huge mistake…
And then the lift door opened and let him out into the artificially illuminated cavern, revealing Rowena standing there, apparently waiting for him. She gave a flicker of a smile, when she saw him, but her foot had been tapping impatiently.
“I’m here to take you to your new quarters,” she said, turning and beginning to walk as she spoke. “You’ll be sharing with Sashi.”
“…Sashi?”
“One of our more junior members…you’ll meet her soon enough. This way.”
The accommodation was a sizeable block in an elegant almost Victorian style. Rowena jogged tirelessly ahead of him up three flights of stairs while he bumped breathlessly up behind her, awkwardly dragging his suitcases. She also generously offered to give him a quick tour around his new living quarters, and when he incautiously agreed gave him one that basically amounted to opening all the doors and pointing.
“Kitchen, bathroom, spare room for stuff, Sashi’s room, your room. We’re standing in the living room. Have fun. There’s a welcome pack thing next to your bed. See ya later.”
And then she left.
Vaguely bemused, Theo heaved his bags into his new room, dumped them at the end of the bed and picked up the welcome pack. It contained two pieces of paper and a complimentary biro with the MyHunt Society logo printed on it, which while nice wasn’t much of a welcome pack. He clicked it absently as he read the short covering letter.
‘Mr Hunt, Welcome to the Society. Included here is a timetable of your lessons, commencing tomorrow afternoon. You have today and tomorrow morning to explore the compound; feel free to wander anywhere you wish, although I ask you to please respect signs and locked doors. I hope you find your membership of this Society an exciting and rewarding experience.
Cairbre Adfair.’
“Lessons? Man. Lessons in what?” he wondered, picking up the other sheet of paper. Lessons in more types of weapons than he could shake a stick at, myths and legends and horse riding, it turned out. It certainly looked a lot more interesting than normal timetables.
And that was it.
Theo scratched his head and wondered what to do. In a sudden attack of responsibility he unpacked first, or at least threw his clothes into the chest of drawers and somewhat surreptitiously arranged Yorick on the bed, half-hidden in the bedclothes. Yorick was a stuffed dragon and necessary for Theo’s peace of mind, as he had been present since childhood and had warded off innumerable terrible nightmares with his flaming breath.
Or at least that’s what Theo said.
He then checked out the bathroom and kitchen. The former showed distinct signs of single female occupation; he left his toothbrush and toothpaste on the sink in a slightly apologetic manner. The kitchen yielded further clues; this Sashi appeared to be vegetarian, judging from the marked lack of anything resembling meat, and also a little bit of a messy cook. There was a half-eaten salad sandwich lying on the side and a dirty saucepan and plate in the sink.
Theo wondered if he should wash up, in order to make a good impression. In the end he decided that was probably a bit much.
He didn’t even peek into his new flatmate’s bedroom. She might be the type to wreak horrible revenge on him.
Once he had exhausted all the flat had to offer, Theo decided to strike out into the compound and see exactly what was what.