The Horizon Centre

Sam came in on Saturday to the news that the timelines for the Sixes-and-Sevens plan was not, in fact, tied down. Over the course of the day, that uncertainty got steadily worse until it suddenly firmed up in exactly wrong direction – the gang was throwing their plans out completely and moving forward immediately. And 'immediately' was already thirty minutes prior. Apparently, someone's mother had plans for Sunday lunch.

"Ah, Sam?" asked Margaret.

"What now?" asked Sam, his stomach already beginning to sink.

"That's where the new guy is – Mark, I mean. He phoned in to let us know he's going to be at the Horizon Centre earlier today."

"Shit," said Sam. He repeated that a few more times under his breath, but it didn't help much more than the first time.

He'd delayed dealing with the problem and it had come back to bite him in the worst conceivable way. Mark was on the scene, alone, with all sorts of childish fantasies about saving the day and being the big hero. Anything could happen. As dismissive as they all were about the Sixes-and-Sevens, things could still go wrong. People could still get hurt. Mark himself could still get hurt. His brand new young little puppy of a team member was completely alone and without any preparations in a chaotic and dangerous situation.

"We need to get out there as soon as possible," said Sam. "And we're going to need to call in help."

It would destroy any performance evaluations of the team, further stress the already overstressed Charisma department, and make Sam himself look like an idiot. But that was fair. Sam had been an idiot. He'd been aware of all the warning signs and had ignored them because he'd been too busy. He'd have to pay for that misjudgement now. Phoning the Charisma department was always an exercise in patience and restraint. At least this time Sam felt the deference and humility he was forced to show was warranted. He didn't expect, after being put on hold for the fourth time, to be suddenly greeted with the man himself.

"Lee Harrow speaking, go ahead."

Sam stuttered through the explanation.

"I'll meet you there," said Lee.

"You yourself, sir? I—" Sam was cut off by the dial tone. That was… good. Yeah, that was good. If Lee Harrow himself was there, then he could recover even the most messed up of situations. Personally frightening or not, it was good.

Fortunately for them, the Saturday traffic was not excessive, and Sam was not given too much time for fear and anger to build up. Every second that went by without any news of catastrophe made things both better and worse. Better for obvious reasons, and worse because that implied that whatever planning the gang was doing was more elaborate than they had thought.

Sam was briefed that all was still quiet and uneventful when he arrived, so he knew the worst hadn't happened. It was still jarring when they arrived at the venue to find the source of all their concern just casually sitting in the corridor, in a lane made up of only yellow tape applied haphazardly to the carpet. He wasn't even difficult to spot, despite being fully dressed up as some sort of cartoon character. Sam supposed he had to give the boy points for fitting in with the crowd. He might be luminescent, but he certainly fit in.

Sam sent someone to surreptitiously fish him out while he finished 'providing consultation' to the plain clothed police. As soon as he had a moment, he dragged Mark to a corner that gave as much privacy as they could hope for. He did his best to ignore the multi-coloured hair extensions to concentrate on the boy's face. Sam's relief at finding Mark unharmed was quickly giving way to anger at Mark having put himself into that situation in the first place.

"What on God's green earth do you think you're doing here?" Sam hissed quietly.

The privacy turned out not to be enough. A voice came from behind him, and Sam could feel his spine straighten like a naughty schoolboy caught by the headmaster. "What's going on?"

Sam was a little tempted to reply with 'that's what I'd like to know!', but not that tempted. He did still appreciate having a job. But it was a coin flip about whether to try to protect Mark from the consequences of his actions, or let things just fall where they might. Sam's normal instincts were to try and deal with the situation himself, but then he remembered the very heavy hints that had been dropped by the liaison. It was almost certain Sam would not be allowed to do anything that would make any sort of impact. The next time Mark tried this or something similar, he could very well get himself or someone else hurt. It needed to be dealt with.

Sam nodded his head in greeting. "Sir, this is our new event team member, Mark. He was here without permission, and I was asking about that. Mark, this is the head of the Charisma department, Lee Harrow."

"Pleased to meet you," said Mark.

"So?" prompted Sam.

"So… I was on a break this weekend. You told me I was on a break!" protested Mark.

"Yes. Yes, I did," said Sam with painful control. He was glad that they both agreed on that point, at least. Mark was supposed to be on a break, not diving headfirst into dangerous waters.

"So, when I heard that MoonlightDreamlight was going to be here, and going to be doing signings, I had to come."

"And MoonlightDreamlight is…?"

