Olympia Clarity sent an urgent message to Seaplane and Lilabelle Jonson back at Jonson Engineering base on Mars: “Hi Sea and Lila! Hope things are fairly quiet there on Mars, as we need you both to return to Earth...Hyde Rival has set up operations in Europe...and even joined forces with Mafia and other miscreants. We've gotten several desperate calls from European acquaintances, asking for JE assistance!” Olympia explained the details, then waited for a reply from the Mars contingent.
Seaplane responded: “Alas, I feared that would happen sooner or later! As you know, our staff, budget, and other assets can barely take care of our American operations...we were very lucky to find an existing partner in Asia – that design consortium headquartered in Tokyo – but we'd have to figure out how to somehow expand operations to Europe in a feasible way. Got any ideas?”
“Indeed we do!” answered Olympia enthusiastically. “One of our European contacts offered to donate office space in London, and another promised operational funding...apparently they considered setting up their own organization to deal with the threat, but decided they would prefer working with JE itself...and they are willing to set up and fund a London branch office for JE. It would be smaller than our American operation, but should be sufficient to deal with the threat there.”
The new JE London facility was quickly installed, so it was ready for use by the time Seaplane and Lilabelle arrived back on Earth. In addition to a spectacular view of the Thames, the new office included most of the features available at the larger American headquarters – but with a much smaller lounge and no private quarters at all. However, the new situation proved quite satisfactory, since there were pubs and hotels very conveniently located nearby.
Lilabelle appreciated the many cultural amenities – performances, museums, and other wonderful advantages – while Seaplane renewed contact with his old acquaintances in the intelligence services. Their new situation stood in stark contrast to the paucity of such things on Mars, and indeed mostly surpassed what their American colleagues enjoyed. In short, they were very pleased with their new London location – aside from the unpleasant challenge of dealing with Hyde Rival and associated troublemakers.