Gatwick Bear and the Secret Plans (7 page)

“Oh, look, Little Sister there are some sparkling little stones in this box”.

“Let me have a look”, she answered, a little irritated for having been interrupted while watching TV. “Mmm, very nice”, she said as she watched them twinkle in her paws. The stones were strung together in a round shape.

“I think you're supposed to put it around your neck. Miss Acid wore one which looked as if it was made of animals' teeth”. With the help of Gatwick, Little Sister put on the diamond necklace and went back to watching TV.

 Then, Gatwick had an idea:

“Why don't we go down to the swimming pool?”

“Wow! Yes, let's go swimming”, shouted Little Sister in glee.

So they got into the lift and went down. The pool was so big and blue. There was no-one else in it. They had it all to themselves! Gatwick went up the steps of the long slide. It was so high, it made him dizzy. He sat down and slid into the pool going “Whee!” all the way. He liked that and thought he'd do it all over again. After that, he tried the trampoline – that was even more fun. Little Sister, more cautious than Gatwick, took the steps into the pool one by one and backwards, but only after she'd put a paw in the water to test the temperature. Well, they had such fun splashing each other and diving and putting their heads under the water. They had got themselves very wet indeed. “Maybe we ought to go and dry out” Little Sister said to Gatwick, looking at his drenched waistcoat and fur.

“Yes, let's go up and see if we can get the hairdryers to work”, said Gatwick.

When they had blow dried themselves, after much messing around with the hairdryers, Little Sister thought it might be a swell idea to have some more chocolates. So, they had another box between them, and then each rolled over onto their own water bed, feeling well and truly sick, and fell asleep.

Early next morning, Jet was looking for worms in the hotel's landscaped garden. The bears were sitting on loungers on their balcony basking in the sun and having breakfast. They were having oak-smoked kippers, sliced-smoked Scottish salmon and Russian caviar, as well as warm butter cakes with lots of honey and marmalade, washing it all down with hot chocolate. The Red Vultures on the terrace next to them were having a similar breakfast, but they were drinking vodka instead of chocolate. All of a sudden Gatwick shouted out: “Jet!”

Little Sister wondered why Gatwick should be so surprised. After all, they were near an airport.

“No, you don't understand. It's my best friend, my best friend: Jet the Raven from Gatwick Airport! Jet! Jet!”

Jet turned around and looked up at the roof-garden. Oh, no, Gatwick had seen him. What now?

“Oh, watcha, Gatwick. How are you? Fancy meeting you here of all places”.

“How come you're here? Have you just arrived? You know, I looked for you at the airport when I got here. I was so worried about you because I thought something really horrible had happened to you. From the plane, I saw how those nasty Eagles were knocking you about. I've been so, so worried”, Gatwick said.

“Look, I'm OK, mate. Don't worry I'm fine. Yes, well, they did peck at me quite a bit, then they let me go and, but hey, I'm fine now”.

“Well, what are you doing here?” Gatwick asked.

“I was waiting for you 'cause I knew you'd be coming back this way, you see!”

Gatwick was a softy and was touched by Jet's concern. “Come up here and meet my little sister”.

In one curved swoop, Jet flew up to the bears' balcony. Gatwick introduced Jet and Little Sister to each other, and Jet joined the bears for breakfast. Jet didn't like fish, but he certainly adored the butter cakes that Gatwick had crumbled up for him. What a splendid way to start a day, with your Little Sister and your best friend.

“So, what are you two going to do today?” Jet asked.

“We're going up mountains and having a picnic. I want to fish in the lakes up there, and Little Sister wants to sunbathe. You can join us, if you like”. The staff at the hotel had filled a wicker basket with a tasty picnic for them.

Jet said that he'd love to, but that he couldn't possibly because he had other plans. Then Jet asked which mountain they'd be going up.

“Monte Generoso, but it's known as Emerald Mountain”, replied Little Sister. “It's ever such a big, big mountain – high and wide. I'm so excited!”

It wouldn't be difficult for Jet to get there before them. He was agile and could fly

bears were always so slow getting anywhere.

“By the way”, Jet really had to ask this question, “how can you afford to stay in a place like this? Not exactly like living at Gatwick Airport, is it?”

Gatwick replied: “You wouldn't believe it, if I told you”.

“Try me”, said Jet.

“It was by scratching a card with my wooden spoon, and all this money was under it”.

“You're right, Gatwick, you know. I don't believe you. And what about your
‘
little sister', did you plan to meet her here?

“Oh, no, we met by chance, we just happened to be on the same plane”.

‘
Another fine tale', Jet thought. “I'll have to love you and leave you, I'm afraid; got masses to do. Thanks for the breakfast, those cakes were really something else”.

Jet had found out about their plans for the day. Later that morning, Sam would be coming back to give Jet instructions. At least, he would have something to tell Sam, which meant not being bullied by the Eagles. As promised, Sam arrived on the dot.

“Hiya, man. Big chief says you gotta get Gatwick's box. We gotta know what he's carryin' around in there. Could be anythin'! Now don't go shopping him to the Swiss police. We don't want 'em bangin' him up for robbery when we got bigger issues on our claws – the lives of thousands of innocent freedom loving, law-abiding citizens are at stake. We gotta protect our people. That's our mission”.

