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Jan 9, 2015

Varning för fula fiskar: Ch. 10 (1/1)

Chapter 10: Micke the Marvellous Mechanic

When Sven reached the phone booth the earl was already waiting impatiently. “Hurry up.”, he said and opened the door.

“Why didn't you just make the call yourself?”

The earl turned his jacket pockets inside out and a fifty-five Öre coin and a five Öre coin appeared. “You have a Krona, right?”, he asked anxiously.

Sven winked. “Just one, now let's pray the phone isn't broken.”

It was Kent who picked up the phone, and it took Sven nine whole minutes to explain the situation to him, and when he hung up he still hadn't given a definite promise to help. “I did what I could.”, said Sven angrily.

“Yeah, what you can.”, huffed the earl. “It takes less than two minutes to explain that we have found a treasure at the pirate bay. You can bet they would have been here in a flash.”

“And they would have been gone just as quickly.”, said Sven, but fell on deaf ears, for the earl was obviously on his way again. If you could call it a way. The headmaster, who had recently built a summer house half way up to the Captain's Villa, had spread some gravel on the most dangerous parts, but the rest was barely a trail covered with a layer of pine needles.

Since the sky was despite everything still a little brighter than the woods one could barely make out where the path was leading. There was no sign of the earl. An owl cried now and then, maybe a little nicer than a real owl, but it was hard to tell.

His heart beat in all the wrong places and he started to dream about his bed, since the woods were full of uncomfortable sounds and he had no idea what he was doing there all alone. If he could at least be sure that he was alone. That would have been nicer than walking ahead until the earl – or someone who wasn't the earl – showed up and... just as he wondered what they would do his heart stopped completely for a second. A dark figure stood in front of him and pulled him behind a thick pine tree.

„Like crying children.“, whispered the earl hotly. “Just like the old said, the one I told you about. He said he was going to report them because of the van, but I think it was the crying. So they got nervous and took off. They came here because they had place else to go. In the headmaster's cottage.”

“Good God, uncle Anton will be terribly angry.”, Sven said quietly. “But how did they know he'd be in Stockholm?”

“They know surprisingly much about us, like how Ulli's hard to wake up. And how did they know that Nils had seen the blue van in another dubious context so they wer eforced to paint it green?”

“Now we're going to call the police...”

Sven didn't get any further. The earl's had had covered his mouth. They heard voiced further at the top of the hill and soon after two strong flashlights appeared on the headmaster's front yard. The van's green hood was visible behind the garage.

“Aren't we going to take the car? It's freezing cold.”, shivered one of them.

“Felix”, whispered Sven into the earl's ear. The earl nodded.

“It's better if it stays here.”, said the other one. Sven immediately recognised it as the same voice he had heard that night on the roof. The man had covered his face with a long scarf and a baseball cap was pulled over his eyes. Sven had seen him somewhere before – but where?

“There are too many of those damn boys who could recognize it.”, the man with the cap continued. “If we left it at the habour the police would look for our boat and that wouldn't be helpful either – not until we are on the other side of the continent. Then they can look for it all they want.” HE laughed triumphantly.

“And what about the pups?” Felix has stopped in front of the garage.

“They'll survive. Now hurry up. It'd be nice to get away from here.”

“They haven't had anything to eat today. Nothing to drink either. We weren't able to give them anything.”

“For the last time – when are you finally going to get it? It was a damn close call, the brats almost caught us today, I already explained that to you. If we hadn't painted the car we wouldn't have made it.”

Sven heard the earl whistle.

“What was that?”, Felix asked anxiously.

“There you go. See how brave you are?” A mocking laughter resounded from behind the scarf. “Do you want to stay behind? You, who can't even take it when an owl cries? Well, I won't stop you. Stay and take care of the dogs. But don't complain about how I left you behind later on.”

Felix pointed his flashlight ahead and moved along. “We could call someone, without saying who we are.”, he suggested. “Or write a quick not – just to let someone know where they are...”

The other man did not reply. He only walked a little more quickly and soon he vanished down the hill.

Sven and the earl did not move until they couldn't hear the men anymore, and a few minutes longer, just to be sure. Then they rushed into the yard.

“Now we're c-calling the police, now, right away, we'll run to the booth.”, Sven stumbled over the words like he always did, when he was getting worked up.

“But you only had one Krona?”, the earl asked soberly.

Sven started rummaging around his pockets. “You look too.”, he said impatiently.

“There's no point.”, the earl said philosophically. “I've been looking for a week. I only have a five Öre coin and a twenty-five Öre coin, and the phone isn't taking those. No other machine either, believe me, I tried.”

