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EPISODE 78

Joseph looked very worried when Harvey arrived in the room and told him what had happened.
  “This was not something that I had anticipated.” Joseph lamented, “We have to save Inspector O’Reilly, but I don’t quite know how to … unless … unless we reverse the roles.” Joseph’s voice trailed off as he began to take more notice of Harvey’s appearance.  “Harvey,” Joseph asked cautiously, “are you aware that you are bleeding from your right-hand temple, though, it must have been happening for some time.  Some of it is beginning to congeal, while the rest is still trickling down the side of your face.”
  “And you have a rather large goose egg on your head.”  Martin chimed in with a hint of amusement and envy, “You have been a busy boy, haven’t you?”
  Harvey had no idea what the two men were talking about, but never-the-less his right hand automatically stretched itself up to the general direction of the side of his head that had been under scrutiny, and was surprised to feel the warmth of his own blood as it attached itself to his inquiring fingers.
Harvey shook his head in confusion. “I have no idea how it happened.  Surely, I … no, wait a moment.  I remember when I first entered the garage; I had a problem seeing where I was going and ended up stubbing my foot.  I think I may have hit my head against the truck as a result of the stubbing, though, to be perfectly honest, I don’t remember feeling it when it happened, however, I do remember bouncing off it. It certainly wasn’t hurting when you arrived, Joseph, and it isn’t hurting now.  I suppose, though, I may need a bit of a clean-up; can’t have the children screaming and crying at the sight of blood, can we?  I will attend to that shortly, but first, what are we going to do about protecting Inspector O’Reilly?
  “Oh, good show, old chap.”  Martin said with a huge smile on his face. “It’s jolly brave of you to take that sort of selfless attitude.  Joseph … what are we going to do?”
Joseph’s eyes seemed to withdraw into the privacy of his mind for several seconds before finally answering the question, and when he did, there was clarity in his eyes.  “We will have to convince him to let them go; however, we will need to get into Sharkie’s room first.  Martin, call Raji.and tell him that we have his statue.  It’s in a removal van parked in the closed garage across the road from the police station.  He will have to pick the padlock on the garage door first, then hot-wire the lorry, but I’m certain that will be no obstacle for him, oh, and tell him that it is important that he takes it straight away.  Mary, Laurie and Malena, shortly I will need you to go with William and check everything in the room, but please be very careful not to disturb anything.  Don’t move anything without ensuring yourself exactly which way it was facing before you picked it up, and do not remove anything from the room, just remember it, or write it down on a piece of your own paper. There is paper by the ton on the table if you need it, so fill your pockets, but don’t leave any of it in Sharkie’s room.  I have no doubt that the inspector will have to release them, but I don’t want them to know that we entered the room.  Which reminds me, William, do you have that special item I gave you to mind, handy?
  “Yes, do you need it?  It will only take me a minute to retrieve it.”
  “Yes, but it is you who are going to need it.  Professor Robinson seems to be a rather intelligent opponent. It is most likely that he is video recording the room in the expectation of an unexpected visitor or two.  Go and get the appliance and I will set it up for you.  I had Ravi show me everything it could do.  It is pretty easy.  All you have to do is turn it on and it will cause the recording device to digitally freeze whatever it is focused on at the time, which presumable would be the door to Sharkie’s room as seen from the inside, and then it would record that image until you turn the apparatus off; this means it would not record the four of you walking towards the door and entering the room as will be the reality of the moment.  But you must have it turned on before any of you walk out of this room … and turn it off the very second after you have re-entered this room and closed the door behind you.  This is mandatory.  If you turn it on in the hallway as you make your way towards the room, and it turns out to be an outside recorder, it will continuously record all of you coming towards the room which will advise them that we all survived the attack, and if you do it as their door is being opened it will most likely record you entering the room, and that will be what the recorder records until you turn it off.  When you are leaving, alternatively, if you turn it off before you are completely out of sight, you will also be seen, albeit from behind, but it would not be hard to recognise who you are, or hide which room you entered.”
“But how would I know where to point your sci-fi thingy from here inside the room, Joseph?”  William asked, “How will I know when I have made contact with the recorder?”
  “It’s an electronic signal, William. It doesn’t need a target per se, just a live circuit to connect to.  If there were six other video recorders operating within the radius I will set up, they too would perform the same action, though I doubt there will be any other recorders in a twenty five yard radius of this room.
Oh … right” William said quietly as Joseph’s words sunk in, then disappeared out of the room.
“Raji is on his way,” Martin called out.  “He will be there in less than three minutes.”
“He had better be; timing is going to be all-important if we are to succeed.  Martin, I need you to wait here and make sure that everybody is back in this room in six minutes.  Harvey, you come with me.  I’m going down to the garage to open up for Raji, then I’ll want you to go to the police and tell them that they got the wrong men.  Say that you realised that when they walked past the monitor, but you tripped and knocked yourself out as you were coming out to tell him – you won’t have any trouble convincing them with that egg on your noggin, so don’t wash it just yet.  But you are not to tell them before you see Raji driving the truck out of town, so you will stay with me until he leaves. Time is the reason for my opening the door.  It will not do Raji any good for the bad guys seeing him steal their statue, so I will free up a bit of time by making it easier and quicker for him to get in, start the vehicle and get on the road.  Then I will buy a bit more time by locking the door after he has left. There is not much point in going to all this trouble, then letting Professor Robinson see a wide-open door exposing a missing truck the minute he exits the police station. I think that Professor Robinson’s fancy limousine would easily catch up with Raji’s truck on the main highway.  Actually, I would be sadly disappointed with the professor if he didn’t have a tracking device installed in the truck, and possibly on the statue as well.  We must give Raji as much time to get himself out of range of the tracker as possible.
“Got it.” Harvey confirmed, “I will feign my injury with enough aplomb to pick up a BAFTA.”  
“I will have to remember to get your autograph.”  Joseph said with a smile just as a sudden, barely audible, sound caught his attention, and, as he turned around, he realised William was back with the Terminator.“Ah, William – change of plans.  Please do not lock the door on your way out, the door to Sharkie’s room that is, not this one.  This is extremely important.  I will need to get into it after you have gone, so you will have to wait until I get back here before you turn this off.  Give it here to me and I will show you how to use it.”   William shook his head in agreement, and passed it over to Joseph who proceeded to set it up and explain which button William had to push once Joseph returned.  The machine turned on, everybody moved to their respective duties, with the exception of Martin, who was to remain where he was.

