Chapter 4 : Live Bait

Gregg Gillstrom was getting used to the dreams. It was Mandrake again, this time, goading him on from the top of a flight of curving stairs that seemed to lead from nowhere to nowhere. When he woke he was covered in sweat and laying half out of the bed. Maxine was standing in the doorway. "Are you getting up today? Or are you staying there."

Gregg grunted and staggered off towards the bathroom, scratching himself as he went.

Maxine called after him. "You don't seem to have discouraged that last one you robbed."

"Whungh?" Gregg grunted, sticking his head around the bathroom door, his face wreathed in shaving cream.

"Your 'date' after the charity dance. She's in the morning paper saying criminals can't be allowed to terrorise upright citizens."

"That'll be the mayor, trying to reassure the public." Gregg emerged from the bathroom and took the paper from Maxine. He looked at the picture over the article. "Victoria Leon. So that's who she is."

"Daughter of an explorer apparently. He made his money prospecting for diamonds in Africa. She's working her way through it."

"Perhaps we should help her?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'd like to get to grips with her again after what you said about your last encounter."

"That's not the point." Maxine raised an eyebrow but Gregg pressed on. "It's not. Look, we'll turn her over properly. You can come along and make sure I behave. It'll set the police and mayor at one another and discredit this Jungle Girl."

"Jungle Jane."

"Jungle Jane, whatever. Anyway, it can only be to the good. Divide and conquer, eh?"

"You think there are more goodies to be had from Miss Leon, then?"

"I'm sure. You're not telling me that she only had those few pieces in the safe in her room? That will have just been the stuff she was thinking of wearing that night. There will be plenty more."

"And she'll be wearing it tomorrow." Maxine drew a ring around an article in the paper and tossed it to Gregg. "Gala Dinner on behalf of the Mayor's Police Defence Fund."

Gregg looked at the article. "How come I'm not performing at this one? I thought you were determined that I'd do every society gig going."

"Don't be difficult, Gregg. It just means we've got time to plan things out properly."

Jungle Jane was holding forth for the Commissioner's benefit. "Here's the plan," she said. "This mysterious criminal will be unable to resist the lure of Ms Leon's jewellery. She has agreed to make it pretty clear to the press that the jewels she's wearing to the dinner are worth over a million dollars. The idea is that your officers will provide an escort to and from the dinner but we will leave the thief one window of opportunity."

Commissioner Brown nodded sagaciously. "I see." Chief O'Mara looked more sceptical. "And then... ?"

"The thief's only chance will be to stage another robbery in the hotel. Your men will have it surrounded. As soon as he makes his move, he'll be unable to escape."

Brown turned to his chief. "What do you think, Chief?"

"It just might work," O'Mara said, scratching his head as he stared down at a map of the city on his desk. "The hotel is on a block of its own. We can certainly have it surrounded. Our criminal is a devious one though; we can't offer Ms Leon any guarantees for her safety."

"That's all right, Chief," Jungle Jane responded. "When she comes back to the hotel, I'll take her place. The thieves will have to deal with me, not her. After all that's what I'm here for." The Commissioner looked sceptical and so did Chief O'Mara but their uncertainty only served to encourage Jane. "You organise your escort and the cordon, Chief, and I'll see to our mysterious thief."

"You know of course that this could be a trap?" Maxine was looking at the location of the Excelsior. "The police could easily have this place surrounded." Gregg nodded. He had a beatific smile on his face, the result of finishing a substantial spliff. "Do you have to smoke that while we're trying to plan this?"

Gregg nodded again. "It helps me to focus my powers," he said, sitting himself down in a lotus position in the middle of the room. "Ommm," he began to chant as Maxine looked on in irritation. "Ommmm."

"I think I prefer the lust crazed, kleptomaniac to the eastern mystic," Maxine commented, acidly.

They are the same thing, Gregg thought to himself as he relaxed under the influence of the spliff. His friends Dr Strange and Mandrake were here again, locked in some curious battle, hurling spells against an unseen adversary, the air charged with glowing balls of light and spinning vortexes of smoke. Across the floor slithered the snakes with which he was now so familiar. He smiled again. He knew exactly how he would part Ms Leon from her jewels.