"Why don't you help me lay a trap for your pushers, so I can bag the naughty ones at the top?"
"You'd let me keep Samuel?"
"I always intended to let you keep him, but the orphanage is the best thing for him until I have done something to help you. Can't you see that? Take a risk, for both your sakes, and please trust me. You must have been underage when you started this."
"Alright, Sneaky Spy. So I'll trust you, but I'll want a fix."
"And I'll want your keys. You and Samuel are leaving today. Tonight I'll sleep here, after I've taken care of you two. Pack your things, and consider this your last week of rent payment too, already paid in full. I'll meet your pusher in time, but not the way he hoped."
"He doesn't meet me here. There's a tower at the end of the street, with a staircase on one side, and the street behind it, and two large drops to go with the other sides. I meet him at the tower and buy my stuff just before the sun comes up. But if you do this, they'll find us, if they have to search the whole city."
"They'll have my apologies, but you'll be in the suburbs. There's a drug rehabilitation service in Hornsby. I'll do all I can to help you, but please don't try to set me up. It would be all the worse for the naughty ones in the long run."
"I won't," she said, "Hey, I'll call Samuel and explain."
"The lad responded to her call.
"Samuel, we're going away from here. Percy is going to take us somewhere better. I'll have to be on my own for a while; but things will be better soon."
"Do you mind leaving?" asked Percy.
"Not really. I don't like it here much," said Samuel.
"Can I help you to pack your things up, and carry them to the station for you?" Percy offered.
Samuel accepted.
"You get the bags out and start," said Eleanor, "and Percy will join you soon."
"Take it you rented this place furnished," said the Sneaky Spy, as Samuel returned to the next room.
"Yes, it means we've only about three suitcases worth of things between us."
"I'll carry two of them, and your train fares will come out of Sneaky Spy proceeds. I have done things like this before."
"With drug pushers?"
"Oh yes. Well I might go and see how Samuel's doing."
* * * *
Eleanor became desperate for more of the drug which had dominated her, as the train travelled the last few suburbs of the North Shore line. Percy had flushed the remainder of it down the toilet, and telephoned Ingrid Castlecove to meet them at Hornsby station, and explained the situation before they left Eleanor's Kings Cross rental residence.
They alighted at Hornsby, and Ingrid was entrusted with the care of Samuel.
"Explain things when you get to Larmont Orphanage, Ingrid darling. I'm afraid that Eleanor is in a bad way already. I'll have to get her to the centre fast."
Larmont Orphanage was geographically close to Percy's own home, and housed two other young boys whom he had befriended in earlier adventures. These were Kyair of Venice and Rory Freemond, a former victim of child abuse. It was the logical place to offer to Samuel as a home free from drugs and prostitution.
The Sneaky Spy loaded all the bags into Ingrid's car and watched them drive out of sight, waving gently at the boy, as he maintained a reassuring smile. The girl at his side was silently showing signs of frantic panic.
"It's only a few blocks to walk, but we'll use a taxi anyway," he said, and he was soon introducing her to a government social worker, whose purpose would have been better served if the activities of Kings Cross had been held in check by another government body known as the law.
"Percy darling," said Ingrid over dinner, "I like what we're doing, but we cannot help all the victims of these horrible situations. If only it wasn't like that in town."
"I'm going to address that problem in a way that the Sneaky Spy hasn't moved before," said Percy.
"What do you mean?"
"That I'm not going to spend the rest of my life picking Samuels and Eleanors up out of messes like that, while the naughty ones do their worst to cause more and more of the same. I'm going to start a war of terror that the police seem to be unable to initiate, and that the government seems to be unwilling to support."
"You cannot take that sort of thing on alone."
"In the absence of any visits from Eleanor's landlord, I should have no trouble installing myself in her quarters until my watch alarm awakens me at twenty to sunup in the morning. I'll sleep in my clothes, which means I will only have to take a one minute walk to the tower and meet the pusher. Eleanor told me his name on the train. It's Miles Blackshaw."
"So you're leaving soon?"
"Yes, loaded to the pockets with a miniature arsenal that will have unforgettable effects on the naughty ones," said Percy.
"I had better let you go then," said Ingrid.
"We still have a little time," said the Sneaky Spy, "for this."
Their faces were already only two inches apart. It had been interesting to Percy, talking to a beautiful girl at that distance. Now their lips were meeting in a kiss that he would remember and treasure until he returned from his angle of terror, that he had mentioned to Eleanor that morning. The feeling of frustration which had invaded his heart the night before was now replaced by the yearning for action. The Sneaky Spy was pleased. Now the problem was vulnerable and of a form that he could attack relentlessly. He was far more comfortable with his preparations to traumatize the drug lords of Kings Cross, than he had been with the helpless tour of its streets twenty-four hours earlier.
"Well Ingrid, if Larmont has any need to call us about Samuel, then they can dial this number and speak to you. The same goes for the rehabilitation centre, making us the main link between little brother and big sister at the moment. I'd best be off for the station."
"You might need your energy for the adventure. Why don't I drive you to the station?"
"Thank you," said the Sneaky Spy with the grateful voice of an appreciative eight year old boy who has been offered his favourite food by the babysitter.
Soon Ingrid watched him riding out of Wahroonga, until the train was out of sight.
