SHORT FAT STUBBY FINGER STORIES PRESENTS:  The COUNTDOWN BEGINS 5-4-3-2-1

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SHORT FAT STUBBY FINGER STORIES PRESENTS:  The COUNTDOWN BEGINS 5-4-3-2-1

EPISODE 76

Malena and Joseph emerged with the coffees just as Laurie announced that they were in business; Robert had duplicated his findings.  Steaming mugs in their hands, everybody crowded around the computer as Laurie turned around to face them.
  “From the looks of it, the professor wasn’t very proficient with the computer, but he was astute enough to buy one with more than enough storage space, which is just as well as Robert had some rather large downloads to share with the professor’s own investigations into the Punjaniti.  He must have had a gazillion gigs worth of photos and videos of the statue.  Anyway, there was still enough room for Robert’s input.”  Laurie then pressed a button on the laptop, and Robert’s face came onto the screen. 
   “Well, hello, everybody.”  Robert began,  “I have been advised that I will be off on a special job first thing in the morning, so I have recorded this a bit earlier than I had expected to. Joseph, I have done what you asked and I have sent you some information as an attachment so you can print it off at your leisure.  You were right about the connection.  I would be very careful how you move around this Professor Robinson.  He comes across as a pretty dangerous man.  I had time to have a couple of my friends here in intelligence run a few checks on him.  Seems that he has a rather nasty type by the name of Raymond Sharki working for him, and, according to my sources, he has been hanging around your neck of the woods recently.  Be very, very careful of him.
It was Professor Robinson who had bugged the laptop.  He used a pretty intricate system, but it wasn’t too hard for me to crack and trace the links.  I have supplied you with a picture of both Professor Robinson and Raymond Sharki just in case you happen to run into them, but remember what I said; Be very wary of them. Well, I hope that it all helps.  See you, Dad, Joseph, everybody.”
  Robert’s face disappeared from the screen and it was replaced by a display offering a choice of places to go to on the disc.
“Well, at least I know how to download an attachment.” Joseph remarked.  “Do you think the printer still works, Laurie?”  
Laurie looked down at his precious H.P. Five Thousand as it lay quietly on the floor; looked sadly at its bent and twisted frame with the slight hint of a tear in one eye.  “I have printed some beautiful pictures on this machine,  Robert would always send me high definition pictures from wherever his ship travelled to, and I would print them off and frame them, but I don’t think that will happen anymore.  Not for a while at least.  No, I think this old darling is no longer in the land of the living, so as to speak. Would you like to take a look at what Robert sent you?”
Laurie rose from the chair and Joseph quickly slipped into the seat as Malena invited Mary to help her prepare breakfast. Laurie began to clear up the mess created from the destruction of his peripherals, and Martin quickly joined him leaving Joseph to his own devices.  Joseph’s eyes glanced over the computer screen without actually absorbing anything.   He wanted to be able to study every single thing that that Robert had sent in minute detail, and he knew to do it now would be rushing things because of the distractions that were available with so many people in the house; Joseph much preferred the solitude of the hotel.  However, he decided to linger a little bit longer when he realised his eyes were hovering over a file marked Robinson.  Joseph  procrastinated for a second, bit his lip, and pressed the icon.
“Laurie, do you have any idea how I can get hold of a printer?” Joseph called out the minute the image was residing on the laptop screen.
 “I would willingly lend you mine if I had a spare, which unfortunately, I don’t.  However, William should have one or two at the hotel.” Laurie suggested.  “Otherwise you will have to go to Kingstown. That’s about a twenty mile drive, and they won’t be open today because of the holiday.”
“Then I better ring him now.  There is no time to lose.  We will have to get started printing as soon as we can.  If he doesn’t have one he will have to find one.”
Joseph rang William who advised Joseph that it was his lucky day. 
‘Yes, he certainly had a printer’, he had replied, “In fact he had two.  He had just had a brand new laser printer delivered the day before.  Did Joseph require a computer as well?’  He then asked, ‘No, he had his own laptop.  Very well, he would set it up in the conference room, and yes, he had all of the necessary cables, but it would be much better to use the wi-fi the hotel provided..’
Joseph made a vow on the spot to take a crash course on computers, smartphones and peripherals as soon as he got back to London.  These continuous references to an endless list of technical items was beginning to give him a migraine.
  “We will need to go back to the hotel straight after breakfast, I am afraid, Laurie.  Your son seems to have sent me more than I had expected, and I thank him for that, but I think I will need to produce hard copies so we can share the files.  It will be a lot quicker.  I can call Frank and Raji in if we need them.  However, before we leave with the laptop, perhaps you may wish to let Robert know what happened.”
“That is a good idea,  I will do it now, there’s no need to wait.  Robert may not be able to talk to me; he may be busy.  I will just give him the bare details,  I still have my phone., so he can ring me if he deems it necessary.  I just want  him to know that we have no computer, so he shouldn’t attempt to contact me that way.”
  The two men reversed their previous roles and as Laurie slipped into the seat he noticed the file icon for Robinson.  “Is this the name of the man you asked Robert about?”
  “Yes.  Sorry, I had forgotten about him.  Would you mind opening that file before you contact Robert, please,  I would  like to confirm something. 
  Laurie did as he was requested and two photos appeared on the screen side by side.
  “Martin. have a look at this.”  Joseph called out.
  Martin placed the equipment he had collected from the floor on the table before moving the few short steps that placed him facing the laptop as he stood slightly to the right of Laurie.
  “My god.”  Martine exclaimed, “That is the man we saw at the farm when Vittorio was shot.”
“And both of these men were at the restaurant last night.”  Joseph stated, “I think we really do have to take care.”
  Before Joseph could say anymore Malena entered the room and announced breakfast was about to be served.
“Malena, is this the man you saw outside the house?”  Joseph asked.
  Malena walked over behind Laurie and the shocked look on her face told Joseph  the answer.
  “It most certainly was.  The other man was the one in the house.  I’d like  to get my hands on him.”
  “Thought so.  Alright, ladies.  We will just help Laurie clean up out here … and we will be straight in.”  Joseph stated with a very concerned look on his face.

