Kit Handsome and the Mysterious Strangers 5

On the count of three Kit and Anderson charged into the bank, along with a dozen of Anderson's best heist prevention officers and full translation unit. ​

​Kit chased after the man who had been playing the flute. Whilst most of the gang ran up the stairs into the main centre of the bank, where the rest of Anderson's officers were laying in wait for them, the flautist took off down a random series of corridors, every once in a while pausing to blow into his flute. A gush of air and feathers told Kit that that owl was near, so he ducked down. The owl came to rest on the flute player's shoulder, just as the villain himself ran out of corridor and reached a dead end. ​

​"You might as well give up," Kit said. "I know you're not armed, you'd have drawn your gun by now."​

​"I don't need to. I've got an owl."​

​"What's it going to do, hoot at me."​

​"No, the owl is armed with lasers, lasers are powerful, deadly. All I have to do is ask and it will kill you."​

​"Can you speak owl?"​

​"I speak to the owl, all right. With this flute. I've trained it to understand instructions using sequences of notes. I can ask it to do anything."​

​"I did wonder what the flute was for, said Kit. "I didn't ask, because I was already confused by the owl."​

​"What poignant words. They will be your last, one short burst on the flute and the owl will fry you."​

​He started to play and the owl leapt off his shoulder, flying straight at Kit, lasers blaring.​

​xxx​

​The owl flew towards Kit, lasers blaring. ​

​Out of nowhere a hawk came swooping past Kit's head and grasped the owl in its talons. The flautist tooted his flute, but it was too late, the lasers failed to go off, the owl and been disarmed.​

​Kit watched in confusion. He had never been involved in foiling a bank raid, but in his mind, when he'd imagined catching the villain and winning the glory, absolutely no birds of prey had been involved, yet here he had just witnessed a bad owl taken down by a police hawk. ​

​"Sorry Kit," said Anderson, finally catching up with him. "I wasn't expecting the owl to be armed."​

​"Is that your hawk?" Kit asked, confused.​

​"Yes, it's our falconry unit. I brought them along just in case."​

​"Why on earth would you bring a falconry unit to a bank raid in an abandoned cream mine?"​

​"I suspected it was this gang, Kit. They always use an owl, which is devilishly difficult to disarm without a full falconry unit. We use them mostly for taking down drones now, of course. Not many criminals use owls any more."​

​"But what's the owl for?"​

"We've seen footage of the gang from previous raids. The owl is trained to fly between the movement detecting lasers and peck in the key code to the alarm system. I don't know how they know the code, it's either an inside job or they've hacked a security system somewhere. We'll soon find out though, we've got the whole gang under arrest, even the owl."​

​"Well, you were right to make me take Mrs Overton seriously. Another major crime solved."​

​"Yes Kit, rather a feather in my cap if you'll excuse the bird reference. And I've more good news for you on the crime-solving front. I've got a lead on the halibut case."​

"The missing halibut?"​

​"Yes, Kit. I think it's time for the two of us to work together on this case. Together we can achieve anything."​

 ​

​