Four hounds and a jewel heist...

Having successfully managed to capture one of the invisible beasts living in the disused Down Street underground station, MI6s team of enhanced individuals are now rushing to capture the huge mother beast that has rushed into the darkness of Hyde Park. MI6s team consists of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mimi Dubois, maîtresse of skills; Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter.

London, England, July 1948

Madeline makes contact with Corporal Isy Baldrick at the teams safe house and informs him that the mother beast has escaped into Hyde Park, Isy communicates with Alfie and Charlie who meet with Madeline and myself at the corner of Knightsbridge and Brompton Road. Within a few minutes Alfie, Madeline, and I are dashing into the empty park in chase of the hound. We pass through Albert Gate, following the scent of the beast, but after only a few feet I have lost the trail. I tell Alfie that we need to search for physical signs of the hounds passing and he dupes out several more Baldricks and begins to search the ground. But he can find no trace of the creatures passing.

With no trail to follow we push onto the bandstand as this was where we had picked up sign of the younger hound. When we get there is sniff with the borrowed enhanced senses of smell and I also push out with my own senses, I get nothing with my own power but I do pick up the scent of the beast from the east and so we rush towards the statue of Apollo. When we reach the looming presence of the Greek god I check once more and get the impression that the beast is heading back in the direction of Down Street station.

Alfie contacts Charlie and tells him to head straight to Down Street station, while the rest of us run through the streets of London to rendezvous with him. As we are rounding the corner of Brick Street into Down Street we see Charlie pull up outside the abandoned station in the car, and as he stops the sound of a loud howl echoes through the streets. It is then that the passenger side of the car is crashed into by an invisible force and the passenger window smashes inwards showering Charlie with shards of glass.

Charlie exits the drivers door as quickly as he is able, but he is not quick enough to avoid the massive bite of the invisible hound. But he breathes a sigh of relief when he realises that the attack has not managed to penetrate his armour, but the hound clamps down and holds on tight to Charlie's arm. In an impressive feat of dexterity, Charlie tosses his pistol from the hand held tight in the beasts mouth to his off hand and he fires, but his shot goes wide as a tranquillizer dart fired by Alfie at the invisible hound misses the target and glances off of Charlies armour. I stop dead in the middle of the street and raise the tranquillizer rifle to my shoulder, I push out with my senses and get a good idea of where the beast is, and then I squeeze the trigger. I'm sure that I hit. I'm then hit in the back by the barrel of Madeline's rifle as she has exactly the same idea as me, and cannot see me as I am still enhanced by the beasts invisibility power.

Instantly realizing that I have a better chance to hit the hound with the rifle, Madeline hands me her loaded gun and I push out with my senses once again. I am shocked to realize that the beast has dropped Charlie and is now running directly towards me. With a slight tremble in my voice I shout;

It's coming towards me!

I squeeze the trigger on Madeline's rifle and again I believe that I have hit the target. Madeline throws a pepper bomb into the middle of the street and my borrow sense of smell is overwhelmed for a moment. The Baldricks spread themselves out across the road with guns raised and scanning for any sign of the invisible hound, then Corporal Georgie Baldrick is mauled by the massive beast, but his military training kicks in and he fires his Walther PPK at close range and is rewarded with a solid hit. The rest of the Baldricks open up with a variety of weapons and the sound of small arms fire echoes around Down Street. Alfie fires that tranquillizer rifle again, and again he is convinced that he has hit. Georgie Baldrick is tossed across the road and he lands in a heap against the opposite wall, the rest of the Baldrick section all fire again and then the massive hound slips into the visible spectrum as it's life slips away.

Madeline quickly grabs a blanket from the back of the car and covers the dead beast while shouting for the Baldricks to make themselves scarce. All of the Baldricks dash into the dark mews and only Aflie steps back out of the dark shadows into the road again. Madeline gets Alfie to contact Isy at the safe house and get him to contact Special Agent Philby so that MI6 can secure the scene. She then gets Alfie to relay the same message to Jonny at Hanslope Park and tells him to inform Major Sawdon.

A few minutes later a police car pulls up at the top of Down Street, and as Madeline turns towards it an unmarked black car pulls in the other end of the road and a pair of men in black suits climb out and walk towards Madeline. One of the walks right past her and intercepts the policemen while the other walks straight up to Madeline and flashes his SIS identification. Madeline quickly gives him a idea of what has occurred and he responds;

Not to worry Miss, we'll get this all cleaned up.

