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Originally Posted by Anaraxes
Ah. Well, the explanation: the linked location was used as the set for a lonely manor in Scotland which was the site of an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria by a werewolf (foiled by The Doctor, of course). The Queen acquired the property (what with its owner having been killed defending her) and used it to found the "Torchwood Institute", which was a secret organization for investigating and combatting all the alien weirdness that The Doctor generally gets involved with. This should sound familiar.
The Doctor himself was considered one such suspect alien. There was a whole spinoff show called "Torchwood" set in the modern day, and the organization makes a number of other appearances in the original series as well.
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Well, damn. I guess nothing is original any more. ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
I think this is a better bet than any of the official royal residences, all of which are too well-connected to the royals to be really covert. But it's not at all a stretch to imagine they own property indirectly.
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As long as it happens before the Sovereign Grant Act of 2011 took effect last year, the Queen would be able to discreetly dispose of fairly large sums assuming that she had good relationships with Sir Alan Reid and/or some of his underlings. Of course, a top-notch financial operator (which Sir Alan certainly is) working within a system which cannot legally be audited by anyone outside it (as the royal finances were before April 2012) can probably find ways to finangle a lot more money than what the Queen is assumed to own
personally, if she really had a use for it and he was convinced it was in the best interests of Queen and Country.
The Sovereign Grant Act will have caused some agitation among the Shadow Court, but as long as Sir Alan was by then firmly on board with the program and the conspiracy had sensibly arranged to convince someone within the National Audit Office of the indelicacy of prying too much into the Queen's private affairs, I see no reason why it should prevent them from having free use of some staggeringly expensive real estate, as well as receiving a couple of million quid a year in indirect subsidies which come ultimately from the Queen's private purse.
Of course, this leaves most of the actual costs to be borne by other members of the conspiracy, one of the reasons why the Queen had to recruit primarily independently wealthy people. On the other hand, the Queen can make strategic use of the many charities and non-profit organisations that look to her as a patron to finance many of the costs. And by using her subtle social influence and the influence of all her many contacts to nudge things helpfully for certain corporations and individuals, she can ensure that they feel no hardship even when they provide substantial financial assistance to the project.
After all, there are many people in the City and elsewhere in the Commonwealth countries who have plenty of money and are prepared to sacrifice a lot of it merely to increase the chances of being invited to tea at Buckingham Palace, let alone for the chance at frequent personal invitations for receptions, dinners and hunting trips, consideration in the Birthday Honours and other similar honours.
For more practical businessmen and corporations, introductions to the right people or a word in the ear of a senior civil servant or general officer might be worth millions, some of which bounty would duly be remitted, through complex and opaque channels, into the voracious maw of the Shadow Court. Running an unearthly combination of private intelligence service, a paranormal university and academic society, secret police and black ops strike force is not cheap by any means.
Edit: Other possible castles that it is not outside of the realm of possibility to imagine that the Queen could arrange for include the ruined Dunstaffnage Castle* and Dunconnel Castle.
Does anyone know anything about them?
*I'm concerned about the proximity to Oban, but a supposedly ruined castle that actually conceals a thriving secret headquarters has a certain charm.
**Picturesque ruins on a small island with no inhabitants. I wonder if it would be big enough, assuming that it's possible to conceal much of the modern activity below-ground.