********

Mary and Malena had prepared a meal worthy of their appetites; bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, fried onion, home made hash browns and toasted bread.  Several large jugs of freshly made orange juice took pride of place in the middle of the medium size table, and a large pot of tea surrounded by half a dozen cups and saucers plus some sugar and milk occupied the remaining space.  
“Looks as beautiful as the two ladies that prepared it,” Laurie commented in admiration of the feast that lay before him, and Joseph quickly agreed with him. As a bachelor, the only time that he had a meal of this magnitude was when he took himself out to the occasional buffet breakfast at a restaurant.
   “Thank you, Joseph,” The two girls replied in unison, as they scrambled to sit on either side of him, almost knocking both Laurie and Martin over in their hurry.
Laurie smiled at the girl’s actions and wondered what was going on, but said nothing, while Joseph had no idea that something was even happening. Joseph’s mind was fast moving back to the hotel and the conference room. He so wanted to be reciprocal and responsive to Laurie’s initial kind offer of breakfast, especially now, after the ordeal that Laurie and Malena had just been through … especially when it had had been his own questions that had placed them in danger. But Joseph also knew that time was really running out for them to achieve all that needed doing, and that included getting the statue back … and saving Rosetta and her father from a permanent comatose existence. ‘As soon as breakfast was finished,’ he decided,,’ they would leave.’

