Chapter Ten
Morning Mayhem
In my long and interesting association with Holmes, I have often found myself waking up in places other than my own bed.
I'll pause for a moment so you can drag your mind out of the gutter.
What I mean by this is that Holmes has an unreasoning fondness for stakeouts, and The Irregulars having been touring on the road recently. This makes for an annoying combination of nights spent in a hotel room or a car seat.
A pedantic person might point out that since the sun had not risen, this was not a 'morning' expedition. Aren't those people annoying? I'll refrain from boring you with the gruesome details of hot-wiring a Civic in the East End. The motorway between London and Southampton was becoming tiresome.
We were now in Scotland Yard's computer center. It was a strange looking computer center. Each terminal was housed within its own cubicle, complete with laser printer. I was keeping awake by staring intently at the blue-gray cubicle wall. Holmes was searching various databases for, well, data. There was a large cargo vessel currently sitting in Southampton Harbor which would be taking a large cargo of stolen cars to the Orient. Sharon had been very adamant that we be standing on Pier Seven at eleven o'clock in the evening four days hence.
"Four ships arrived yesterday." Holmes said finally. Sure enough, four profiles blinked on the computer screen. "One is just in to refill the petrol tank. Two are scheduled for long term maintenance. The fourth…" Double click. The icon enlarged to fill the screen.
"The Fujikawa Maru, Japanese registry, runs regular trips between Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Southampton and is scheduled to leave in exactly four days."
"Sounds like ours."
Holmes dashed off a note to Inspector Hargrave. The gist of it was the time, date and location that the cars would be transferred from the warehouse and the name of the ship. He also included the rather self-evident observation that this would be an excellent time to capture the Tigers red-handed.
We went down to the mail room to clandestinely deliver the note. Three and three-fifths of a second after we dropped the note into her box, I noticed Hargrave standing three feet away. So much for the clandestine part.
"Good morning Alexander." Danger, Danger, Alexander Holmes!
"Good morning, Inspector." Holmes replied respectfully. Hargrave was immediately suspicious. She glanced over the note. She paused to glare at the both of us, then returned to contemplating the note. I could almost see the thoughts running through her head. This was likely to be highly dangerous, no place for an intern, much less some punk rock drummer. Then again, if she pulled us out now, the Tigers might get suspicious and call off the rendezvous with the Maru.
"I do hope you realize what you've gotten yourselves into." She said finally. We both nodded firmly. "All right then. We have some planning to do."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Questions, comments, critisicms, complaints? Make your voice heard.
.•´¨`•»¦«•Kerowyn•»¦«•´¨`•.
Morning Mayhem
In my long and interesting association with Holmes, I have often found myself waking up in places other than my own bed.
I'll pause for a moment so you can drag your mind out of the gutter.
What I mean by this is that Holmes has an unreasoning fondness for stakeouts, and The Irregulars having been touring on the road recently. This makes for an annoying combination of nights spent in a hotel room or a car seat.
A pedantic person might point out that since the sun had not risen, this was not a 'morning' expedition. Aren't those people annoying? I'll refrain from boring you with the gruesome details of hot-wiring a Civic in the East End. The motorway between London and Southampton was becoming tiresome.
We were now in Scotland Yard's computer center. It was a strange looking computer center. Each terminal was housed within its own cubicle, complete with laser printer. I was keeping awake by staring intently at the blue-gray cubicle wall. Holmes was searching various databases for, well, data. There was a large cargo vessel currently sitting in Southampton Harbor which would be taking a large cargo of stolen cars to the Orient. Sharon had been very adamant that we be standing on Pier Seven at eleven o'clock in the evening four days hence.
"Four ships arrived yesterday." Holmes said finally. Sure enough, four profiles blinked on the computer screen. "One is just in to refill the petrol tank. Two are scheduled for long term maintenance. The fourth…" Double click. The icon enlarged to fill the screen.
"The Fujikawa Maru, Japanese registry, runs regular trips between Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Southampton and is scheduled to leave in exactly four days."
"Sounds like ours."
Holmes dashed off a note to Inspector Hargrave. The gist of it was the time, date and location that the cars would be transferred from the warehouse and the name of the ship. He also included the rather self-evident observation that this would be an excellent time to capture the Tigers red-handed.
We went down to the mail room to clandestinely deliver the note. Three and three-fifths of a second after we dropped the note into her box, I noticed Hargrave standing three feet away. So much for the clandestine part.
"Good morning Alexander." Danger, Danger, Alexander Holmes!
"Good morning, Inspector." Holmes replied respectfully. Hargrave was immediately suspicious. She glanced over the note. She paused to glare at the both of us, then returned to contemplating the note. I could almost see the thoughts running through her head. This was likely to be highly dangerous, no place for an intern, much less some punk rock drummer. Then again, if she pulled us out now, the Tigers might get suspicious and call off the rendezvous with the Maru.
"I do hope you realize what you've gotten yourselves into." She said finally. We both nodded firmly. "All right then. We have some planning to do."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Questions, comments, critisicms, complaints? Make your voice heard.
.•´¨`•»¦«•Kerowyn•»¦«•´¨`•.