The B.L.A.D.E. submarine arrived at its destination on time, and the agents began to set the scene. Agents Sixteen and Twenty-One changed out of their ordinairy clothes, and into some suitable diving suits. They concealed upon their persons such things as knives, guns and flashlights. The other agents were fully armed and prepared to go into action. B.L.A.D.E. was soon ready to play absolute chaos with the staff of O.C.T.O.P.U.S.

As Agents Sixteen and Twenty-One left the submarine and began to make a reconnaissance of the surrounding undersea area, Agent Two began to operate the submarine's main communicator.

"Attention, anyone in the area! This is an emergency! This is a submarine at nautical reference AR733. We have an oil seepage, and an imminent radiation danger. We are carrying a valuable cargo and do not wish to abandon ship. We need urgent help."

"This is Commander Brian Markan of O.C.T.O.P.U.S., a sea rescue service very near you. Could you please confirm reference AR733 and repeat your problem?"

Six-thirty.

Night had fallen on the surface of the water. Agent two confirmed the reference, estimated the depth of the B.L.A.D.E. submarine, informed Markan of his estimation, and repeated the "problem" to the commander.

While this was going on, other B.L.A.D.E. agents were emptying oil into the water around the submarine, in order to at least give some temporary credibility to the story put forth by Agent Two, and others were positioning themselves in the submarine, in order to deliver a surprise attack.

"Alright then," said Markan, "We'll send out a submarine to look for you. I cannot tell you exactly when it will arrive there, but you're very close to our headquarters, which will cut down on our usual travelling time problems."

"Thank you, Commander. We'll look forward to seeing you. It's getting pretty dicey down here."

Twenty-five minutes later, the O.C.T.O.P.U.S. submarine Squid arrived, and some divers swam out towards the B.L.A.D.E. submarine.

"They weren't kidding about that oil spill," thought one of the O.C.T.O.P.U.S. team to himself, as they approached the entry point of the B.L.A.D.E. submarine. When they reached the submarine, they were shown into the main control room, and rapidly introduced to Agent One, who used the name Andrew Cardon.

"So you have a radiation problem, as well as that oil leakage," said the Squid captain, eager to get on with the job.

"No we don't have any problems," said Agent Number One, retreating towards a pillar, "but you do."

At that moment, a number of weapons were displayed and used, and absolute havoc broke loose in the B.L.A.D.E. submarine main control room.

Guns were fired at faces, knives were inserted into necks, and it was not long before the B.L.A.D.E. attack force had murdered every O.C.T.O.P.U.S. member in the control room.

Meanwhile, Agents Sixteen and Twenty-One had gained successful entry to the Squid , having killed a man in order to keep their presence a secret for a little longer.

It took them ten minutes to discover that there were only three other men on board - apart from the ones that had gone across to the B.L.A.D.E. submarine - and another two minutes to make certain that there were now no living men on board other than themselves. Agents Sixteen and Twenty-one had been given specific instructions not to use the Squid communicator with which to contact the B.L.A.D.E. submarine.

"O.C.T.O.P.U.S. headquarters will most certainly be monitoring all transmissions from their own submarine," Agent One had said, "So you will just have to do the job and then wait for us to join you. We'll give you twenty minutes to finish them off, and when the rest of us get to your ship, it should not be too hard to get their uniforms off, and take their dead bodies into our own submarine."

This in effect was what happened. The men and women from B.L.A.D.E. had only to pile up the bodies in the main control room, and activate the several explosive timers that had already been positioned in various places around their own submarine. The timers left them half an hour to get away in the O.C.T.O.P.U.S. submarine Squid , and their next objective was to seize the Jungle Island complex, rapidly but subtly.

The O.C.T.O.P.U.S. submarine soon found the only open place to dock on Jungle Island's outskirts, and Agent One knew that they could enter it and take the island with ease. O.C.T.O.P.U.S. had not communicated with the Squid. This was not a problem. O.C.T.O.P.U.S. headquarters would have assumed that all hands were required for the rescue of the B.L.A.D.E. submarine.

The Squid was docked, and an O.C.T.O.P.U.S. official was dutifully murdered, as B.L.A.D.E.'s agents began to step out of the submarine and into the docking bay. They moved across the island, and examined every accessible room in the entire complex, murdering their victims as they did so. When the carnage was completed, Agent One instructed his organisation to load the many corpses into a yacht, take it out to sea, and then have a helicopter ready to look after the B.L.A.D.E. agent driving the yacht.

"And when you're in the helicopter with the pilot, you can trigger the explosives that you will put in the yacht. I don't expect to see any corpses in this place after sunup."

