Marven handed the newspaper to M. “Do not give me that filthy thing,” he yelled. Then he once again punched M in the stomach causing him to buckle and fall to the floor. “May I see the paper?” I asked. “Yes, yes of course,” said M, “perhaps you will learn something. This is disastrous news!” “Yes, it is,” I said. I read the article. “They did put a whole new alarm system in place, something they had been working on before the showing of the diamonds,” I told M, “they had hoped to have it in place right from the beginning.

But it is now working fine. That is bad news for us however. They even changed the control room to another location which they are keeping secret for now. They say it will make it impossible for anyone to get in and steal those diamonds, or anything else.” “Oh dear, oh dear,” said M, who was now pacing back and forth. Considering how hard it is for him to walk, he must really be worried now. “Does this mean we have to cancel?” he asked me.

“Well, we have to know what kind of alarm system it is and where that control room is located,” I said, “too bad we do not have Annelie, she could find out for us.” “Where is she?” asked M, “I could get her for you.” “Too late,” I said, “she is in the hospital in very serious condition. Apparently she fell down the stairs when no one was home.” “Oh dear, oh dear,” said M, “this is getting worse all the time.” “May I say something?” asked Crystal.

“Why yes, do you have a solution?” asked M. “Well, I am not sure,” she said, “but Annelie has been teaching me what she knows about computers and how to hack into places. Perhaps I could hack into the museum computer system and find out what changes they made.” “Oh, splendid, splendid,” said M excitedly, “please do give it a try.” “I would be very willing,” she said, “however, I cannot promise anything, I am still new at this.”

“Actually, she has been able to do some very good hacking of different places,” I said, “so it is certainly worth a try. She will need a fairly new computer to use though.” “No problem there,” said M, much happier now, “I have the very best computers available. Marven, quit your squeaking and take Crystal to your room to use the computer there. Do you mind if he watches you my dear?” “Not at all,” said Crystal, “maybe he can learn something for use in the future.”

“Splendid!” said M. Marven managed to pull himself to his feet and took Crystal to another room. “Um, I hate to bring this up,” I said after they left, “but Marven will not try anything with Crystal, will he?” “What?” said M, “if he touches her I will break every bone in his body! He knows it too, so you will not need to worry.” “Thank you M,” I said, “I sure hope she can find out what system they are using. It would be a shame to call it off after all this.”

“Yes, I quite agree,” he said, “would there be no other way to do it?” “Well, without knowing what the alarm system is, it will just be impossible,” I said, “according to this article, just touching a diamond would close the doors to the room immediately, which takes only 2 seconds.” “Oh my, that would make it impossible to get the diamonds out since they are kept right in the middle of the room,” he admitted. “Here you go Crystal,” said Marven.

Crystal went at once to the museum website to see what she could find out, which was nothing, so she proceeded to try hacking into their computer system. “I do not understand how you do that,” said Marven as he watched. He quickly got bored so sat on a nice, comfortable chair. “If you need anything, just let me know,” he said to Crystal. “That was quite a punch M gave you,” said Crystal showing genuine concern, “I mean, that had to hurt.”

“Yeah, it always does,” said Marven, “and my stomach was still sore from when he hit me 2 days ago. I would sure like to punch that fat stomach of his a few times.” Crystal kept talking to him about that. “You must be very loyal to stay with him like that after the way he treats you,” said Crystal. “Well, one of these days he will hit me for the last time,” said Marven, “then I will be getting out of here.”

“Providing you are still alive,” she said with a concerned look on her face. “Hmm, never thought about it like that,” he admitted. “Why not come with us?” asked Crystal. “You really think M will let you go free after this?” he asked. While they were talking Crystal had contacted the Major to see if he could contact Rock. She did not know that the Major was with the team. There was something else she told him…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod