What are they not telling us...

The Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, have put together a team of enhanced individuals following the devastating sabotage of their enhanced facilities based at Hanslope Park. The team consist of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter. New information has come to light pointing at possible enhanced involvement in a daring robbery at London Airport and so the team are dispatched to investigate.

London, England, March 1948

We set out immediately from Hanslope Park leaving Jonny, one of Alfie's duplicates, behind. We jump into a military staff car requisitioned by Madeline from the carpool, and with Alfie driving and myself navigating we speed into the night. As we pull onto the A50 heading south Madeline decides that it is time to tell Corporal Baldrick what our enhanced powers can do. Alfie almost swerves when Madeline tells him that she can turn into a two dimensional shadow, as well as being able to shoot bolts of cold from her eyes, but he definitely does swerve when Sven transforms himself into a mirror image of Alfie, quickly followed by changing into Adolf Hitler and then a chimpanzie. I tell a very stoic Alfie that I have the power to borrow others skills or enhanced powers.

As we drive into the outskirts of London it is raining, foggy, and getting dark but Alfie gets us easily to Dorset Square. We slowly drive past Number One Dorset Square and I finally remember where I remembered the address from, there is a plaque on the wall to the left of the door commemorating the Forces françaises libres. This is where I left from to catch the train six years ago, the train journey that changed my life.

Alfie pulls the car over outside the Bembridge Hotel and I push out with my senses but other than my collegues I get no other responses. Corporal Baldrick splits and Billy drives off while the rest of us cross into the square and wait in the dark while Madeline approaches the door of Number One. She knocks and after a few moments the door is opened by a smartly dressed man. Madeline tells him that we are the observers that they are expecting and he responds;

Ah! You're the Hanslope Park party. Please come in.

Madeline waves the rest of us across and we enter. We are shown into the front waiting room and asked to wait, I light a cigarette and my eyes are drawn to Alfie's hangdog expression and I offer him one much to his obvious happiness. I then notice the decanter of brandy on a side table and nod to Baldrick, he quickly serves us all a snifter. After a ten minute wait, the well dressed man returns and informs us that SIS Senior Agent Philby is on his way to speak to us, but that he will be about an hour.

It is gone ten o'clock by the time a man in his early fifties with tight curly grey hair steps into the waiting room and introduces himself as Senior Agent Philby, he leads us upstairs and into an office before he says;

I thank you for coming so quickly. We are attempting to find a use for your unique skills and believe that a situation has arisen that you will be ideally suited to. Something unusual happened earlier today at London Airport. The Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad, acting on a solid tip, had set up an operation to disrupt a bold theft at a British Overseas Airways Corporation warehouse. It did not go well, and they were severly beaten, but more importantly they seem very reluctant to discuss what happened and we suspect that they are holding back vital information.

He goes on to inform us that of the six Flying Squad officers involved in the operation, four were hospitalised and the other two suffered flesh wounds. Of those hopitalised, two of them had unusual injuries. One had suffered severe burns and another appeared to be suffering from extreame frostbite. The SIS suspect that this was an enhanced event, and may be connected to the sabotage at Hanslope Park. Philby continues;

We are assigning you as observers to the Metropolitan Police Force with the agreement of the senior officer, Superintendant Bill Chapman, but you may well find that the officers themselves are resistant to your presence. You need to either befriend or cajoul them to get the information.

The SIS Senior Agent pauses to take a sip of tea;

I don't mind telling you that this is a bit of a political hot potato, and therefore the Home Office have insisted that you all resign the Official Secrets Act.

He looks at Madeline;

With the exception of Miss Forsyth here, as she is already operating under its provisions.

Sven asks if he can contact the Noweigen Embassy for confirmation before agreeing to sign and Philby shows him to a private office with a phone. After a short while Sven reappears and says that he is happy to sign and so we all, once again, sign the Act. We are walked over to the Bembridge Hotel by the smartly dressed man who originally answered the door and are given rooms while SIS arrange for more permenant lodgings in the capital.