********

“So, do you think that Robert has given you all of the information that you require?” Laurie asked.
 “I doubt that anyone in this entire world could give me all of the answers to the questions that I have, Laurie.  There are so many things that still puzzle me.  However, I am, at the moment, only concerned with finding the statue and returning it to Raji so he, in turn, can return it to the Punjaniti. And how I can do that, I hope, is answered in his reply.”
“Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”  Malena asked with concern.  “I mean, aren’t they just as dangerous as the creature itself?”
“We are taking the chance that they don’t want it to materialize on Earth either.  We believe Raji when he says that they need to have the statue in their possession, in order to stop it from entering, and to prevent anybody from trying to use it for personal use.”
  “I am certain that you know what’s right, Joseph.” Malena stated with a soft , sparkling. smile.
“Are you absolutely certain that Raji can be trusted?”  Mary interjected.
“I can’t be absolutely certain of anything,” Joseph replied, “but I am trusting my instincts on this one.”
  “You can’t ask for more than that in our business.”  Martin declared, putting in his two pennies worth.
“And what is your profession, Joseph,” Malena asked, innocently, grabbing the opportunity to find out more about him.
Joseph almost choked on his food.  He was scrambling for the right words to say that would not give anybody cause to question what he said, and that most definitely included Mary and Martin. Now drums began to beat wildly inside his head; once again he could feel the onset of a migraine. After all of this time of playing cat and mouse with Rosetta, Martin and Mary, Joseph had fallen into the complacency trap: becoming so engrossed and engaged in his assumed role of being somebody special he was beginning to believe it was true. That had been a bad mistake, he now realised, and now it was all now coming back to bite him. For the first time since he had met Martin he could feel his entire world crumbling around him. He was stuck; he was trapped, but he had to answer, or that in itself would cast a shadow of suspicion on him, and this was not the time for that to happen. He may have been ‘the great pretender‘; he may have been a fake, but their problem was real, and they really had a chance of rectifying things. However, that would require them all working together; to have complete faith in each other – and that was exactly what was on the line if he offered the wrong words.
Finally Joseph forced a smile on his face, strung together enough words in his mind to offer a half-hearted, albeit shaky joke that he worked for x-files and chased illegal aliens around the world. But Joseph nearly jumped out of his skin when the obnoxiously loud smashing in of the front door completely drowned out his first tentatively spoken words.

