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"You know Mister Gask, Tarsapple?" Luncardy snapped as she folded herself into the back seat of the Mini. Not that she had to bend much, even for such a tall female; this was a human-designed vehicle after all. "Yes, Ma'am," Tarsapple replied, a smirk flitting across his face on the side that Luncardy could not see. I followed the Inspector into the little car, sliding across the cool leather of the seat. Suddenly I wasn't looking forward to this little jaunt at all. Tarsapple was in the front passenger seat, grinning malevolently when Luncardy looked away and smiling like an angel when the Inspector's attention was upon him. The driver's position was occupied by Glenshee, the large youngster who was displaying his characteristic confusion at the turn of events. "Everyone set?" the Inspector called through the open window. There was a muffled chorus on the theme of "yes" from the assorted vehicles. "Okay. Sunglasses on, everybody," Luncardy instructed, her commanding tone coming to the fore once again, "Drive on." What any skulking human would have made of her words was anybody's guess. Mind you, such a hypothetical bystander would have been even more bemused by this group of short individuals, all dressed in long coats and brimmed hats, and all wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night. Glenshee set the Mini in motion with a jerk. The little convoy shot out from under the arches and joined the city centre traffic. I had to suffer forty minutes of Glenshee's maniacal driving before we entered the tiny hamlet which had Garrick's residence on the outskirts. We seemed forever on the verge of crashing into the oncoming headlights, whose glare was nearly unbearable even with the protection of sunglasses, and my knuckles were by now white from gripping the seat. My stomach had been protesting for at least half of the journey, and even Luncardy was looking distinctly green about the gills. Luncardy's instructions had been to disembark the transport in the car park alongside the tiny railway station. The car park was empty when we arrived, since our handful of vehicles filled it almost to capacity. Across the road, the public house was lit up brightly, and the sounds of humans enjoying a frightfully jolly night out could be heard clearly. Otherwise, the hamlet was quiet, with only an itinerant cat to mark our presence. Employing the stealthy movements - at least by human standards - that comes naturally to most Goblins, the police squad abandoned the vehicles and regrouped around Luncardy in the darkness of the road a hundred yards or so from the lights of the hamlet. The walk and the cool darkness had worked wonders for the state of my stomach, and I now felt ready for action. Luncardy divided her force into two groups. One, led by her trusty Sergeant, was to cut across the fields away from the road and approach the rear of the buildings. The second and larger group, led by herself, would approach from the front and spread out to cover the sides. The movements were timed to converge simultaneously, to prevent any possibility of escape. I was to remain at the rear of Luncardy's group, since I was - as the Inspector pointedly reminded me - here only as an observer. We split up, the Sergeant's team disappearing into the fields as if they have never existed. The other group continued along the road, hugging the shadows and hedges for cover. Most of the cops moved quietly enough, although one or two of them were just a little clumsy. Maybe it was time for a refresher course in stealthy movement. In the end, all that planning and surreptitious movement was wasted. Maybe they had been warned that we were coming. More likely, some hidden alarm - whether magical or mechanical, I could not tell - was triggered before Luncardy's team had even reached the broken gate that marked the gap in the hedgerow at the front of the property. From all side of the building, lights shone out - powerful electric lights, human manufactured - which lit up the surrounding trees and hedges like daylight, and caused most of the coppers to scramble for their sunglasses. Whoever was inside also knew that the intruding force were from the Lower Realms, as the voice that rang out across the night spoke in the ancient Goblin tongue. "Stay back! I'm armed and not afraid to shoot," it boomed, obviously amplified in some way, "And I have a hostage. Stay back and nobody'll get hurt."
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Part 82