After hearing some
roaring engines off in the distance, at last Sam's car came into the
arena driving furiously fast - for close behind was the infamous Black
Van that had given Sam so much trouble earlier! They both vanished
around the edge of the building.
|
Sam rolls in with the Black van close behind! |
Just after they had
vanished, the police were not far behind and stopped - out came the
police and Susana!! The police quickly got to work laying down a spike
strip.
|
Police show and lay doown a spike strip. |
| Sam and the Black
Van quickly returned, Sam's car nimbly doing a 5ft jump behind a stack
of palettes, then tearing around a number of other shipping containers,
the Black Van close in tow - seeing his chance, Sam fooled the driver
of the other vehicle and lured him into driving right over the spike
strip! Sam of course, being in a Cooper S wiith runflat tires, was
able to maneuver just fine after running over the strip. |
Sam rolls over strip with van in hot pursuit.. |
The Black Van
however, quickly came to a halt after hitting the strip - with four
utterly flat tires! Sam circled around the defeated van in triumph.
That would teach them to steal his MINI!
|
Van, meet spike strip. Wheel, meet asphalt. |
Susana marched up to
the van, unafraid - and demanded to know who had taken her pictures and
where they were!! Shortly after Markus Wagner emerged from the van
with a helper (Piet Muller???) and both were grabbed by the police. As
Markus was being held, he said "I'm too good for you" and that Susana
had betrayed him - so he would destroy her precious collages, and it
was too late for her now as the bomb was armed that would bring about
the destruction of the pictures!
|
Susana says - show yourself! |
Susana looked on the
crate with a bomb attached, and said - "Is there anyone that can help
me? Does anyone know the code to disarm this bomb??" The counter
ticked down as Susana looked to the teams for help... and Team Germany
1 ran over, having received the secret code earlier in the day!!
|
Germany 1 disarms the bomb |
The poisonous bomb
disarmed, Susana thanked Germany 1 profusly as they held aloft the now
safe collage. Susana then took off with Sam in his Cooper S, the pair
finally free of worries.
|
Germany 1 holds aloft the recovered artwork. Good work! |
Other teams looked
on, glad that at least one of our number had managed to obtain the code
and disarm the bomb.
|
Other teams look on. |
Also onlooking were
many spectators and a camera crew, having apparently been called in by
Sam, or possibly Patsy Chen the press agent. You can't buy this kind
of publicity, even for millions of dollars!
|
Spectators on the side |
Winnie looks on. |
|
Press tent |
After the whole
thing was over, Val McDermid (famous mystery author) came over to take
a look.
|
Val McDermid holds the recovered artwork aloft |
Val McDermid seemed
to know an awful lot about the whlel case, oddly enough - but the case
was closed at that point, so we greeted her and took a picture with
Team USA.
|
Val and Team USA |
Another shot with
Val, a little lower...
|
Second shot - Val and Team USA |
Closely examining
the bomb we realized that Markus should have stuck to catering.
Apperently borrowing from his restauraunts supply room, it was labeled
"Poisonous" in German for menacing effect.
|
Val next to the "bomb". |
Everyone was on hand
for goodbyes - here we said goodby to our fine assistant Caroline.
|
A last goodbye to our assistant Caroline |
Germany 1 also posed
for the shot, having been particularily victorious that day.
|
The winning team poses. |
The stairs made for
a great overlook of the event, and were often packed with photographers.
|
The all-seeing stairs look on. |
Some teams had
managed to come with custom team clothing, and option that had not
occured to team USA!
|
Some teams had custom clothing. |
Europeans are not
only years ahead of the US is phone technology. Here someone from MINI
demonstrated the most advanced yo-yo I had ever seen, almost as if
aliens had come and left some 24th century yo-yo behind as a trinket.
It was complex yet incredibly cool.
|
Someone from MINI demonstrating an amazing yo-yo. |
Even though Team
Germany 1 was the winner, Germany 2's car looked good with the orange
shipping containers in the background.
|
Team Germany 2 is looking good! |
Wanting to get a
picture of all of the teams together, the press line up...
|
The press lines up... |
For one last show
with all the teams together!
|
A final picture with all the teams! |
The sun getting
lower in the sky, and the case closed, we knew it was time to head out.
|
As the sun lowers, the stairs look on. |
Leaving the area, we
looked at the ramps that Sam had used for his jump...
|
Ramps where Sam jumped. |
From the overlooking
stairs, I took a few last shots for posterity as the crowd thinned.
Everyone unpacked things from the car as this was the last time we
were to see the cars - they were to be shipped out after this. Good
thing we travelled light throughout the investigation!
|
A last look at the cars. |
Yet more MINIs, as people filter out. |
|
Japan, Canada, Switzerland. |
While the other
teams were heading out, we spent a few last minutes chatting with some
of the people there. James was our MINI contact from the US so we
thanked him again for bringing us in on the case.
|
James and Brooks with another MINI person. |
Susana took some
time away from Sam to meet Val, being a big fan of her work...
|
Susana greets Val for an autograph. |
After the case was
over, we were bussed back to the hotel. There was to be a big party
later that night but happily MINI had left us a number of hours to
relax beforehand, and back in the room I found a note from Sam thanking
us for a job well done along with another note about the party.
|
Back at the hotel, one last contact from Sam... |
|
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