Perplex City - We Love Puzzles

Repositioning satellites

Tracking Alice

Reticulating splines

Assembling chapters

Alice ring 020 8133 8141

Fetching layers

Arranging markers

Aligning routes

Convolving movements

Compositing layers

Caching locations

Parsing actions

Calculating vectors

Hello? Alice?

I've made a terrible mistake. I need your help.

I have a story to tell you but it will only make sense in the right place.

If you stand face to face with the statue of John Betjeman in St Pancras Station and ring this number:

020 7193 3154 then I'll be able to explain more.

I can go to St Pancras Station at lunchtime and call the number - I'll let you know what (if anything) happens!

First of all I stood in front of the statue of John Betjeman and phoned the number.
This is what it said:

Hello Alice next to John, saviour of this train station, but there is little he can do to help me

it was here that I finally found her, the possibly eastern european girl

I watched her as she watched him and John Betjeman watched the sky

walk 20 paces to your right then 10 paces right again

This is where I intercepted her, naturally enough where the floor is paved with words

but this doesn't make much of a story with just me in it

you must find me her name in order for me to go on

ring 0203 then the first word of the poem on the floor followed by an 8

do it quickly

I walked the 30 paces in total and found myself stood in front of a line of poem on the floor which read:

Beyond the throb of the engines is the throbbing heart of all

I stood there and phoned 02032336638 and I got the following message:

Turn around and walk down the stairs to your left

keep going straight to the far end of the station, past the escalaters and all the shops

but be subtle, don't let her know you're following her

It isn't her real name of course, she picked it out of the UK Rail ticket machine

I love my love with a D I can't help beginning, because she is Devious

Send me an email with the word story to her name at pengrin.co.uk

and I'll be able to tell you the whole story and do make sure you're not being watched

I went to the ticket machines as instructed and to the A-Z section and hit D.

The 2nd entry on the screen was Daisy Hill. How ironic as my name is Daisy!

Beyond the throb of engines is the throbbing heart of all. Re: story
Daisy Hill to me
12:24 PM

The assignation had been arranged in a railway station. I watched the
ebb and flow of the passers-by warily. My contact was somewhere here.
At last, I saw her. An Eastern-European woman, engaged for the moment
in another operation, but soon to turn her attention to me.

A strange affair indeed, I muttered to myself, as I patted my breast
pocket, assuring myself that the cards were still there.

At last, the woman's part in the tale was at an end. Looking around
quickly, she moved through the crowd towards me, eyes darting alertly
around the station, ensuring that we were not watched.
Although my business here was serious – if not deadly – I could not
help but admire her graceful bearing and fluid, athletic movements.

"What day is it?" she asked me.
"Samedi," I replied, my accent, if I may say so, impeccable.
"How suitable," she said, "for the setting."
Her accent was less thick than it had been a moment before.
"Now," she continued, "what have you brought me?"

I had rehearsed this part many times. From my coat pocket I pulled a blindfold.
She smiled. "Very good. What else?" I reached into my other pocket
more gingerly and removed the tiny black fabric-covered box marked
with three small crowns for which I had bargained so vigourously for
in the souk of a thousand boys-own adventures.
Carefully, I flipped it open. The scorpion inside scuttled and danced,
its sting ready to descend. I flicked the box shut and handed it to
her.
"Then, you know what comes next?"
"I… I think so?"
My sources had been less than clear on this matter. They had
instructed me that I must contact certain persons, that they would
give me the items I wanted, that I would only be able to return home
safely if I'd done so but... on this vital matter, the actual trade,
they had remained silent.
Still, nothing ventured nothing gained.

The woman took the blindfold from my hand. I expected her to bind it
around her own eyes, but instead she took me by the shoulders – her
hands were very cool, I noticed – turned me round and tied the
blindfold around my eyes. I started, the unaccustomed darkness making
me suddenly uncertain. Could I even be sure I was still in the train
station?

The woman – at least, I thought it was she – placed her hand in mine.
"Why, you're nothing but skin and bone," I said.
"Not even that," she laughed softly.
"And who wins?" she whispered into my ear. Her scent was cool, as of
damp, earthy places. I thought for a moment.
"Of the two of us, my dear," I said, "I'm sure it is you."
She laughed, and whipped the blindfold off. The world span. For a
brief instant I thought I saw something else: some fine and private
place. And then it settled again. A train station, a beautiful Eastern
European woman.

I reached into an inner pocket and proffered my card to her. She
turned it over in her hand, appearing to admire the workmanship.
"I think you know," I said, "which card I seek from you. I believe you have it."
"Ah yes," she said, "together we have made that perfectly clear."

From an inside pocket of her jacket she pulled out a piece of
cardboard. When I held it, I found it was heavier than it appeared. I
turned to go, but before I could depart the woman spoke again.

"Tell me," she said, "what game is it you hope to play with the hand you hold?"
"Ah dear lady," I replied, "only safe passage"
She smirked, then burst into a peal of mocking laughter.
"Does what I have said amuse you?" I asked.
"Why," she said, "you have too few cards for that! Too few in your
hand, and you know that the game is only to swap, never to give. You
need one more."
"But," I said, "I understood that…"
"You understood nothing," said the woman, before disappearing into the crowd.

I'm more intrigued than ever now! Will the 6 stories all be part of one bigger story..? Will we know more about the 'cards'?

an asignation at a Paris Station on Saturday(which was one of th map markers that said ?here

Actually if Bookmore hadn't disappeaared I would have suggested he investigate. - Funny actually, he absented himself just as this was being finalised...