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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 2, 2016 15:43:18 GMT -5
"In the mean time, I'm going to redirect my attention to the mob; I've got to stop them before those weapons go out." Gunnarson said.
A while later, Gunnarson made contact with one of his informants. "Well, anything?"
"Yes, there is only one Ireland bound ship- the Athenry. The weapons have to be going on that one."
"Thanks; I'll scout the port and see what I can find."
A while later, Gunnarson arrived at the port and began scouting for what he was looking for.
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Post by Tug on Jul 2, 2016 19:28:04 GMT -5
As he was watching a suspicious duo talking, a group of men with Irish Accents pointed their guns and shouted, "Freeze!" towards the Swede...
"Well bother..." Gunnarson said to himself
"Why hello Gunnarson, Finn thought you would be stopping by, seems you would do horrible in field of espionage, come on, the boss wants to meet you..." replied one, named O'Malley with a grin
Soon Gunnarson was taken aboard the Athenry, was soon handcuffed, and entered the Captain's Quarters to see who he could only assume was the Boss with Finnegan on his left...
"Adolf Gunnarson... I've heard a lot about you, both from my boys and a few squealers... It's an honor to finally meet the man whose ruined my plans of British Expansion..." replied the 'Boss' with an unreadable aura...
"Likewise... How did you get all these weapons on the ship so smoothly, you haven't alerted one single authority just yet..." asked Gunnarson
"Easy my Swedish friend... We did it all through English Greed... You lot love yours money, a few bribes here, paying off dock workers there, and bringing my own 'specialists' from Dublin to deal with a few things quite helped..." the 'Boss' slyly replied
"You'll never get away with this..." dead panned Gunnarson
"In fact we will, you see your 'informant' was simply paid off to bring you here, my boys knew you would settle the score yourself so we laid s trap for you to bring you aboard our ship, which, if you hadn't noticed, has already departed out to sea..." answered the 'Boss' as Gunnarson realized the ship's shaking beneath his feet...
"So, what, you're bringing me back to Fublin as your prisoner?" asked a curious Gunnarson
"Of course... Not... Murphy, Mulligan, bring in the crate!" responded the 'Boss' as the two mobsters brought in a wooden crate...
"Just like you asked..." answered Murphy as Mulligan began lifting Gunnardon into the box...
"So is this crate watertight?" asked Mulligan
"Why would it be? It's a coffin after all!" replied Murphy as he began to laugh while Gunnarson flared at this answer
"I'm sorry that we could be more direct in your death, leaving evidence on this ship with a bullet would be too easy to bust us with, the ocean is a more merciless killer anyway... Don't worry, I'll have the boys send flowers to your service after they can't find your body, while we'll be hiding either in the homeland or America, I heard it's nice this time of the year. Also, if you do survive, we've left a 'surprise' that's bound to get the entire populous of London angry solely at you..." said the 'Boss' with a comical sad face as he boys began to roar with laughter...
"Do t think you'll get away with this!" shouted Gunnarson as the lid was sealed shut...
He was soon carried out of the room, heard,"Boys! Todd him over!" from Finnegan and proceeded to hear a splash in an impact as he began sinking in the water, now filling up his box..
"What do I do?" thought Gunnarson as he quickly tried to prevent himself from drowning..,
The detective soon noticed the lid wasn't on correctly, giving him some space to move it, though it caused more water to fill into the box, but it was his only shot of getting out, so he used his free legs to push on the lid, until it finally came off, having a rush of water hit him head on. The Swedish Drtective soon swam for his life until he reached the surface...
"I won't let the mob get away... Even though they won this time, I will find them, and I will bring them to justice..." thought Gunnarson as he break the laborious swim to the far off coastline...
.....
The next morning, two fishermen were readying there nets when they thought they saw a wet corpse lying on the beach...
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Post by Eyes on Jul 2, 2016 19:31:36 GMT -5
(BTW Tug, LM6 is a dedicated espionage story, so I was hoping you'd post in it.)
Gent heard of Gunnarson's death in the newspaper.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
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Post by Tug on Jul 2, 2016 19:41:24 GMT -5
In the beach, the men had woken up Gunnarson, broke off his handcuffs, and had gotten him a set of new, dry clothes...
"So who are you sir?" asked one of the Fishermen
"My name is Gunnarson, Adolf Gunnarson, I'm a detective..." replied the Swede
"Oh you mean like the guy in this morning's paper?" asked the other fisherman
"What?!?!" cried a confused Gunnarson
The fisherman found the latest paper and showed him the headline, 'Gunnarson Dead? Run in with Mob ends in Water Grave?'...
"They couldn't have known about this yet, the Mob must have leaked it to the papers..." muttered Gunnarson
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 2, 2016 19:55:10 GMT -5
But unknown to Gunnarson, the mob had gotten their just desserts.
