Champ de Courses

Between Kingston and Nassau-1000hrs-next day

A lone helicopter past through the clear sky. With the markings it had, it was clear that it was an Interpol flight. Onboard were pilot Jimmy Dye and his co-pilot Warren Earl. Also onboard were Commander David Banks and three of his men.

"We should see land in about ten minutes," Dye said, looking back to David Banks and his men.

"What on earth is that?" Earl said, seeing something in the distance.

Everyone looked to where Earl was looking. Sure enough in the distance, there was a large rust colored hump bobbing with the waves off in the distance. "Let's take a look."

"Look's like a ship turned turtle," Dye said. "Any reports of a missing ship?"

"No," Banks said, flipping through a list on the clipboard. "But the motor yacht Thunder Beak didn't come into Nassau."

"That's the Thunder Beak all right," Dye said.

"How can you tell?" Banks asked, doubtful.

"The Thunder Beak has a blue hull with rust red anti-fouling," Dye answered. "This vessel's got it. And the Thunder Beak's got azipod propulsion, if you look carefully you can see them poking out of the water. And to top it off, it had a glass bottom, obvious right here!"

"Take a look," Banks said.

"Can we land on 'er?" Earl asked.

"Let's see," Dye said, and the helicopter slowly descended on the bottom of the capsized yacht. "Call in for backup. Poor bastards, must've ran into one hell of a wave in last night's storm."

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Interpol Paris Division-1200hrs

Sly had trouble concentrating. Ever since yesterday's news, he was simply trying to show intrigue in his friend's kidnapping, while showing no hints of him not having amnesia. Who would kidnap Bentley and Penelope, no doubt it had to be that they were being forced to build some weapon. He sighed, pretending to be looking at his paperwork and leaned his chair back.

"FOX!" Sly fell out of his chair, well, more like it rolled out from beneath him out of the surprise. "MY OFFICE NOW!"

Carmelita looked at Sly quizzically, then left for Chief Barkley's office.

"Yes Chief?" Carmelita asked.

"It's about Cooper," Barkley muttered. Carmelita paled a little. "No doubt you've heard that two; uh, Bentley and Penelope, I think."

"Yes sir, Winthorpe told me about it," Carmelita replied.

"This morning one of our helicopters found a capsized yacht belonging to Dimitri," Barkley continued. "Two out of sixty people on board survived. That left fifty eight dead, but Dimitri's not among them and seven other crewmen are missing, as well a diver found find men on the bridge shot to death, and the helicopter for the yacht is gone. Now what happened aboard that yacht we don't know, but we do know that Dimitri is gone, likely spirited away. And these two kidnappings, I have doubt they're just coincidences. So I need you to keep a hawk's eye on Cooper at all times. If these kidnappings are connected, no doubt Cooper is a target, along with the other three members, whether he remembers anything or not, are we clear inspector?"

"Yes sir," Carmelita answered and headed for the door.

"One more thing," Barkley said. "Don't tell Cooper, we don't want him regaining any of memories of his past."

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Talladega Race Track, Texas-1500hrs

Murray finished the waxing on his precious van, whilst his pit crew finished tuning up the fine racing machine. 'The Murray' as he was known, hadn't been on the stock van tour very long, but he had his own fan club already. Though he didn't always come in first, he continued to be the main event; during the last race in Daytona, there was a major pile-up and his van took the brunt of it; fatal normally, but Murray managed to eject himself from his seat while the van flipped and rolled, and bounced away; curled up in a ball.

The van remained very much the same, only the Cooper Gang symbol was removed from the front and back and the satellite and radio antennas now folded down for streamlining. The super computer was removed, and there was now a single bunk and gimbaled mini fridge. While most vans in the circuit would flip from taking the turns, Bentley had developed a weight distribution system, so that while g-forces pulled on the van from one side, the system would counteract it by shifting the weights positioned in the under carriage to the other side.

"She's ready to fly," an albatross in a jumpsuit said, closing the hood.

"All right Orville," Murray smirked. "What'ya say Wilbur?"

A twin albatross slid out from underneath the van. "Okay to go."

Meanwhile, a smug condor looked at the pink hippo through the opened garage door. "Tomorrow…tomorrow."