The Hidden Man: A Phineas Starblower Adventure (Phineas Starblower Adventures)

by Giles

  “Drat, not so good Fred. Can’t be helped, but I’ll have to annoy Mr. Nichols now as a result.” Phillips returned to his seat and steepled his fingers as he calculated. “William bring us up to 55 knots and take her around the coast line as well. Gentlemen, the chance of spotting the boat over the sea is rather small I know, but for the Colonel’s sake I think we need to make a show of it at least. Mr Jones...”

  The officer looked away from the scenic view unfolding below them. “Yessir?”

  “Get a crewman up on the dorsal observation dome, I assume we have a telescope or two up there already yes?”

  “We do captain, and I’ll have Mr Landover up there presently.” Jones replied.

  The other good news was the fact that the storm front had all but blown itself out on this side of the North sea. Thus, with next to no headwind to oppose her, they tacked around the coast to Stavanger in a little over forty minutes. Despite Phillips' fears Nichols never complained at his taxing the engines ever so slightly either, so when the inlets and scattered small islands that led to Stavanger came into sight Phillips asked Jones to alert Gopal to inform Miss Smythe-Harris and Colonel Carstares that the port was in sight.

  As expected Carstares was down in the bridge only a minute or two later. “No sightings over the ocean I take it then Captain?”

  “Sorry Colonel, we swooped on one fisherman but that turned out to be very obviously a Norwegian bringing in some lobster pots. I hardly think our quarry would have bothered with that don’t you?”

  Carstares grimaced, Jerard suspected the man would have liked to have made that choice himself, but to his credit he didn’t comment on the decision of the Captain on his own bridge.

  “Well lets get her into port and down for repair and some reconnaissance I say. Colonel what's your plan Sir?”

  Carstares sighed, “As you say Captain we’re a little banged up I understand that, can your crew set me down near the harbor before going onto wherever you go for repairs?”

  “I think we can manage that Sir...” Phillips replied, spotting a flash of cream colored cloth stepping through the door as he sat down. “Good afternoon Miss Smythe-Harris” He concluded civilly.

  “Good afternoon Captain, Colonel Carstares,” she replied automatically as she took her accustomed seat on the settee. “So what's this? You want to be set down early Colonel?”

  “Yes madam, there is scant time left and I need to contact my counterparts here without delay.”

  “I see,” she replied politely then turned to to Mr. Jones. “Are we in wireless range yet Mr. Jones?”

  “Not yet Miss Tash, may be another five minutes for the Starblower factory I’d say.”

  Carstares raised an impressive and impressed eyebrow. “Your employer has a factory out here in Norway madam? Outside of the British Isles, for whatever reason may I ask?”

  Phillips was also curious about this as well. However as a fresh company employee he simply pretended to study his log book as the woman answered.

  “To call it a factory is a little misleading Colonel. It’s really a sort of research facility crammed into a town house. The Scandinavians have a knack with tanning leather and making hardy clothing from their Viking days.” she began. “Mr. Starblower thought to employ a few local cobblers and a tanner to experiment with ways to see how their traditional techniques could be moved to a more mass produced platform. But...” She leaned conspiratorially towards the Colonel. “... I think that the dear man just wanted an excuse to go skiing and, as he is now, and hiking about on a glacier or two.”

  “I see madam, most enlightening.” Carstares drawled. “I doubt such a facility is near the docks where I need to be though, is it?”

  “You are correct Sir, it’s a good ways inland, a couple of miles I should say.”

  “What of your mysterious contact Sir?” Phillips questioned. “We maybe away from the Starblower facility but can you radio your fellows yet?”

  “Probably Captain, but as time is so limited and my conversations have to be kept in the strictest confidence, I doubt a request to have the bridge to myself would go down well at this point.” Carstares replied looking Miss Smythe-Harris directly in the eye as he said it.

  “No indeed Colonel but we can help none the less. Captain, can you have William bring us down near that little lake please” Tash questioned.

  Phillips glanced at the local map he had just found in his mini desk. “ ‘Litla Stokkavatnet’ I have here, is this where you mean Miss Smythe-Harris?”

  “I have no idea what its called Captain just do it please. Gopal, get the HLC ready, I think we’ll take a little drive with the good Colonel. Captain would you care to join us?”

  “I should stay with the ship madam'” Phillips began to demur, but Miss Smythe-Harris was having none of it.

  “Poppycock! This crew can make it to the facility in Porsvika easily enough Captain. Come take a ride with us.”

  “I don’t know what our mercurial hostess has in mind Captain but I for one would welcome your company Sir.” Carstares added with a meaningful look to Phillips.

  “Very well my dear lady, Colonel I’ll be down directly. How long till we get to the lake shore Mr. Wallace?”

  “Less than a couple of minutes Sir then a couple more to get low enough to drop the HLC I’d say Sir.”

  “ HLC?” Carstares queried.

  “Sorry Colonel, I should have explained,” Tash said mischievously “Horse-less-carriage. We have a small four seater carried on board for Mr Starblower’s penchant for exploring...”

  “Well that’s most remarkable!” The Colonel began as the great airship began to come about “Most gratifying as well, I’ve not had many occasions to ride in one of those novel devices as yet but..”

  “But time is of the essence!” She put in for him. “I really do understand that Colonel.”

  Carstares smiled. “I see that you do Miss Smythe-Harris, my thanks. Well now if your man Gopal could drop the captain and myself off on Norbogata Road...”

  Miss Smythe-Harris got up and headed for the door. “Oh Gopal doesn’t drive...I do.” She declared airily as she exited the bridge, leaving both Carstares and Phillips with open mouths.

  4:30 pm

  Discretion's Cargo Bay

  Stokkavatnet Lake, Stavanger

  Phillips and Carstares jumped in unison as Mr. Jones’ voice crackled over the speaker in the cargo bay. “Holding at ten feet at the edge of the lake Captain” the Welshman's accent all but swallowed up by the electronic noise.

  Jerard was, he supposed, grateful that Jones at least addressed him rather than Miss Smythe-Harris in this update. The capricious lady was again nearly eclipsing the chain of command for this little jaunt of hers. But Phillips thought he saw that she was getting back at Carstares ever so slightly for the rather peremptory treatment he had tried on her at their first meeting. Understandable, though not wholly fair, he thought. The Colonel had been under orders and that was something Jerard could certainly comprehend.

  “Gopal set the winch please!” She called gaily from the driver’s seat to the impassive manservant still on the cargo bay floor.

  “The winch captain?” Carstares inquired as he sat uncomfortably in the other rear seat of the tiny horseless carriage.

  Phillips smiled reassuringly. “Ah yes Colonel, you see it would take some considerable time to land the Discretion without a ground crew and so I have had Wallace take us down as close as is prudent at the edge of the lake, then as the tail of the ship is just over the lake shore we’ll be winched down in this magnificent contraption for your ride.”

  “I see, how obliging,” Carstares commented dryly looking at the back of Miss Smythe-Harris’s pith helmet with an ironic expression on his face.

  “Yes be careful what you wish for around here Colonel,” Jerard laughed as the Indian set the controls and then watched impassively with folded arms as the HLC jerked in its initial downward motion. Jerard grabbed for the side of the vehicle and mu
ttered, “I’m just coming to appreciate that myself.”

  The horseless carriage rocked gently on its four winch lines as it settled into a sedate pace towards the ground. A minute or so later they were setting onto the slightly muddy banks of the Lesser Stokkavatnet lake.

  “Release the hooks please gentlemen.” Miss Smythe-Harris asked as she depressed the starter button and unhooked the line closest to the steering wheel.

  Jerard unhooked the steel hawser nearest to him as a small gasp of steam blew from a vent in the HLC’s bonnet. Driven by the Armstrong-Klein pressure starter, the small internal combustion engine coughed to life with a roar and a blast of chemical exhaust. He then leaned across the bewildered Colonel and showed the man how to decouple the hook on his side of the HLC’s framework while Tash leaned across the front seat and released the fourth and last hook.

  “Thank you Captain” Carstares managed just before the small vehicle tore away from the lakeside in a spray of brown-grey mud.

