Expeditionary

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 12

The rest of the day passed quickly with plans being drawn up. The intelligence staff worked diligently on bugging devices and eventually concocted a transmitter that could overhear what was going on inside Patricia’s house.

The bug was small and made of the guts from a dismantled radio. It would need its batteries replaced every so often, so the team couldn’t just plant it and leave it. Still, it was a start and could get them inside Patricia’s place to overhear what the supposed pirate wench was up to.

Mag had also taken the liberty of going over the radio recovered from Abernathy’s place and isolated the frequency the pirates might have been using.

“I’m kind of ashamed that nopony thought of this sooner, back when we first noticed Abernathy had a radio,” he said to Shining. “We could have had the capability to intercept the pirates’ communications a few days ago.”

“Well, try to make up for lost time,” Shining directed. He went to find the pegasus guards.

Airborne had spent a while watching Patricia’s house and might have an idea for a good place to plant the bug. Sending Skydancer and Ace with him would be good for protection. The pirates were well and truly alerted now. They still might not know that they were dealing with the Equestrian Royal Guard, but they would certainly be on the lookout for ponies.

Shining sat down with the three guards in his office. Mag was also there.

“You’ll just need to get the bug into a place where it can listen to the inside of the house,” Mag explained. “But don’t put it somewhere inaccessible, because we’ll need to change the batteries eventually.”

“Sure, sounds simple.” Ace rolled his eyes.

Mag ignored him. “It’s only set to transmit, so we can just listen. We’ll get somepony to monitor it.”

“I nominate Flash,” said Skydancer.

Shining nodded. “I’ve decided to move us to Abernathy’s house this evening under the cover of darkness. It should be a little more defensible than the ship so Flash won’t have too much to do.”

With that settled, the three pegasi took off into the gathering dusk. Shining ordered the rest of the crew to pack up.

They moved carefully away from the ship, going in twos and threes but keeping within about a block from each other. By the time Skydancer, Airborne, and Ace had returned, much of the equipment had been transferred.

Mag and his staff got another radio repeater set up in Abernathy’s house. They also got Flash settled in to listen to the radio. He was equipped with a pen and paper, and told to write down anything that seemed important.

The smell of death still lingered, but Dim mixed up a few chemicals to scrub it clean and mask the odor. Opening the windows also helped. Shining took a tour through the house to familiarize himself with the layout. He hoped it wouldn’t become necessary to defend the location from attack, but it was best to be prepared.

He, and the other Guards not on duty, found places to sleep. Twelve of them in one house required some creative use of bedding materials brought from the ship, but they managed.

Shining actually slept very restfully. Not being on a ship helped. He was not meant to be a sailor.

In the morning, the conversations Flash had listened to were analyzed. Other than confirmation that piracy was occurring, there wasn’t much to glean.

Shining did, however, have another source of information. Ever since learning that Silver the candy maker was involved, he’d wanted to interview her again. Now, Soft was finally free to do so. He sent her with Rough, Pikop, and Puppy.

As the morning wore on, more radio traffic started to come in, not only from the bug at Patricia’s place but from the radios Mag had managed to home in on. It took him, Dim, and Flash just to keep up with everything.

They were starting to get some more information. Shining thought it might be a good idea to get somepony out east to check out where Gaston might have disappeared to the previous day.

“Sir, we’ve got a situation,” reported Rough over the radio.

Shining picked it up. “Go ahead.”

“Soft thinks that Silver is hiding her boyfriend Abernathy in her apartment above the candy shop.”

“What’s your position?” Shining asked.

“We’re down the block, watching the shop. When Soft figured out that we might be sharing a building with a murderer, she cut the interview short and got us out of there.”

“Hold there,” Shining decided. “If you think you can take Abernathy down, do it, but don’t take any risks.” He didn’t have to tell Rough that Detective Soft Touch was not trained for combat.

Shining immediately called Skydancer and Ace, sending them to the police station to get Wiz. He grabbed sets of armor, hastily loading them in the utility cart the Guards had been using. Dropping the yoke on his own shoulders, he was ready to leave by the time the other Guards came back with the cop.