Gatwick and Little Sister had finished breakfast and were sitting on their water beds sorting their luggage out. One of the wheels of Gatwick's big box on wheels, tied up with red rope, had come off. Oh, dear, he didn't know how to fix it. Both he and Little Sister fiddled around with the wheel and finally managed to fix it back on again, although still a bit wobbly.

Little Sister smiled. She'd just had a wonderful idea: “Why don't we take everything out of our luggage and then put everything back in again?”

“I did think of that, too”, replied Gatwick, wondering how come she always came up with these good ideas before him. “It's surprising how much you can get into boxes, cases and handbags, if you pack them carefully. Let's put the money in your suitcase, Little Sister, under the boxes of chocolate”. They had seven boxes left. “Why don't we share another box of chocolates now?”

Little Sister thought that an excellent idea.

So they sat there, with all the piles of money around them, and ate their way through another box of chocolates. Now there were six left. Good Little Sister started packing her suitcase to the tune of
Knees Up Mother Brown
. The wads of pounds first – those were to go at the bottom of her suitcase – then the boxes of chocolates, and the Swiss francs on top. Like Gatwick, she was so neat and tidy. Now for the wooden spoon, the fishing rod and the pencil sharpener. Those would go in Gatwick's Edwardian case with rusty catches and an even rustier big lock, while Little Sister would look after his sunglasses and fake sideburns by placing them in her new lime-green leather handbag with four compartments. She decided to keep her necklace on because she adored the way it glittered. Now for the picnic.

“Let's put the picnic in your box, Gatwick”, Little Sister suggested. “We can take the food and drink out of the wicker basket, put it all in your box and leave the wicker basket here. That way, we won't have the extra weight, and the box will get lighter and lighter through the day”.

So, that's what they did. Again, Gatwick wondered why he hadn't had that good idea.

The two of them went down to reception to pay their bill.

“Did you have a pleasant stay?”, the receptionist asked, staring at Little Sister's diamond necklace.

“Oh, it was lovely, thank you. We enjoyed ourselves very much. How many notes would you like?”, Gatwick asked.

“Here's your bill. That's one thousand francs, please”.

“Sorry, could you repeat that, please?”

Gatwick didn't know how much one thousand francs were. He looked at Little Sister for help, but her face was blank, she didn't know either.

Little Sister opened her suitcase and showed him the money. Perched on the reception desk was one of the Red Vultures who had had the suite next to the bears. One of the Red Vultures, called Dazbog, had seen Jet go up to Gatwick's balcony that morning. He knew Jet was working for the Eagles, and the Eagles were the most hated enemy of the Red Vultures. Gatwick and Little Sister must be working for the Eagles. Dazbog was gob-smacked when he saw all that money. OK, so he had seen a lot of money in his life. But never had he seen it all laid out like that: in a suitcase to the tune of
Knees Up Mother Brown
. And, he could see the shiny gold peeping out between the notes.

“How many of these would you like?” Gatwick asked the receptionist.

“Ten, please”.

Slowly counting to ten, Gatwick placed the notes on the counter.

“That's lovely. Thank you so much”.

While Little Sister shut her suitcase, Gatwick asked the receptionist if he would get them a taxi. That bus driver was so rude, Gatwick was not taking the bus any more. The receptionist wanted to know where the taxi should take them:

“To the little train at the foot of Emerald Mountain”.

“Very well, I'll do that right away. You can go and wait in the courtyard, the taxi will be here in five minutes. Thank you for choosing our hotel. I hope you had a pleasant stay and hope to see you here again soon. It was a pleasure having you. Have a safe journey. Goodbye”.

The bears bid him
‘
goodbye'. What a friendly man he was!

Just about everyone knew the bears were going up Emerald Mountain that day.

The Police were making great progress in investigating the great bank robbery. A phone call from a bus driver had given them some very interesting leads. The same bears the bus driver had described were clearly seen on the CCTV footage the police had checked. Sure enough, there were the bears in front of the bank as clear as anything.

The Chief Inspector had been shown the images of Little Sister fishing the haul and Gatwick out of the hole. True, they hadn't seen Gatwick go into the hole because the big white van blocked the view. But, the police thought that if he came out of the hole, then he must have gone in – that's only logic. They also saw the bears placing gold bars into Little Sister's suitcase. The bars had been handed to the little white bear in a carrier bag and then placed in the suitcase at the scene of the crime. These criminals were daring.

The bus driver had told the police that he had taken the bears up to the airport, that they had probably left the country and might be in Brazil by now, where they would lead a life of lazy luxury (while he had to keep driving backwards and forwards on a bus all his life. And, every evening he had to listen to that wife of his screaming at him and suffer the pinching of his cheeks – though he did love the old bat

because that's all he had).

So, that was their lead. The bus driver had taken the bears to the airport. That's where the investigation would start. The Chief Inspector went there himself. He questioned everyone. It was from the security man that he obtained the most interesting information. According to him, the bears were anxious to fly off somewhere but had missed all the flights – they were still there until after the last flight of the day had left. He'd had to turf them out of the airport and show them the way to the Grand Hotel: