Madame Giry: Live to Fight Another Day
by Steven Pentecost

All of the great spies have interesting beginnings. Such is the case with Madame Giry. Louisa began her second career in a very unusual way. She was once just a mild mannered ballerina, who’d risen through hard work to the position of Mistress of the Ballet for a respectable opera company. With a strange turn of events she became…the Opera Ghost’s Agent, Double O Giry.

Imagine Your Own Bond Type Intro Music

October 8, 1871. One Louisa Giry was scanning her daily mail when she happened across an envelope sealed with the red waxen head of a skeleton. It contained an offer for an alternate career placement. Little did she know that she was about to embark upon an adventure that would send her soaring through kitchens and snooping through co-workers’ cubicles. She took the enclosed test and it was determined that she would place well with any spy organization, in particular the one operating out of the Fifth Cellar below the theater. Yes, she took the test (which was really meant only for fun) straight to heart and began her new career while still under the auspices of being a mild mannered ballet instructor.

She honed her skills by finding out the inner workings of her co-workers and the theater’s managers…thinking that by spying on them she could keep Erik safe and informed. She began by secretly eavesdropping on what was taking place behind closed-door meetings. She would regularly be seen removing kitchenware for her purposes. With glass to door and ear to glass she would take down details of every discussion, stopping only long enough to make up an excuse for her activities whenever a fellow theater worker would ask what the < explicative withheld > she was doing. Once she had mastered the glass to the door technique she soon began practicing actual surveillance. Case in point was her innate ability to balance on the back of a chair and listen over the tops of partially opened doors to conversations. She gained valuable information on her co-workers and the managers using this method. Whenever she was caught (and to be honest that happened often in the beginning), she would simply feign to be dusting the top of the doors. None ever believed her though. The next logical step in her quest to gather information was to rifle through the trash. She soon sharpened this skill to an art, but it too was a skill that required much practice on her part. After several attempts, she finally realized it was better to wait until the rooms were vacated rather than ask people to move their legs while she went through their wastebaskets. With her skills in surveillance nearing perfection, she knew she needed to work on decoding secret messages and that is when she began her training in deciphering exactly what the newly installed managers were implying with their responses to Erik’s flourishing notes. It was a daunting task, but ultimately she decoded every order they issued back to her boss and simplified each. Once she was able to successfully complete that task, she knew she was able to decode anything.

Yes, Double O Giry did have a rough start into her new career but she had managed to get her basic skills down. All of her training did not go without notice. Namely because of her lack of secrecy … which … she … probably should have worked on, but I digress. Soon she was recruited by the nefarious Phantom of the Opera to perform surveillance on meetings and dispatches traveling between Christine and Raoul. When Madame Giry provided her detailed reports to the organization’s evil bureau chief, she was promptly compensated with sacks of silky new ballet slippers and bottles of Tokay. Her next assignment barely challenged her sense of honor. She was asked to sabotage her long time co-worker, that nosey sceneshifter Joseph Bouquet, in his efforts to perform his work in a timely manner. She initiated her sabotage mission by fouling lines, causing his pulley ropes to run slowly at what appeared to the naked eye to be random times. She would only release the pulleys from her clutches whenever he would start to become suspicious because of her cackling and starring at him from catwalks alongside his. Other methods, which she used to slow him down and subsequently cause more availability for her evil overlord to maneuver, were to hide Bouquet’s tools, his gloves, shoes, and other necessities…like his pants! This was not the limit of her abilities though. She would use other means as well. Often she would tape his fingers to the painted scenery, foiling his attempts at efficiency. With each attack on her co-worker her stature with the Fifth Cellar’s organization grew. Soon she would be ranked Erik’s number one mole.

Unfortunately, Double O Giry’s spy career met an untimely demise, ending her reign of espionage on her co-workers. A communication between her and Erik was intercepted by one of the managers and subsequently an investigation was launched against her. For each act she performed to disrupt Bouquet’s efficiency a counter measure was put in place. This of course greatly angered Erik. Her activities finally ceased the night the chandelier fell on the heads of the VIP section. (Too bad, as a spy she was doing well.) As for what became of the evil Fifth Cellar organization and its diabolical bureau chief, you may be surprised to know they are still attempting to steal Christine from Raoul. It is only a matter of time, my friends, before they succeed in causing another crisis, this time on the de Chagny estate. Be on the lookout and watch what you put in your trash. Double O Giry can go active again at any time, most definitely when she catches her breath. Do not be fooled. Behind that charming smile is a mind set on taking down anyone opposing Erik.

Imagine Your Own James Bond Type Music Credits

READER COMMENTS

The determination and temperament of Madame's character is hard to come by... her devotion to Erik is indeed incongruous and without flaw. Superlative piece!
Etienne

I laughed my a--- off. This just struck my so funny. Little old Madame Giry spying (I truly liked the part about looking through the waste baskets). Ha Ha! Great job Mr. Steven, I enjoyed this, thank you!
J. M. McMahon