Carry On Spying...

There were three distinct segments to yesterday's Top Secret S.I. game, ran - as always - by Pete, but where he may have been aiming for Spooks events turned out to be more akin to Carry On Spying.


(a) All The Jazz: Continuing on from the last 'episode', Hermione (Clare) and Bicky (me) were sat outside Manuel's house waiting for something to happen. A car pulls up and goes through the security gate, people go into the house for about 90 minutes then leave in a different car... possibly with Manuel.

With Hermione driving, she and Bicky followed the target into Central London where they stopped at the Soho Square Jazz Club. Hermione and Bicky went in after them, little realising they had already been spotted.

Having found a table at the back of the room - but unable to see their targets - our heroes were approached by a waitress who - too late - Bicky recognised as one of the women from the airport... and she had a syringe in her hand. A scuffle broke out and Bicky was injected with some form of truth serum, which turned him into a mindless zombie.

Hermione tried to follow but was intercepted by a hulking thug. She ran towards the exit, famously declaring to the bouncers that "this man keeps trying to touch my bottom".

Bicky was taken out into a side alley and quizzed by the woman. Before he could force himself to pass out unfortunately he revealed that he worked for Orion and had been trailing Manuel.

Hermione came skidding round the corner into the alley, saw the woman standing over Bicky's prone body and instantly drew her small pistol from her handbag and opened fire!

The woman was winged, turned and fired in response - catching Hermione with a brutal head shot. Blood gushing over her face as she fell, Hermione fired a second time, winging the woman again and forcing her to scarper.

At that point the bouncers turned up (after Hermione had thrown her gun down an open drain) and the emergency services called - thankfully an Orion team came to pick Hermione and Bicky up.

(b) Flat Broke: Next morning, our four heroes - having all rendezvoused at the Orion private hospital, set out for Walter Simmons' flat in a seedy part of the city. Hermione and Bicky stayed in the car while Oleg (Nick) and Bruno (Kevin) went to investigate. The place seemed deserted and eventually Bruno got in through a back window, via the fire escape (having stumbled on the ladder in his attempt to be subtle).

There was a smell of death in Walter Simmons' flat and it looked as though it had been turned over and trashed. Oleg and Bruno eventually found Walter's body in the lounge, beaten and disemboweled. This was too much for Oleg and he lost his lunch.

Regaining his dignity, he and Bruno scooped up what papers they could find and called for an Orion clean-up crew.

(c) Room Service: What clues our heroic investigators found pointed to a suite on the top floor of the Dorset House Hotel - a hotel that Orion had already been watching because of its suspiciously heavy security - and a possible terrorist attack on "Tower Bridge, Nelson's Column and either Marble Arch or Admiralty Arch" that very day (Friday).

With no time to lose, the gang got themselves checked in to the hotel as visiting businessmen. Hermione and Bruno then went off to inspect the possible targets, while Oleg and Bicky stayed in the hotel and tried to get into the top floor suite. Oleg shoulder-barged the door, damaging it enough for Bicky's pass key to unlock it... in full view of the ceiling mounted security camera.

Quickly the duo rushed in and searched the room, discovering a suitcase under the bed containing roughly $30,000,000 in thousand dollar bills and a note for Manuel!

Hearing the footsteps of approaching security guards, Bicky pushed the suitcase back under the bed and both men fled out the fire door. Bicky ran up to the roof, while Oleg started down towards the ground floor.

Luckily for Bicky the guards came out onto the fire escape and followed Oleg down, allowing him to slip back into the room, grab the suitcase and saunter out the front door... right into two more armed guards.

Bicky threw the suitcase at one, kicked the door closed behind him and turned tail - heading back for the fire escape.

When more security men appeared at the bottom of the fire escape, Oleg was captured and taken away, but as Bicky raced down the stairs he noticed the third floor fire escape had been left ajar, so he snuck in (shutting it behind him) and headed for the hotel lobby.

By this time, though, it was full of gun-totting heavies, so, instead he headed down to the kitchens, slipped his jacket off, grabbed a tea towel and sauntered through the kitchen as though he belonged there and out the back door.

To be continued...

Player Comments: I decided this week, because we were still in the UK and wanting to be as discrete as possible, that James 'Bicky' Bickmore wasn't going to carry his gun while just out and about.

I think that actually stood him in good stead, particularly in the kerfuffle at the Dorset House Hotel, because he had to think on his feet and not simply start blasting away.

Pity about the money, though, as we were reminded several times that Orion is kind of a mercenary organisation and we would have been allowed to keep a percentage of the "loot" we recovered.

Of course, we might still be able to recover it, but our main objective is stopping these Web operatives from (presumably) blowing up several landmarks in London... and rescue our colleague from their evil clutches!