MCU - Downunder Style


It was a busy day at LAX. Crowds of people were wandering back and forth, both travelers and visitors alike. However the duty free shop was very quiet. The female shop assistant watched the tall blonde man who had just entered and was looking at a display of cameras. Another group of people entered. He turned to look at them and the first thing he saw was the barrel of a sub-machine gun.
"Nice and calm now, just fill this bag with the cash, and no one will get hurt." The leader was covering her, while the others fanned out and were collecting things from the shelves. On a security monitor, she saw one of the bandits point his gun at the blonde man. There was a blur and the bandit was disarmed and unconscious. The shop assistant watched with amazement as the blonde man stalked the other bandits through the shelves. One by one they fell. The leader caught on that something was wrong. Leaping the counter, he hit the shop assistant with the gun. She screamed and fell. The leader rapidly filled the bag with cash. His eye was caught by the security monitor.
"What the he-" he started
A hand reached over the counter and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. He was jerked upward and his head hit the mans other fist. He crumpled unconscious.
The blonde man put a digital camera on the counter.
"How much for this please?"
She managed to stammer out the price, and give the man his change. He nodded to her and left. She managed to hit the alarm button before collapsing.


Amy walked up to Terrell, Sammo and Grace, who were sitting on Terril's desk. She was followed by a tall blonde man.
"This is Jim Tomas."
"G'day!" Jim offered a huge hand to each of them in turn. Terrell wrung his hand in silent agony afterwards.
"He's on loan from the Australian Federal Police. They are looking to set up their own MCU, and so he is here to observe us for a few weeks."
"Hello." Sammo greeted him. Jim was almost a foot taller than him. Jim grinned down at him.
"Sammo Hung, right? I've heard that you are a great fighter. Maybe we could spar sometime."
"I look forward to it." Sammo nodded.
He looked at Grace and Terrell.
"Grace, Terrell." He said, setting their names in his memory.
"Sammo, Terrell, he'll be with you. Anyway, that's no the only problem. We've got a vigilante. He broke up a robbery at a duty free at LAX. We should be getting the security video any minute now. "she said, walking to a computer. A window opened, and a recording started. It showed Jim in the duty-free. They stared at the screen and then at Jim. He shrugged.
"Welcome to America." Terrell said dryly.

Jim filled most of the back of Terrell's convertible. He looked distinctly uncomfortable, with his knees up near his ears.
"Next time, we take my car." Sammo informed Terrell. Terrell looked in the rear-view mirror to see Jim's eyes looking back.
"Yeah. Anyway, we're trying to break a smuggling ring. We know they are using second-hand book stores for transfer points. We just haven't managed to catch them at it. So we're going to stake it out. We know they make the transfer at about 3pm. So we're going to try and catch them at it." Jim blinked.
"What books does this second hand bookstore stock?"
He got startled looks in the rear-view mirror.
"Hey, just because I'm a cop doesn't mean I don't read."


It was a very old book store, with a second level overlooking the first. Tall bookshelves filled the shop, and a iron spiral staircase stood in a corner. A wooden counter stood by the door, with an old man sitting reading behind it. They entered separately, Jim making a bee-line for the Fantasy shelves, which were upstairs, Terrell flipped through a stack of out-dated Sports Illustrated and Sammo browsed though the Foreign Language collection.
At just after 3pm, a teenaged girl came in, and wandered up the back of the store. A minute passed and she came back carrying a copy of War & Peace. Jim nodded at Sammo, who intercepted her.
"Excuse me, Miss, can I have a look at that?"
"No! Why should I?" she demanded hostilely.
Sammo produced his badge.
"Because I am a police officer."
Taking the book from her, he opened it. The center was hollowed out, inside was a plastic bag filled with a computer discs. The girl looked at it guiltily, the shopkeeper in puzzlement.
"I've never seen it before." He declared.
"I believe that's mine." A male voice said from the doorway.
Standing at the door was a young man wearing a leather jacket and carrying a pistol.
"Hugh! But I was just bringing you the-" the girl started
"Shut up bitch! Hand over the book, fatty! And don't try anything, I've got a pistol." He started waving it about and reached out for the book. Jim swung over the balcony and landed on him. His right hand darted out and slammed into the man's wrist. There was a cracking sound and he dropped it.
"Craig!" the girl shrieked.
Jim lent over and hissed in Craig's ear.
"Next time you point a gun at a cop, I'll break your legs! Got that!" Craig muttered something. Picking up the pistol by the trigger guard, he looked closely at it.
Passing the gun to Terrell he shouted
"That's 2 counts of smuggling, 1 gun offense, and 1 act of BEING BLOODY STUPID!"
Craig tried to rise, but Jim planted a foot in the middle of his back and pushed.
Sammo and Terrell looked at each other and wondered what they had go into now.
"How did you know that she was the mule?" Terrell demanded.
"Look at her. What are the chances that she'd be reading War and Peace? In the original Russian, no less?"
Terrell blinked at the book. Then he blinked at the girl. He shrugged.