So, between putting the finishing touches on the book and performing in Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia, Ltd., Geoff needed to take a few weeks off from writing the Heist arc, so here, submitted for your approval, a small story from me about Count Rumford's secret ops team, and how they cleaned up a mess from deep in Frederickverse history! Hope you enjoy it!

Count Rumford is one of the great scoundrels of history. A British spy during the American Revolution, he was also a shameless self-promoter who just happened to also be one of the most important practical physicists of his time. His mantra was efficiency, and in that capacity he worked for the Germans, creating model factories that provided education for children and nourishing meals for the unemployed at minimal cost, and then turned around and improved the material and design of the clothing, ovens, and munitions of the army. His systematic studies of the heat capacities of cloth, and the nutritive values of different foods, lead straight to the fundamental modern work of Ellen Swallow herself! Not bad for a scoundrel.

- Count Dolby von Luckner