So, you want to know what happens next then? Well, it'll all go a little something like this:
The press will fall over themselves to convince everyone that Mr Cuckoo's announcement was a complete hoax, though they'll never manage to produce a perpetrator. The President of the United States will have a "heart attack" a few days later and will retire on the grounds of ill health.
The Chinese restaurant, Scarlet Town will be shut down due to health code violations. The building will be reopened as a high class pet grooming establishment, which acts as a front for the Agency. Seeing as it's so conveniently situated, complete with underground hidden lair, the Agency will move its New York branch of operations there completely.
Our heroes will discover that there are a huge pile of Agency operatives waiting for them, who will take Sam and Jeremy off their hands and send them home (not by first class though).
Jeremy will be thoroughly debriefed, and then offered a job with the Agency's special equipment department. He will accept in gratitude, but will always be watched very carefully. Sam will have several meetings with an eminent canine psychologist, who will conclude that the effects of his possession are not permanent, and caused no lasting damage, except for perhaps making him slightly more intelligent than the average dog. She recommends that he be allowed go home as her tests have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was coerced and really, truly is a good dog.
It will take Spud several days and sixteen cans of white spirit to get the mime makeup off his face. His mother will be very pleased that he's finally cut his hair.
Spud will make his report, which'll be written in runny ink on the back of a paper napkin from the in-flight meal. The front of the napkin will have some mushed banana sticking to it. He will get bawled out for sheer stupidity on any number of occasions, as well as failing to report in immediately he suspected a double agent in the Agency. And he'll also be given a medal and a promotion, but not a pay rise. He'll sulk about this for weeks.
Spud will also develop an ingrown toenail, but will get it sorted out before it becomes fatal, after much nagging from Nics.
Nics and Chas will go back to their lives, which will be as normal as they can be considering that she's a clockwork woman, and he's the reincarnation of a female spy. Nics will still have her phobia of mice, but both will show a healthy respect for ducks. The Agency will try to recruit them, but will be told in no uncertain terms to get stuffed.
It will take both a few weeks to stop flinching every time they hear "The Ride of the Valkeries". Or see a clock.
They will pay another visit to Sven Jorgensson, the silversmith, and thank him for the pendant that saved Nics' life. Sven will pat her kindly on the hand and pretend to know nothing at all about what she's talking about. They will also sit happily through the mice's new medley of Broadway show tunes. Chas will show especial appreciation for the one mouse who does a solo of "Fly me to the Moon", awarding him with a standing ovation and a large block of cheddar.
Mr J. Bradford, the not-quite-deceased will pass away quietly in his sleep a few weeks after Mr Cuckoo's death. His funeral will be attended by his grieving family, a few friends and Agency operatives and Chas, Nics and Spud, who mainly are there to be absolutely certain that he is really dead (though they don't say this to any of the grieving family). The dog, Sam, newly adorned with a plain brown collar and silver name tag, will piss up the back of Mr Bradford's tombstone when no one is looking.
No one will hear or see anything of the clockwork woman, Barbra Allen, or her golden lion or tarantula for a very long time.
Nics' brother, the young man Richard stays with them for a little while, then strikes out on his own. But that's a different story. Nics' challenges her parents and discovers that yes, she was adopted. They have no idea of her special nature though. She will leave it that way.
And one clear winter's morning, after a frosty night, Chas and Nics will be walking across the park near their home. And they'll watch a very smug duck paddle gently across the pond and off into the sunrise.
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