Sven found two packs of bubblegum, three little transistors, a candy bar wrapper, two twenty-five Öre coins and a fiver. Moreover a foto of a girl with long, black curls appeared. He was the only one who knew the foto was there. Micke did not know, so he slipped the picture inside his inner pocket.

“We can run to out farm to make the call.”,he suggester, although he already knew that was a stupid idea. They would need about twenty-five minutes to the Hedgård and the criminals were already on their way to the pirate bay.

“What are we going to do?”, he shouted and waves his hands around. The earl said nothing, he thought so hard that he forgot to blink, although his eyes followed the dancing light beam of Sven's flashlight. Suddenly he startled. “Light over there again.”, he said. “No – not there, give me the flashlight!” He wrested the flashlight from Sven and directed it at the window beside the headmaster's front door. Half hidden behind yellow checkered curtains he saw a white telephone. He looked around and found a suitable stone and threw it without any warning trough the window pane.

„Amazing.“, gasped Sven appalledly. “Just remember to talk to him when he comes back from Stockholm.”

“Nonsense,”m said the earl. “We've got 233 Krona ad 60 Öre in our fund at the club. Also he's actually a pretty okay guy after he's blown off some steam. Come and help me and hold the light!”

Sven held the light and the earl called the police.

“Inspector Brandt.”, he demanded. “Criminal Investigation department.” There was a short silence. “This is the earl.”, he said then. “The Radio Detectives, I mean, we would like to speak to Inspector Brandt, it is a matter of life and death, if we don't... no, we found the rabid dogs!”

The earl covered the speaker with his hand. “It's Jönsson.”, he said and rolled his eyes. Then his face brightened. “Yes, it's us, the Radio Detectives and we found the dogs, they are at the pirate bay... the culprits are about to get away, they have a boat waiting for them at the bay...” The earl explained certain parts of the story. Sven huddled up beside the earl and heard Brandt's regretful voice through the phone.

“I'm sorry, but we have no car to spare at the moment. There was a heavy accident on the motorway and a few other minor incidents, that why I'm sitting here working overtime... but it's great that you found the dogs!”

“Yeah, but...”, began the earl.

“Don't do anything stupid now.”, Brand threatened. “Don't touch them! Don't go near them, do you understand? We'll send a patrol as soon as we can. To the pirate bay sou said?”

“You didn't say the pups were here.”

“No, why should I?”, the earl replied. “We need help at the bay. I wonder how Micke... come on, let's run!”

The way down seemed much shorter. They crawled up the dune above the pirate bay and peered over the top.

Micke was nowhere to be seen, but instead the yacht was visible all the better, with a light in every outlet, and the boat only a few meters away from the stern.

“What if they caught him.”, Sven worried. “Maybe the keep him somewhere inside the ship...”

“You reed too many thrillers.”, the earl grinned. “Look, over there!”

The yacht had just switched one its searchlights lights and right in the light beam, crossways in the canal, rested the Loppan and looked very innocent. The skipper stood at the stern and tried to patch his stubborn motor the same way every outboard turbine had been tried to fix since they were invented. He pulled the cord, pulled again, threw his hands up in the air, murmured something and pulled again. He poked his nose between the cables and murmured and cursed, put his wrench aside, dried his hands with a dirty towel and hopefully pulled the cord again – without success. Of course. He turned his head to face the blinding lights of the yacht and shrugged with an apologetic expression, looked at the motor and started working again.

“They can't get past the Loppan.”, said the earl with a delighted grin. “Micke will make sure they can't get away.”

“What if the police will be here in time after all.” There was new hope in Sven's voice. “Although they could still take the landroute of course.”

“If only they didn't have the jollyboat.”, said the earl. “I stumbled across an big old canister. Dare you come?”

“Of course.”, said Sven without thinking. All of his doubts were suddenly gone, idleness, fear, reason, worry what people might say – all he saw was Micke standing out there all by himself in his small fragile boat. If he dared to...

“Come on then.”, whispered the earl. “But no light.”

The yacht directed all its lights and attention at the idiot out there in the canal. Nobody cared to keep an eye on the dark beach. The boys were able to skid down the dune unnoticed, the earl picked up the can and crept to fisher Jönsssons boat wreck, which was half-full with water. He took a hold of its edge and Sven did the same. The pushed and pulled and fought and finally they managed to kick over the boat with their knees, so most of the water could run out.

“What about the oars?”, whispered Sven.

“There are non, but you know the current. If we can only make it to the other side it could work with a little luck. Duck!”

