Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Roses are Blue, 9.

Brother Peter pushed me out of the tower stump where the other members of the League of the Blue Rose were. He was under orders to drown me in the canal, and since I was bound and gagged, there wasn't a lot I could do to stop him. Moving as fast as the ropes around my ankles would allow, I moved towards the exit.
Suddenly, and to my great surprise, Brother Peter giggled. He hadn't seemed the giggling type. I tried to say something, but the gag got in the way.
The robed figure bent down and untied my ankles.
"Hi."
I knew that voice! It was Scruff! I turned to face her, and she adjusted the cowl to reveal her face. She was also wearing a mask, but she was definitely Scruff.

"Come on!"
She grabbed my arm and we ran to my car. There Scruff removed my gag and untied my hands.
"After they got you one of them stayed in the church. He was a very short man, so I jumped him, overpowered him, and stole his robes. It's a good thing he was Brother Peter, the man they wanted to kill you."
"I'm not arguing," I jumped in the car while Scruff removed her borrowed robes. "You really had me worried there!"
"Just an act," she slid into the passenger seat, now wearing just my spare costume. "Are we going home?"
"No, we're going to the Stock Exchange. We have to stop them. Do you mind?"
"Sis!" Scruff laughed, "When have I ever cared about how I look?"
"Okay, Scruff," I laughed. "Off we go!"
I started the powerful grey car and we sped off, towards the city centre.
London fashed past. Ken Livingstone, our mayor, is most unhappy about my operating a car like mine within the congestion charging zone. He's also mad that it doesn't have numberplates, but I don't really care what he thinks. After all, I need my grey car for things like beating evil robed baddies to the London Stock Exchange before they were able to set up their high-tech equipment.
"Scruff, you know a lot about computers," I said as we drove. "Can they do what the Prior said they'd do?"
"Definitely."
"Can you stop them?"
"Well, I need a laptop and a secure internet connection," she mused. I laughed.
"Open the glove-compartment."
She did. Scruff gasped as the grey car's computer started up.
"State of the art. It was fitted up by a man whose life I saved, but I'm not really sure how to use it. You, however, spent all those years in the IT room at that expensive school. Will it do?"
"Will it do?" Scruff laughed. "Well, of course!"
"Great. I need you to intercept that signal."
I drove on, as Scruff began to prepare the computer. The city flashed past us.
At last I saw St. Paul's, lit up and now partly out of its scaffolding wrapping.

"Okay, Scruff," I said as I turned off, "I'll leave the car parked by Stationer's Hall, can you operate from there?"
"No problem."
I parked the car, opened the roof, and jumped out.
Between us, I hoped, Scruff and I would defeat the baddies.
I just wished I had a better idea of how we'd do it.

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