Detective Reverty Walker in Adventure in Action

Chapter Three: Prompt from Mystery

Detective Reverty Walker was moving steadily and stealthily between shipping containers in the dark. He heard the lap of the waves at the nearby dock and smelled the faint fishy smell wafting up from the fishing boats moored at the pier. His ears and instinct were on high alert. Though he didn't necessarily plan on having trouble, he was always prepared for it.

The surveillance of his alias Patrick's contact, Jack, provided him with the shipping container number and details about the crate he was looking for. It would have a rooster stamped on it. Rev had planted a bug on Jack's coat and had overheard this crucial conversation yesterday. Inside that crate was a gift of good faith from a powerful Chinese crime lord to a State senator involved in trafficking throughout several states. If things went well between them, it was likely that they would start shipping other things to this Senator that Rev didn't want entering his country.

Rev was building a case against the Senator, and while snatching this item wouldn't help put him in prison, it would likely enrage him and possibly offend the Chinese enough to not try to forge a trafficking connection across seas. It definitely would make the Senator appear incompetent, at the very least.

Besides the fact that Rev didn't need international issues on top of the national ones he already had, he really got a kick out of pushing bad guy buttons.

He turned the torch of his phone on for a moment, only long enough to check the details on the side of the dark blue container.

This is it.

He listened hard for a solid minute then inspected the lock after hearing nothing of interest. Rev opted to cut it rather than pick it because it was so flimsy. He pulled bolt cutters from a side pocket, snipped it, removed it, and opened the door as slowly as possible. It creaked regardless. Rev paused and listened again before taking one step inside and shining his torch again.

Bloody hell.

The entire container was filled with wooden crates, hundreds of them, all exactly the same size and shape. This might take more time than he had, and what if the rooster emblem was on the top of the container with another container sitting on that? He could only see the sides or fronts of most of them.

Rev considered his options as he took a jaunt through, shining his torch on the crates he could see. No rooster visible.

He definitely didn't want to be caught inside when Jack arrived, so he decided to close the container and let him do the digging instead.

Rev closed everything up and hunkered down a couple containers away, ears and instinct on high alert.

He didn't need to wait more than an hour before he heard footsteps and quiet conversation.

Idiot amateurs, he thought with disdain.

Two men arrived at the container he had been inside of and opened the door as he had, not even questioning the lack of a lock. Rev crept one container closer.

"Man, how are we 'sposed to find this thing?", and unfamiliar irritated voice asked. "Did he give ya any kinda direction?"

"Just that it's got this rooster stamped on it".

Rev listened to the two of them complain and argue about a process for several minutes before deciding to work from left to right together, unstacking then re-stacking one row at a time. Rev was insufferably patient and would rather be outside of the container than in it, but he had his doubts that the lackeys would be able to find this even with the process they had.

He was surprised and relieved when another half hour later, they found it.

"Got it!", Jack exclaimed.

"Yeah, man!"

Rev pulled his extendable billy club from a side pocket and waited.

Jack and his friend emerged from the container, locked it up, and started walking, talking excitedly about what might be inside. Rev immediately moved in silent step behind them. Jack was carrying the crate and was the person who could identify Rev (Patrick), so Rev took him out first.

One perfectly executed swing of the billy club hit Jack in the head with enough force to immediately render him unconscious but not kill him. As Jack crumpled, the crate clattered to the ground and his friend whirled around to Rev with wide eyes and mouth gaping.

Rev had crashed the night stick into his temple before the man probably even registered what he looked like. Rev put his stick back in a side pocket of his cargo pants, grabbed one ankle of each man, and drug them back to the container.

After tossing them inside the shipping container and securing the door, Rev retrieved the crate with the rooster stamp and pried it open.

He pulled out a solid and heavy statue from shredded packing paper and shined his phone torch at it.

Bloody ugly, ain't it?

Rev guessed it was a solid gold statue of a carp, about a foot long, designed to sit upright on its fins, probably for a desk or shelf.

Rev started chuckling to himself as he made his exit.

Back at his tiny flat, he rang his friend, Clint, at the FBI.

"Whatcha got?", Clint immediately answered.

"Solid gold carp statue, ugly as sin, mate. I figure you can put it on your desk".

Clint laughed heartily. "A reminder of how my friend got the drop on a couple of men who think they're untouchable?"

"It's true, ain't it?", Rev smirked. "We'll be taking down our Senator soon enough. I've got tons of audio I'll be sending you later tonight".

"Good work doesn't seem to cut it", Clint said. "I don't know what we'd do without you".

"If it weren't me, it'd be some other bloke", Rev scoffed.

"Not likely. You're one in a million, man, and don't you forget it".

#adventureinaction