Part XVI With headscarf and Hasselblad in the glens
My reactions were mixed. On the one hand our presence, colossal
though it was, had been accepted, on the other there was a
disquieting mystery looming - (a) a possible rival to Louise existed,
(b) elks of enormous bulk were becoming commonplace, (c) HM had
a cloning programme of her own (this, of course, I knew from the
Lochnagar ghost glass dome project which, if it did not include a
cloning programme - and the mind boggled at the expense unless,
and this was of supreme importance, she had some external and
superior aid - was set up to drag threatened species back from the
brink), or/and (d) all of the above were true - the abundance of
unseen gigantic elks could be attributed to the success of their too-
big-to-be-seen programs. I kept feeling that in Louise's case we were
within a mere lachterzoll of achieving our goal, but doubts kept
creeping in. I was convinced that HM, admirable though her aims
were, was not one to beggar herself for science, any of these
groundbreaking projects would require funding far beyond the
estate's budget and unless I had somehow missed a lucrative new
specialist big game and gourmet niche in elk trophies, steaks and
sausages, I had to question from whence were the monies derived.
Palace in science funding probe! I could see the headlines and an
incipient scoop. Documents seized ! Poussins pawned! The nation's
treasures hocked! Somehow it didn't add up. The more likely
explanation, the most likely in face of the accumulating evidence, was
intra galactic intervention of some as yet unspecified nature,
supported by an entire stellar fleet of pseudo duchesses brisŽes
which could well be coming and going as thick as bees unnoticed as
they interwove with grouse preparatory to re-entering the castle. Why
was HM alone and unattended on the moors? Why had Louise's
presence not set alarm bells ringing so much earlier? Were the Terror
Birds fed with Giant Elks produced especially to keep this ferocious
flock of bipeds flourishing? The questions were endless. And the big
question - was the popular, happily disposed figure, always ready
with a smile to issue a kindly laugh from beneath an exciting new hat,
really one of us? And here I was, in tortured but privileged proximity
to the very Higgs Boson particle of the realm. And my mission - to
establish that she actually existed as something more than a
theoretical particle, or to reveal that she was a mere screen on which
