Month: July 2026

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Previous – Book1 Page188 – Next

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On one hand she’s delighted to be at the centre of attention. Setting aside the disarray of schoolchild follies, she can’t recall ever having received an adult love letter before. On the other hand she’s petrified, because it’s from MaxChaos! Uncultured. Cavalier. Chunky.

And stupid!

In spite of which he has a sweet, sympathetic side which he shows sporadically. He’s genuinely friendly, and he possesses an unbending will to protect the ones he cares about. But he still hasn’t learnt the importance of personal hygiene. He smells, his hair is long and ragged, he’s never been to a barber, and he has no idea that a deer skin jacket has to go to the cleaners once in a while.

Conning resolves to bin the letter. No, burn it! Nobody should see it, nobody should even know that it ever existed. It has to be destroyed, and then the whole thing has to be kept quiet. But she can’t bring herself to do it. A personal letter from a romantic admirer. A deranged, scatter brained, romantic admirer, who has a habit of setting booby traps. But nonetheless, a romantic admirer.

It’s folded in half, put back into the small pink envelope it came in, and quickly hidden.

She reads it again, later that evening back at home, and again debates destroying it. However, it’s put back into the envelope, which is then placed inside a delicate white purse that Conning has never used. That’s put inside one of the small, sparkly handbags that she bought when she was much younger, and finally it’s all hidden beneath the woolly sweaters in the bottom drawer of the wooden chest in her room. Nobody will ever find it. But she’ll know where it is, in the unlikely event that she would want to look at it again.

It’s Saturday evening and Conning heads out to catch up with her friends, whilst committed to staying silent on the question of love letters. She’s the first to arrive at the Find Thyme Café just ahead of KristalClear.

As the two of them find a table overlooking the market square KristalClear takes out the newspaper

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Previous – Book1 Page188 – Next

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Previous – Book1 Page187 – Next

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“How would I find out who’s shipping what? Could you help?”

“Mum knows more about this than I do. She’s been doing this job for years. Write down what you’re looking for. No promises, but I’ll see if there’s a way to find out. What metals in particular?”

“HayWire said that sodium or potassium would be ideal!”

Thinking that MaxChaos wouldn’t even know what sodium or potassium are, she’s rightly suspicious. Why is HayWire involved? What are they up to?

“You’d better write it down. I can ask around, even before mum gets back.”

“I’ve already written it down.”

He passes her a small envelope, and before she has time to open it, he’s on his way out of the door.

“See you later!”

This is just plain weird!

MaxChaos wouldn’t normally visit the reception desk at InfiniDash, he’d go straight round to one of the warehouses. He wouldn’t normally be on his own, he’d be part of a team. And he wouldn’t normally write things down, let alone write something in advance. He’s not particularly good at literacy.

Mystified, Conning looks at the envelope. She opens it. It’s a love letter!

From MaxChaos! Remarkably, within the space of just 37 words, it demonstrates all the adult, and juvenile, and infantile thoughts at work inside his chaotic head!

            Twinkle twinkle little Buttercup
            How I wonder when we’ll next meet up
            Wise and pretty and incredibly bright
            I was thinking that we might
            Go out somewhere nice to play
            But can that wait until pay day?

Overwhelmed, Conning doesn’t know if she should laugh or cry!

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Previous – Book1 Page187 – Next

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Previous – Book1 Page186 – Next

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Meanwhile, MaxChaos has been looking for an excuse to speak to Conning, the pretty girl with the long brown hair who works part time at InfiniDash, the shipbroker. If NutJob can secure a pretty girlfriend, with beautiful long brown hair, then MaxChaos thinks it can’t be that difficult. He’s been to InfiniDash a few times, to help with delivering provisions to ships, but he doesn’t yet fully understand the difference between a shipbroker and a shipping company.

Stepping inside the door at the main reception he sees Conning working the desk alone. Normally Mrs Moore works the desk. This looks like a perfect chance. MaxChaos is trying to play it cool. A clumsy sort of cool. A chaotic cool. The sort of thing that led to his nickname.

He steps up to the desk.

“Where’s your mum, I thought she’d be here?”

“She’s got a week off.”

“A weak cough? Will she be here tomorrow?”

“No, not a weak cough, a week off, she’s spending a week on Mannin.”

“She’s manning? She’s looking for a man?”

“Max, stop winding me up. You know what I mean, you’ve been to Mannin haven’t you?”

He places his right forearm and elbow on the counter and leans forward. Then he deliberately flutters his eyelids.

Conning has seen this sort of thing before. The singing duo gets a lot of unwanted attention from the boys in their informal fan club. Conning has learnt to nip this sort of thing in the bud.

“Don’t invade my personal space … you smell … of fish! You smell of fish. Don’t try to get flirty with me!”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about.”

“Fish?”

“Mannin! There’s a silver mine on Mannin isn’t there? And Zinc? What else is there, metal wise?”

“Oh, I don’t think we’ve been asked that before? You want to import metals? We just supply ships with what the crew needs, we don’t always know what their cargos are!”

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Previous – Book1 Page186 – Next

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Previous – Book1 Page185 – Next

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“Interesting character! And HayWire, who’s he?”

“Samuel Clark. Also known as HayWire. He’s eighteen years old with no police record. His parents both work in the tanning industry. At school he was both brilliant and awful. Excelling in some subjects and bottom of the class in others. He graduated two years ago.”

“Brilliant at what?”

“Maths, physics, engineering, mechanics. He’s apprenticed to Harrison Time Pieces, and apparently he’s a quick learner. He’s doing well. He lives at home with his parents, though from what I hear, family life is fraught. He seems to spend a lot of time at work, putting in extra hours when he doesn’t have to, and he’s trying to teach himself advanced skills. He’s experimenting with batteries and alternative energy sources.”

“He’s also keen on trying alternative materials like bone. Through family connections, he gets access to various bone and stuff from NickTheKnacker. HayWire is the one who studied the text books and worked out how to make hydrogen with limited resources. In his specialist field he’s incredibly intelligent, a savant! He prefers to be called HayWire, he’s proud of the name, fond childhood memories of something. I wouldn’t recommend calling him Samuel or Sam.”

“HayWire and MaxChaos are both friends with NutJob and Kristal.”

“Are they now?” remarks CandiCrush, “we need to get all of them in for a brainstorming session. No big plans, make them think this is a one off, because it might be a one off. However, if we can get an Inventors Club going on a Wednesday afternoon, we might all benefit from their regular involvement. Ted, find out more about these two explosives experts. If Toni says they’re sound we should be able to get security clearance for both of them? And get NutJob cleared too. Kristal’s on the system already.”

Corky returns.

CandiCrush smiles, “tea anyone?”

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