********

As Joseph’s over-fraught mind slowly began to comprehend the reason for the attack on his shattered nerves, Laurie got up to answer the knock on the front door.  To everybody’s surprise, it was Inspector O’Reilly that followed him back into the kitchen.     
“Come in, Inspector.”  Laurie gave him a cordial welcome, but there was no doubting that the Inspector hadn’t come on a social visit,  “Have you met my guests?”
“Aye, I have, and under similar circumstances unfortunately, but I am rather pleased to see them again, especially this morning.  Good morning, all.” 
“Sounds rather ominous, Inspector.” A far more relaxed Joseph noted with interest.
“There has been another fire at the Forster’s farmhouse.”
“What, today.” Joseph asked in surprise.
  “No, yesterday, somewhere around midday. Fortunately there was not a lot of damage to the house, however when the fire brigade were checking through the house some bodies were found, and they were rather hard to identify due to the ferocity of the fire at one point.  The really strange thing about the damage done to the bodies is seeing as how the damage had been predominantly in the one area – in the same room where the last fire was, only closer to the corridor and the exit – both bodies gave the impression that they may have been attempting to escape the house. The fire brigade chief thinks that the fire was started with fuel being poured over their bodies to create such horrific damage to them. There was nothing else in the room to burn.
Harvey, the caretaker, had just arrived at the farm when he saw some foreign looking types running from the barn.  He was going to call out to them when he caught a rather obnoxious smell of something burning emitting from the house.  Reeked of a combination of flesh and cloth he said. He forgot about them and rang the fire brigade, and me, then went in to try to put it out.  His efforts were almost in vain because there was no actual fire, but he hosed down the still smouldering embers and that left enough, albeit charred flesh and bone on the cadavers for the fire chief to recognise the deceased’s remains for what they were: human beings.
it was only a short time ago that I suddenly thought that it might have been you three, seeing as how you had been spending some time out there. I rang William at the hotel and he said that you were supposed to be here, but I had to check it out for myself.  I am so glad that you are alright.”
“All things considered, so are we, Inspector O’Reilly. But thank you for thinking of us.” Joseph responded,  “Who do you suppose they were?”
“I really have no idea.” Again the inspector’s mind was turning to the inevitable conclusion that Scotland Yard’s finest would soon be running amok over his peaceful village,  “Mind you,  part of me really doesn’t want to know.  I doubt that it is anyone from the village.  I can only guess that it may be one of those drug gang things.  But why, in heaven’s name, would they bother to come all the way out here to have a bit of rough and tumble?  I don’t think that there is enough sales of their nasty product sold here in the village to warrant a territorial war.  We have only ever discovered one seller in the village, and even then he was a transit sleeping rough in the woods selling his private stock and he was soon moved on.  And there was a schoolboy who was getting his marijuana in London.  Ironically, he was caught smoking it in the barn at the farm. But he got such a fright when we caught him, never mind his father’s reaction when he became aware of his wrongdoings, that I doubt he will consider re-offending in  the foreseeable future, if ever, I really can’t believe this is all happening.  It is way beyond me.” 
“These days I expect anything could happen,” Joseph said in agreement, doing his best to sound convincing,  “It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.  What happened in the barn?  Do you have any idea who it was that Harvey saw leaving it?”
  “No.  Harvey gave us a description of them so we will keep an eye out, but he said that as far as he remembered he was certain that he heard a car starting up as he ran into the house with the hose.  In fact he thought he heard another noise, albeit a little louder; more like a truck as he began to put out the fire, but he was far too occupied with the fire to be concerned about the strangers. So it seems safe to assume that they had well and truly left the farm by the time I arrived. We are not certain that the two men had anything to do with the fire, and we are not especially heavy on manpower.  We simply don’t have the resources to go house to house to locate them, I am afraid …. if they are still in the village, that is.  Well, seeing that you three are alright I must be going.”
“You wouldn’t care to join us for breakfast, Inspector?  A good breakfast will help you get through a busy day.”  Laurie offered.
“Tempting … very tempting, but no, I am afraid not. I really must get back to the station and fill out some reports and face the inevitable.  I have to get in contact with the bureaucrats in London and request some help out here now.  My guess is that this will be a murder investigation; the second in a couple of days. And, to boot, I have had quite a few men and women complaining that their other half have been gone too long, and haven’t contacted them since they just got up and went walkabout.  So I may as well report a few missing persons while I’m at it.”   He sighed, and with a shrug, he bowed and left the room leaving the small group to resume their meal, albeit with a buzz of excitement surrounding it.

*********

“That was very nice of him to be concerned about us.” Mary remarked.
“Yes, it was,” Joseph agreed.
“Should we have told him about Raji and his friends?”
“I think that the Inspector has enough on his plate at the moment, and besides, would you have liked to try to explain the Punjaniti or the Punjani to him?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Then we didn’t need to tell him.  It would appear that Professor Robinson’s boys have been busy covering their tracks and that only means one thing.”
“And what’s that, old boy?” Martin asked between two massive folds of bacon rashers being temporally installed into his mouth.
“Us, old boy,” Joseph replied in a mocking voice.  “We are next.” 
  “My god … you are right.”  Martin spluttered as he did his best to deny his huge mouthful the opportunity to return to the plate, “We are the only link left alive, other than Laurie, and Malena here.”
“And William ,,, and Raji, and possibly Harvey.”  Joseph reminded Martin, “However, for the moment, Laurie and Malena should be safe, hopefully presumed dead by Sharki and his boys following the attack by the Punjaniti, and maybe …”
“What is it, Joseph?”  Malena enquired with a tone of excitement.
  “Maybe they think that we are all dead.  After all, they may have been aware of our intended visit here for breakfast and expected all of us to be here at the same time as the Punjaniti’s visit. The place has definitely been set up as a break and enter for the police when they are finally called out to the house by suspicious neighbours after hearing the noise of Rangor’s attack on the gnome. Now that gives me an idea.”   Joseph hit the redial button on his phone.   William answered it on the third ring.   “William, Joseph here again.  We think that we may have a problem here, which could put all of us at risk.  You wouldn’t have a Robinson or a Sharki staying there would you?”
“Hold on a minute,” he replied.  “I will go and check the registry.” 
As Joseph waited he could hear William greet somebody and engage in conversation with them, but unfortunately he could not hear the conversation clearly … and the longer William took to return to the phone, the more Joseph became concerned.

