Albert "Campion" Bond stood in the library of the Diogenes Club, known for it's familiar scent of old leather and expensive wax. He wore his familiar expression of detached calculation. In his hands, he gripped a pressurized cane filled with silver nitrate and a revolver hidden across the base of his spine.
He was not a sprite or a ghost, nor an immortal or one of the undead. He was a man of logic tasked with protecting his majesty's increasingly unnatural kingdom.
Murray's invite was received two weeks ago. His reports on the anomalies matched her independent findings; the melting steel and the silent disappearances in the docks. The "Phantom" she had called "it", was a predator using a science the Crown's advisors were scared of.
Campion secured his protection and went into the night. The game was no longer about detection; the queen had awarded his license to kill.
Ms Harker would have moments to convince him in person, or she would end like many others.