********

As Joseph and Harvey walked down to the garage Joseph commented on the fact that he was going to try to get a ruby.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” Harvey said with a huge surprised grin on his face as he reached inside his coat pocket and retracted a rich red gem which he immediately placed inside Joseph’s hand, “I’ve got one here that you can have. I am not certain why I took it. Something deep inside my head reasoned that it could make a good bargaining tool, perhaps even a weapon.”
Joseph shook his head in amazement. “Thanks, but I can assure you that it won’t be us that will need to do any bargaining, not if I can help it, but, a weapon, now that is a different thing to consider.
  “You have a plan?
“I believe so.  Harvey, please don’t misunderstand this next question, but was that the only ruby or diamond you have on you, or have you more?”
“No.”  Harvey replied feeling slightly miffed at Joseph’s apparent distrust, but when he saw the depth of worry that covered Joseph’s face, his demeanor softened, “No, I am not really certain why I took it in the first place. It was like a gut instinct thing, but I couldn’t really explain it … not even to myself.”
Joseph smiled at Harvey.  “That’s good, because I wouldn’t like any unexpected visits from the Punjaniti at the moment.  You have no idea just how lucky that you may have been. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but there are so many strange things happening in this village that I think sometimes that there are other forces at work here … forces that we truly don’t understand, and they make people do things that they are unaware that they are doing.  I also believe the rubies are target points for Rangor … to guide him to his next kill.” 
“You think that’s what they slipped into the police officers’ pockets?
“Yes.”
Harvey looked in shock at what Joseph had just said, but couldn’t find the words to say anymore on the subject.

********

   As soon as Joseph opened up the building Harvey dashed inside and proceeded immediately, for the third time that day, to use the wire in order to gain entry to the truck for Raji.  As soon as he finished, they moved back into the shadows of the lane to silently wait out the time allocated to the plan. 

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