The Case of the Misplaced Hero
Page 7
book?"
"Yes, he did show me his paper as we were walking out of the restaurant. It was all nonsense of course."
Rozinshura sat back and nodded to himself. Yes, the spy has heard something, perhaps that the train will be attacked, even. Or perhaps he just fears it will be stopped and he will be searched. He slips the papers into the book and slips that into the pocket of the drunk to carry for him.
The captain questioned the man for a while, but he could not get a coherent description of this Alex. It was worse when he tried to get the man to tell him where he had been going. In the man's slurred speech, the destination sounded like Meesheegun, and Rozinshura could not resolve it into any place he had heard of.
But then there was a knock at the door, and Niko, the cook, stuck his head in.
"Kinchin Captain," he said, "there is trouble."
He could hear the voice of Pookiterin calling from the hall behind him. "Where is your security? Get these people out of here!"
Rozinshura quickly slipped the paper into the book and the book into his pocket. He stepped out into the hall, and saw, through the tavern room, the passengers from the train flooding into the building.
Episode 16 - The Flash Mob
"It never rains except when you have a hole in the roof and no bucket," said Rozinshura to the cook. Pookiterin had gone back to his parlor, and they were alone for a moment, but the crowd in the entrance way was growing and pushing and getting louder.
It drew Rozinshura back to earth -- after his short flight of panic over spies and wars and coups and assassinations. That was how trouble was: A small problem is painful. A big problem makes you forget the small problems. But an unlimited number of overwhelming problems makes everything ordinary again.
"Kinchin Niko," he said, "we have three catastrophes, if not more. All of our forces are up at the train wreck or chasing bandits or resources. We have Pookiterin in our parlor which is always a bad sign, and I have evidence it's worse than we know. And now we have a crowd of angry people in our vestibule who are too important to ignore."
"And too many to ignore, Kinchin Captain," said Niko.
"And I have a drunken spy in my office, whom I must hide until he is sober enough to make sense," said Rozinshura. "There are only three of us; you, me, and Kinchin Tralkulo. And you, I think, are the key to our salvation. Niko, we must feed all of them well. The crowd, Pookiterin, anybody who opens his mouth to make trouble, put food in it."
"Yes, Kinchin Captain," said Niko.
"Good food. The best we've got."
"Yes, Kinchin Captain."
"Also, I need you to take charge of our drunk." Rozinshura pulled out his storeroom keys and handed them to Niko. "Hide him. Let him sleep until he is sensible. And nobody speaks to him before I do."
Niko nodded his respect and went to fetch the professor. Rozinshura took a deep breath and headed off through the tavern to the main entry, where the crowd was gathered.
Tralkulo was a young soldier, and only a clerk, but she was also wide of girth and she managed to hold the stairs alone, brandishing her bayonet like a recruiting poster. The security men were trying, less successfully, to defend the parlor. Rozinshura had no confidence that they would have the sense not to shoot the Ambassador of Imperia -- who apparently hadn't the sense not to shake a finger in their faces.
So he left Tralkulo to defend the stairs and pushed his way through the crowded entry way to the parlor door. He pulled himself up on a bench.
"Please, everyone! You are most welcome, but let us not push or shoot, yes?"
The crowed turned their attention to him, which calmed the security men. Tralkulo raised her bayonet.
"We are sorry if we have neglected you. Please find a place in the tavern or the parlor, and we shall speak calmly, yes?"
"Not the parlor!" said Pookiterin.
The ambassador, an august man with a trimmed white beard and his arm in a sling, bristled.
"The ladies, sir, cannot be forced into a tavern!"
"Your ladies can sit on the ground!" said Pookiterin. He said it so rudely that Rozinshura felt a prickle up his spine.
Pookiterin must know he was talking to the Ambassador of Imperia. He must know there would be consequences when High Commissar Vshtin arrived. Unless... unless Pookiterin believed there would not be consequences. That perhaps a coup would intervene.
The ambassador took a deep breath to reply, and Rozinshura wanted to step in between them, but he was up on the bench, and his leg would not bend. He could not get down without help.
He considered calling to Tralkulo, but then inspiration struck, and he put his hands heavily on the shoulders of both Pookiterin and the ambassador.