The following morning the same smartly dressed man escorted us back across Dorset Square to number one and showed us back into the waiting room, but this time there was a table set up and on the table were a number of handguns including several Browning Hi-Power pistols, my gun of choice, with accompanying shoulder holsters and silencers. There is also a couple of sets of civilian clothes for Corporal Baldrick and the keys to an unmarked car, a Rover P3, for our use. Unfortunately, they do not have nine sets of clothes and so they issue Alfie with several ration books so that he can purchase several more suits in the city, and so Alfie duplicated and sent Billy shopping. Alfie duplicated again and Charlie was nominated as our driver, and he is a very good driver, but then I guess that they all are.

We are shown into Superintendant Chapman's office at Scotland Yard, while Charlie stays with the car ready to pick us up at a moments notice, and I look at the man sat behind the desk. Superintendant Bill Chapman was a jolly overweight man in his mid fifties with a halo of white hair ringing a bald pate. He lit a large cigar and waved us into the chairs that had obviously been set out for us. He puffed out a cloud of grey smoke and said;

The Flying Squad, operating on a solid tip off from one of the security guards who had been approached to assist in the raid, set up an ambush to foil the robbery. But it did not go well and all six of my officers ended up injured, some of them servrely, and the security guard who provided the tip died in the raid.

Chapman goes on to tell us that the security guard was called Teddy Machin, and that he had confirmed that he had been approached by Jack 'Spot' Comer, a known criminal, to be the gangs inside man. The Superintendant informed us that Comer has a history of violent crime, with a prediliction towards the use of a cut-throat razor, and that the Police believe that he is likely to have been working with two of his known ascociates, Billy Hill and Franky Frasier. He tells us that the gang totalled a possible fourteen individuals, mostly armed with pistols and shotguns, and that the Flying Squad have been able to identify severn other potential gang members. Madeline nods slowly and says;

We will need all of your teams notes and reports on the incident, as well as the addresses of known associates and family of those already identified.

Champman accepts this with a wave of his cigar, gesturing to a manilla folder on the edge of his desk. Madeline picks it up and finds within handwritten reports and typed notes as well as several photographs. As she flicks through the photographs Alfie is looking over her shoulder and points at one of the men in the picture;

That's one of the MPs that visited the base with the auditor!

Madeline turns the picture over and on the back is written in neat handwriting the name 'Jack Comer'. The Superintendant is a little surprised that Alfie recognises Comer and is just about to question him further when I cut in;

We will also require all of the notes and planning of the original operation as well as the use of an incident room.

Chapman is distracted by my interuption and nods his agreement to my requests. Sven asks about the injuries sustained by the officers, and also how they are and if they are able to answer some questions. Superintendant Chapman takes a long draw on his cigar and continues;

Of the six officers, only three of them are well enough to be interviewed. George Draper and John Franklin both suffered minor gun shot wounds, and Bob Acott suffered a broken jaw as well as other broken bones in the raid. All three of them would be able to be questioned. The others are worse off. Jock Brody suffered life threatening gun shot wounds, Donald McMillan appears to be sufferings from extreme frostbite, and Micky Dowes has seventy percent burns across his body.

Sven asks how the two officers suffered burns and frostbite, but this time it is the Superintendant that shifts the direction of the conversation by saying that the gang got away with £500,000 in gold bullion as well as half that again in cash, jewellry, and goods. But Sven will not let it lay and pushes the question again asking how the odd injuries happened. This time the Superintendant replies;

It is unclear. The officers have either not elaborated or are so incapacitated that they are unable to say. I have my own thoughts, but I would rather that you investigated without my ideas steering your thoughts. With regards to your investigation, I am curious as to your special skills?

Madeline steps straight into the conversation and insists that as a group we have a unique set of complimentary skills that will assist the investigation, and she suggests that we start at the site of the raid. Chapman writes a letter giving us access to the crime scene and asks us to keep him informed of our progress. As we left the Superintendant's office Alfie contacted Charlie via his psychic link and by the time we exited the building the car was right outside and ready to drive us to London Airport.