CHAPTER 9 (PART - A)



That same afternoon the Sea Serpent arrived in London, as usual the HM Customs were busy doing quick inspections of ships and making sure no contraband or illegal substances were coming on British shores. Allan Thompson acted as the captain of the ship dealing with HM Customs as they were not unfamiliar to him. Allan had advised Herr Wagner to make sure they kept getting legitimate cargo to haul from place to place as cover while other illegal goods they provided would go unnoticed or unchallenged whether they were skilled at hiding their illegal cargo or could afford to pay bribes. If bribes didn’t work they had a friend with a special ability to persuade them otherwise. The ship had its crew then the ship had its ‘Crew’. Allan was not a pleasant captain to work under as he had low tolerance for mistakes. Where Allan missed, Gaspar was always on top of as Allan’s acting first mate.

Gaspar was just as cruel, if not more twisted. Even Allan thought some things about Gaspar were quite disturbing such as Gaspar’s enjoyment of interrogating prisoners or other things. Allan knew though that Gaspar’s inhibited practices could be of some use to him later down the road. They both had discussed their time with their former captain’s which set them on their own common goal for revenge. Gaspar also did a lot of human trafficking of young girls with an occasional boy, anything he thought that could make him money or satisfy his perverted desires. Tom was gullible when it came to listening to Gaspar’s stories about his exploits.

Lento stuck to himself with the two Russian guys who gave him little problem, for like Lento they too, were unfamiliar with the folk on the boat and were completely untrusting. Herr Wagner really unnerved him more than anyone but that was who was giving him license to higher privileges on the ship. Lento did not care to be around Herr Wagner for too long due to the fact there was something about him that seemed more evil than any of them were. According to Allan, Herr Wagner was a very mysterious man, but kept him employed and anything he did was not of any consequence to Allan. The rule was, legitimate work by day and the real operation by night. Allan oversaw some of the daily operations and let Tom supervise with some competent support to make sure Tom’s lack of common sense was in check.

The day drug on as Lento and his followers sat down in the mess hall slowly eating their food which wasn’t always so good by other accounts. The minutes passed like hours and they had little to do since the ship was already fully manned. Later that evening, Allan, Tom, and Gaspar were preparing to do their nightly work in the city while Lento received yet another invitation to dinner from Herr Wagner from a crew member.

“What do you think he wants?” the short Russian guy asked.
“I don’t know Ivan…” Lento nodded as they sat drinking some ale in the mess hall.
“He’s a strange one they say” the taller Russian guy commented.
“We are all strange Mikhail” Lento commented.
“So when are we going to go and find Tintin?” Ivan asked with some boredom.
“When they tell us too…" Lento whispered observing the crew entering and leaving the mess hall.

The ship was a dismal place as groups of crew hung out only with each other and the environment always seemed to have tension in the air. The mess hall was the least tense place to be so they spent a lot of time just sitting and listening. Another hour passed as it was now almost nine O’clock at night and Allan along with his entourage joined them in the mess hall.

“So are we going now?” Ivan asked eagerly.
“Yes, you and Mr. Vodka are going to accompany me to help do deliver the cargo” Allan replied sitting down lighting a cigarette.
“That’s Mikhail” the taller Russian corrected, but Allan paid him no attention.
“How many kilos do we got boss?” Tom whispered.
“Enough” Allan replied.
“We got enough to get all of London high a hundred times” Gaspar laughed.
“We need to start loading the truck outside” Allan informed them.
“It must be worth a lot of money” Lento commented.
“Indeed, chasing all around the world and paying a crew isn’t cheap you know” Allan explained.
“Got to keep the coffers filled, and the other cargo…” Gaspar snickered. Lento closed his eyes in distaste listening to Gaspar.
“We’ll deal with that after we take care of this cargo” Allan pointed out as he took a long drag calm as he’d ever been.
“You don’t look worried in the least” Lento noted.
Allan nodded. “After dealing with HM Customs and local police I don’t think we will have too many problems” he finished with a deep breath.
Allan stood up flicking his cigarette on the floor stomping it out. “Ok boys let’s do this…and Lento, Herr Wagner is waiting for you in his quarters” he concluded as Lento’s companions gave him a confused stair but Lento only shrugged.


They unloaded all the cargo on to the dock. Everyone quickly got the crates on the truck as Tom drove in another car following Allan with Gaspar. “Oh bloody ‘ell! I ‘ate damned East end!” Tom complained.
“Why do you hate it?” Ivan asked.
“Too many little wannabe blokes who think they’re tough and all like…” he said straightening his hat.
“Do you guys usually have problems when doing this delivery?” Mikhail’s curiosity began to grow.
“Not usually, but sometimes new gangs who think they run the streets will demand tribute for coming through their territory!” Tom continued to rant.
“Then just get rid of them” Mikhail simply answered.
“Killing attracts too much attention, da boss likes to avoid it when we haul precious cargo like this” Tom explained.
“If a kid wants to play adult games, there should be adult consequences” Mikhail replied coldly.