********

Nearly three and a half minutes had ticked by on Laurie’s antique wall clock before William’s voice finally crackled back down the line; a lifetime for Joseph’s frustrated mind at the present moment.   “Ah, Joseph, we do have somebody by the name of Sharki staying with us, but not Robinson.  What’s the problem?”
“We believe that Sharki was the one that killed Raji’s crew and Vittorio under instruction from Professor Robinson.  Laurie and Malena were also attacked this morning and Malena recognised him from a photograph I have obtained.  Also, he will probably have the statue hidden somewhere nearby.  Do you have any idea where he is at the moment?”
“No.  The keys, for his room are still on the board.  Wait a minute, I have a customer coming.”
William put the phone down, and Joseph could again only faintly hear him talking in the background.  When he returned, William’s voice was barely audible.  “That was him; Sharkie. He has just returned and gone to his room; Room fifteen  What should I do?”
“About him, nothing; about us, do you have access to a truck, and a driver that you can trust?”
“Harvey would be your best bet.  Do you want his number?’
“No, but you are right, he would be perfect.  Can you please call him, with the greatest discretion,  and arrange for him to come to Laurie’s house and collect  the five of us. Actually, get him to back in as if he is making a delivery.  Our cars are parked in the driveway so he will need to deliver something that he can safely place on the front steps, but we will need to have the driveway blocked off so we can get out of the house and get into the back of the truck unseen by anybody in the street.  We will also need to arrive at the hotel and get out without being seen.  There is the possibility that we are being watched, and it is important that we are not seen; either leaving the house, or arriving back at the hotel.  Is that possible?”
“It certainly is.  I will arrange it immediately.”
“Thank you, William … and, William, please make the phone call in absolute privacy. Do not risk being overheard, or our lives will, most likely, be subject to the gravest of danger.”
Joseph hung up the phone and turned to the others.  “I think that we will play dead for the moment.  Laurie, I want you and Malena to come and stay at the hotel with us for a while.  You escaped death once today; I don’t want to see the same thing happen for real.”
“I’ll pack some clothes straight away,” Malena stated, and headed off to her bedroom.
“I’ll bet you will.” Mary mumbled under her breath.  
“I guess that I had better do the same.” Laurie added.
“I am sorry that I got you and Malena into this mess, Laurie. I never thought that this caper was quite as serious as it is turning out. I thought we had a simple task of determining where the statue was hidden, then return to London. I truly never thought that I would put so many lives in danger. I never thought that I would put anybody’s life in danger.”
“Don’t think that way, Joseph. The world has always been in danger from the Punjaniti. It was always a matter of time before he tried again. Thank god we have you and Arkerious to help save us. Malena and I have faith in you and Arkerious, and the outcome of the battle with the Punjanini. You two won’t let us down.”
Joseph had no idea how to respond to Laurie. His words had not been what he had expected. “Thank you for your confidence, Laurie. I promise that I will do my best.’
“That is all that we can expect, my boy, that is all we can expect.” Laurie gave Joseph a smile and a wink as he departed for his bedroom
Joseph shook his head as he watched Laurie leave the room, then , once Laurie was out of sight, Joseph turned to Mary and Martin and spoke in a low tone. “Once we are back at the hotel, I am going to print off a copy of everything on the computer that Robert sent to us.  Between us we will need to go through everything on the disk in minute detail.  Time is of the essence, but so is knowledge … and my instincts tell me that we are going to need all the knowledge of the situation that we can find.”
“Is Professor Robinson staying there as well?”  Mary asked.
  “Not according to William.  I expect that he is staying at a B’N’B.  I would imagine that any other employees of Professor Robinson are also spread out in accommodation across the village so they don’t stand out, but are never far away when they are required. Now it is imperative that we don’t make any excessive noise, or go too close to a window.  I don’t know if anybody is watching the house, or saw the inspector arrive, but we will just have to hope they either aren’t, or that they think he has returned to the village to get help.  Either way if they come around to the house to check us out, then Harvey’s arrival will be a waste of time … and our lives will be in further danger.  Well, I think a cup of tea would go down well while we are waiting for our corpses to be collected.  Everybody agree?|”
 

