Case #0020406, Harold Silvana
Release date: September 8th, 2016
First listen: 6th November, think it was still the walk home.
Where we see more of my goth son, Smirke’s name joins the blacklist in my mind, and in my messages with dodgylogic, Leitner’s name is autocorrected to all caps for the first time, a feature that endures still. Also that start of my conspiracy theory board entitled ‘WHAT THE FUCK IS UNDER LONDON?’
- Harold Silvana is a name we’ve already heard in passing, back in MAG024 where Sasha was hunting down the police reports for the incident. That was recorded somewhere between mid March and very early April, and it is now mid July. So investigation and research on this case has taken maybe four months, possibly longer, before it is fit for recording and archiving. I don’t know if that can be used as a bench mark for how long the process typically takes, because there is a lot going on in this one. It’s one I like to refer to as a ‘fear goulash’ statement; there’s a lot of flavours up in here.
- The Reform Club, Pall Mall. It’s just north of Westminster, with in spitting distance of Buckingham Palace and No. 10 Downing Street. Looking at the map, there’s an area of London, about 3 miles across, on the north side of the river, that has Pall Mall, Millbank, Chelsea and the seat of British power that just has all sorts of bad vibes rattling about…
- ‘I’m a builder. Sort of… In simple terms it’s not much different to any other sort of construction work, except it takes about three times as long and costs ten times as much.’ First impressions, I like him. He feels like an up front sort of character, and while he has to play the games and use the lingo, he feels like a grounded person.
- ‘…me and my team are worth every penny.’ He’s got a team, acknowledging the team. We love to see it.
- ‘And the sort of people I deal with, or should I say the sort of people whose personal assistants I deal with, can afford it.’ Ah yes, we are talking London money aren’t we. Central London money.
- Release the antique smut poems, V&A Museum! You cowards!
- ‘… so we could only actually come out of the basement when it wasn’t full of people too important to see builders.’ Urgh, God. Can’t believe the ‘below stairs’ mentality persists in today’s society but here we are… Not quite the same, but kinda reminds me of the 2 summers I was interning at a falconry breeding centre and the vast majority of the birds were being bred for the market in the Arab Peninsula. So the emir would send his men over to look at the birds and select the ones they wanted and all the women had be be else where, out of sight. So we all agreed it was fucking stupid and took the paid afternoon off we were given.
- I’m trying to work out how the listing system works and it all looks a bit subjective to me. Grade Is are defined a ‘buildings of exceptional interest’, and structures get ranked on age and rarity, aesthetic merit, selectivity, and national interest amongst other things. Being a Grade I puts you on par with Blackpool Tower, the Cenotaph, York Minster, and the Tower of London to name but a few.
- ‘It was about two in the morning when the kid showed up.’ Ooof… having to completely adjust your sleep schedule for these rich fucks, ugh. Also, my sweet boy.
- ‘I think he must have forgotten to lock the door when he headed out, and that’s how the kid got in.’ Even if that is the case, you know Gerry has a set of lock pick on him and is well practised at using them, even at this age.
- ‘…this was still the first week in March and it was pretty cold’ and Gerry is there in a t-shirt.
- ‘His hair was long and greasy, almost down to his shoulders, and looked to be dyed almost the same black as his clothes.’ The attacks on my son’s hair started early… I am begging someone, anyone at the institute, please take my boy to a salon and let them do it right for him. Let someone pamper him for a brief snippet of time.
- While this instinct was coming from the wrong place the decision ‘to be gentle in my initial enquiries’ may have bought him a little bit of grace. Out right aggression may have made it all much messier.
- We’re getting crumbs of Leitner lore. ‘A businessman from Norway.’ I was still somewhat naive as to who Leitner was, but in my chat’s with dodgylogic, I’d sent something along the lines of ‘part of me hopes Leitner is just a normal weird white guy with far too much money and a perverted sense of curiosity and just doesn’t give a damn about the rest of society, because to be honest I can’t think of anything more scary in this world right now.’ I wrote during the US 2020 election week. I feel the sentiment stands.
- ‘I don’t know what his business was…’ I imagine he was in the business of business.
- ‘Portly, middle-aged, short blond hair in the middle of going grey, well-tailored business suit.’… How small would you say his hands were?
- ‘He smiled an odd little smile as he said it, which put me a bit on edge.’ uncomfortable noises
- Next comes a paragraph of ‘he began to get shifty’, lying about permissions and protocol, got ‘very defensive’, when they’re going to go over his head he ‘started screaming that we didn’t understand what we were talking about, that he didn’t need to explain himself to the likes of us’, and, oh yes, this feels familiar…
- ‘… this teenage burnout turned up’. I legit put my hand over my heart and made an affronted noise. So rude about my goth son.
- ‘‘Can you smell it?’ he said, and for a brief moment, I could smell something.’ Once again, l’eau de creepy shit strikes again. Follow your nose to where nobody goes. Follow that smell to find personal hell. Follow the odour for a mental off-roader… I think I’m out. Nope, wait, follow the scent for a psyche descent.
