I turned to Jack’s report. Following is the pertinent part: “After briefing Mr. Holmes, I unobtrusively made my way back to France. My surreptitious arrangement to be approached by a known M Agency agent to be recruited for their organization had worked. I was accepted as a criminal mercenary that would do whatever without questions. As part of my job interview, I had displayed my skills at safe cracking. My dexterity at this and declaration of my total at lack of morality were the main factors in my joining their organization. I stated I would do anything or do anyone if the price was right. I was given a retainer and told to await orders. In the coming months I was included on several inconsequential burglaries. I assume this was my probation period to see if in fact I was competent as I had bragged and would do what I was told. I was eventually included in a group that crossed over to England and we raided a naval office to abscond with some technical diagrams of the new battleship HMS Dreadnought and plans of its home port. The diagrams were not really stored in a very secure office, we had figured that the supply depot would need information on resupply for the ship’s guns and yearly maintenance for its upkeep. It is surprising how much you can piece together from otherwise innocuous documents. As soon as I returned to the Continent, I was taken to the Schichau-Werft shipyards in Danzig, to deliver the documents to a heavily guarded office, located in a building indistinct amongst other busy buildings. I was returned to France where a month later I was given a large sum of money wrapped in an unmarked bundle. I was told to exchange the unmarked bundle for a sealed package from a man who was described to me and name provided, although it would not be his real name. We would meet on the left bank in Paris at a busy and unpretentious café. It was a clean, quiet and assuredly illegal business transaction. There was no disturbance or vicious response with the exchange. I had arranged for myself to be followed by one of my own agents and he was instructed to tail my business-trading associate. He later found out he was an employee with a French munitions experimental facility, and was deeply in gambling debt. I was delivered to the Krupp munitions factories in Essen, where an undistinguished man accepted my package and dismissed me with barely acknowledging my presence. I was merely the delivery boy. I returned to Paris and I was retained with a weekly fee to keep me on the agency payroll, but I was told to lay low and keep my nose clean. There would be some other things for me, but developments hadn’t matured where they would need my services for several months. It wasn’t until earlier this month that I was notified to report to the agency. I was told I had been selected for a particularly important job and would work with another individual. Indeed, a meeting was arranged for Roberto, a rather large and gnarly individual, and me. For some reason not explained to us, we were to acquire a meteor specimen that was currently being kept in a safe in the home of a high ranking and acclaimed French scientist. It was considered such a high priority target that we were to be briefed by the head of our agency. We were cautioned not to get too familiar with the boss or to ask questions other than that which pertained to our assignment. The meeting began in earnest when a tall but stooped gentleman quickly entered the room using a cane. We had been told to address him as “The Professor”, if we talked to him at all. And indeed his directions for our unlawful activity was pedantic in its detailing. I must admit he did have a rather disconcerting eye movement that seemed to be constantly surveilling the room and us as they continually swept back and forth. He emphasized we would be breaking into a private well to do residence, but would only extract a particular item. We were to concentrate on it and nothing else. The object had just been removed from the University to this private location, and it was unknown how long it would be kept there, available for us to snatch. We were shown the layout of the house and the probable type of safe we would encounter. I was then un-ceremonially dismissed while he conferred privately with Roberto. I did not know what they were discussing; I had wrongly surmised that it was to keep a close eye on my performance. The day was set and we kept the house under scrutiny for several days. We waited until the dead of night, quietly broke open a window in the rear and made our way to the laboratory. We found the safe, and although it was a newer model I was familiar with it. It would not open easily and I set to crack it, telling Roberto to be the look out. It was proceeding slowly when uncharacteristically for a professional I took Roberto to be, he quite loudly proclaimed. “Damnit you are taking too long.”