Idles sat down at her desk; rarely used - she was always out on a case. Last week she'd caught Trews McTrousers, the notorious cat burglar and had spent the evening at Honey's Bar drinking beer and whiskey chasers and lapping up the congratulatory chit-chat. Then there had been the mystery of the missing East Coast tourdates which had flummoxed the BSPD for months and had wound up in a handbag fight outside the US Embassy. If only she could break the IndieSchmindie case; it'd mean promotion, holiday homes in Hawaii with hula-boys and the run of the office crush-list. Man, that'd set me up for life, Idles thought to herself. She put her feet up on the desk and chewed a pencil, thoughtfully. 'I ain't gonna be able to look through four years of archives on my ownsome', she thought, fighting off a pang of panic. 'Get yourself together girl. What would Asm Spade have done in the Maltese Falcon?' Her hand lingered on the receiver of her phone once...she pulled away and bit a nail...then again.. 'Come on' Idles thought to herself 'You know this makes sense' Three times she almost put that phone down. Peeking through the dusty blinds in her office - in a building which had once been an Irn-Bru factory, the centre of the P!O!P universe, until the popularity of that goddamn Ribena had forced it to close - Idles ran a finger along a slat and gasped as a familiar voice echoed down the phone. 'V-Bird Indie-Investigative Service? You want 'em traced? I'm on the case. No band too obscure..Spiritualized's catered for' Idles hesitated 'Er...hullo' she started, before regaining her composure 'I need your help. There's been a....' Idles paused.. 'Situation' The receiver clicked down at the other end. What now? she thought. What was going on? Would the V-Bird refuse to help on such a dangerous mission? What about Miss Honey's bar? Would Dr Chu continue his quest for Sinister domination? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood? 'Dammit' Idles exclaimed and slammed the receiver down hard. She leant over and flipped through a Rolodex, vainly hoping that she would find someone to help out 'There ain't nothing in here but a bunch of rock chicks and ravers' she thought Suddenly, there was a knock at the window followed by a series of smaller taps...it sounded like a rendition of 'Fox in the Snow' Idles briefly daydreamed of the time she'd busted Stuart Murdoch, after a tip off from a kid to who he'd tried to sell knocked-off copies of Mogwai singles. Snapping back to reality, Idles pulled aside the heavy net curtains and opened up window. A silhouetted figure stood on the fire escape beneath the window. It was the V-Bird, laden with an old Dansette, a selection of Heavenly and Sarah records and a double-necked Gibson. And a small hamster. 'He gets lonely on his own', the bird announced, almost as if she had read Idles' mind. 'Right, let's get to work' (to be continued.......................) Being a Rebel's Fine at: http://www.angelfire.com/ia/trustnoone ________________________________________________________________________ --> get your free, private gURLmail account at http://www.gURLmail.com!! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+