By half past three in the morning everything has quietened down, a large truck has collected the body of the hound and the police have pacified the locals. We jump back into our damaged car and head back to Canning Place Mews. When we arrive back at the safe house we are informed by Isy that he has recieved a call from the smartly dressed man and that we are to meet with Special Agent Philby at eight in the morning at his Dorset Square office. Once the adrenaline has left my body I become aware of how badly injured I am and I am forced to get Isy to contact Major Sawdon, he arranges for a car to deliver me to Hanslope Park where I can be properly cared for given my current invisible form.

The following afternoon I am visited by Corporal Jonny Baldrick. He takes a seat by my hospital bed and tells me that the rest of the team attended the meeting with Special Agent Philby and that Madeline told him everything that had happened. Jonny also tells me that Madeline spoke to Major Sawdon and told him that she is sure that it is Doctor Jackal and that there is a good chance that he was trying to make a barghest. Jonny says;

The Major said to Miss Madeline that at least we are not dealing with a mad man!

I am glad that Jonny couldn't see the smile on my face. I believe that Sawdon actually made a joke!

On the morning of the 4th of July I am finally given the all clear by the doctors and I get Charlie to drive up from London to pick me up and take me back to join the others. When Charlie arrives, Major Sawdon calls both he and myself into his office. He tells us that the scientists have discovered a number of interesting things from the samples that we had returned from London, by samples I guessed that he was referring to the dead hound puppy and I hoped for the scientists sake that they had been treating the live one well. Sawdon confirms that they have not yet been given access to the mother hound by special Agent Philby, and that Philby is insisting on everything being done by the book. I tell the Major;

I don't like Philby!

Major Sawdon smiles at my honesty, but tells me to be polite as Philby has some powerful allies and is only trying to do his job. The major continues to tell me that the scientists have been unable to detect the presence of Cobalt-60 in the creature. Charlie, or it might have been Jonny who was in the room with us as well, had been relaying the conversation back to Alfie, who in turn had been letting the rest of the team know what was being discussed. Sven, via Alfie and Charlie, said that it might be possible that the creature was born naturally and inherited it's parents enhanced powers. The Major nods;

I'll get the boffins to look into that theory.

Two days later Isy gets a message from Jonny that the Major has some more information for us. We gather in the kitchen and Isy relays what Marjor Sawdon is saying, we had decided that there was a possibility that the safe house phone could be listened in on and so we had taken to doing all secure communications that way. Even though Isy was the one talking, we could all hear the Majors voice in our heads;

Got some more information for you from the boffins. They did find trace amounts of Cobalt-60 in the end, but it was hidden the first time due to the massive quantities of Radium-226 present. This is most definitely a new method of creating enhanced individuals.

Sawdon goes on to say that it creates more of a problem for us as Radium-226 is more readily available than Cobalt-60, and is used in a variety of common place items such as watch faces. Sawdon's news gave us a lot to think about, especially if Doctor Jackal had managed to advance his understanding of the enhanced process and had managed to make it more readily available.

It was the 13th of July before anything of note occurred. The phone in the safe house rang and Isy answered it, he spoke for a minute and made a couple of notes, then replaced the receiver before heading to find Madeline and informing her that Superintendent Chapman of the Flying Squad says that he has an interesting case for us and that we should meet him at 22 Farm Street as soon as possible. Madeline rouses the rest of the team and within thirty minutes we are in the car and driving to the scene.

We pull up outside the house and Madeline flashes her credentials at the policemen standing guard outside of the property and we are ushered inside where we are greeted by Superintendent Chapman. He tells us that the house is owned by Sir Bernard Docker, a member of the board of directors of the Midland Bank, and that his wife's jewellery has been stolen from a locked safe in the master bedroom. The most curious point being that the safe was still locked and there was no evidence of tampering. Chapman shows us up to the master bedroom and we find Bob Acott inside interviewing the Docker's. Acott ushers the husband and wife out and allows us to search the room. The safe is concealed within one of the wide pillars flanking the large fireplace, and when no one is watching Madeline turns into a shadow and confirms that it is airtight.

