Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 11, 2021

Good morning™, everyone!

Mr. Eliot is being left by himself in the lab for the evening to do the overnight diagnostics and maintenance and whatever else he needs to do. This is where the Apparatus plan starts to gel.

The only question is, is Elliot here for a one-time heist? Or is he a long-term mole, intended to intercept any and all future Smith innovations?

I hope he steals the stupid drone and it gets destroyed, Smith is a dummy for being so trusting. Maybe then we can move on to the next ridiculous plot!

Good morning™, dastardly diagnosticians !

This guy could be a character in one of those goopy gloppy soppy Disney pictures. If he opened his slots for eyes he would actually be cute.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/51/4d/ee/514dee2699ec4e39f46aa0d3c7754e74.jpg

As the Chambers Brother’s song has sad (he) “Time has come today”

If he’s well-known in criminal circles with possible police records, shouldn’t he have an alias?

Time has weather? Cool.

Likely both.

Yeah, if it was flying through a major asteroid strike and a major volcanic eruption, I would think so.

Mr. Eliot has hair like Frankenstein!

1-DOIT TOIT: Anybody in here think I look like a young Sam Elliot from the side?

2-SCARFY FACE: I DO!

3-DOIT: That’s why I hired you my boy! Every organization needs a good ass-kisser and you’re one of the best. Now do whatever it is I hired you to do while the rest of us clear out. And remember – NO SMOKING! This equipment is sensitive.

SCARFY: I never smoke, sir but I plan to take it up as soon as I’ve proved myself to be – not one of the best but – THE BEST ASS-KISSER YOU EVER HIRED!

DOIT: You just may be my boy, you just may be…

Nice summary Neil, I wish I hadn’t read it.

Now it can told….Mr. Eliot is the Information Technology person at Diet Smith Industries. His resume must have been very impressive for him to get the job. Probably has a degree from M.I.T. as opposed to the G.E.D. Ace of Spades has. Ace had spotty schooling, he had to work to help out his parents. Fell asleep in class, the counselor recommended an alternative program where he could get his G.E.D.

Presumably, Eliot can use the time drone, and all of its controlling machinery (which answers the questions here about that), for the Apparatus’s nefarious purposes, under the guise of “system diagnostics and maintenance,” while nobody else is around.

(I remember a rumour decades ago that the portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh had an assistant who, for a suitable reward much less than Karsh’s usual, would let you into the studio after hours and take your picture in a Karsh-like manner.)

Undercover Bad Guy Sterling Eliot has the trust of Diet Smith and a sensitive enough position, running systems diagnostics and doing maintenance on the Time Drone, to accomplish anything the Ace of Spades could want! Once again, Smith Industries Security has failed, not spotting Sterling as a plant whenever it was that he joined SI, Inc.

So, the wheels are in motion for the Ace-led Apparatus to put the Time Drone to some pro-evil uses….

Dare I say, Time Marches On?

Hasn’t Diet Smith ever heard of redundancy?

Most of us are still trying to figure out how Chin Chillar got on the payroll.