********

The night of the Darkness

Episode 76 Part 2

Harvey duly arrived at Laurie’s house twenty minutes later and reversed the truck to a position just in front of William’s Wolseley and the Mini as requested.  Then he got out of the cabin and made his way to the back of the truck and opened the doors to give him access to several bags of rose fertiliser which he eventually took around to the front porch before knocking on the door.  What the crew inside couldn’t see was that Harvey was standing in such a manner that it would block the viewing of whoever it was that answered the door from anybody that may have been watching the house from behind him.  But he still wasn’t going to take the chance.
“Come in, Harvey,” Laurie called out in as loud a voice as he dared as he began to turn the handle in order to open the door for Harvey, only to find the door jammed.
   “I’m holding the door to stop it from opening,”  Harvey whispered cautiously, his voice barely audible inside the room. Keep your voices down and let me make my own way in … and make sure that you can’t be seen from the door when I open it.”
Sensing danger Joseph herded everybody into the kitchen as Harvey waited less than a second before he turned the door handle and let himself in, then quickly closed the door behind him and moved into the kitchen.
  “Martin,  Could you please go back into the other room and keep a check outside,”  Harvey requested the second he entered the kitchen, “but keep out of sight;  I don’t want you to be seen standing if you are supposed to be dead.  At the same time, however, keep a lookout for a black limousine,  I noticed it parked not far from here, though they could not see the house from there; I am absolutely certain of  that.  However, there could be somebody hiding in the forest.
  “Yes, no problem.”  Martin replied as he quickly made his way out of the room.
“So it really was Professor Robinson that called up Rangor.  Well, that surprises me,” Joseph remarked almost disbelievingly when he heard the limousine mentioned, “I thought perhaps the Punjani were somehow involved, or somebody else that may be involved in this whole weird event that we are not yet aware of,  But, Professor Robinson … ?  I really thought he did his own dirty work.  It must only be when it suits him.  They must be uncertain as to our condition.  That means that they possibly saw our stressed out inspector enter the house after Rangor’s visit, but they don’t know for sure what he saw.  That fits in perfectly with our plan. If the limousine is where you say it is, then perhaps they never actually saw the damage that occurred, except, perhaps, for the window. I am starting to think that they did not want to be seen near the house when Rangor arrived, so they may not have witnessed the attack, only heard the noise. In that case I suspect that they did not see me place the rubies in the garden just before Martin arrived, or they did not know what I was doing outside the house. There is every possibility that they are unaware that we located the rubies that had been planted on Laurie and Malena, or even knew to search for them in the first place. This may very well play into our hands when we get back to the hotel. It also means we have to be very careful that we are not seen moving into the back of the truck.”
“Why did the inspector come here?” Harvey asked.
“The second fire at the farm, and the corpses you found,  He was a bit concerned it may have been us.”
“Did you know about them? 
  “They were Raji’s co-workers.  Did you know that there were more bodies in the barn?`”
  “No.  I never had any reason to go there. I was only at the farm to collect the eggs and feed the chooks? How many bodies?”
“There were quite a few of them according to Raji, though they were killed by more conventional weapons. According to Raji it looked like the end of a shootout scene from one of the modern American television N. C .I. S. shows; bodies everywhere. Your inspector seems a nice enough chap.  Perhaps it might be a good idea if you double check the barn and let him know what you found before he submits his report,  It would not make him look too good to his superiors should the bodies be discovered after Scotland Yard arrives.  Especially when they have been dead for several days. They could be a bit ripe by the time Scotland Yard arrives in the village .” 
“Oh, I wasn’t aware.  Well, things might work out to our benefit, and it might explain a few things about the actions Arkerious has had William initiate. Whoever was in the car would have recognised the police car as it passed by the limousine.  If they see the ambulance arriving here at the house they may think that he had sent them. And my being here may just have been coincidental. If you were all dead when I arrived it would be normal to believe that I rang the police and was asked to wait with the bodies until they arrived, and as the inspector had already seen your corpses at the murder scene he could have quite easily arranged for an ambulance to collect you and take you to the morgue.
“And this was all Arkerious’s idea, was it.
Harvey grinned as he replied. “Yes. In fact he wanted to make sure that William got me to tell you that.
“Is that so. Arkerious may know something that I don;t know, but that still sounds a bit of a problem to my way of thinking, Harvey.  There are five of us … how could we all fit into just one ambulance?”
  “Ah, you forget what our local hospital used to be, Joseph: an army hospital,  And what do very old, nay, make that ancient, army hospitals have that other hospitals do not?  American World War two ambulances!  Believe me, you will all ride comfortably in it.  They are specially designed to accommodate four stretchers or eight seated casualties inside each vehicle, and all completely enclosed so nobody can see inside.  Now, if you think about it, if you had been annihilated by the creature, there would not be very much of you to transport, so one or two vehicles would appear to be quite suffice to do so.”
Joseph simply shook his head in profound disbelief at the twists and turns his life was taking this holiday weekend as he wondered why Arkerious couldn’t simply just transfer everybody involved in helping Rangor to another planet, – then use his strange powers to blast Rangor into a trillion pieces and finish this messy situation forever. It seemed a far better solution than they were currently facing 