*          *          *          *

The task was completed, and then the people from B.L.A.D.E. took it in turns to have some sleep, while the others got to know the general administration procedures required to run O.C.T.O.P.U.S. their own way. This took a few days, during which they only received one call for help. It was made from a yacht, which was subsequently destroyed, after it had proven to yield a few items of value. In death itself, the victims of B.L.A.D.E. found their own cremation.

*          *          *          *

In the months to follow, the substitute O.C.T.O.P.U.S. team were true to their goals in Brutal Larceny And Diabolical Exterminations. Many items of considerable value were obtained, stored, sold and forgotten. Even the illicit cash revenue was not stored on Jungle Island. It was paid into the bank accounts of the various B.L.A.D.E. agents, who grew richer as the number of deaths grew larger.

Percy Dale sat in the reception room of his own general medical practitioner, awaiting his tetanus injection. He remembered the time when his six year old self had been in hospital. The nurse had come to his bed and said "Come on up for a cuddle," and then plunged a syringe into his bottom.

"It's a good thing that I was so young that it only hurt my bottom, and not my sensitive feelings," he thought to himself, as he waited for his appointment.

"Percy Dale, the doctor's ready to see you now."

Percy waited for Doctor Lambauer to leave his previous patient to her own devices, and then entered the office, rolling up his sleeve as he did so.

"So how have you been since I saw you last?" questioned the doctor, and Percy wondered what to tell the man.

"Not bad at all. I still have parties at home, and ask the friends around. I'm still healthy and wealthy."

"And lazy, I suppose."

"Well at least it doesn't make me boring, living off my inheritance, that is."

"Ah yes, the Dale inheritance," said Doctor Lambauer, preparing his syringe, "Do you know anything about rubber plants?"

Percy thought quickly. He had never mentioned any interest in gardening to the doctor, primarily because he had never had any interest in gardening. Why should Doctor Lambauer ask him about rubber plants?

The answer came to Percy, and he spoke as the needle went into his arm.
"You really think that you've used that question to distract me from thinking about this syringe entering my arm, don't you?"

The doctor laughed. All of his old ideas about the doctor being in control had been shattered forever. Percy had surprised the doctor, by dominating a situation which potentially disfavoured him, or at least his left arm.

"Well I cannot cure your brain," said the doctor, grinning, "but you won't have to worry about tetanus for a long while now."

"Thanks doctor. I'll go and give your secretary some of that inheritance we were talking about."

"Yes, you do that for me," said the doctor, and opened the door to the reception.

Percy paid his consultation fee, and returned to his home, feeling the pain in his arm only at those times when he was thinking about it. At other times, he was thinking of some of his adventures, the ones when he had acquired large sums of money simply because he had been either unable to establish its true owners, or unable to return the money to certain deceased owners. There had also been times when either the authorities or the true owners of certain assets had offered large rewards to Percy, which he had graciously accepted. With this additional funding on top of his own considerable wealth, Percy had recently been able to offer money to certain members of his Sneaky Spy Society in return for their help on assignments.  Percy would never expect his friends to enter into any dangerous situations against their wills - although he had no objections to their entering into such situations voluntarily.  

Percy saw his own attitude to life reflected in Ingrid's mind. He naturally wanted to give Ingrid the fantasy world for which her heart had pined, namely the chance to be both Percy’s girlfriend and the secret gobbler of tiny men. To the Sneaky Spy, the world was in a bad state, and the only fact which was worse than that was the fact that most of the people in the world had no idea of its problems.  

She was waiting outside Percy's front door, when he reached his home.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Ingrid. Now that you're back in my life again, I'll have to get you a key to this place. I’ve got some news for you, but I don’t know how you’ll feel about the venu. A friend of mine wanted to have a holiday with a difference, and I told him about Smiling Island. He went out in a yacht from Tasmania, and that was the last I ever heard from him. A seaman like him could not lose his way in a boat, and he has not checked in at any port anywhere. I know something's up, Ingrid, because there have been several reports of boats disappearing without a trace in that area. I  suspect some sort of piracy, but I do not know how it would be possible. Those two islands are hardly the places for pirates to live, and a pirate ship could not do a lot of damage to some of the boats on the water these days."

"So what do you think then?"

"I thought you might like to go back there in a yacht with me and lay a trap for whoever - or whatever - is responsible for the disappearance of my friend. If Smiling Island is still unoccupied, we could use it as a base of operations. Otherwise, we could always pitch a secluded tent on Jungle Island."

"That's the one with all the trees, where the kidnappers pretended that they had taken me, isn't it?"

"That's right. I thought your familiarity with Smiling Island would help us a lot on the mission. Donna was the only other person from our group who has been there. Smiling Island would be better for us. The secret trap should be set up again, and I am the only person who knows about it."

"Well yes, I'll come," said Ingrid.

"Then we had better start organising things. I can arrange our transport and yacht rental as usual, and we will be taking the tranquiliser guns and other things of course."