TRWD22

My Journal
By Harriman Nelson
22

I’d had a bad night for worry about Lee. So far only he and Angus had been poisoned, so far, MI-6 had informed us that there was no evidence that Angus could have been involved in murder attempt. So it was cross contamination, or somebody was trying to get Lee away from investigating anything in or around Loch Ness.
In any case, Lee had a clean bill of health and asked Chip and me (including Jiggs who insisted on helping) to substitute for his planned expedition activities today so he and Joe could do a little more conferencing with ONI and their own special kind of sleuthing.

“Harry, you’ll be hiking with a team of local volunteers and a few crewmen,” Lee briefed us. “Poke around the shore for hoof marks, scales, anything where Angus swears he saw the creature. Meanwhile, these special sunglasses will pick up traces of any recent holographic projections and sources. Chip, you pilot the Flying Sub to do some up close and personal examinations of the loch. On the surface and under. Especially of the sea lab. Take a team of divers with you. Better make sure you’re all armed with the special Class 7 firearms and tasers so you can fire underwater or in the air if needed. But don’t try to kill anyone. We want any foes alive to question.”
“And if we don’t find anything suspicious?” Chip asked.
“Then any systems or projectors have already been moved or dismantled. And if we still don’t find anything after a few days, I’ll tell Washington that I may have been mistaken and will give McDonald our apologies that we couldn’t find the kelpie and Seaview will head for home. By the way, Harry, those sunglasses also have a retractable ear bud so you can maintain communication with Chip and Seaview. Joe and I have a few contacts here that ONI will disavow even to Avery. We may go into town, while I pretend to recuperate from my near death experience. We might be able to flush out our assassin, if there was one. By the way, Harry, you need to make a point about how anxious you are to examine the tapestry Edith’s bringing. In fact, Mom’s really interested in it, and will be going with Emmie to pick her up at the airport so you can get started.”
“Actually,” I said, “it will be interesting to see it. Imagine, the coat of arms on the tapestry having the name Crane with a mer-horse.”
“All right. Let’s get started. Oh, and I hear the area is plagued with biting flies called midges. Better take some flying insect repellant and first aid spray.”
So here I am, moist with repellant, pulling on khaki ‘safari’ outfit of jacket, shirt, pants, super heavy socks and hiking boots.
Oh joy.

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