A couple hours after letting Gunnarson off the side of the ship, the Athenry was making good time to it's stop in Ireland. Unfortunately, the mob had forgotten about one thing... the numerous German U-boats in the area.
One such Wolfpack had spotted the lone ship, and let loose a volley of torpedoes.
Finnegan was walking on the Bridge, when suddenly he saw the bubble trails.
"Jesus Christ!! Hard left man, hard left!" He called out to the helmsman. The captain, nearby, acknowledged and gave the same order.
The helmsman turned the ship hard to port, missing the first two torpedoes... but the ship was not turning fast enough, and two giant plumes of water were seen going up the starboard side of the vessel.
"We've been hit! We've been hit!" a hand called out.
"Bloody hell, those damn Nazis and their U-boats!" Finnegan called out. In just 15 minutes, the ship had already taken a severe list to starboard.
"Uncover the lifeboats; I have a feeling we will need them soon" the captain called out.
......
"So what do I do now?" Gunnarson asked himself. Clearly, there was a major problem he had to sort out.
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Post by Eyes on Jul 2, 2016 20:12:40 GMT -5
"So are you that famous detective guy?"
"Yes," said Gunnarson (somewhat modestly).
"Well, we're glad you're here. We have a mystery on our hands that we'd like you to help us with?"
"Oh really? What seems to be the problem?"
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 2, 2016 20:21:18 GMT -5
"Well, you see..."
"Wait. On second thought, I am afraid it will have to wait... For Pete's sake people think I am dead after all!"
Gunnarson ran off to spread the word that he was not dead.
The first stop he made was to his old friend, Gent.
"Gunnarson!? You're alive!" A shocked Gent said.
......
On the Athenry, the captain and some crew were assessing the damage... it was not good.
"Flooding through two major holes, the bow hold is already filled with water to 12 feet above the waterline. Half the pumps aren't working and the rest are being overwhelmed" the first officer explained to the captain.
Finnegan overheard this, "No! I refuse to lose the weapons!" He said.
"Face it man! The forward hold is lost and it's only a matter of time before we lose the aft! I have no choice; I'm giving the order to abandon ship" the captain said as he went to the intercom.
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Post by Eyes on Jul 2, 2016 20:31:27 GMT -5
"No you don't..." and Finnegan took out a knife and stabbed the captain. "We're not leaving without these weapons..."
-----------
"Yes, I am very much alive, my friend."
"But how...?"
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 2, 2016 20:49:46 GMT -5
After stabbing the captain, Finnegan and the captain entered a brawl where they exchanged hits. It was only broken when the second officer pulled out his revolver and shot Finnegan in the leg. This bought them time to Throw him out of the bridge and bar the door.
"Damn you O'Malley! We had a deal!" Finnegan said, holding his leg. He called out to his men that were in the immediate area. "Get to the aft hold! We've got 25 crates of weapons to get topside.
It would not be easy. From the aft hold, they had to go up three decks of stairs before finally getting topside. The fact the ship was sinking with a 14 degree list to Starboard was not helping.
"This is the captain speaking; we are sinking and the pumps will only buy us so much time. We must abandon ship immediately! Board the port side boats first, we must make use of them before it is too late!"
"Damn you Captain O'Malley" Finnegan uttered under his breath. Limping because of his leg, he began heading down below.
On the Athenry were 4 lifeboats, 2 on each side, with a capacity for 60 each. The ships's crew numbered 160, while there were 60 mobsters on board. There were also half a dozen life rafts scattered throughout, with a capacity for 15 each.
A clear division was soon made- while the vast majority of the crew and some mobsters began heading for the lifeboats, most of the mobsters and some of the crew that had been paid off were trying to get 25 heavy gun cases from the hold to topside.
Finnegan was being helped by Murphy as they searched and finally found the weapons in the hold.
"Ok, how much time do we have?" He asked one of the paid off seamen.
"If that bulkhead holds, I would say about 20 minutes." But there was water already leaking in.
"...make that 15" he corrected himself, as the list went from 14 degrees to 18 degrees.
......
"Well Gent, I was kidnapped, thrown out at sea, swam, and here I am" Gunnarson explained.
"I'll start spreading the word that you are alive" Gent assured.
He called the London Times and told them about the scenario.
"And make sure you apologize! This is a great embarrassment to the press!" He said to the editor.
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Post by Tug on Jul 2, 2016 21:05:18 GMT -5
Back on the ship, the Mob's Boss, Ryan O'Connor was furious at this mishap...
"I told you boys to raise the German flags when we reached open waters! Those damn spies will be dead once we get back home! O'Malley, don't disrespect your employer so badly and listen when he gives you an order! Finnegan, bite on a damn bullet and walk it off!" shouted O'Connor
"Yes Boss..." the two replied as they went back to loading the ships
"I swear... Drugg will pay for giving that false info that the Navy had retreated for a bit..." mumbled O'Connor as he slammed his fist into the side of the sinking ship...
