The Sleeping Army Awakes

Part 74 Kelp and Running up that hill

Old Kelp awoke once again and glanced down at his Dudat. He was surrounded by empty cider jars and gnawed mouflon bones. He squinted down to read the time. It was gone seven pm. What day was it?

The Dudat alerted him that he had to do something but even his good eye could not focus and his battered glasses were beyond his reach. The alarm was probably to tell him that the Skidge patrol was well past overdue and if anyone noticed then he would be in trouble.

Of course it wouldn't have been safe to run standards patrols while Sir Percy's party had been out on the water, but surely, by now, they should all be eating their evening meals at the hotel. Kelp hoped that they choked on the food. Kelp hated anyone who had more money than sense.

Kelp toyed with the idea of contacting Elektra to firmly establish that everyone was clear of the area, but then he realised that doing so, would only highlight his insobriety and dereliction of duty.

The two of them didn't get on together. There was a nagging doubt in his mind that he'd had some orders earlier but he couldn't remember what they had been. Mr Butler had called him on his Dudat and told him about the fishing party. Elektra had also called him but then, due to the animosity between them Kelp never ever really listened. Elektra wasn't Kelp's boss; Elektra only thought that he was.

Really Kelp should have taken the time, to reprogramme the patrols to completely avoid the building works entirely, for the duration of the building works. Kelp had had enough time to do so but he had never been sober enough, for long enough, to complete the task.

Elektra and Karlov had their own security on the building site but it was a long time since Kelp had done any programming and if the truth be known he wasn't ever very good at it... and anyway it would be hours before he was sober enough to do it without messing it up. It was easy enough simply to cancel a patrol, but if he modified a patrol then any errors could be dangerous. People could get killed. Karlov could do it later.

Kelp had been dreaming that Sacha had told him that he couldn't delay sending the Skidges out any longer. She sounded a bit worse for wear but he trusted her... so he did. He was too drunk to remember that Sacha would never have said such a thing.

Running up that hill

Slepý Bobek and Bláznivý Marek's birthday was normally a day of mixed emotions. Having said that, this year their birthday had been more of an emotional roller coaster than merely the usual sentimentality and sad reflection on mortality.

They had started the day elated, because it was their birthday, because it was Saturday, and hence, there was no school to detain them from launching Fish-sub. Their initial optimism had been quickly followed by frustration that they couldn't get Fish sub to move down the slipway into the water, followed by the triumph, of successfully launching their little craft, even though they had been forced to accept the help of the girls.... But those high spirits had quickly evaporated too, once they had started trying to pedal and steer Fish-sub around in the water.

They had been forced to work so hard for so little effect and despite all their calculations, though the directional fins did sort of work, she had not been the sleek agile fish that they had predicted. In fact Fish-sub had steered more like a whale in labour than a majestic carp. All this had been compounded by the fact that she was almost impossible to see out of, because they had made the windows too small and that they had stirred up all the mud from the lake bed as the fins gouged their way out to deeper water. It hadn't helped that Slepý Bobek hadn't yet found his glasses.

Now that were safely on dry land they could examine the little craft for damage. From what they could see of it through the mist, Fish-sub seemed to be mostly in tact barring a rather bent fin.