PHANTOM SIGNALS

Hidden London. Ancient Magic. Modern Britain.


London's oldest firewall is failing

Ancient systems have protected London for centuries. Now the technical debt is finally coming due.

Stephen Harris didn't apply for this job. He's an IT contractor. He fixes broken systems.

He never expected London to be one of them. He'd really rather somebody else fixed it.

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Illustration of a lone figure outside a city building at night with glowing script

MEET STEPHEN HARRIS

Some problems were never meant for the help desk.

Stephen Harris solves IT problems for a living.

Password resets. Network outages. Users who insist they haven't changed anything.

The impossible was never supposed to be one of them.

When a mysterious voice warns him not to board his usual Tube, twenty-seven commuters collapse at Westminster Station just minutes later.

Soon Stephen is drawn into a secret government department hidden beneath the streets of London, where ancient systems still protect the city from things that shouldn't exist.

Those systems are beginning to fail.

Unfortunately, Stephen discovers he may be the only person who can understand why.

He's forty-five, mildly traumatised, survives on coffee that costs far too much, and would much rather be fixing servers than London's spiritual infrastructure.

Sadly, London has other ideas.


An exhausted IT contractor. A city built on forgotten systems. A mystery hidden beneath modern London.
The Last Passenger by M.P. Moorland, a free Code & Stone short story, featuring an abandoned London tram tunnel and glowing magical threads.

THE LAST PASSENGER

Halloween 2021. Three teenagers have vanished, and their disappearance leads a young police constable into the abandoned Kingsway tram subway beneath London.

What she discovers will change her career forever.

The Last Passenger is a free, standalone British urban fantasy short story set in the world of Code & Stone.

No previous reading required. Just 30 minutes and a healthy distrust of abandoned tunnels.

READ THE FREE STORY

IF YOU ENJOY...

...stories where forgotten places hide impossible secrets...

...modern technology colliding with ancient folklore...

...ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations...

...British humour, hidden history, and mysteries beneath familiar streets...

...exhausted heroes who'd rather be fixing computers than saving London...

Welcome to Code & Stone.

ANCIENT BOUNDARIES

Standing stones. Forgotten places. Old defences still protecting London.

HIDDEN TECHNOLOGY

Ancient systems. Modern networks. The city's oldest firewall is failing.

BRITISH FOLKLORE

Legends with evidence. Ghost stories with paperwork. Folklore hiding in plain sight.

About M.P. Moorland

M.P. Moorland writes contemporary British urban fantasy set in the hidden corners of London, where ancient systems fail quietly beneath modern life.

He spends his working life keeping modern infrastructure running, then goes home and wonders what might happen if London’s oldest infrastructure began to fail.

The sort of problem that definitely can’t be solved with a spreadsheet.

Meet the Author

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