"She's one of the most talented—if not the most talented—fan-artist we have in the Eternity Unicorns community! I mean, yes, there's BBBear, but—"

Sam cut him off. "You're trying to tell me that you didn't come here because of the situation with the Sixes-and-Sevens at all. You came here because you learnt there was a convention for Eternity Unicorns, and you're an Eternity Unicorns fan."

Mark nodded earnestly. "It was a chance to get MoonlightDreamlight's autograph. I was almost at the front, as well. If I re-join now, it will probably be too late to get to the front again."

Mark was practically whining by the end of it, as if losing his place in the queue was the most important part of the story.

"And it didn't occur to you, despite knowing that this venue was the target of a potentially terrorist group, that coming here might be a bad idea?" asked Sam.

"Well," said Mark, looking confused. "No. I mean, if anything happened, I'd just deal with it."

Sam looked towards Lee, expecting to see matching fury and contempt for this puppy's delusions for 'just dealing with it'. Instead, to his shock, Lee was nodding along like this was the most reasonable thing that he'd ever heard of.

"Was there anything you just had to deal with?" asked Lee.

Mark flushed a little, then nodded sheepishly. "Some queue jumpers. I convinced them to participate in a small flash play where they took the role of the Evil League against the forces of the Unicorn Team, which the other cosplayers in line. In my defence, I did think they were a real threat against MoonlightDreamlight!"

"A real threat?" asked Lee sounding entirely unbelieving. Sam didn't blame him. Sam had a hard time believing any of this himself.

"A real inconvenience, anyway," said Mark, getting quieter and quieter. For the first time since they had met, Sam saw some embarrassment and self-consciousness in Mark.

After an uncomfortable silence, Mark continued. "It was just a bit of fun. Everyone enjoyed themselves."

"And the queue-jumpers?" asked Lee.

"They went away just fine," said Mark. "No complaints from them. There weren't any problems."

"There weren't any problems because your queue jumpers chose not to make a fuss," said Lee, sounding stricter than Sam had ever heard from him before, and Lee was not known as a casual and permissive person. "That is not a sign that you were in the right. That is a sign that they didn't even think they'd get a fair hearing because of who you are."

There was a long silence.

"I'm sorry," said Mark, and to his credit, he sounded sincere.

"Good," said Lee. "Don't let me hear about this sort of thing happening again, understood? There is a big difference between stepping in because you think someone is in immediate physical harm and stepping in because you don't approve of how other people are behaving in public. I expect better from you than to be so petty, and I expect better than for you to lie about it in order to get out of trouble."

"Yes, sir," said Mark, now obviously thoroughly miserable. "I'm sorry, and it won't happen again. I'll do better."

"I'm sure you will," said Lee, patting him on the shoulder and looking half-a-second away from ruffling the kid's hair. "Let's just take it as just punishment that you didn't get the autograph you decided was so important that you bent the rules for it, alright?"

"Alright," said Mark.

Mark's woebegone puppy look tempting even Sam into wanting to comfort him, and Sam was still furious and confused about what was going on.

"Go along home now," said Lee kindly. "Things will look better next week."

Sam opened his mouth to protest one of his team members being sent away without any input from him, before he remembered who he was speaking to.

When it was just Sam and Lee left, Sam half-bowed his head once again. "Sir, I apologise once again for inconveniencing you and making you to deal with our mess."

"Oh," said Lee. "There was no mess at all. The problem was solved without any interference on my part. Congratulations are entirely owed to your team."

"I'm sorry?" asked Sam.

"The problem that Mark decided to make go away? Let's just say that I don't think their original intentions were to jump the queue."

The fog of confusion cleared all at once. Why Mark had been given a liaison. Why Mark hadn't understood why they didn't just use Charisma to solve all their problems. Why Lee had lectured Mark like Mark was one of his own ducklings. Why Lee had hustled Mark far away from the scene before anyone else realised what had happened. Mark wasn't someone's problem son. He was a Top Tier member trying to slum it incognito.

"Are you going to let Mark know who they were and what happened?" asked Sam.

Lee gave him a long look. "Do you think encouraging him to be more reckless is a good idea?"

"Hell no," replied Sam without a second's thought.

"Then I suggest that you take the time to figure out what 'really' happened here before the mayor arrives."

Sam reminded himself sternly about all the negative consequences he could face if he cursed out the head of Charisma. By the amused look on Lee's face, Sam imagined he heard some of them anyway.

"Best of luck!" said Lee with a wave, before disappearing into the crowds.

Sam took a moment just to breathe deeply. Lee had been right. The problem he came here with might have resolved itself without any intervention on his part, but that meant the clean-up part of his job had only just begun. He didn't have long at all to come up with some sort of spin that would make all this appear sane, and he'd better get to work.