Captain Max sat alone in his private bunk, situated close to the hanger buildings. He glumly swirled a glass of whiskey which he had poured some time ago, the ice having already melted without being touched. He fumed inwardly. The Colonel had not believed him about his story of the giant crab. Despite his prodigious skill as an areial ace, this could be enough to ground him permanently, or ship him off to some loony shack with the madmen and raving lunatics.
A sudden knock on his door woke him from his fugue. Slowly, he heaved himself from his armchair, adjusting his dressing gown to hide his modesty. Or majesty, as Chess had called it. He smiled to himself at the memories of his torrid affair with a local Wren. Grudgingly, he pushed such thoughts from his mind, and opened the door. Time to face his curtain call.
"Captain Thrustcock! The Colonel requires your presence immediately. Top level strategy meeting, highest security clearance level stuff, sir."
Max fought the urge to do a double take, but resisted, a gentleman such as himself should not show such emotion. He had expected a reprimand, not a tacit invitation to a mission.
"Let me just slip into something more formal. I intimidate the men enough without risking a slip of my namesake! What!"
A short time later, Max joined the gathering of military men in the control centre. He recognized the Colonel, while the other three men were unknown to him. One appeared to be a military officer, the others were science bod types, complete with tweed jackets and elbow patches. A lone female figure completed the picture. And it was a particularly impressive figure, thought Thrustcock.
"Ah, glad you could join us, Captain." announced the Colonel. "I fear we owe you an apology."
Max grimaced slightly. This man had some brass neck, to treat him this way.
"Let me guess, you've chosen to believe my story."
The Colonel gestured to the other military figure in the room.
"This is Bond of the MOD. He's been involved in investigating these reports of giant crabs."
"Wait. Reports?" Queried Max. "You mean there are other stories too?"
Bond took a step forward and addressed Max, his voice dripping with arrogant disdain like pus from a wound.
"My agents have searched the adrift vessel you spotted yesterday. Aboard they found partial human remains, though most of the body was missing. Scores and indentations along the side of the craft indicate that something large hauled itself up and onto ship. We believe that whatever boarded the vessel consumed the owner, explaining the lack of a body on the scene."
Max blinked in astonishment. Even he had begun to doubt what he had seen with his own eyes, but here was proof! A giant crab had been aboard the trawler.
"Well, glad to be vindicated. Let this be a lesson to you all, I, Captain Max Thrustcock, never fail, never falter. I'm as sturdy a cove as the Rock of Gibraltar. So what we're these other reports you mentioned?"
Bond perused his notes briefly, before continuing.
"Well, late last night the alarm was raised. Copious blood stains had been located along the beachfront. Missing persons reports indicate that one of our soldiers and a local town girl are MIA. Normally we'd assume it was some kind of lover's dalliance, but given the circumstances, the crab seems to be a suspect."
The Colonel took this opportunity to address the room again.
"So, the reason all of you have been summoned here today, is the foundation of a special task force. Obviously we can't go public with this news, we'd be a laughing stock, and draw valuable resources from the war effort. So we have to tackle this covertly and without back-up." The Colonel motioned for one of the boffins to speak.
A short, rotund man dressed in tweed rose from his seat. He cleared his throat, pushed his glasses along the bridge of his nose, and nervously ran his tobacco stained fingers through his patchy mop of receding silver hair. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, a tiny squeaking Scottish voice came forth.
"Hello everyone. My name is Rusty Gubbins, lead scientific officer for this reason. I'm an engineer by trade, and a zoologist as an amateur hobby, specialising in the study of crustaceans. My role is to discover the weaknesses of these so called giant crabs and devise methods of dispatching the blighters. Allow me to introduce my daughter, incidentally, Ms Bosom."
Rusty gestured to the lone female figure in the room. As she stood to her feet, Max realised why she had seemed familiar!
"Chess? Is that you? Bloody hell, didn't expect to see you here!"
"Long time no see, Thrustcock. Didn't expect to see you again after last time." Chess replied, in a soft, measured voice, as if she struggled to hold back the raw seductive power she held.
"Oh, you're already acquainted with my daughter then?"
"Intimately." said Max with a wink.
No comments:
Post a Comment