Terror from the Deep!

[telerib]

Returning from their adventures in St. Thomas, the group was soon plunged into another mystery. Red-gold men of metal had been robbing banks in New York City of their boullion! Scrutinizing pictures and reports, Dr. Olsson was quickly able to say that, while similar to her own Atlantean robots, these are not the same. But they do seem to have a link to water - the robots perpetrating the NYC robberies emerge from and return to nearby sewers. And in Washington, D.C., a group of robots emerged from the Tidal Basin and stole a single large ruby from the newly-opened Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Investigations of the robberies in both cities turned up some important information. First, police officers had tried shooting the robots, but to no effect. Perhaps guns more powerful than their service revolvers would do the trick, but the robots seemed well-armored. Second, they weren't too bright. Third, they didn't go out of their way to harm people. On the other hand, they did use force to make bank tellers open the vaults for them and, when they unknowingly grabbed a bank customer instead of a teller, the man's arms were broken before someone else could get the vault open.

Who would need all this gold, and for what? Reg placed a few calls to some of the financiers he knew. A gentleman from Norway whose ship was in town had happened to hear (strictly off the record, of course) that the Kingdom of Denmark was selling a portion of Greenland off, for an undisclosed but substantial sum.

Reg stopped by the Danish consulate in New York to ask about this real estate deal. Owning as he did certain properties in Alaska and Canada, he told them that he was interested to know about this sudden interest in ice-bound land, and if it would affect his own prospects.

The consulate was happy enough to show him the section of Greenland that had been sold - about the size of Rhode Island, it contained a veritable ice mountain near the coast. But particulars on the buyers, the buyer's intentions, and the sale price were confidential, you understand.

On his way out, Reg noted that one of the executive's secretaries was an attractive young thing - a local hire from Hell's Kitchen, by the freckles. She might be suspicious of him, since he'd already been here asking questions. Perhaps, he thought, Phineas or Adam might be able to convince her to part with some of the information they needed...