.....
Meanwhile, Gunnarson's closest friends were still shocked at the headline that no one had corrected them about yet...
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 2, 2016 21:28:14 GMT -5
They had gathered at his apartment; trying to make sense of what had happened.
"I refuse to believe that he is dead. This has to be the mob's doing... he told you lot about the Gadfrey case, right?" Hartley asked.
"Yes; but I am concerned that the mob may have ulterior motives." Poirot explained.
"But what can they gain by reporting Gunnarson dead if that is true?" Stein asked.
"Perhaps he is dead" Hastings sighed.
......
On the ship, by some miracle the two port boats had been launched, and to full capacity. Of the 120 people between the boats, 109 were crew, 11 were mobsters.
"Ok, loosen up the rafts on this side, and let's get to loading the starboard boats!" Captain O'Malley called out.
most of the mobsters were trying to get the crates topside, but naturally, fear does and can take over one's judgement, and a few did break off the effort to run for the lifeboats.
"These weapons won't mean a damn thing if there is no one to wield them!" Murray yelled before running topside.
The majority of the assembled mobsters got onto the deck. In their first go, they had managed to get 6 of the crates topside. 4 crates were sitting one deck below, 6 crates were two decks below, 3 crates were three decks down, and the remaining 6 were still in the hold. The water was slowly overtaking the ship.
"These things weigh over 100 pounds each, so they won't be floating. Any ideas?" Finnegan asked.
"The rafts. If my calculations are right, and we distribute the weight evenly, we can get 3 on a raft, plus 4 or 5 guys with them." O'Sullivan explained.
"that's only 18 of the 25, if we are lucky" Murphy pointed out.
"Well, it will be even less if we don't get a move on!" O'Sullivan argued back.
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Post by Toz76 on Jul 2, 2016 22:03:03 GMT -5
Suddenly, much to their surprise, they spotted another ship sailing towards them.
"Reinforcements from Ireland! We're saved!"
The second boat began helping load the crates and crew aboard.
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 4, 2016 21:53:01 GMT -5
(NOTE: I made a bad error in my original post that accelerated the action too much; I have revised it here)
At least, that was the plan.
In the radio room, the radio officer called "don't get too close! If you ram us you'll only make it worse!"
The ship was forced to stop about 100 yards from the Athenry, to think of a plan to help the survivors.
"That sure was quick for a distress signal that was sent out about 20 minutes ago" one man observed.
"It's a favor I called in; that ship has been shadowing us for a while" O'Connor explained.
"Ok, we can use the rafts as sort of a ferry system I guess. But the Athenry hasn't got much time left" O'Sullivan explained.
Indeed, on the third lifeboat, 40 sailors and 10 mobsters had boarded. Finnegan would have none of it though. Borrowing one of his men's revolver, he shot twice into the air. "Oh no you don't! All my men are staying until we get the weapons off!" The 10 mobsters were forced to get off the boat, and the 40 crewmen had to take 2 of the cases. This left 11 crew and 49 mobsters aboard.
"2 down, 23 to go" O'Connor observed.
Just then, a sound similar to an explosion was heard within the bowels of the Athenry.
"What happened?" Burke asked.
"A bulkhead has collapsed... there is little time now" a veteran seaman said grimly.
(NOTE: This is a bank of Irish names I'm keeping, so I don't accidently overuse O' names: Daly, Dunne, Brennan, Burke, Collins, Brown, Martin, Nolan, Boyle, Brady, Stewart, McGrath, Casey)
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Post by Tug on Jul 4, 2016 23:36:37 GMT -5
"Whatever! Men, forget about the crates! Grab some crowbars, use your hands! Unload the guns from the crates and just throw them in the boats or carry them your damn self!" shouted Finnegan as he fired off two more rounds...
While the mob proceeded to keep moving crate and emptying the crates that were stuck down in the overflowing hull, some of the veteran seamen couldn't handle the mob's tactics...
"These men are crazy! Abandon ship!" shouted a ship as he jump overboard with four others following him...
"Men overboard!" shouted a sailor still on board...
"Shoot the deserters! You're not allowed to leave or jump off this ship except on the mob's orders!" yelled Murphy as the mob shot and killed the five seamen who had jumped overboard...
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 5, 2016 0:10:56 GMT -5
The mob was forced to abandon the 6 crates still in the hold; the water had gotten too high.
"Damn it! O'Connor won't like this" Nolan yelled as he and three mobsters were forced to abandon the hold.
On the third deck, crowbars could not be found, forcing the men thee to try and bring up those three crates up a deck. But the list was increasing.
