The Well of Lost Plots

1

'… This is WOLP-12 on the Well of Lost Plots' own footnoterphone station, transmitting live on the hour every hour to keep you up to date with news in the Fiction Factory …'

2

'… After the headlines you can hear our weekly documentary show WellSpeak where today we will discuss hiding exposition; following that there will be a WellNews special on the launch of the new Book Operating system. Ultra Word™, featuring a live studio debate with WordMaster Xavier Libris of Text Grand Central …'

3

'… here are the main points of the news. Prices of semi-colons, plot devices, prologues and inciting incidents continued to fall yesterday, lopping twenty-eight points off the TomJones Index. The Council of Genres has announced the nominations for the 923rd annual BookWorld Awards; Heathcliff is once again to head the 'Most Troubled Romantic Lead' category for the seventy-seventh year running …'

4

'… A new epic poem is to be constructed for the first time in eighty-seven years. Title and subject to be announced, but pundits reckon that it's a pointless exercise: skills have all but died out. Next week will also see the launch of a new shopping chain offering off-the-peg narrative requisites. It will be called Prêt-à-Ecrire …'

5

"… Visit Aaron's Assorted Alliteration Annexe, the superior sellers of stressed syllable or similar-sounding speech sequences since the sixteenth century. Stop soon and see us situated on floor sixteen, shelf six seventy-six …'

6

'… Visit Bill's Dictionorium for every word you'll ever need! From Be to Antidisestablishmentarianism, we have words to suit all your plotting needs. Floor twelve, shelf seventy-eight …'

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'… Soon to be launched: UltraWord™— The Ultimate Reading Experience. For FREE information on the very latest Book Operating System and how its new and improved features will enhance your new book, call Text Grand Central on:freefootnoterphone/ultraword …'

8

'… Honest John's Pre-featured Character salesroom for all your character needs! Honest John has Generics grade A-6 to D-Q. Top bargains this week: Mrs Danvers, choice of three, unused. +++Lady of Shallott cloned for unfinished remake; healthy A-6 in good condition. + + + Group of unruly C-5S suitable for any crowd scene — call for details. Listen to our full listings by polling on footnoterphone/honestjohn …'

9

'Vera Tushkevitch! Can you hear me?'

'Yes, I'm here. No need to shout. You will deafen me, I'm sure!'

'I don't trust these strange footnoterphone devices. I'm sure I'll catch some nasty proletarian disease. Where did we last meet? At that party with the Schuetzburgs? The one where they served apples Benedict?'

'No, Sofya, my husband and I were not invited. He voted against Count Schuetzburg at the last election.'

'Then it must have been at Bolshaia Marskaia with Princess Betsy. Whatever did happen to that Karenin girl, have you any idea?'

'Anna? Yes indeed — but you must not tell a soul! Alexei Vronsky was smitten by her from the moment he saw her at the station.'

'The station? Which station?'

'St Petersburg; you remember when a guard fell beneath the train and was crushed?'

'Anna and Vronsky met there? How terribly unsophisticated!'

'There is more, my dear Vera. Wait — the doorbell! I must leave you; not a word to anyone and I will call again soon!'

10

'… Special on at St Tabularasa's Generic College — superior-quality Blocking Characters available now for instant location to your novel. From forbidding fathers to "by the book" superior police officers, our high-quality Blockers will guarantee conflict from the simplest protagonist! Call freefootnoterphone/St Tabularasa's for more details …'

11

'Vera? Is that you? What a day! All noise and rain. Do please carry on about Anna!'

'Well. Anna danced with Vronsky — at the ball that night; he became her shadow and very much more!'

'No! — Alexei Vronsky and Anna — an affair! What about her husband? Surely he found out?'

'Eventually, yes. I think Anna told him, but not until she was with child, Vronsky's child. There was to be no hiding that.'

'What did he say?'

'Believe it or not, he forgave them both! Insisted that they remain married and attempted to continue as if nothing had happened.'

'I always did think that man was a fool. What happened next?'

'Vronsky shot himself, claiming he could not bear to be apart from her. Melodramatic is not the word for it!'

'It reads like a cheap novelette! Did he die?'

'No; merely wounded. It gets worse. Karenin realised that to save Anna he himself must take the disgrace and admit that he had been unfaithful so that Anna was not ruined and could marry Vronsky.'

'So Karenin let them go? He didn't ban her from ever seeing her lover again? Didn't horse-whip either of them or sell his story to The Mole? It strikes me Karenin himself may have had some totty on the side, too. Wait! My husband calls me — stay tuned. Fare-well for now, my dear Vera!'

12

'Miss Next, are you there?'

