Togo (Goes) on Assignment (Relaunched)

Chapter 3: Regrouping, Scene 9

Togo Goes on Assignment is published weekly as a series. If you came in late, you might want to go back to the beginning. Or, if you’re cut from the same adventuresome cloth as Togo, feel free to read on and figure things out as you go. If you’ve been reading along and just forgot what happened in the last episode, you can click here.

“It’s very unprofessional of you to pout like this, Top Dog,” Margot sniffed. “There simply wasn’t an ice cream stand on our route back to the airport. And I told you that the plane is stocked with a variety of fine yogurts.”

“But yogurt isn’t ice cream,” Togo whined. “You showed me that big, fake ice cream cone in Trafalgar Square and I just can’t stop thinking about that frozen, delicious goodness.”

“If I recall correctly,” Margot said, “I treated you to an ice cream in Milan several years back. You attacked it so voraciously that you were practically wearing it before we left the restaurant.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” he snorted. “That waiter tried to take away my dish before I had finished. I did NOT attack the ice cream.”

“Maybe not,” Margot snorted, “but what about the waiter.”

“Okay,” Togo admitted. “I did attack him a little bit.”

“You grabbed him by the seat of his pants, for goodness sake!”

“That was just a misunderstanding,” Togo said. “I was aiming for his cumberbund and then he turned to run away. Honestly, he turned after I had already launched and there was no way to abort.”

“All I know is that I never heard the end of it from the ambassador to Italy,” Margot sighed.

“‘End of it.’ That’s a good one, Boss,” Togo smirked.

“Listen, I’ll get you an ice cream cone in New York. There’s one more thing I want you to see and think about before I send you to your next operation.”

Togo grumbled and finished eating his fourth carton of yogurt. When his stomach stopped growling, he settled into a deep sleep. Several hours later, Margot shook him gently. “Look out that window. We’ve been given permission for a special fly-by just for you.”

Wiping the sleep from his eye — or perhaps a little yogurt — Togo pressed his face right up to the glass. And there she was. Lady Liberty!

Photo Credit: Beth W. Used by Permission.

“Wow, I’ve never seen the Statue of Liberty so close up! Or from the back! Sort of reminds me of that waiter,” Togo exclaimed. 

Margot pushed her reading glasses up on her nose, located a file folder and handed it across the aisle. 

“We think the key to this case and the motivation driving our culprit has to do with symbols. And he . . .”

“Or she!” Togo interrupted

“Yes, he or she has recently been in each of the locations we’ve visited — all sites of symbols having both historic and, in the case of the ice cream cone in Trafalgar Square, whimsical significance,” Margot explained.

Photo Credits: Allison & Dan; Steve S. Used by Permission

Togo chuckled to himself.

“Why are you laughing?” Margot asked.

“Trafalgar is a funny word,” Togo replied. “Brought to us by the same people who taxed our tea and our tastebuds with Worcestershire sauce.”

“Trafalgar Square was named in remembrance of a British naval victory against the Spanish that occurred right off the Cape of Trafalgar in 1805,” Margot read from her computer. “Here’s an interesting fact. The Cape was not named Trafalgar until 1835.”

“So Trafalgar Square was named for a place that didn’t exist until 30 years after it supposedly became famous,” Togo nodded. “I’m starting to see the significance of the ice cream cone statue.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry, boss,” Togo said. “It’s complicated and you’d best leave it to me to decipher. Very similar to Louis Carroll’s stories about a girl named Alice. And a rabbit — possibly named Trafalgar. It’s all starting to come together.”

“No, it’s really not,” Margot insisted. “Stop talking nonsense and read your briefing folder. As soon as we land at La Guardia, you’re headed to New Mexico to join our agent, Nikki MB, to follow clues left by our mysterious target amidst even more ancient symbols.”

Photo Credit: Nikki MB. Used by Permission.

“It will be good to work with Nikki again,” Togo said. “They’re assigning only the cream of the crop to this investigation. Speaking of cream, we are going to get ice cream, aren’t we?”