Sowerbutt's Patriotism

The scrawny little man hopped nervously from foot to foot, wringing his tweed cap in his hands. “It is this way, Mr Sorbay. A lot of valuable goods being stored at Shapiro’s. You wouldn’t see them in any inventory, I know, but I watched them being carted in at Regent’s Canal Basin. Be a shame to lose all that good stuff in a bonfire.”

Nero said: “Crates of machine parts and instruments, medicines, shooters and ammo, sacks of chemicals, bundles of copper wire, ingots. Serious money there. All ready to load on the neutral ships sailing to the Baltic, like.”
Sowerbutt nodded: “Excellent, Nero. Did you see anything that I asked about?”
“Yes, Mr Sorbay. A big black car with diplomatic plates. Humber, it was. I got quite close, they didn’t see me. They were speaking a funny lingo. Polish or Russian, I shouldn’t wonder.”
“Old Man Shapiro is being a naughty boy smuggling scarce supplies out to the Russkies. We need the stuff for our war effort, our patriotic duty is to rescue it,” Sowerbutt laughed.
“We’ll create a diversion in that empty building next door to give his lads an excuse to leg it. We’ll tie him up, strip the place and load up our lorries, then drop a match. The silly bastard can hardly complain to the stoppers about his stuff being nicked, can he? It doesn’t exist."
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