Acott comes back into the room and gives us all a nod of welcome, Madeline asks him what the Docker's could tell him, he says;

Mrs Docker last saw the jewels in the safe yesterday morning. During the day yesterday a pair of men representing the Salvation Army had come to the door seeking a charitable donation and had kept Mrs Docker locked in discussion for at least an hour within the entrance hall of the house and left after giving her some literature. It wasn't until this morning when she check the safe that she discovered that the jewels had been taken. The husband values the jewels at fifty thousand pounds, and confirms that the safe was definitely locked.

It turns out that the descriptions of the Salvation Army gentlemen are of little use, but I bagged up the literature that they gave Mrs Docker so that I can test it for radiation at a later date. Sven heads out to the small rear yard of the house and discovers a set of footprints made by a large man's shoes in the last twenty four hours. He follows the footprints across the terrace to the back door, and checking the lock believes that it has been tampered with. Alfie heads upstairs and gets Madeline, who was still searching the master bedroom, and gets her to look at the lock. Madeline confirms that someone has definitely picked the lock while Sven follows the tracks backwards through a covered alley out onto Hill Street, where he loses the trail.

We head back into the house and at Madeline's insistence I push out with my senses to check for enhanced, but I get no returns other than those of the team. As we enter the entrance hall we hear the sound of an unusual chime, and see Sir Bernard Docker consulting his pocket watch. He says goodbye to his wife and leaves. Madeline takes Chapman to one side and details everything that she and Sven have discovered and the Superintendent agrees that the charity workers seemed to have been a distraction to allow someone to enter the house and commit the crime. We leave and Charlie drives us to the nearest Salvation Army mission, in the car I run the unusual chime of Sir Docker's watch over and over again in my head, something about it struck me as odd. And that isn't the only thing, Madeline voices allowed her confusion at someone who can steal from a safe without opening it, but has to pick the lock on a back door to gain entry.

We find nothing at the mission and so head back to Canning Place Mews, and as soon as we are inside I start to transcribe the tune played by Sir Docker's watch, but it isn't so much a tune as a collection of notes. I start to check to see if it is a code using the skills taught to me years ago when I was being trained by the SOE, but I can't find any code to be cracked. As I am doing this, Madeline watches on and when I give up she says;

I didn't know that you could crack codes, I may have something for you to look at for me.

I smile at her, and mimic the sound of the chimes, Madeline smiles and remembers that the alarm was set for nine in the morning and suggests that if nothing else comes up that perhaps we should follow Sir Bernard Docker the following morning.

In the morning, over an early breakfast, Isy shouts out that he has found something of interest in the morning paper. He reads out an article that details a viscous animal attack in Hyde Park the night before, a local vagrant was discovered savagely attacked in the vicinity of the Ring Tea House. Forgetting all about Sir Bernard Docker we jump into the car and get Charlie to drop us off near Hyde Park. We head straight to the tea house and discover that the area has been roped off and that there are sheets covering a section from the view of the public. 

Sven steps out of sight behind a cluster of trees and transforms into a thrush, he flies into the crime scene and discovers that the sheets are masking a bloody mess and it is clear that there is no way that the vagrant survived the encounter. The thrush hops down onto the grass and discovers bloody tracks, he is concerned to note that the tracks seem to be larger than those of the large hound that we had so recently encountered. He also realises that while the other hounds hugged the quieter areas of the park, this beast seems to be far more brazen. Sven returns to the rest of us and informs us what he has discovered and we agree to head back to Down Street station.

Charlie backs the car into the mews next to the abandoned station and Sven casts about for tracks, he discovers that the rear door to the station has been used recently. Paranoia grips me and I push out with my senses, I am relieved to discover that there is nothing within range. Madeline and I head into the station, and as soon as we are gone Sven looks at Alfie and says;

Breakfast?

Madeline and I descend into the underground station, stopping regularly for me to push out with my senses to make sure that we are not surprised. We get as far as the nest on the platform and discover that it has been recently disturbed, but that it is not currently occupied. We agree to push through the tunnels and check out the abandoned Brompton Road station to see if the hound has headed there.

When the others get back from their hearty breakfast they find no sign of Madeline or myself, and so they open the boot of the car and grab the tranquillizer rifles before Alfie and Sven head into the station fully expecting trouble. And as they are entering the dark stairwell the telephone rings in the safe house, Isy answers it and is told by Superintendent Chapman;

Flying Squad have picked up a job about a serious dog attack in Hyde Park, the team is to report to my office immediately!