"My friends, we have no need to shout!" he shouted, boisterously. He vaulted himself down to land between them, nearly knocking them both over. They were so surprised that they stopped growling at each other. "We will find a suitable place for everyone. Kinchin Tralkulo, help the ladies!"
The ladies had already begun to help themselves by moving into the parlor anyway. Pookiterin raced back in to secure his papers and prisoner.
Episode 17
Alex Finds a Sock
The flash mob had taken longer to organize than Alex hoped. These people were into hierarchy, and they debated over who should go first; the most important or least. And then they had to sort out the list of demands.
When they finally entered the building, Alex kept to the middle of the crowd. He figured that this would bring out every soldier in the place, and he could count them. At first there were only four: the security men and their officer, and the lady with the bayonet on the stairs.
Lord Blinkersley, who was in the lead, tried to address the security men, but as the crowd filled the tiny entrance way, he was shoved right into them. They shoved back and started shouting, and in moments, everyone was shouting. The lady soldier on the stairs with the bayonet came dangerously close to taking off the end of a butler's nose. The butler, crouched like a lineman with two other servants, looked ready to take the stairs from her.
Diversion achieved, thought Alex with a sigh. But he couldn't worry about people getting hurt now. It was too late anyway, and he had to get Thorny. And the girl. He tried to see into the parlor, but there were too many people in the way. Instead, he pushed toward the tavern side. Across that room he saw two more soldiers; his friend the cook and an officer with a walrus mustache. Probably the captain Freddie had mentioned. The guy in charge.
Alex sidled in that direction. He saw the captain give the cook some keys, and the cook disappeared again. The captain then limped with a long rolling gait across the tavern. He pushed Alex aside and waded into the crowd, calling for calm.
"Please, no pushing or shooting!" he called. "You are all welcome here!"
Everyone looked at him. Alex took advantage of the moment to slip away from the crowd, across the tavern. As he got to the door at the other end, he heard a voice protesting in the hall ahead of him.
"Are you sure I can't have a drink?"
It was Thorny. Alex rushed into the hall, but he only caught a glimpse of the cook at the other end, pushing someone around a corner ahead of him.
Alex trotted after, trying not to make too much noise. At the corner he found a short hall, which was empty, but it turned so they must have gone around the corner. He sprinted to the turn, and peeked around the corner, but it was just another short stretch of hall, with another turn. Alex sprinted and turned and sprinted again, until he found himself in a cul-de-sac.
No more turns. No Thorny.
They must have gone through a door. He pulled one door open, and found a broom closet. The next was locked. Then he heard, somewhere back behind him, a door opened and closed. He slipped back carefully, not knowing if they would come this way. He found two more doors back near where he'd started.
One door looked heavy and was locked.
Alex knocked softly on it.
> "Professor?" he called. He listened. Nothing. He knelt down and looked through the keyhole, but it was dark.
The other door led to a storeroom full of linens and clothes. Brown uniforms, beige shirts and underwear. Alex didn't have time to change, but the thought of clean, dry clothes was compelling. He grabbed up shorts and a shirt and stuffed them in the pockets of the jacket to change into later.
As he reached down for some dry socks, he saw a sock on the floor. It was damp, and it was green with a knitted pattern of big white block "S" shapes.
That was a Michigan State University sock.
They must have gone into the closet to get Thorny some dry clothes, and Alex had run right past them.
Who knew where they'd gone from here?
The cook knew. And he had been friendly toward Alex. He might be induced to chat.
Alex went off to find the kitchen.
Episode 18
The Hospitality Committee
As the front hall emptied, Captain Rozinshura cast a glance toward the parlor. He did not want to talk to Colonel Pookiterin yet. Not until he knew more about his spy, and the spy's mysterious student friend, Alex.
"Tralkulo!" he called. The clerk appeared instantly. "Your book of notes, please. And get more paper, you will interview every one of them again, to get a full list of who is here, and who is missing. Also, do we still have that brandy we took from the smugglers?"
"We were going to trade it for a truck."
"Now we trade it for cooperation. Where is it?"
"Upstairs, in the front