13

'Good. Meet me at the Junsfiction office as soon as possible. It's about Perkins — the minotaur has escaped.'

14

'Not really. You see, Perkins isn't responding to footnoterphone communications — we think something might have happened to him.'

15

'Sofya! Where were you? I have been calling for ever! Tell me, the Karenins — they divorced?'

'No! Maybe if they had been divorced, events would have been different. I remember her attending the theatre in Petersburg. What a disaster!'

'Why? Whatever happened? Did she make a fool of herself?'

'Yes, by appearing in the first place! How could she? Madame Kartasova, who was in the adjacent box with that fat bald husband of hers, made a scene: she said something aloud, something insulting, and left the theatre. We all saw it happen. Anna tried to ignore everything but she must have known …'

'Why didn't they push for a divorce, the foolish pair!'

'Vronsky wanted her to but she kept putting it off. They moved to Moscow, but she was never happy. Vronsky spent his time involved in politics and she was convinced that he was with other women. A jealous, fallen disgrace of a woman she was. Then, at Znamanka station she could take it no longer — she flung herself upon the rails and was crushed by the 20.02 to Obiralovka!'

'No!'

'Yes, but don't tell a soul — it is a secret between you and me! Come — for dinner on Tuesday — we are having turnip à l’orange. I have a simply adorable new cook. Adieu, my good friend, adieu!'

16

'Thursday, are you there?'

17

'It's the Cheshire Cat. Do you know how to play the piano?'

18

'Oh, no reason; I just thought I'd ask to be on the safe side.'

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'Why, the piano, of course!'

20

'You've got a hearing for your trial — remember the fiction infraction? Well, there have been some delays with Max de Winter's appeal so they've applied for a continuancel — can you come this afternoon if you're not too busy, say three o'clock?'

21

'Alice in Wonderland, just after the "Alice's Evidence" chapter. The Gryphon will be representing you. Don't forgetl — three o'clock.'

22

'… Dear Friend, I am a fifty-year-old lady from the Republic of Gondal. I got your details from the Council of Genres and decided to contact you to see if you could help. My husband Reginald Jackson was the rebel leader in Gondal in Turmoil. (RRP: £4.99) and just before he was assassinated he gave me 12 million dollars and I departed the book to be a refugee in The Well of Lost Plots with my two children. On arrival, I decided to deposit this money in a security company for safekeeping. Right now, I am seeking assistance from you so that I can transfer the funds from the Well to your Outland account. If this offer meets your approval, you could reach me on my footnoterphone. Thank you, Mrs R. Jackson …'

23

The Jurisfiction office vanished and was replaced by a large and shiny underground tube. It was big enough to stand up in but even so I had to keep pressed against the wall as a constant stream of words flashed past in both directions. Above us another pipe was leading upwards, and every now and then a short stream of words was diverted into this small conduit.

'Where are we?' I asked, my voice echoing about the steel walls.

'Somewhere quite safe,' replied Deane. 'They'll be wondering where you went.'

'We're in the Outland — I mean, home?'

Deane laughed.

'No, silly — we're in the footnoterphone conduits.'

I looked at the stream of messages again.

'We are?'

'Sure.'

'Come on, let me show you something.'

We walked along the pipe until it opened out into a bigger room — a hub where messages went from one genre to the next. The exits closest to me were marked 'Crime', 'Romance', 'Thriller' and 'Comedy', but there were plenty more, all routeing the footnoterphone messages towards some sub-genre or other.

'It's incredible!' I breathed.

'Oh, this is just a small hub,' replied Deane, 'you should see the bigger ones. It all works on the ISBN number system, you know — and the best thing about it is that neither Text Grand Central nor the Council of Genres knows that you can get down here. It's sanctuary, Thursday. Sanctuary away from the prying eyes of Jurisfiction and the rigidity of the narrative.'

I caught his eye.

'Tweed thinks you killed Perkins, Snell and that serving girl.'

He stopped walking and sighed.

'Tweed is working with Text Grand Central to make sure Ultra Word™ is launched without any trouble. He knew I didn't like it. He offered me a plot realignment in The Squire of High Potternews to "garner my support".'

'He tried to buy you?'

'When I refused he threatened to kill me — that's why we escaped.'

'We?'

'Of course. The maidservant that I ravage in chapter eight and then cruelly cast into the night. She dies of tuberculosis and I drink myself to death. Do you think we could allow that?'

'But isn't that what happens in most Farquitt novels?' I asked. 'Maidservant ravaged by cruel squire?'

'You don't understand, Thursday. Mimi and I are in love.'

'Ah!' I replied slowly, thinking of Landen. 'That can change things.'