- ‘…with a swing stronger than I would have thought possible from his age and skinny frame.’ My boy is scrappy. When you are fighting eldritch horrors for your life on the regs, you probably develop some functional strength.
- ‘… listening to his CD player and waiting.’ Ah, the early ‘00s. Though, you would have had to wrestle my Walkman away from me, audio books are one of the few things that kept me sane in my early teens.
- The universe of The Magnus Archives, defined as ‘this stuff’ by one, Gerard Keay.
- ‘…but Alf was always too curious for his own good.’ And that’s all The Entities need. One weak link, one moment of curiosity.
- ‘We had plenty of torches…so we each took one large one and a smaller back-up in case the first had any problems.’ Smart. Smart bunnies.
- Seeing as Gerard was the one to put them on to this, I don’t quite know how they thought they had any real reason to stop him at this stage, even if they could. Gerard was the most clued in person in that room.
- ‘…mid-19th century’ would put us at around the same time The Magnus Institute moved from Edinburgh to London, in 1841 and the Carlton Club, quick look up and it’s a private members club and the original home of, oh God, home of the Conservative Party… That explains a thing or two.
- ‘Alf kept asking Rachel if the corridor was getting narrower, and every time, she would dutifully measure the width and inform him that, no, it was exactly five feet wide.’ A woman of rationality and science, I like her.
- ‘I counted thirteen.’ ROLL CALL!
‘I’ve never had any sort of claustrophobia, but I was finding it hard, at points to catch my breath, to dismiss the feeling that the walls were pressing on me.’ The Buried.
‘There was one that, for all the world, it felt like I was going to fall into it.’ I’m going to say The Vast.
‘Another was so dark that our torches didn’t seem to reach more than a few feet inside.’ The Dark.
‘…flashes of a pile of paper, completely covered in cobweb,’ The Web.
‘…a figure stood in the darkness, a stranger I didn’t know but was sure meant me harm,’ The Stranger
- ‘…my skin burning, hot, choking on smoke down there in the dark.’ The Desolation.
- ‘Robert Smirke, 1835. Balance and fear.’ Ok, so that gives us 6 years before The Magnus Archives moves to London. 14 years after Millbank was completed.
- I can’t remember why, but I did vaguely remember the name ‘Robert Smirke’ when I first heard it from Jonathan, I can only assume I’d heard it on a documentary somewhere. I’m one of those folks; I won’t watch a movie, I’ll trawl BBC iPlayer or YouTube for a documentary that takes my fancy.
- ‘…often described as ‘theatrical’. Of course he fucking was, he ran in the same circles as Jonah Magnus, of course he was extra a fuck. And he designed the British Museum and the Carlton Club? All just one big, messy, imperialist, conservative ouroboros that instead of eating its’ own tail, it’s sucking its’ own dick.
- ‘We stood there for some time as I explained this to the others.’ Info dump time, my friend.
- Which tunnel did you pick Gerard? Which one were you seeking?
- Tunnel was damper, and the walls seemed ‘oddly slimy’, when Hoard fell his hand ‘came away faintly tinged with red’, ‘lights up ahead’. I’m not sure which, but I’d put money on either The Slaughter or The Flesh. Oh wait no, ‘lights up ahead’, maybe The End?
- ‘He was only a skinny kid, but he was so strong, and kept his footing.’ When you’re fuelled with knowledge and a will to survive, you’re make of hardy stuff.
- Is this the book that we see Mary Kaey with in MAG004? The one that shed small animal bones?
- ‘It makes me feel sick, though, like we’re just abandoning Alf, dishonouring his memory.’ Ooof, buddy. The cover up, the power, the money, the privilege, urgh. I’m sorry, bud.
- I can see why The Reform Club don’t want to talk, but I wonder my Howard Silvana now doesn’t want to discus it? Might go a ways to explain why this investigation has taken a while as Sasha has been trying to speak to people for ‘the last three months.’
- So Jurgen Leitner was ‘one of the premier worldwide dealers in rare and antique books’. Aok, so he did have a career in business that wasn’t only shady shit.
- ‘… I can’t help but wonder whether that was where they were found, or just where they were stored.’ Reminds me of a question that was asked about Leitner books in a Q&A session and Jonny’s answer was along the lines of ‘you’re assuming a Leitner book needs to be written.’
- ‘Architecture is one of his specialist areas,’ Tim has such hidden depths, I love him.
- What the fuck does “A master of subtle stability” even mean? Is it code for ‘unhinged bitch fucking with power you don’t wanna find out’?
- ‘...Smirke’s buildings have higher percentages of reported paranormal sightings than any other architect of similar profile.’ You don’t say…
- Jon calling for Martin like that, like he’s calling a dog to heel…
- And the demon cockney delivery drivers lie in wait… They clock the tape recorder on, can they feel The Web’s influence coming off of it, or is it just that they noticed?
- I love their delivery, like it’s one thought and one breath split across 2 people. They really are a matching set, makes it all the more tragic after season 3.
