Triton swam forward, reached out and strongly shook Tom’s outstretched hand. “Tom, very pleased to meet you, Pisces has explained, and we are indebted to you for saving her.”
“Hey, I am just relieved I was there to see the buoy. Not being a fisherdog, I could easily have missed it or ignored it and cost Pisces her life.”
“We are all thankful, and for that reason, we have something for you.”
Triton then held his other hand out. Hanging from his hand was a thin gold chain and a pendant that looked like it had a short, straw, like shell. It impressed Captain Brown. Tom wasn’t so impressed, jewellery not being his first choice as any reward. But he took it and hung it around his neck.
Triton noticed this and explained. “I know it doesn’t look much, Tom. Blow three times through the shell under the sea and any merperson within hearing distance will come to your aid. You won’t hear anything, but to us it will be like you blowing a foghorn.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that and hope I never have to use it. But here is the 64 million dollar question; did you find what it was worth killing Pisces for?”
Now it was the turn of Pisces to swim forwards and handed Tom a plastic yellow box, about the size of a small sandwich box. About 4 inches wide by 6 inches long and 4 inches deep, looking like a waterproof box for camera equipment. It had snap-over toggle fixings and no lock. On the box was a sign, looking like something between a hazard symbol and a nuclear warning sign. Embossed on it were the letters IGC.
“We’ve not opened it,” Pisces said. “It stood out like a sore thumb even in the seaweed bed where we found it. Thankfully, there were a lot of us searching. But it doesn’t look big enough to be important?”
“What’s that sign mean, Captain?” Tom asked, showing the box to Captain Brown, but didn’t pass it to him. For the moment, he wanted to keep hold of it, as something was not adding up.
“It is a warning, meaning genetic materials are inside. It will need to be analysed.”
“No shit Sherlock,” Tom mumbled to himself, realising his guess was right.
Tom and Captain Brown thanked Triton and Pisces. Promising to keep them appraised of what any analysis discovers. The four made their farewells. Triton and Pisces swimming back out to sea. Tom and Captain Brown made their way across the slippery rocks to the beach. Once on the dry pebbles of the beach, the old grey cat that Kitty was talking to the previous evening walked up.
“Tom, hello, I am Balthazar, the local commissionaire. I’ll take that and the proper authorities can have a closer look.” The Grey cat said reaching for the yellow box.
Tom still not 100% sure held it out of his reach. Tom stepped back to the water’s edge, guessing that the cat wouldn’t want to get wet.
“Tom, give the box to Balthazar,” Captain Brown scolded.
Tom pondered the evidence, but the hairs were standing up on the back of his neck. Something wasn’t adding up. Whilst there were lots of cats, dogs, the human mother and daughter on the beach watching the merpeople. They all seemed to keep their distance around the three of them stood at the edge of the water. Sarah and her kittens were still on the grassy knoll, now joined by Kitty.
“Lucy, Lucy, can you join us?” Tom shouted up to Lucy, waving to attract her attention. He needed a second opinion.
Lucy casually walked down to the water’s edge, but like Balthazar stayed up on the dryer pebbles.
“Lucy, this box, I assume this box is specific only to the IGC?” Tom asked her, showing her the box and the logo on the lid, but kept a grasp on the box.
“Yes, it is like the ones we used in the labs when I was an intern there.”
“So I am right, IGC stands for the Institute for Genetic Control and these boxes aren’t openly sold?”
“No. They are internal for important genetic samples only. They aren’t allowed to leave the institute, in fact; I never saw them outside the labs.”
Balthazar cut in on the conversation, flexing his authoritarian muscles. “More the reason for the proper authorities to examine the contents. Give me the box and I will return it to the institute.”
“No, that is the worst thing you can do, can’t you see? Have you not watched any films like James Bond, Jason Bourne, or Mission impossible?” Tom pleaded, now deciding to stand his ground and dig his heels in, especially as things were more obvious now.
All three of the others in the group looked puzzled at Tom. Obviously, all three were oblivious to those references.
“There is a mole at the institute. Somehow this badger Brock has got to someone at the institute. Whether by money, force, or blackmail and got them to provide this material. Tor Rock must be some kind of drop off point. Whatever is in that box is important enough to kill a mermaid. A princess, no less, so it isn’t unreasonable to assume that they have at least one mole accomplice or more within the institute. So if you return this box to the institute, there is a high risk that it will find its way back to the mole or moles. Then they will pass it on to Brock the badger.”
Lucy whilst initially shocked was now showing realisation on her face. Both Captain Brown and Balthazar looked incredulously at such a notion.
“No, that is ridiculous. It wouldn’t be possible. There are rules and procedures to protect genetic materials.” Balthazar stated, his patience wearing thin.
“But this Badger Brock is not playing by the rules, proven by this box making its way out of the IGC and that he is willing to kill for it. He is not playing by your rules and it is your rules that tie you down and give him that freedom.”
Tom realised he needed to demonstrate his point of view. An old Christmas game came to mind. His grandmother used to tease him with this trick every year on Christmas Day. He bent down and collected a small pebble. Propping the box between his thighs, he held out his two upturned palms of his hands, one with the penny-sized pebble in.
“Right, see the pebble?” He then closed his hands into two fists. Hiding his hands behind his back, he pretended to juggle the pebble between his hands. He then presented his two closed fists to the group.
“Where is the pebble now?”
“Oh, this is a ridiculous parlour game it’s in your right. We have a 50/50 chance of being right,” Balthazar exclaimed, pointing to Tom’s right fist.
Tom opened his right fist to show it was empty.
“So it is in your left,” Captain Brown stated.
Tom opened his left, to show it was also empty saying, “I win.”
“You cheated!” Balthazar spat the words out in disgust.
“No, I didn’t play by your inferred rules,” Stated Tom. He reached to his back pocket to retrieve the pebble and show he still had it.
“And that is what Brock the Badger is doing. If that box returns to the institute, we will learn nothing. This would have been a delay and Brock will receive it regardless, by hook or by crook.”
Now even Balthazar and Captain Brown nodded in realisation.
“The fact that this box has been found and what it contains cannot go further than this group. Only the four of us can know. Let Brock search around Tor rock trying to find his precious cargo. Let’s keep him in the dark. Lucy, would you be able to examine the contents of this box? Is this something within your capabilities?” Tom asked.
“Oh yes. This was the work I was doing at the institute during my internship. I can log into the networks to check data. With the right equipment from the institute, I could soon make initial observations.”
“No, nothing can link us to the institute. Any moles could see that kind of activity. They will alert Brock and we would have him on our doorstep. Everything has to be done in secret. You can only use readily available over-the-counter equipment and use readily available data. We must isolate everything from the institute and any moles. Balthazar, this cannot go any further. With Brock willing to kill a Mermaid princess if anything were to link that box to this village, who knows what could happen?”
Now both Balthazar and Captain Brown were nodding in agreement, Lucy was now not so sure.
Tom asked Lucy, “So would that be possible, with over-the-counter equipment?”
“Possible, difficult, and it will take a little longer. But possible,” Lucy said, now realising she had a project to get her teeth into over the summer holidays.
Balthazar spoke up, now on board with the project. “I can make funds available, but I will need to report something to show for the funding.”
“Makeup anything you need to. Funding to review discovered pollution or something. Hopefully, we will only need cover for a short while until we know what is inside this box, but no names. Outside of this group of us, no one can know mine or Lucy’s identity. Then if things then go south, we have some protection of anonymity. Call me James… James Bond and Lucy can be Miss Moneypenny.”
Tom was on a roll now, excited at being involved in some spy cloak and dagger work, just like James Bond.
“James Bond the children’s books?” Lucy exclaimed.
Tom thought Tom Cruise would be too close to his own name… “Ok, how about Dwayne Dibley?” Tom nearly laughed out loud at that notion, being the alter ego of the ship’s cat in the series Red Dwarf.
The three looked bemused again with such a strange name choice. “Dwayne Dibley it is,” Balthazar pleased at being finally allowed to make a decision.
“Lucy, there is an empty cottage two doors down from your mum’s. I can open that up for you to use,” Said Captain Brown now also buying into the project.
“That would be better, to isolate the experiment, but no entering from the front. Lucy, there is a path along the rear of the cottages you can use. So no one sees anyone coming or going from the ghost laboratory,” Tom said, enjoying his role in this.
“Okay, so if Lucy, er, Miss Moneypenny can give me a list of what she needs in the next day or so, we can get started. Tom, er, Dwayne you are bordering on paranoia, but I see your argument,” Balthazar agreed. He nodded at them all and took his leave up the beach.
“Well, Lucy, what do you think? Can you and Tom pull this off?” Captain Brown asked.
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