Chapter 4 - Preliminary Planning
A little farmhouse outside Collodi, Tuscany, Italy, 1971:
The helicopter attack over SPECTRE Island pointed more than ever to the idea that the Coachman was again to be located there and his latest scheme to turn people into donkeys was hatched there. Knowing this James would again take unprecedented measures for him. He would conduct the arrest of Miss. Pietta himself and have her brought to the new safe house. There he would get her to confess her SPECTRE involvement. However this time it would not be lovemaking he would use as the device to get that confession because there were children involved deeply in the case. For this case James figured that Lampwick may just be an acceptable substitute for his usual actions. Miss. Pietta seemed to have a hatred bordering on fear of the donkey, perhaps because she knew the donkey was once a person and perhaps because she had even seen one of the Coachman's person to donkey transformations take place. Perhaps the same way the appearance of a snake loosens an ophidophobe's tongue the display of Lampwick would loosen Miss. Pietta's tongue without having to resort to more "adult" measures. James waited until Pinocchio and Geppetto were in bed and sound asleep and left the safe house.
"Universal Exports", Florence, Italy: 1971:
James entered the van on the driver's side and started the engine and in a few seconds was on his way to Florence. He parked the van as closely to the "Universal Exports" office as possible and entered the facility with his Walther PPK drawn as not being in the immediate vicinity of the "fairy tale" characters allowd James to act a little more like himself. There sitting at her desk was Miss Pietta. "You are coming with me."
James said returning to his more stone cold agent way of talking.
"Am I to assume that I'm your "date" for tonight." Miss Pietta said
"No, way!" James returned. "I would not have traitors."
"So you know." Miss Pietta returned.
"That you work for SPECTRE." James returned. "Lets just say three Jet Ranger Helicopters on their way to kill Gepetto, Pinocchio and Lampwick ratted you out."
"But they make a donkey out of me if I accompany you!" Miss Pietta pleaded. "That DNA altering serum Number 1 has works on women and girls as well as men and boys!"
James responded by pointing the Walther directly at Miss. Pietta. "And I will kill you if you don't."
"Please!" Miss Pietta continued "I don't want to be a donkey!!"
James responded by racking the slide on the Walther. "Make your choice." was James's only verbal response.
Miss. Pietta then knew that the only thing to do for now was to surrender to James. She accompanied James to the van where she was placed in the front passenger seat. "And don't think of trying anything stupid. That is a passenger ejector seat capable of driving anyone who tries to pull a weapon or otherwise distract me fifty feet into the air. I can guarantee you that coming down from fifty feet without a parachute would be just as "uncomfortable" as a bullet from the PPK." James then took the driver's seat of the van for the return to the safe house outside Collodi.
A little farmhouse outside Collodi, Tuscany, Italy, 1971:
It was around the crack of dawn when James got back to the safe house. Gepetto and Pinocchio were already up by then. Pinocchio was tending to Lampwicks needs while Gepetto was in the house doing woodcarving for an incomplete music box that was in his carpet bag. The various springs, gear motors, wheels and levers were complete and assembled but the wooden parts of the music box were not yet carved out.
James did not go into the house but took Miss. Pietta directly to the back yard of the house. There he saw Pinocchio exercising Lampwick outside the corral.
"Ponoke" James said. "I need to borrow Lampwick for a while. And please go inside with your father. What is about to go on is an adult matter I don't want you involved with."
Pinocchio handed the exercise reigns to James. "Be really careful with him, you know he is really just a boy like me." Pinocchio returned.
"I will," James returned. "Now get back inside with your father!"
Pinocchio knew by James's stern tone of voice that whatever was going to happen involving James, Lampwick and Miss. Pietta was something he did not want to be involved with. He obeyed and went into the house.
Once he was sure that Pinocchio was out of seeing and hearing range of his next actions James led Lampwick to a position where Mis Pietta was sure to get an eyeful of the donkey / boy.
"Now we will discuss a method We can get onto SPECTRE Island without getting shot by Numnber 1's or should I say the Coachman's Jet Ranger Helicopters." James said.
"You get that thing away from me!!" Miss. Pietta returned.
"Talk, and I will take him away." James said. "Or don't talk and look at your future." James pointed at Lampwick. "You know that the Coachman, your Number 12 put him into this condition and you know that this can happen to you too." James again pointed at Lampwick.
"The doors," Miss. Pietta finally broke down and said.
"What doors." James returned.
"The doors to the old amusement park that used to be on SPECTRE Island." Miss Pietta said. "They are no longer used because operatives go to and from the island by helicopter now. The area of the doors and the old carnival midway is mostly overgrown and not used now. The doors are frozen in a semi opened position. You can gain entrance there but not very safely. The overgrowth hides deadly vipers and deathstalker scorpions, and of course the food supply of such creatures which can also be dangerous in its own right."
"You know that one of the reasons we have Pinocchio here is to confirm what you are telling me about the structures and fortifications of that Island because in his own time line he was on that island when it was an amusement park." James said. "And I think he's telling the truth because his nose grows when he doesn't. You had better be telling me the truth or I'll just throw you back to the Goachman and your nose will growe too, just like that one." James pointed at Lampwick's head again."
James put Lampwick back in the Corral and then returned to Miss. Pietta. "Now it is your turn to get into that house." he said.
Miss Pietta walked ahead of James into the house. In its main room Gepetto and Pinocchio were working together on the music box.
"I seer you're back James," Pinocchio said. "finish your adult conversation with Miss. Pietta?"
"Yes, and now I need a few confirmations from you which is one of the main reasons you were brought on this mission." James returned. "You really were on that very same island in another timeline in the 19th century when it was an ammusement park, weren't you."
"Yes," Pinocchio returned.
"Now Miss. Pietta told me that there is a set of doors that open to the interior of the Island." James said.
"Yes, the port of Pleasure Island." Pinocchio returned. "You see James, in the 19th century we didn't have flying machines so the Coachman had to take us to Pleasure Island by steam boat. Therefore the Island had a causeway port at an entrance with great oak doors that would lock from the outside and keep the boys in until they were changed to donkeys. These might be the doors that Miss. Pietta referred to."
"Then we have one more confirmation to make." James said. "I want to get another look at that island again. This time from sea level. We will be bringing the televisionscope with us this time. Because I want to do this at a safe distance from the Island.
James picked up the Q created device which actually looked like a small portable television set from the table on which it sat and made for the van once again leaving Pinocchio, Lampwick and Geppetto alone.
As insects, even anthropomorphic ones tended to be more sensitive to vibrations than humans Jiminy, still ticked away in his matchbox bet was the first to hear the new danger. It was a steady vibrations like what might come from engines smaller than those on a car but larger than those on a lawnmower. Gepetto soon saw the source of the vibrations From the window. They came from three two wheeled vehicles that the riders rode on rather than in.
"What's making all that racket out there." Jiminy said.
"Some kind of two wheeled riding machines." Gepetto returned. They are all black and have the face of a white cat panted on their sides."
"White cat!!" Jiminy shouted. "Isn't that creep who turns boys into donkeys carrying a white cat around these days."
"Suddenly a sound lake a series of explosions strung together rattled the early morning air followed by a string of bullet holes in the wall of the house containing its entrance door.
"DUCK!!" Jiminy shouted.
Both Pinocchio and Geppetto made for the floor as fast as they could. The only exposure either one of them had to firearms before was the revolver used to shoot down the minion dragon conjured by Magica De Spell in Duckburg and Geppetto's own percussion cap blunderbuss. And right now that firearm was in his carpet bag but what good was the old black powder single shooter against these future weapons that could spary bullets like water. However that old blunderbuss pistol was all that Geppetto had to defend Pinocchio, Lampwick and Jiminy from the new threat. He crept up to the carpet bag and got the pistol together with the lead balls and black powder and precussion caps it used out of his carpet bag. Just as he got them another of those rapid multi shot blasts came into the house with the bullets going through one wall and lodging in another.
