Rook

to manhandle the large picture back up. She approached the other portraits much more carefully and finally found one that had hinges on one side. She stepped back and contemplated it for a moment.
    It was of a tall, handsome man with dark hair. His eyes gleamed black. The background was highly stylized, with the dark paint sloshed on boldly in curves and waves. A small copper plate read CONRAD GRANTCHESTER, ROOK . Under her touch, the portrait swung aside to reveal a heavy metal door with the by-now-familiar metal plate that warmed under her palms. The door slid open, and carpeted steps led up.
    Dramatic,
she thought.
I wonder whose portrait conceals the door to the bathroom?
She rearranged the heavy binder in her arms and walked hesitantly up the stairs. The staircase switchbacked twice before suddenly opening onto a huge room filled with light. Large windows that looked out on the city of London also illuminated the decor that had been personally selected by Conrad Grantchester, Rook.
    “Oh,” she said out loud. “Okay, I see what Thomas meant.”
He must have thought he was the most pimpariffic man in the entire world
. The flat had clearly been designed two decades ago for the express purpose of seducing young women. They would have been brought here, discreetly, would have gasped over the black leather and the dark wood paneling, and would have had sex on the luxurious purple carpets in front of the fire. Their reflections would have appeared on the many brass fittings, and the massive amplifiers would haveblared out the latest music track. Myfanwy resisted the urge to giggle and then burst out laughing instead. She had to sit down to get a grip on herself, which spilled the binder onto the floor.
    Eventually she got up and wandered through the residence, her left eyebrow aching from all the raising it was being forced to do. There was a very large gold bathtub shaped like a shell, and an orange billiard table. Track lighting cast spotlights on the abstract paintings and sculptures.
Oh, I have to see the bedroom. I wonder if there’s…
There was. A round bed, with mirrors on the ceiling.
How in God’s name did Thomas ever manage to look this guy in the face?
The study, mercifully, was fairly businesslike and modern, with shelves full of reference works, a large number of which were anatomy textbooks. Myfanwy guessed that they were Thomas’s and resolved to cast an eye over them later in order to acquaint herself more fully with how human beings were actually put together.
    Okay, study time.

9
     
     
The Grafters
    The Grafters, or the Wetenschappelijk Broederschap van Natuurkundigen, date back to the fifteenth century. Now, as far as I can determine, there were a number of alchemists wandering around Belgium. Or at least, the territories that would eventually grow up to become Belgium. Anyway, I’m sure you can imagine the sort of people these alchemists were. Most of them were squirrelly little men hanging around in cellars doing rather unfortunate things with mercury and dung for the cause of greater human knowledge. There were, however, a few of their brotherhood who were nobles—men of exceeding wealth who had gotten involved to achieve greater financial returns.
    Personally, I find it difficult to believe that anyone seriously thought these little mole men were going to make gold out of lead, or tuna, or whatever the hell they were working with. But the Duke of One Thing and the Count of Something Else decided that this was a worthwhile investment and poured an obscene amount of money into financing the brotherhood. This is something that would normally really irritate me, the thought of all that wealth being lavished on some totally useless endeavor, except for one funny little fact.
    They succeeded.
    Of course, they didn’t actually turn lead into gold, but those grimy, deluded scientists came up with a discovery of equal value. Somehow or other, they mastered the art of fleshcrafting, of radically altering the properties of the human body. This brotherhood of medieval geeks could mold and re-form the raw materials of people. They could liquefy the flesh and bones of a person, resculpt them. They could attach new limbs. They could create new creatures.
    Now, I like to think that these grubby alchemists had only the best of intentions. Hopefully, they had in mind the repairing of mangled peasants orthe augmentation of… whatever. The noble investors, however, had some different ideas. With the