  “Your welcome Colonel” Philips replied as he was slammed back in his seat by the acceleration. To Tash he added. “I say there Miss Smythe-Harris steady on!”

  “Oh sorry Captain just wanted to get clear of the mud before we sank, don’t you know?” She replied over her shoulder as the HLC bumped its way across the meadow and onto the nearest road. “Right! Now, which way..?”

  “Madam will be well advised to go to the right.” Colonel Carstares stated levelly then with more urgency he added. “And madam will be better advised to drive upon the right as well!”

  “Oh! Sorry about that.” Tash laughed as she swerved onto the other side of the road.

  Gunning the little engine further she sped off , heading towards the center of the Norwegian town. Conversation was barely possible in the open topped vehicle and Phillips felt his face growing chill from the wind as their petite driver took them up over thirty miles per hour along the country roads. Rapidly the green of the countryside faded to be replaced by the wood and stone of increasing urbanization. A few other horseless carriages populated the road, their drivers often giving a cheerful ‘toot toot!’ to what they perceived was a fellow well to do citizen. But the traffic, such as it was, was mostly comprised of horses pulling small carts of produce and other goods away from the docks of the harbor town.

  Eventually Tash slowed their progress and the search for Carstares’ road began in earnest.

  “As much as I appreciate the haste Miss Smythe-Harris, traveling so swiftly by land is a novelty I’d prefer to avoid....” Carstares said, “...and one I’d like to survive!” he finished under his breath as he took a better hold on the side of the little HLC. “Now madam the road you seek should be close to the docks to the left here.”

  “Here?” She tossed back as she abruptly turned left into an alley.

  “No!” Carstares shouted as Captain Phillips slammed into him nearly throwing the pair of them out of the vehicle.

  Tash slammed on the brakes, halting the vehicle’s forward motion. She turned to face the two men who were trying to right themselves in the rear seat. It was all she could do to keep a straight face, but she did. She hadn’t meant to toss her passengers about so badly; but the shocked and disoriented looks on their faces nearly did her in. Blinking several times to keep calm she waited somewhat patiently for the dignity of her passengers to be put to rights. “I am a bit confused Colonel, this appears to be a dead end, why would you have me turn here?”

  With a mighty “harrumph” the Colonel levered himself out of the vehicle. He brushed off his clothes and leaned down to retrieve his bowler hat from the floor of the HLC. Punching it back into shape he glared at Tash as he jammed the, now slightly misshapen, hat back on his head. “Madam, it was not my intention that you turn here. I was indicating the next marked road to the left. Never the less I believe I shall continue on foot from here.”

  “Well that’s just nonsense Sir! I can take us the rest of the way there.”

  Jerard looked from Tash’s rather innocent face to Carstares’ reddening one and quickly interjected, “I think the Colonel has a good point. This is probably a good place to park the HLC, I doubt there will be a place to leave it on a busier street.”

  Tash opened her mouth to speak so Jerard hurriedly continued his thought, “Besides, I suspect the secrecy of our mission will be better served by keeping this, this... this singular vehicle a way away from official notice.”

  “What’s wrong with this vehicle?” Tash asked, genuinely confused.

  “Absolutely nothing madam, except for the fact that the number of horseless carriages seen here is at the few and what we have seen bears no resemblance to our particular conveyance.” Phillips said and reinforced his point by climbing out of the HLC.

  “Very well.” Tash sighed. “Give me a moment to set the security.”

  “Security?” Carstares asked, his curiosity overcoming his anger.

  “Oh yes, it prevents any one from starting it up or even moving it unless they know the secret.”

  “Clever that.”

  “Yes indeed Colonel. In fact it was one of Dr. Nordstrom’s ideas when we designed it.”

  “Dr. Nordstrom?” Jerard asked as Carstares helped Tash out of the HLC.

  “Oh yes, her engine is also one of his designs. I can’t wait to show it to him. He has never seen it completed. Oh let’s hurry! I so want to get the doctor back with us safely.”

  “Agreed.” Carstares took Tash’s arm and guided her out of the alley and up the street towards the customs office.

