Page 157 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Breaking the Grapefruit Connection
155
other world. This is a grapefruit juice processing plant. Criminals and
others who want to escape from here are referred to this place by an
underworld network. They are hired to work in the warehouse, from
which they can conveniently disappear once they’ve paid off the gang.
The addition of a hundred kilos of fruit is not noticed, nor is the
absence of a casual laborer. Once in the monastery, the escapee
spends a few months learning the local customs, and then moves out
into society with forged identification. A similar process goes on here
for fugitives from our world.”
“Ah !” said Kaga. “That’s quite a neat operation. And it looks like
Pamplemousse is running it all by himself: I doubt that he’d share his
knowledge with anyone else.”
“No, I don’t think he would. He is the only one of the gang able to
perform the teleportation. Arousing his suspicion was the worst thing
I could have done. Now they are going to eliminate me.”
“What do you mean?”
“According to my guards, there is going to be an accident at one of
the pulping machines. The victim will be unrecognizable, thus easily
passed off as one of the smuggled criminals. It will happen tonight on
the graveyard shift. And guess who it’s going to happen to.”
“The plan will have to change,” said Kaga with determination.
“We’ve got to get out of here and find a way back to our own
spacetime. I don’t have any equipment with me for teleporting us
ourselves, so we’ll have to rely upon Pamplemousse.”
Kaga and Lugo continued to talk until night fell. Then they waited
silently. Just as Captain Kaga was dozing off, he heard footsteps
approaching the room. He motioned to Lugo, who immediately stood
up against the door and began pounding on it.
‘‘Let me out of here!” he yelled. The door opened and two arms
grabbed him.
“Sure, you can come out now,” came a rough voice “Let’s go on a
little tour of the plant. I bet you’ve never seen how grapefruit juice is
made. No, you don’t!”
Kaga heard the sounds of a scuffle and the voice: “That’ll hold you.
Now, come on!”
As Kaga had intended, Lugo’s resistance had taken his captor’s
attention away from the still-open door. He waited until the sound of
their footsteps diminished sufficiently to indicate a corner had been
turned, and then peeked out into the corridor. Satisfied that the way
155