'Come,' said Deane, beckoning me through the hub and dodging the footnoterphone messages, 'there is a settlement in a disused branch line. After Woolf wrote To the Lighthouse and Mrs Dalloway the Council of Genres thought Stream of Consciousness would be the next Detective — they built a large hub to support the rack-loads of novels that never appeared.'

We turned into a large tunnel about the size of the underground back in Swindon, and the messages whizzed back and forth, almost filling the tube to capacity.

After a few hundred yards we came to another hub and took the least used — barely two or three messages a minute buzzed languidly past, and these seemed to be lost; they moved around vaguely for a moment and then evaporated. The sides of the tube were less shiny, rubbish had collected at the bottom and water leaked in from the roof. Every now and then we passed small unused offshoots, built to support books that were planned but never written.

'Why did you come for me, Vern?'

'Because I don't believe you would kill Miss Havisham, and, like it or not, despite my rejection of Farquitt, I love stories as much as anyone. UltraWord™ is flawed. Havisham, Perkins, Snell and I were all trying to figure out some sort of a proof when Perkins was eaten.'

The tunnel opened out into a large chamber where a settlement of sorts had been built from rubbish and scrap wood — items that could be removed from the BookWorld without anyone noticing. The buildings were little more than tents with the orange flicker of oil lamps from within.

'Vern!' came a voice, and a dark-haired young woman waved at him from the nearest tent. She was heavily pregnant and Deane rushed up to hug her affectionately. I watched them with a certain degree of jealousy. I noticed I had placed my hand on my own turn quite subconsciously. I sighed and pushed my thoughts to the back of my mind.

'Mimi, this is Thursday,' said Vern. I shook her hand and she led us into their tent, offering me a small wooden box to sit on that I noticed had once been used to held past tenses.

'We scrounge a lot from the Well,' explained Deane, making some coffee. 'It's pretty unregulated down there and we can pinch almost anything.'

'So what's wrong with UltraWord™?' I asked him, my curiosity overcoming me.

'Flawed by the need for control,' he said slowly. 'Think the BookWorld is over-regulated? Believe me, it's an anarchist's dreamworld compared to the future seen by TGC!'

And so, over the next hour, he proceeded to tell me exactly what he had discovered. The problem was, it might very well be seen as hearsay. We needed something more than possibilities and allegations, we needed proof.

'Proof,' said Deane, 'yes, that was always the problem. I don't have any. Perkins died trying to protect the only proof he said we have. I'll go and fetch it.'

He returned with a birdcage containing a skylark and set it on the table.

I looked at the bird and the bird looked back.

'This is the proof?'

'So Perkins said.'

'Do you have any idea what he meant?'

'None at all.' He sighed. 'He was minotaur shit long before he tried to explain it to any of us.'

I leaned forward for a closer look and smelt — cantaloupes.

'It's UltraWord™,' I breathed.

'It is?' echoed Deane in surprise. 'How can you tell?'

'It's an Outlander thing. Do you still have your UltraWord™ copy of The Little Prince?'

He handed me the slim volume.

'What's on your mind?'

'I have a plan,' I told him, 'but to do it I have to be at liberty — and free from the Bellman's suspicions.'

'I can arrange that.' Deane smiled. 'Come on, let's do this thing before it gets any worse.'

24

Mimi was standing outside the footnoterphone tube entrance to Text Grand Central and looking at her watch. The words sped backwards and forwards, darting inside the tunnel, which had a sturdy grate across it streaked with rust. Every now and then messages were deflected off. It was a textual sieve — used here for deleting unwanted junk footnoterphone messages.

She gestured to the man accompanying her and stepped back.

Quasimodo—who had found sanctuary, finally—grunted in reply and gently placed a copy of Das Kapital next to Mein Kampf, separating them with only a thin metal sheet. The 'book sandwich' was held together by rubber bands and a string was attached to the metal sheet. Quasimodo tied the books to the grate and then retired down the conduit, paying out the string as he went. He joined Mimi at a little-used sub-genre pipe entitled 'Squid Action/Adventure' and waited for Thursday's signal.

25

Mimi nodded to Quasimodo, who pulled the string. The steel plate shot out and Das Kapital and Mein Kampf came together, their conflicting ideologies starting to generate heat. The books turned brown, smouldered for a moment and then, as Mimi and Quasimodo scurried away, the two volumes reached critical mass, turned white hot, and exploded. The detonation echoed down the footnoterphone pipes, followed by a deathly silence. They had done it. The footnoterphone conduit was destroyed — Libris and Tweed were cut off from Text Grand Central.

26

'Thursday! It's Mimi, are you there?'

27

'They are rerouting messages through the auxiliary ducts past Spy Thrillers and through Horror. If you haven't got a vote, get one now!'