Ivan took mental note watching as the quality of the neighborhood began to diminish. The truck finally pulled down an alley and stopped halfway behind an old abandoned building. Allan and Gaspar pulled up next to the dock of a loading area where two young men stood each wearing red bandanas.

“This looks a bit suspicious” Allan narrowed his eyes taking a small hand gun out of the compartment.

The two young men were nervous, “So if we get these drugs we can get our legal documents?” the African young man asked the other. “Yea, something like that…” the local young man answered trying to put on a brave front.

“Those drugs they are bringing are worth more than fifty thousand quid!” the local young man replied. “We can disappear once we get our cut from our leader" he almost stuttered.
“If we get them, we’ll not have to worry about money for a long time” he promised.
The young African man nodded, “They come” he pointed as the truck approached them.


“Can we kill ‘em?” Gaspar smiled.
“No, we don’t know who they are, let’s see if they know the secret phrase, if not we know they are not the folks we are dealing with” Allan said calmly as he and Gaspar got out of the truck.

Tom, Ivan, and Mikhail got out of the car cautiously. Allan and Gaspar approached a young looking unkempt older teen and a young African man standing by the back door of the building.

“So you like a good chimney sweep?” Allan said eying the two young men carefully with one hand on his gun in his coat.

“Deathly powders fly in the air” the African young man replied.
Allan was taken aback that they knew the pass phrase. Gaspar began eying the other guy warily and noticed he was trembling.

“So for this shipment I wants eighty-thousand quid!” Allan took a step closer to the short African male who stepped back a pace.

“We got someone coming with the money” the younger dusty faced boy almost shouted.

“That ain’t how it works boy!” Gaspar too advanced, “It’s a shame you didn’t plan this out properly” he said grimly.

Suddenly that instant, gunshots rang out. Gaspar’s leg was grazed and Ivan got was grazed on the shoulder. Everyone took cover behind the vehicles except Gaspar and Allan who rushed at the two young men. The African man took out a gun but wasn’t quick enough and Allan shot him as he fell lifeless to the ground. Gaspar grabbed the other young man as he pulled a knife out quick enough to nick Gaspar with the tip.

“You’ll pay for that you rat!” he yelled disarming the young boy stabbing him twice as he fell to the ground. More gunshots rang out and finally two more bodies fell from above. Tom, Ivan, and Mikhail looked around for they knew they didn’t hit these other assailants until finally someone spoke.

“Mr. Thompson and Mr. Schnider, we apologize for this, but thank you for getting rid of these Crimson Head initiates” a man applauded.

Two older men drove up on two motor bikes. They walked up to inspect the other two assailants they sniped from a distance. One was a young African woman and the other, a local girl both more than likely runaways who had joined a gang possibly with their boyfriends.

“It’s a mighty shame!” one guy shook his head. Gaspar walked up to look and he agreed.
“I could have sold both of these girls for some good coin” Gaspar lamented.
“Well I hope you don’t expect us to get rid of the bodies” Allan replied sarcastically.

“No, we’ll take care of it-I do believe this is what you are looking for” one guy wearing a long grey trench coat said handing a small suitcase to Allan.
Allan immediately sat the case down and opened it as it was full of five pound notes. Allan jostled the bills just to make sure they weren’t phony and inspected a couple of bundles. After he was satisfied he nodded.

“Alright men, unload!” he ordered. Another truck came by to reload the crates.
“That little rat cut me!” Gaspar complained.
“Don’t be such a big baby! You’ll live now help them so we can get out of here!” Allan scolded as he too began to help unload. Two other men loaded the corpses into the truck as well.

After five quick minutes they reloaded the crates into of opium in the other truck. One man inspected the crate just to make sure it was indeed the product they were looking for. Satisfied he nodded toward the man in the grey trench coat.

“I got a bonus in there for you since you got rid of some of these territorial brats for us” he smiled.
“Yea don’t mention it” he said sarcastically.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Thompson and Mr. Schnider, hopefully we can do more business in the future” he said jumping on his motorbike following the truck.

“Let’s get out of here!” Allan shouted.
“Don’t have ta tell me twice!” Tom nodded.
“That really is a shame” Mikhail sighed as they drove off.
“What was?” Tom asked curiously.
“We didn’t even get a chance to really get any shots in” Mikhail sighed.
“You’ll get yer chance” Tom laughed.

They quickly returned back to the ship with Allan in a foul mood realizing they were used to flush out a small territorial gang.
“Next time they want more product the price is doubled! I'm quite sure they purposely leaked the passwords so this would happen!” Allan growled.
“We should have demanded more money there” Gaspar went on.
“You know a gang is desperate when they allow girls to do their dirty work too! No, it’s ok but I’ll remember this!” Allan vowed.
“Harboring illegal immigrants, using scared youngsters, that gang won’t last much longer…Bad choices… lead to bad futures…” Gaspar said chillingly.

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