So they started to push the boat along the coast around the bay, until they were as close to the light beam as they dared to come. They knew from the experience of many summers that the current would carry them right towards the stern of the yacht. Just to be sure the earl threw a piece of bark into the water and their eyes followed it as long as they could.

“That looks promising.”, he whispered. “Alright?” He jumped into the wreck. Sven nodded and did the same and pushed them off the shore.

“Scoop!”, whispered the earl nervously and sat down at the bow, trying to row with his hands. Water poured in.

Sven scooped with the can as fast as he could, but wasn't able to get more than half of the water that streamed in out again, and soon enough the bottom of the boat was filled with icy water. They barely noticed, the situation was to exciting... Would the stream carry them to the ship's boat, would the wreck carry them this far?, would someone one the yacht see them, would they have to swim back to the shore...?

Sven scooped and the earl leaned over the edge and rowed with his hands, one on each side. Before long the boat was half-full with water and they didn't move any further. Sven stopped scooping. He stood up, took off his jacket and used it as a sail – and saw the earl stretch until his feet almost lost grip on the rowing bench – to reach the rope spanned between the ship's boat and the yacht's deck. Both the first and the second try failed and they and came so close to the boat that the rope passed above their heads. It was almost completely out of reach when the earl took a leap and caught the rope with one hand.

“Everything will be alright.”, he sighed with relief and triumphantly looked at Sven, who now sat with his boots up on the rowing bench while the water level in the boat increased. “Now help me holding on to it!”

Now things happened at the deck of the yacht. Felix had come out and yelled at Micke.

“Move – you can continue your tinkering some other place!”

Micke looked as if he did not understand. “I'm stuck.”, he shouted. “If only I could get the motor going.”

Felix went back inside to confer. At the same time they boys reached the stern and were close enough to the jollyboat to grab the railing and the earl climbed inside. A few seconds later Sven was save as well. The earl bent forward and cut the rope with his knife and Sven pushed them away from the yacht with his foot. Then all they had to do was sit still until the current carried them to the shore.

“Now they can take a nice cold bath if they ever want to get back to their van.”, grinned the earl. “Sixty meters, do you think they'd swim that far? They probably aren't that stupid?”

“You would have been.”, Sven said tactlessly. “You were going to jump. To reach Micke's boat... If the navigator hadn't caught you...”

“Then I would have been forced to climb back, but he did catch me.”

“But you climbed over the railing...”

“I had to, the way you were screaming. When I saw the waves I knew it wouldn't work. But you didn't pull me down either, you didn't have that much sense.”

Sven sighed. It wasn't easy to understand the earl. Be he didn't have nay more time to think about the phenomenon because no the capped man had stepped out on the deck as well. Micke still stood right in the white flood light and worked diligently. Now and the he stood up and pretended to apologize for blocking the way, before sitting back down.

“Pull anchor!”, the man with the cap shouted. “Or we're going to ram you.”

Micke pretended not to hear, but Sven saw him cast an inquiring look at the back from time to time. A police car had to appear between the dunes soon – very soon. He couldn’t go on like this for much longer, the guy on the yacht were starting to get impatient. Something had to happen.

That's what Felix and the man with the cap thought as well, because they vanished again and a few minutes later the boys heard a strong motor start.

“Do you think they can ram the Loppan without damaging the yacht in the process?”, asked Sven.

“I have no idea.”, the earl whispered and, without realizing what he was doing, bit down on his own wet sock he had just wrung out. “The question is if they would take the risk.”

“They are going to come aboard instead”, Sven groaned as the yacht slowly and smoothly slid out of the habour basin and approached its small victim.

It stopped ten meters away and Felix stepped out again.

“Now, how do you want it?” There was something shiny in his hand.”Do we have to come aboard and have to make things unpleasant for you? I'm going to count till twenty-five, then you'll be gone, or else...” He started counting, slowly and threatening. “One... two... three... four... five...”

Micke did not budge.

“He's crazy.”, said the earl and spit out his sock.

“... six... seven... eight... nine... ten...” Felix slowly raised his had with the shiny thing. Micke began to loose the anchor.

“Phew” Sven sighed with relief. “I was scared he was going to play the hero.” the boys stood up without caring if anyone saw them.

Now the anchor was up. The Loppan moved.

“... eleven... twelve... thirteen...”, counted Felix threateningly, because Micke did not sit down at the rowing bench. He climbed back to the stern and with a straight face and pulled at the chord again. But now something unexpected happen. The motor came to life, it worked like it was the most natural thing. Micke sat down at the bow and now the boat flew back and forth in the small canal, always in the yacht's way, so t could not move a single meter.

