Play@YSDC

"Think nothing of it my dear," Tony grins. "Some chaps just don't know when to take no for an answer."

He turns to the guard.

"Would you mind dealing with this uncouth fellow? Russian chap by his accent, not that that's either her or there I suppose. Oh, he dropped something too... Oh yes, here it is." He stoops down and retrieves the gun, handing it to the guard.

"Aw hell." Lew says as he grabs his head and starts rubbing his eyes. "Someone get me some water to rinse my eyes."

"I'm so sorry," says Liz, hurrying to get Lew some water. "Bad aim on my part. Why did he have to bloody move when I tried to mace him?"

At the sight of the Russian's gun, the guard's eyes widen.

"Concealed weapon, huh? Guy's in big trouble. Come on, help me carry him to the infirmary, he's out like a mackerel. Better get statements from all of you, too." Noticing the suffering Lew, he adds, "Got an eye wash station there, too, what with all those nutty chemicals the eggheads use around here. No offense, Prof," he adds, recognizing Hinkley. "And you don't look so hot yourself."

"We were helping Professor Hinkley to the infirmary when this bounder got in our way," explains Liz, continuing to help the professor.

Tony's instincts are to refuse the guard's help and get his friends out of there, but he concedes that the Professor and possibly Lew need medical attention.

"Sure, I'll help you move the creep," he says.

While helping to shift the Russian, he tacitly rummages through the guy's clothes.

Lew will stumble to the eye wash station and try to clear his vision.

jp1885 wrote:
Tony's instincts are to refuse the guard's help and get his friends out of there, but he concedes that the Professor and possibly Lew need medical attention.

"Sure, I'll help you move the creep," he says.

While helping to shift the Russian, he tacitly rummages through the guy's clothes.

Tony's nimble fingers are just able to search through the Russian's pockets without waking the fellow, or drawing the attention of anyone else. The only thing of interest is a two-way radio transmitter, set to continually broadcast the fellow's position, disguised as a pack of cigarettes.

Meanwhile, Lew and the Professor obtain the necessary medical aid to render them both more or less back to normal. Professor Hinckley provides enough testimony to assure the security officers that the investigators did nothing but help during the invasion of the masked men. He informs them that it was nothing but an unusually well-planned, if rather eccentric, burglary, and that nothing of any importance was stolen. (It's obvious that he deliberately avoids any mention of the Minnow Two or its mission.)

Once released under their own cognizance, the Professor being a trusted figure around here, the investigators learn of his long struggle with the Doctor.

"I'm sure he's the one responsible for stranding me and those other poor folks on that island for so long. There's no other explanation for why it took so long for my escape plan to succeed. I can't leave my work here, but if you ever have a chance to interfere with the dastardly schemes of that ingenious maniac, the Free World -- goodness, even the countries behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains -- would be grateful."

With that, the investigators are free to return to their own activities; aware, all the while, that the Russians have been monitoring their actions; perhaps other forces, as well.

Tony scrutinises the Russian transmitter. After a second or two, he whispers into it: "I wonder how much you know about this mysterious 'Doctor', Natasha? Perhaps we have a common enemy, hm? Either way, I can't have you spying on us..."

He hands the device to Hinckley.

"My first thought was to put this bugging device under my heel, but if your foe is as powerful as you claim, I'm loathe to burn our bridges. Would you mind adapting it so that we can switch it on and off?"

Zara steals away to a secluded corner and has a couple of fortifying swallows from her gin flask. Then she comes back to offer one to Lew, if it would help.

"I can help with modifying the radio too," says Liz. "Bloody clever bit of electronics. Should be possible to reverse engineer it." She also does what she can for Lew, apologizing profusely for having accidentally caused his condition.

Working together, particularly with the Professor's ability to look directly into the device, Liz and Hinckley are easily able to adapt the two-way transmitter into something they can turn on and off at will, allowing communication with the Russians when desired, but keeping their location a secret when needed. During this procedure, a few scattered words, in a mixture of English and Russian emerge from the device. About all that can be made out clearly is the phrase "Haight-Ashbury."

"Haight-Ashbury - isn't that where all the cool cats hang out these days? Flower children and wotnot?" asks Tony.

"Yes, it was in the news months ago," says Liz. "They called it the 'Summer of Love.' Looks like we're going to San Francisco."

"It's fine. It's fine." Lew brushes off Zara's flask and Liz's apologies. "I'm just glad we all made it out of there in once piece."