“I think I understand what’s going on, but please fill me in on the rest,” Wiz said. As the group headed for the candy shop, Shining told him what was going on.

Shining didn’t like being the slowest of the group, but he kept his pace to a reasonable canter as he led the pegasi and the griffon through the city, across the river, and towards Silver’s Sweets.

They met up with the interrogation team, distributing armor from the cart. Shining had brought along an extra set for Soft to wear, more out of disguise than anything. It wouldn’t do to have their best interrogator recognized as being associated with the armored ponies who were taking down the pirates.

The three pegasi took off to provide top cover. Shining and Wiz went through the front door of the candy shop.

The inside was brightly decorated and smelled sweet. However, Shining’s attention was focused on the female griffon behind the counter.

“You’re Silver?” he asked.

She looked at the armored pony and the police officer. “Uh…yes.”

“We think that Abernathy, who is wanted for murder, is in the building.”

Silver blanched. “Murder? No way!”

“Ma’am, we need to search your place,” Wiz said.

Silver still looked shocked. She didn’t reply, but moved her talons slightly towards the stairs at the back of the room. Shining nodded to his Guards. Rough stayed outside as backup while Pikop and Puppy came in and headed for the second floor. Shining was with them.

There was a door at the top of the staircase. The three of them stayed quiet as they climbed, hoping for the element of surprise. A muffled voice from behind the door said, “Silver? Is that you?”

There was the sound of talons clicking on the floor as a griffon approached the door. Shining tapped the two earth ponies on the shoulders. They nodded and got into position.

Shining turned the doorknob and gave a shove with magic. Both Pikop and Puppy launched themselves forward the instant the door slammed open. Abernathy was caught flatfooted in the center of the room and took two Guards to the face.

They got him pinned down and Wiz read him his rights. Shining glanced at the window to see the pegasus guards looking in. He gave them a smile and a nod. Another successful arrest. Maybe not the pirate boss, but a suspected murderer was a fine consolation. And maybe he knew something that could help the investigation.

They dragged Abernathy outside and tossed him into the cart for transport to jail.

Comments

[Ace of Kings]

Woo-hoo! Another big arrest. Well,it's pretty obvious on what to do here. Interrogation of Abernathy should be on the top of the priorities list.

[Lag Incarnate]

We'll definitely need to interrogate Abernathy, and check up on the radios. Other than that though, we kind of just have to wait. This ending doesn't really pave way for much choice anyway.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Obviously now that we have Abernathy in jail we need to interrogate him. Aside from that we should probably think about rotating the guards on listening duty around to give each member not on other duties time to rest. It would also be nice to know if there's any sort of time limit on our stay, if we can't make the trail hotter Celestia may see no reason to keep us around and will call us back.

[BlueNinja]

So, this makes two of three pirate lieutenants down, right? Now if only we can nab the third one, and figure out who the pirate leader is. My money is still on Patricia, but the mayor also makes a good candidate.

This chapter doesn't feel like it ended on a choice ...

[Super_Big_Mac]

I concur with 3639433, we're settling in for a bit, it seems.

[Chainlinc3]

Aaaah, I love it when a plan comes together. Granted, that wasn't my plan-- I think I'd completely forgotten about Silver. But still! Well played, whoever's idea that was. Well played.

I'm with 3639433 and 3642561. Time to settle in. Use radio/bug duty as a resting phase while everyone else focuses on making sure we're secure (and interrogating Abernathy, though that's really just Soft's job). Lock it down and wait for leads to pop up-- we have two big sources communications lines being monitored, so we should get something else actionable soon.

Honestly, I think keeping a guard on the boat just to be safe might be a good plan-- we aren't based there, but if someone went snooping around, they could probably get some serious info. Don't actually put them ON the boat though-- just somewhere nearby, like a cafe or something, just keeping an eye on it. We can even give them a coffee budget so they blend in.