********

Five minutes after Harvey arrived, a single vintage American military grey ambulance duly made a grand entrance outside Laurie’s house. An event much to the surprise of the neighbours who were so stunned at the sight of the ancient vehicle they remained both speechless and spellbound within the confines of their own homes.  The covered bodies were quickly, but courteously, carried out on stretchers to the vehicle before any of the neighbours could awake from their stupor and ask questions, and the bodies were soon, albeit slowly making their way to the Trenthamville morgue at a respectful speed. And as the small convoy made their way , a black limousine pulled out from the side of the road and flew past them, quickly disappearing in the distance.
Harvey, who was following at a respectful distance behind the ambulance, quickly checked all of his mirrors, and, as soon as he was assured that the small convoy was no longer being observed, picked up speed and beeped his horn.  The pre-arranged signal gave the ambulance drivers their cue to increase speed and five minutes later they reversed into the ambulance ramp which was out of sight from the main road. 

********

The human transfer took less than two minutes – and a further three minutes later the truck reversed into the loading dock at the back of the hotel where William met them, checking for any one coming as the small group made their way through a back door and across the corridor into the conference room. Once they were all in, William locked the door behind him.

********

“Well there is your work bench. I have given you some extra stationery in case you need it, but let me know if i have missed anything.  Give me your laptop and I will connect it for you while you tell me what’s going on?”  William’s passionate curiosity and excitement clearly reflecting in his voice.
Joseph took in the desk where the printer was sitting and noticed for the first time the wide array of things that accompanied it: stacked neatly on the table there lay enough reams of paper to reproduce all thirty two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, boxes of bulldog clips, paper clips, pens, pencils, erasers, highlighters and a whole lot more.
Greatly impressed by what William had on display Joseph gave him a condensed version of the events that had unfolded at Laurie’s house as William set up the wi-fi connection and within minutes they were all looking at the first image printed off the high-speed printer.
“Who is that?”  William asked excitedly as he looked at the picture of a short fat, roly-poly, man. 
“That is Professor Robinson, our current arch enemy – why do you ask?  Joseph replied,
  “Do you know, I am absolutely certain that he was sitting in the booth in front of us last night.  I am sure that it was him.”
“When?”
  “Just as I left to get Laurie’s phone number for you.  I mean, I thought that I saw someone in the booth, as I walked past, but as I turned back for a second look, there was no one there.  When I resumed my trip to get the phone number I saw someone going out of the door.  I didn’t know who it was at the time, but there is no doubting that shape.  And that face is certainly the face that I thought that I had seen.  I wish that we had had this information last night.”
“You and me both, that lack of knowledge almost got us killed.  I will willingly make a bet that he was listening in on our conversation.” Joseph remarked.  “Never mind, we survived, and we had better get moving before they want a second chance to take us out of the equation.”
  “And I am fairly certain that was the man that I saw running from the barn when Vittorio was shot,” Harvey chimed in.
“Yes, it certainly was.”  Joseph agreed.
Malena, who had been aroused by the excitement of William’s discovery, had moved over to the group and, standing behind Joseph, was resting her chin on the back of his neck in order to get a better view as the second image printed off.          
“And that certainly was the man that that injected me with a needle this morning!” she exclaimed.  “I’d like to give him a kick up the pants.”
“Ah, That is Raymond Sharki,” William stated emphatically. “He is most definitely the man I served at the counter when I was on the phone to you, Joseph.
And he is the one that injected me with the drug that nearly killed me.” Malena fumed.
“He’s been a busy boy, alright,” Joseph commented. “I’ve just had a thought.  Harvey … what would the inspector do, if you told him something.  Something slightly incredulous: something that could easily be dismissed as far-fetched.  Would he believe you?”
“I should imagine that he would trust my word – why?”
“Impeccably?” Would he trust you impeccably?”
“I believe that he would.”
“I have something that I need you to do.  But not just yet. I want to finish reading these reports first, before I make my move.”  Joseph moved the mouse down to another icon, and double clicked it.  The printer began to spit paper out almost immediately, and once the print-out was complete he bound the pages together with a bulldog clip and handed it to Martin with instructions to highlight anything of interest that they didn’t know and wait until all the files had been read.  As each one of them finished reading their respective print out, they were to grab another one from the pile until they were all read. Then they would all discuss their findings.
Joseph then proceeded to print off every file that he assumed were downloaded by Robert, along with anything that appeared to be of interest that had been created by Rosetta’s father.

********

The first few print-outs that were read only reinforced what they already knew about the Punjani, and the Punjaniti, and were quickly discarded by the readers who moved on to the next print-out.  However, the notes, written by an investigator from another government department indicated that there were suspicious, though as yet unproven – and yet-to-be investigated, methods used by the museum in obtaining their exhibits.   The author indicated that there were also some questions that needed answering about strange goings on in the museum during official closures, when several dozen visitors would, for some unknown reason, arrive around eight o’clock and be given admission.  These visitors were always high-powered members of the government and business world -many of whom were of foreign extraction. The report went on to give a recommendation that a special task force be instigated to further investigate the museum and its curator.
Pressing the fifth icon produced mainly technical details regarding how the bugging of the laptop occurred, and where the information had gone which, of course, had been to Professor Robinson’s museum and another computer.  The other recipient was unidentified, but presumably, in Joseph’s mind at least, was Raymond Sharki.
Joseph hoped Robert’s assurance that the computer was now debugged was one hundred percent accurate.  The last thing that he wanted was for his most immediate enemy to be aware that they were still alive, and aware of his existence.
The sixth, and final piece of information that Robert had supplied was the one that Joseph began to read, and he nearly fell off his chair as he realised what he was reading.   Somehow, Robert had stumbled on some information that not only dealt with the Punjaniti as a force of evil to be reckoned with, but it explained how it could be destroyed.

For those of you who have shown such enduring patience as you patiently waited for the output of this episode, I say, thank you. August has been a month that certainly tested me. I found myself rewriting nearly fifty percent of this chapter … battling to work around the loss of the classic version of the blog, a major printer breakdown, having to purchase and do battle with a new (second hand) computer with uncooperative elements … and a total refusal to let me easily incorporate the elements of my security programs ….plus I have lost my output e-mail account whilst retaining the inbox e-mails. Thank god tomorrow is the first day of spring. And there is more.

Anyway, that is the end of my whinging … thanks for your patience. Happy reading and see you again real soon, I hope.

Regards,

Tony S