Socko's First Case: Socko, #2

By Tim Arnot

From the post-apocalyptic world of Flick Carter comes a new SOCKO novelette.

It’s Christmas Eve and there’s trouble in the capital. A body has been found, and the large chest of ceremonial gold coins which the king always distributes on Boxing Day has gone missing.

Newly-qualified Kingsman, Socko Garrett has just joined the Special Investigations unit (KSI), with Corporal Dan Barnes. But with heightened security, and their lieutenant called away, it’s up to Socko and Barnes to catch the killer and find the gold, and they’ve got less than 48 hours before the king arrives…

Set before the events of WANTED and featuring crossover characters from both WANTED and HUNTED. 11,000 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tim Arnot
• Release date: Jan 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781497728011

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SOCKO'S FIRST CASE

Tim Arnot

Copyright © 2014 Tim Arnot

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The moral right of Tim Arnot to be identified as the author has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

The characters and events in this story are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

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First Case

‘WHAT DO YOU think of this then, Corp?’ I called as I dragged the one-point-five metre high Christmas tree up the last of the stairs and into the small room that we called an office. I had a thick coat over my uniform, partly because of the bitter cold, but also because it was the only chance I had of getting anything like a bargain in this town; if people caught the merest whiff that you might be a Kingsman, they’d shut up shop and disappear faster than a ferret down a drainpipe.

My name, by the way is Garrett. Andy Garrett. But everyone calls me Socko. I’m seventeen, just out of the academy, and the newest recruit to Lieutenant Dixon’s Kingsmen Special Investigations unit, or KSI.

Corporal Dan Barnes gave the tree a derisory glance as I dumped it on the floor in a spray of pine needles and snow. ‘Was that all you could get?’ he asked disapprovingly.

‘Come on, Corp, it’s not that bad,’ I said. ‘And anyway, I don’t reckon you could have done better, seeing as it’s Christmas Eve and all. I mean, not even PJ could do that!’

PJ was Lieutenant Jessica Dixon. Our boss. Few people knew that behind that hard-arsed gun-toting femme-fatale exterior lurked Her Royal Highness, the Princess Jessica. She absolutely hates the ‘P word’, which is why we call her PJ behind her back. At the moment, she was off playing princess at the palace, entertaining some ambassador or other, and as the saying goes, while the cat’s away, the mice will put up the Christmas decorations.

Our headquarters is Exam House, in the High Street. Way back, before The Collapse, it was part of a thriving university. But now… let’s just say there’s no need. Exam House is a large ornate building, with a courtyard, marble floors, pillars, paintings of historic figures hung on the walls and so on. Our office however, is round the back, on the second floor of a town house in one of the side streets. That shows you the high regard that the Kingsmen hierarchy hold us in. But we do have a little kitchenette with a small wood burning stove and separate toilet facilities. One of the pleasurable little perks of being a Kingsman is plumbing. It’s all based on old pre-Collapse designs, but honestly it’s a bloody miracle!

I wedged the tree into a bucket while Corporal Barnes pulled out the bag of tinsel and assorted baubles from the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet and spread them out on a desk. We both made a grab for the fairy. Barnes won, by dint of being closer.

‘Had to rescue this from the rubbish last year, after her nibs caught sight of it,’ Barnes joked.

It might