* * * *
The lights at Ordinairy Man Manor had all been switched off. There was not a sound in any room of the house. Ingrid Castlecove began to regret more than ever before, that she had chosen the teenage vandal over Percy … because it might well have driven him into this lifestyle. Yet the same lifestyle had brought him to her rescue and brought them together this time.
How she longed for a tasty little man to take her mind off things now. She felt she could use a good chase too. They’d all been too easy to catch.
* * * *
The Sneaky Spy settled down in Samuel's bed. He could have used Eleanor's, but Samuel's was large enough. A mention of his dreams including all their detailed nonesuch events would only distract from the tone of this tale. He awoke at five thirty, and made his way out to the street.
"Well it looks as if even the infamous Kings Cross nightlife does pause for the occasional breather," he observed, and he approached the tower, climbed over a fence and stepped between an X-shaped structure, which was one of many that ran around the cylinder-shaped tower. The man who must have been Miles Blackshaw moved aside, hoping to avoid Percy's interest until Eleanor arrived.
"It's alright Blackshaw," said the Sneaky Spy, producing a tranquiliser dart gun, which the other would assume to be loaded with bullets, and pushing Miles against the base of the tower.
"What is this?" asked Miles.
"An apt question," said the Sneaky Spy, removing a large wad of currency form Blackshaw's coat pocket, "What is this?"
"It's not yours. Hey!"
The Sneaky Spy's hand had also located a tight plastic container, a small bag packed securely with a white mixture, which to a child's eye might well have been icing sugar or salt.
"Well my answer to your question could be a citizen's arrest," said the Sneaky Spy, "but it all depends on how cooperative you are."
"You gotta give that back, Mister. My boss would kill me, if I failed to deliver his contracts and collect on them for him."
"Well you're not going to deliver your filthy life ruining insult to the contents of a council garbage depot, or collect anything; but if you want to be safe from your seniors, you would do well to tell me everything I need to know to nab them. I want the best possible tip-offs, because I might fail, Miles, and that would give them the chance to deal with the fact that you failed."
"I don't know how the stuff gets into Sydney, Sir. I only deliver it. I get it from the big house and bring it here. So I'm a middle man between the users and the suppliers."
"And you'll give me this address?"
"Yes, but you couldn't crash a place like that."
"I could crash a fortress," said the Sneaky Spy.
He acquired and memorized the address of the house. It was a waterside mansion near Balmoral Beach.
"So why do you do this, Miles?" asked the Sneaky Spy.
"I need the money. You know what times are like, don't you?"
"Yes. They're even tougher when girls have to sell themselves to pay for a habit and support their young brothers."
"But you'll go easy on me, now that I've talked, won't you?"
The Sneaky Spy answered the request with a movement which returned his gun to its holster and left his hand in the position to back-fist the drug pusher in the head. With both hands free, the Sneaky Spy seized the man firmly and then forced him to strip down to his underwear.
"You can buy your clothes back from a charity second hand clothing store, if you ever earn honest money," he said, "and if you can find which outlet in all of Sydney to which I donate them."
Even after all he had done to Miles Blackshaw, Percy regretted having left the man free to walk the streets. The trouble was, that handing him over to the law would cause too many complications which would not have helped Percy's situation. He wanted to ruin them properly, without any police interference.
Percy Dale could never have killed Blackshaw either. Christian adventurers did not do that sort of thing.
Percy telephoned Canton Algor from Eleanor's house and arranged to approach the criminal's mansion in the Algorithm, Canton's boat.
He met Canton in the city, borrowed the keys to the boat and then took a taxi ride past the mansion on the roads, to get a rough approximation of where the house was. Matching the number of the street gave him the front of the house. It was a white brick house, with dark blue window frames, and Percy decided that it would be safest to be approaching the house by water, and a simple climb up the rocks.
He had a small cigarette lighter in his pocket. Lest any of Percy's readers concern themselves with the likelihood of his taking up the habit of destroying his lungs in slow motion, the writer assures them that the lighter was there for the purpose of destroying any more containers of drugs, rather than introducing Percy to nicotine. He returned to Middle Harbour, and boarded the Algorithm at the Spit.
He could see no reason not to attempt the visit in the daytime. If anybody chose to interfere, he might even enlist their aid in ruining the drug business. The other factor to consider was the use of daylight to give him a full view of the layout of the house. Once night had fallen, the people who knew their mansion better than a stranger would have the advantage of anyone who also could not see it.
"Well there it is," he thought at last, "and it seems as though it would be quite legal to walk around those rocks from the beach. So I shan't be doing anything risky until I jump over the back wall."
The Sneaky Spy brought the Algorithm close to the rocks, and thought about the beauty of that craft.
"Don't worry Canton, for I shall return it to you safely," said Percy to himself.
He left the boat and stepped over the rocks, apparently disinterested in everything around him, while actually taking in the absence of anyone on the back terrace of the house, as a sight that pleased him. He reached the wall and vaulted over it, landing quietly on the balls of his feet. He crossed a wide terrace and came to rest outside an open back window.
"Flyscreens do keep the burglars discouraged, but summer is the season for other housebreakers today," thought the Sneaky Spy, as he took out the knife and cut the screen with what usually looked like a pen.
He entered what appeared to be a rest and recreation room, and placed the removed portion of the screen down on a table. He began to explore the house, opening doors, trying staircases to see who was at the top and finding nobody. The house was four stories high and had several flights of stairs. He had just opened the door of what appeared to be an office, when something struck him on the base of the neck from behind. Percy collapsed and slept.