The Ming Poodle: Chapter V

Ben Hansen

Ben rolled to a stop in the gutter. "I've really got to learn how to do that properly," he thought. No matter how many times he did that, it hurt like hell.
As he picked himself up, he looked around. He was in the red-light center of town, directly outside the most famous and erotic strip club/brothel in the state. Next to it was an alleyway. Not wanting to stand outside and look like a pervert, or go inside and look MORE like a pervert, Ben darted into the alley.
As soon as Ben had done this, he realised his mistake. Going down the alley made it look like he was visiting the brothel via a back entrance, making him seem pervier than ever. Ben glanced at his surroundings desperately. The alley was the traditional sort you see in detective movies everywhere, with a dumpster, a dripping sound with no visible source, and a man in a trenchcoat. Worrying that the dripping sound may be coming from the man in the trenchcoat, he jumped in the dumpster before anybody else saw him.
He landed heavily on something pointy. after he made sure that he would still be able to breed, he looked furtively outside. The man in the trenchcoat was looking at him strangely. Ben closed the lid and took out a pocket torch to look at the dumpster's contents. There was a large box of rubber things that he avoided looking at as much as possible, a few old costumes, and - surprisingly - bags of rubbish. He looked for the pointy thing that had hurt him so badly, and discovered it was a briefcase. Not just any briefcase, but a briefcase with the letters "N. Craper" engraved on it. Ben shrieked in delight. His random search process had worked again!
Then the lid opened. It was the man in the trenchcoat, who had picked up a gun somewhere. he now pointed it in Ben's face, and said, "You know too much. Come with me."
"Thanks for the offer, but I don't swing that way," Ben said desperately.
"I mean you know too much about Craper, moron," the man grimaced. "Now let's go."