[Greg Anos]

I was eatin' what passed for breakfast, when a junior flunky came by and told me that BadGoodDeb was in the car, on her way to the Embassy. I had him set up a conference room with an eats tray, 'cause I figgered she would be ravenous after trying to eat airliner food. I also had him notify the Ambassador of the meetin'.
I went over to VR's room. "Rise 'n' Shine, snookums. You got 15 minutes to go inspect the trees before the meetin'."
VR gave me his usual nasty look, but he must've had some biological backpressure, as he went toddling off.
I went to the conference room and waited. VR showed up 'round 15 minutes later.
A few minutes later, Ambassador Gaurnim showed up with BadGoodDeb, still with her Enola Emmel make-up on.
"Eats!" She squealed.
"Let me make intros, and you can fill your plate. The dog in the chair is Acting Viceroy VivaldiRules. He's paying for this shindig. I believe you've met Ambassador Gaurnim. If you don't have pictures handy, his staff will take 'em for your new Pinwheel passport. You'll have diplomatic immunity, so don't start any fights. They might cause a war. You also get a diplomatic pouch to keep you toys in."
"You brought my toys?"
"All that would fit. You big one doesn't, but I brought a special replacement."
"Betsy?"
"Yep. I figgered we might need some long range support before this is over."
"Who or what is Betsy?" VR asked.
"Betsy is a .50 cal Browning Machine Gun round sniper rifle. Weighs 35 pounds or 16 kilos. Accurate to 3.5 kilometers. BadGoodDeb is fully checked out on it. So am I. I can guarantee that Ralph von Wau Wau won't be throwin' powder puffs at us when we catch him."
Ambassador Gaurnim cleared his throat. "Perhaps you could start from the beginning."
So I gave him the tale from the beginning.
"So you see, somewhere in Oz is Ralph and the Golden Coprolite. My guess is that they want to make fakes for the jewelry market, and want to use the real one as a analysis/comparison piece. I figger that the must have their process basically finished, and this is the final checkout work. But where they are and their timeline is still unknown. So BadGoodDeb, what have you found out about the plane."
"The plane is owned by Montsnmags Internation. It isn't the CEO's jet, it's the senior management's on call jet, shared by all the divisions. The pilot's listed her employer as Montsnmags Mining Research PTY. So far, it's consistent."
"Ambassador Gaurnim, do we know the current location of the jet, and it's flight history?"
"It refueled in Darwin and flew straight to Perth. Everybody disembarked, and new pilot flew it back to corporate headquarters in Sydney. It's made several trips in the last few days. Last word had it in Melbourne."
"Let me guess. Montsnmags Mining Research has a R & D research center a few hours away by car."
"Let me check." Ambassador Gaurnim walked over to a computer and looked up Montsnmags Mining Research. "Yes, according to their offical records."
VR sneered, "this is a path that a five year old could find. Even you, Redneck."
"You're right, VR. Either Ralph wanted to lay out a whopper big red herring, or else he wants me to follow this path."
"Why would he want that?" BadGoodDeb asked.
"I don't know why. I haven't figger out the why behind the why in this case. But one thing is crystal clear. This has trap painted all over it, in mile high letters. And this trap was set for me personally."
"You're just being a egomaniac, Redneck." VR offered.
"Really? Why did you come hire me? Ralph had the Kingdom's response pegged."
"Isn't pursuing this liable to be, ahem, dangerous." said the Ambassador.
"Naw, it certain to be dangerous. It's liable to be deadly. Ralph didn't set this up just to give me a wet doggie kiss."
"Are you going to go in anyways, Redneck?"
"That's what you're paying me the big bucks for, doggie."
For once, VR didn't say anything about being called Doggie...