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Retirement from Service.
Steed looked up from his writing, flexing his hand and his wrist from the hour's long writing he had just committed himself to. He had retired from active service a few years ago, but Mother had requested that he perform a few lectures for the new students. Steed had agreed since he was always more than happy to teach newcomers - Tara and Purdey and Gambit had all been trained, but he had taken over the final part of their training in the field.
He was merely writing up notes for what kind of cases he had tangled with. He had a very long list; from atomic bombs in department stores, that business with Mr Teddy Bear, the incidents at Castle De'ath, the encounters with Armstrong's Cybernauts, the time he had saved Mrs Peel when she strapped to the railway lines, that horror film business, the Winged Avenger… Steed had many cases to call upon, and years of experience to choose from.
So much to choose from, the agony of choice…
x
"Hello," Steed greeted all of the students with a warm, sincere smile. "My name is John Steed. I know you've heard of me if the whispers are anything to go by. Oh, don't be worried. I don't mind if you whisper, but as long as you listen to me as I go on, that's fine. I was once like you, a band of students listening to an experienced field agent. But I found lectures to be one thing, experience was something far more useful. I have recently retired from active service, but I am giving my services to you now as a lecturer.
"In this organisation, everyone who is a field agent will be called upon to solve a problem relating to national security while there might be a call to investigate a strange event which has baffled the regular police. I have personally overseen the resolution of such cases, some of which were important to national security, such as an attempt by a foreign power to infiltrate a village and replace it with their own people and continue replacing other nearby towns and villages. However, I shall tell you about the case involving the famous entrepreneur, Horatio Kane who took over the Pinter's department store franchise.
"For those of you who don't know, Kane was the businessman who was instrumental in the mass production of new products before he was retired because modern production techniques replaced the methods that had suited him well in the past. As a result, Kane became bitter and he was put in a wheelchair due to an accident. At some point, during his retirement, Kane somehow came up with the plan to kidnap a nuclear physicist, Professor Popple, and use his expertise to construct a nuclear bomb in a department store. In London.
"You have to admire Kane's idea. That was ingenious, and myself and my partner at the time, Mrs Emma Peel, were both impressed. We had both forgotten some important points about the takeover of Pinter's by Kane. For instance, when he took control of Pinter's, Kane made several changes to the staff; he brought in a number of his own people to watch over the department store, and ensure no one, anyone from the old guard or a customer, or a store detective discovered something. Another important point to make note of is that when you try to construct a nuclear bomb in a department store, it is very hard to hide it. The shop was physically changed, as well. The bomb wasn't just installed into the building, it became the building; when the case was resolved, and Kane was stopped, a team of specialists worked with Popple to tear the workings of the bomb out. As the scientist who'd worked with it, he knew the workings very well.
Steed took a moment to gather his thoughts and focus on the story. "Working in the field… sometimes you will be called upon to investigate reports of strange activity. Such an agent was despatched to Pinter's, quickly recognising that something was wrong, although to this day I have no idea how much Moran, the agent, was discovered and he was shot, with a Pinter's ticket in his pocket. Mrs Peel went undercover - I hope you have all been studying undercover operations; all of you must remember, that when you go undercover, you should just be yourself and listen to everything around you. Mrs Peel made the acquaintance of a few members of the staff and they told her about how the store was being changed, from ignorance of the shop products and how the store detective knew something was wrong. Kane either didn't know about that, or he simply did not care.
"I met Kane, y'know, posing as an efficiency expert - its best to come up with something quick, like a stockholder, or something like that to blend in, never forget that. Anyway, Kane was really interesting. He was a man who was partly bitter about the treatment he'd received when he was believed to be incapable of coping with modern industry, but he had the ingenuity to arrange the kidnapping of a prominent scientist and commence work on a bomb. Kane let out a rant, letting out his bitterness about the modern industry and how he planned and hoped to make a comeback, promising to show everyone who'd mocked him that he was still capable of action.
"One truth of being an agent is knowing you will likely be on call. One night, Mrs Peel had received a call from the store detective, who'd overheard something he shouldn't, but when she arrived through a side door that was left unlocked, she found the store detective was already dead. The next morning it was business as usual. The body had been removed and the area cleaned up to maintain the facade, and there was a dismissal of a staff member who'd been a part of Pinter's for a long time. He was angry, and he had no idea why some of his ground-floor displays were being changed. He gave me another lead, of a woman who was in charge of the food, and she told me that several foods had vanished. Honeyed bumblebees, to be exact, and it was a food Popple liked.
"Mrs Peel found Popple, his feet firmly manacled, working in a laboratory. When I arrived I heard she was dismissed for philandering, but it was more likely she had discovered something, and she had been discovered in turn. That's something you will have to accept when you yourselves are in the field, and it's just as important you either work in teams, or you have a partner, someone who will know that you are in trouble, and is in a position to rescue you. If you're in a team, the chances are far better. Practice working in twos or threes, trust me you'll be happier for it. That's my experience.
"When I found Mrs Peel, we found Popple's laboratory, the scientist was drugged but there were computer cards that the agent who'd been shot while following leads must have stumbled upon, and Mrs Peel's proficiency with science showed her the nuclear bomb was in the store. We searched for the bomb, believing that we would stumble upon it. When Mrs Peel and I were in Popple's laboratory, we had computer readouts with the plans, but we hadn't realised the building itself was the bomb. It was part of Kane's big idea of a comeback, the destruction of London when someone triggered the detonator by travelling to the basement for a washing machine!
"After a final confrontation with Kane and his henchmen, where he revealed the point of the bomb, the murders, the kidnapping of a nuclear physicist, as an attempt to take over the entire country. He would hold the country to ransom with the threat of the bomb. It would not be easy; what isn't really known to the British public, is the government has a special task force who will hunt down the bomb and the ones who plan to use it to get whatever they wish. The British government would have done what Kane wanted. They would have played for time and they would have found the bomb, and disarmed it. The only trouble in this case was, there was no clue as to where it could be. There were two points; first, he might not be believed, and myself and Mrs Peel, we were after all the only witnesses. But he planned to destroy London, and it is possible Kane and his men would smuggle the professor out of the city, and head somewhere else to make another bomb to back up Kane's threats, and likely restart the cycle all over again unless he only planned on using the one bomb. However, we will never know the full extent of Kane's plans. The bomb would be Kane's revenge against those who claimed he didn't have a grasp on modern techniques.
"After a fight which resulted in Kane's capture, we stopped the lift descending into the basement, and the entire store was shut down for the dismantling of the bomb. The job took 2 months. And that is the basis of this lecture; when you go undercover, always remember to be yourselves, like I said earlier, and be prepared to blend in. Work in a team and support your colleagues at all times."
Steed smiled when the audience broke into a loud bevvy of cheers. He might be too old for active service nowadays, but it was always a pleasure to be seen and heard.