Gepetto loaded his own antique with black powder and nine balls that the flared barrel would disperse like a shotgun blast. He set the hammer at half cock and put a percussion cap on the nipple. He aimed the gun at the vehicle that was the closest to the house and the obvious source of the new type of gunfire set the blunderbuss pistol to full cock and let his own load go. The blast disabled the entire front wheel and weapons system of the machine but only made a few grazing wounds on the rider who left the area in a rather great hurry not wanting to fool around any further with whatever weapon had the capability of disabling the latest in SPECTRE attack motorcycle technology. Bu the time that rider left Gepetto had another load ready to go in the blunderbuss handgun which he fired into the front wheel of the second machine disabling it as well. Its rider hitched a ride on the third machine which departed the area intact. The second lives of Pinocchio, Geppetto and Lampwick was stopped by an antique firearm that was indeed even an antique when Geppetto inherited it from his own father.
Shortly after the attack by the SPECTRE motorcycles James returned with the van. He saw the two SPECTRE motorcycles and wondered what could have possibly happened. His first view of the situation was that MI-6 found out about the treason in their Florence office and decided to take matters into their own hands with a new and devastating weapon of some kind. However he soon had to revise his view when he saw Geppetto standing amongst the ruins of the second motorcycle with an antique blunderbuss handgun in his hand.
"You took on mobile full automatic weapons with that thing." James said in wonder of the old man with the antique handgun who took on SPECTRE and won.
"Yes," Geppetto said. "I usually keep this under my pillow to scare away burglars who try to take my work without paying for it but decided to keep it hidden in the carpet bag figuring I wouldn't need it because I assume you had a handgun of some kind. But my little Pinocchio was in danger from these machines so I had to bring it out and use it against them."
"You are truly an amazing man Geppetto, Now I can see what Q sees in you taking on SPECTRE with a muzzle loading antique and winning against them." James said.
"Now I've got some very interesting televisionscope scans I would like you, Pinocchio and Jiminy to see. James took the device out of the van and the two men returned into the house. From there James summoned everybody to the main room. For the First time even Lampwick the donkey was allowed into the house to the extreme discomfort of Miss Pietta who was still being held there pending transfer to a more official detention facility."
James turned on the device and adjusted it to its highest clarity. On it was a picture of the what Pinocchio and Lampwick both remembered as the port of pleasure island now in a time worn condition. The causeway was now just a pile of rocks that extended out from the island and the doors were extensively termite holed and frozen in a slightly opened position. The outside locks were long rusted off.
"This will be our way into SPECTRE's roost," James announced. "Now I know that some of you are minors and shouldn't be involved in things like this but I also feel you were all brought here for a reason involving this case. Therefore I have a mission for each of you."
"First you, Pinocchio." James said. "Since you never turned fully into a donkey you would probably know the layout of that island better than anybody here. Your job will be to find the old midway roads of the old ammusement park as they will probably be the safest way into the island's interior. Lampwick, your job will be to use your hooves to take down any snakes, scorpions or other unpleasant creatures we might meet so that I can save ammunition for the MOST dangerous creatures in that island. Jiminy as being a "bug" already will be the equivalent of out listening device. You are to get into the SPECTRE mansion on that island and report to us everything that is going on there. And finally you Gepetto, I'm having Q come over here tomorrow and I want you to aid him in the creation of a clockwork engine for our transportation over to that island. I don't want to be using a noisy device like an internal combustion engine or an electric motor for this trip. If all goes well we stop SPECTRE tomorrow."
Next - To SPECTRE Island
Note - I'm sort of a gun buff with an interest mainly in 18th and 19th century firearms and always wanted to do a story with the premise that the old antiques could still beat modern automatic weapons if surprise was a part of their use and therefore made that the theme of the motorcycle battle in this chapter. The blunderbuss handgun Geppetto used in this chapter was the same one he had in the early scenes of the movie when Pinocchio first came to life as a puppet.