MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Silliness The Case of the Rock and the Red, Decision at Dawn

Greg Anos · 11-11-2010, 09:09 PM

The phone rang and rang and then rolled to voicemail. Either he didn't know how to answer the phone, or else he was too occupied at the moment to to talk to me. Or something more nefarious...So I left a safe message on his voicemail, just in case.

"This is the Zippy collection agency. We need you to cough up the dough you owe for the cell phone you are using. If you don't pay up, we will send a collection agent to take it from you. For futher instruction, call Bart Black at the following number." And I left my pay as you go cellphone number I had somebody else buy a few years ago, just for emergencies like this.

I'd like to think he was too dumb to use a cell phone, but in that case, he'd probably be caught and tied up by Harry at his lair. I refuse to let my goats be eated by the tiger during the course of a bait-and-bag. What to do?

In the old days, a gumshoe would go out and immeditately try to track down the miising person like a bloodhound. Nowadays, you can stack the deck a little better and take a load off your feet, if you're willin' to take a load off your wallet. I am, because it saves wear and tear on various bodies, including my own.

So I called a different number to the cellphone I gave Rock. This one goes to a different Sim in the phone, which doesn't ring at all. It just sends back the most recent GPS fix from the little GPS tracker hidden in the phone, along with the time stamp of when the fix was taken.

I looked at the fix. Riverside, at first glance. I stuck it in my computer map and checked the fix and the time. It was current, in a house in the mansion zone of Riverside. Hmmm... I punched the "who owns" button on the screen. Nobody I'd heard of. Probably a rental, which made sense for a snatch job. Harry liked comfort. I guess he'd spent too many years in dinky Brooklyn apartments. Time to load up.

I went to the big safe and got the combo IR/night vision goggles, loaded on a couple of toad-stickers, and a portable, signal-boosted, big ear. A smoke grenade and a teargas grenade finished to loot. If I couldn't do it with this pack, I couldn't do it at all. Oh, yeah, add some rope. Rope always comes in handy, and a grappling hook.

I dumped the plunder into the SUV and put on the magnetic ACME Pollution Services sign on the car door. and headed out into the night.

11-11-2010, 09:09 PM	#74
Greg Anos Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,532 Karma: 37057604 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Pocketbook	The phone rang and rang and then rolled to voicemail. Either he didn't know how to answer the phone, or else he was too occupied at the moment to to talk to me. Or something more nefarious...So I left a safe message on his voicemail, just in case. "This is the Zippy collection agency. We need you to cough up the dough you owe for the cell phone you are using. If you don't pay up, we will send a collection agent to take it from you. For futher instruction, call Bart Black at the following number." And I left my pay as you go cellphone number I had somebody else buy a few years ago, just for emergencies like this. I'd like to think he was too dumb to use a cell phone, but in that case, he'd probably be caught and tied up by Harry at his lair. I refuse to let my goats be eated by the tiger during the course of a bait-and-bag. What to do? In the old days, a gumshoe would go out and immeditately try to track down the miising person like a bloodhound. Nowadays, you can stack the deck a little better and take a load off your feet, if you're willin' to take a load off your wallet. I am, because it saves wear and tear on various bodies, including my own. So I called a different number to the cellphone I gave Rock. This one goes to a different Sim in the phone, which doesn't ring at all. It just sends back the most recent GPS fix from the little GPS tracker hidden in the phone, along with the time stamp of when the fix was taken. I looked at the fix. Riverside, at first glance. I stuck it in my computer map and checked the fix and the time. It was current, in a house in the mansion zone of Riverside. Hmmm... I punched the "who owns" button on the screen. Nobody I'd heard of. Probably a rental, which made sense for a snatch job. Harry liked comfort. I guess he'd spent too many years in dinky Brooklyn apartments. Time to load up. I went to the big safe and got the combo IR/night vision goggles, loaded on a couple of toad-stickers, and a portable, signal-boosted, big ear. A smoke grenade and a teargas grenade finished to loot. If I couldn't do it with this pack, I couldn't do it at all. Oh, yeah, add some rope. Rope always comes in handy, and a grappling hook. I dumped the plunder into the SUV and put on the magnetic ACME Pollution Services sign on the car door. and headed out into the night.