“They won't dare to ram him!”, shouted the earl.

“But they might dare to do something else, look at the guy with the cap!”, screamed Sven. Zhe capped man grabbed the shiny thing in Felix' hand.

The earl and Sven yelled as loud as they could: “Stop it, Micke – he's going to shoot!”

Micke heard them and ducked while steering.

But the man with the cap did not shoot. Instead he shouted something at Felix, who stood at the wheel, and suddenly the white bow trembled – and stood still.

At first the boys didn't understand. All the saw was hat something approached the entrance of the narrow canal. The man with the cap and Felix rushed to the stern, Felix reached for the rope, but all caught was the clipped end.

At the same time a new search light appeared in the canal, a long, narrow boat's body glided towards the yacht.

“The custom ship!” Sven jumped up so the water swapped inside his boots. “Brandt's one hell of a guy! He sent the custom ship!”

Felix and the man with the cap took off their shoes and measured the distance to the beach with their eye.

In this moment a slightly asthmatic sound was audible from the beach and a pair of headlights, that were anything but halogen lights, slowly crawled across the hill top.

At the same time another light appeared, blinking mysterious signals from behind a grass hill a few meters from the shore next to the yacht away and Sven realised the space beside him was empty, neither the earl nor his flashlight were there.

The men put their shoes back on.

Something shiny flew over the railing and there was a tiny splat. And then another one. The man with the cap had bent over to tie his shoes. The cap must have been a little to big and flew over the deck. He tries to catch it, but the wind took a hold of it and blew it over the raining.

The man stood up reluctantly and in the Plymo's lights they saw his face for the first time.

They heard a screech from the beach. “It's Alexander – he must have caught the criminals, hey Alexander, we're here to help you now!”

Alexander looked at Nils, who had just jumped out of the Plymo, with tired eyes.

“Hey Nils”, he called, waving slowly and turning around. The game was over.

The only thing left to do was a job for Sven. He ran down the beach, rounded the bay and aught up with the custom ship. It took him a few times to get an uniformed guy's attention, just when the ship drove out of the canal.

“What about the pups?”, he shouted. “They are up in garage of headmaster Berg's summer house on the Captain's mountain.

The uniformed man looked at him politely, but that was all.

“They had no food today, they won't survive the night if they won't get any. And it might only be a few that have rabies, maybe non at all...” The custom's ship increased its speed and Sven had to run faster. “ “If you don't promise to feet them tonight then we'll do it.”, he shouted. “Although Inspector Brandt told us not to. Do you promise?”

The uniform collar bowed slightly. I promised. But that wasn't enough for Sven.

“Do you promise?”, he panted. “They had no water either!”

Now there was no doubt: the man nodded. But that wasn't enough either. Sven would have preferred to have it in written form. “DO YOU PROMISE?”, he yelled. “OR ESLE...”

Finally the man understood how serious he was. “Yeees, I promise!!!” The corners of his mouth curved upwards. He was really going to do it, thought Sven and was satisfied.

When he turned around he saw Micke, who had stopped the Loppan and was one his way to the Plymo. He paused and waited for Sven.

“Everything turned out to be alright indeed, as the earl would say.”, he grinned.

“Hmmm”, said Sven sheepishly. He was about to burst with all the things he had wanted to say, but simply could not tell Micke. So he blurted out the absolutely worst thing he could come up with – but he was really curious. “How did you fix the motor?”, he said.

Micke looked at him and said casually: “I refilled a little fuel. It's been a little stressful since I left Svedinge...”

Sven tried to contain his laughter and succeeded.

Micke continued hastily: “Guess what I found at the yacht?! I was able to look trough the window in the cabin before I heard them coming and had to get back on my boat. Well, there was...” What Micke had seen gave the gang a new job, and it wasn't an easy one. The gladly would have postpone it to the next day, but that would have been too late. So Micke, Sven, the earl and Nils went aboard the yacht and looked for the biggest glass in the pantry, while Kent warmed up the Plymo. Micke washed out the glass as thoroughly as he could, just like his mother cleaned the fruit jars, but at Nils' disposition without dish soap. The same happened to a couple of bottles. Finally some plastic bags were carried in the jollyboat and vanished in the Plymo.

The result of all of this was a happy Nils, who watched the sunrise from a a mattress on Sven's floor.

On the table in front of the window stood a luxurious aquarium. The sunlight reflected on the water, which was rippled by tiny waves. Behind a red Stone on the ground hid a small, shiny red fish and stretched his long shiny fins and dreamt of a lake in China. Nils cast one last look at him, then he fell asleep.

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