The second deck down, the men managed to get three crates emptied, and proceeded to go up topside. This left three crates untouched.
The first deck down. The four crates were opened and a chain of men were passing weapons along topside.
Topside, the passed along weapons were being tossed into the launched lifeboats, life rafts, and the last unlaunched boat.
The Athenry was listing nearly 35 degrees starboard. This meant only one thing.
"We are going to capsize any moment! What use are these weapons if you don't live to use them!" The second officer argued.
Though angered, Finnegan realized the officer had a point- it was better to lose only a few men getting half the weapons than lose most of his men trying to get all the weapons.
"How much time we got?" Finnegan asked.
"2 minutes, if we're lucky" the officer replied.
"Then it's a good thing we're Irish" Finnegan said. He called out to the men "90 seconds men! That's how long you've got to empty those crates!" He ordered.
The remaining 6 crew and 49 mobsters went as fast as they could to get the stuff off the boat.
(so the mob recovers what weapons they can and gets back to Ireland; after this sequence, should we go back and finish the trial?)
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Post by Tug on Jul 5, 2016 2:19:07 GMT -5
( I would think so, plus Drugg still has to make his move and the Mob's surprise has to be discovered)
"Alright boys! Dump the weapons into the boats! You can swim your asses to the other ship! That's an order!" shouted Finnegan as he climbed into the last boat, with the crates, a few sailors and piles of weapons. Everyone left began to jump off the now sinking side as the last boat was lowered...
"Swim to the rescue! Any man who doesn't die will get an extra share! Get to the ship!" shouted Murphy, who was in the boat with Finnegan as the group rowed to their rescue.
Soon ladders and ropes were lowered to bring the men aboard and lift the weapons...
"So Finnegan, what's the report? How many guns did you save?" asked O'Connor
"Well we moved 20 crates and emptied 7 others, so in total we got 27out of 32 of the stockpile we were able to save from the Gadfrey Raid..." replied Finnegan
"This is less then we expected and needed, first losing a few crates in the raid and now a rogue U-Boat, which now mysteriously vanishes, 'conviently' hits our ship... Something's wrong here, and that damn Drugg is probably the reason... No matter what he will pay for it..." spoke O'Connor as he slammed his fist against a wall
"What about Gunnarson?" asked Finnegan
"We'll have to wait until we get back to Dublin to learn his fate... Now come on, we have work to do..." answered O'Connor as Finnegan began shouting for the weapons to be brought aboard faster...
Back in England...
(To be honest guys, I think we won't have to return to the Mob anymore in the chapter, because any loose ends can be handled with Drugg or their 'surprise', and this seems like a good ambiguous ending for them actually...)
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 5, 2016 10:51:16 GMT -5
(My apologies if The numbers were confusing- there were 32 at the house, but they left 7 crates there, and of the 25 on the ship, 6 were lost in the hold. The rest of the crates were either emptied or loaded. So 19 crates total. And I agree- this might set up for a sequel, but years later since this is the end of the WWII arc; unless at some point we do a flashback)
A new prosecutor had been assigned to the case. Gunnarson was forced to come back, now that there was nothing he could do about the mob. After picking up from where they were left off, the prosecutor, a good friend of Taylor's was determined to avenge the death of London's champion of justice.
Gunnarson wrapped up his case, he had called all his witnesses and presented all his evidence. But the judge made something clear.
"Gentlemen of the Jury, after consideration. I have decided that the testimony of Mr Everly... Was fraudulent, and you will not consider that as evidence in your deliberation" he said.
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Post by Eyes on Jul 5, 2016 13:33:28 GMT -5
"Now, Mr. Gunnarson, please give us your closing statements."
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Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 5, 2016 13:56:23 GMT -5
"Your honor, the prosecution goes first" Gunnarson informed.
"Oh, right. Mr. Mason, what will you say on Taylor's behalf?" The judge asked.
"Nothing that can't already be said your honor. I think my colleague did a good job calling Gunnarson's competence into question. His credentials are nonexistent and he tends to accuse the wrong people, and puts hunches and theories ahead of evidence. Then he has the audacity to accuse Mr Taylor, Lomdon's champion of justice, of being a criminal? Are you kidding me, is he that desperate?" He said, then he looked to the jury. Noticing they were mostly older men, and British nationals, he simply said "And the last thing I want to ask of you is... Can you really trust a Swede?"
(Author's note: in WWII, Sweden declared neutrality, but sold iron to the nazis)
Many of the jury suddenly looked at Gunnarson with daggers in their eyes.
Once resting, the judge said to Gunnarson "and your closing statement, Mr. Gunnarson?"
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Post by Eyes on Jul 5, 2016 14:01:01 GMT -5
"Well," said Gunnarson, turning to the crowd, "...
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