  Jerard watched the pair and chuckled to himself. He knew for a fact from Carstares’ grumbling as they left the bridge that the Colonel had planned to park her at a tea shop to wait for them to return. He wondered if Tash was aware of just how charming she was? Somehow he doubted it...

  The customs house was a rather dour and unappealing building set into the middle of the last street before the open area of the docks. Upon opening the door a little bell sounded, much like a shop’s bell. The foyer was devoid of any decoration and contained three doors. It was several moments before a man in a blue uniform entered the room from the door opposite the trio.

  The man spoke first in Norwegian and then seeing the blank looks on the visitors’ faces he tried again in English. “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, we are here to see Mr. Lars Brodersen.” Carstares said stepping in front of Tash and Jerard.

  Another of the doors flew open and in swept a tall blond man, obviously in a hurry. At the sight of the trio standing in front of him he halted. “About time,” he half snarled before turning to the uniformed man and speaking rapidly in Norwegian. The officer replied, bowed and turned to leave the room but not before shooting a quizzical look at the visitors.

  Carstares opened his mouth to speak but the blond man held up his hand and shook his head. In two steps he was at the door and ushering the trio out onto the street. Another few steps found the group moving at a very fast walk down the street toward a section of the docks. Carstares and the man, Tash assumed was Lars, appeared to be having a quiet argument as their pace increased and they began pulling away from her and Captain Phillips. Tash was about to break into a trot to keep up when Phillips took her arm, effectively slowing her down.

  “I believe Miss Smythe-Harris that we are not meant to hear that conversation.”

  “Horse feathers! Something is wrong and I am going to find out what it is!”

  Jerard further tightened his grip on her arm. “Madam, I believe you will be somewhat enlightened if you will notice what we are heading for.”

  “We are heading for the docks you idiot!” Tash muttered as she yanked her arm free.

  “Indeed.” Jerard replied trying hard not to smile. “And in specific, unless I miss my guess, a Scottish fishing vessel. Oh yes, see her bow? I am certain that is part of the registration number I was given in her description.”

  Tash slowed her pace and took a good look at the boat docked directly in front of them. She
did not even protest when the Captain took her hand and tucked it firmly in his arm again. “We should have beaten them here.” She said out loud. “Why don’t I see anyone on the boat? Shouldn’t they be searching it? Something is terribly wrong.”

  Jerard was not sure if the woman was actually speaking to him or just talking aloud so he did not reply. Instead he quickened his step to catch-up with Colonel Carstares and the other man who had now reached the gang way.

  “Fine!” The blond man shouted. “But you will have to give me a few minutes. Please stay here.”

  “Colonel?” Jerard inquired politely.

  With a heavy sigh Carstares turned to face Jerard and Tash. “I am afraid we were too late.”

  “How so Colonel?” Tash asked, her voice neutral.

  “He is not here, in fact there is nothing here…except fish.” Carstares said disgustedly as he removed his hat and ran his hand through his thinning hair. He stared for a long moment at the boat before replacing the hat and turning back to Phillips and Tash. “So to explain, the Norwegian authorities spotted this vessel about an hour and a half ago and boarded her. Finding nothing but still acceding to my request they escorted her back here. Lars and his men have no reason to hold the boat as nothing appears out of order or illegal in any way. I have won permission to question the Captain and crew but I must be careful. This could have political ramifications that I am not authorized to deal with, nor is Lars for that matter.

  Jerard winced. He had had a belly full of “political ramifications” and was not prepared to jump into the middle of any more of them. He quite liked being the Captain of the Discretion and he liked his freedom but it did not take one of those new fangled psychics to feel the growing anger of the lady on his arm. Oh here we go…

  “Preposterous! What does a Scottish fishing captain know of politics? Very little I tell you! He has obviously lied to the Norwegian authorities but he will not lie to an agent of the Crown. Not when that agent can pull his fishing license, and probably his registration papers as a ship’s captain under the Crown. Oh ! And did I mention his vessel can be impounded as evidence and taken apart piece by piece until we find the evidence we are looking for?”