You now have the gist of what I know of Wolverine’s background.  I have omitted an unsavory story or two.  For example, Peregrine once told me that when Wolverine was short on cash, he would bash persons making a withdrawal at a cashpoint. Peregrine challenged this habit to no avail. Wolverine made it a question of safety.  “Don’t worry.  I won’t get caught.  A whack from my walking stick knocks my mark cold.  Concussions cause a minute or two of amnesia of the events before the blow.  Marks never remember my looks.  Also, I only rob from the working class.  If you start robbing women or the rich, bobbies will actually try to catch you.  This is safe.”  Peregrine had to admit Wolverine never got caught.  Besides, if you knew the markups Peregrine attached to his bombs and missiles, you’d also know he is the last person on earth to lecture anybody on robbery.  Mind you, all sales by Munitions Galore had a fat profit, not just Peregrine’s ordnance.

Early on in Wolverine’s journalism career, he also learnt that a journalist had easy roads to additional revenue.  He started using some of his juicier stories as opportunities for blackmail.  Blackmail was lucrative enough to turn escalating habit.  His blackmailing supplemented his income. The extra cash was also easy to hide from Constance.  Further, working for a tabloid guaranteed a stream of stories that no target would want to read about in the paper.  Wolverine was gleeful whenever he talked, by way of illustration, about Prince Charles efforts to suppress stories about his desire to be one of Camilla’s tampons. 

To get even more money, Wolverine reviewed wines.  He would only publish favourable reviews if he got an untraceable complimentary case of any well-reviewed wine.  Since Wolverine did not drink bad wine, his reviews were factually honest.  He just never published a favourable review without a bribe.  His negative reviews, which became legendary, seemed to establish his honesty and taste.  After a few years of reviewing, Wolverine had an enviable cellar for so young a gentleman.

Be all that as it may, Wolverine was now in Missouri.  He had invited me to join him and Snarlson for drinks.  Because Wolverine seemed an unlikely gentleman to have a holiday in Missouri, I wondered out loud why he was where mike had come to work.  According to Wolverine, he too was working.  He had come to Missouri to write a series of reports on the US Army and its training for the Moscow Times.  He also mentioned, in a feat of free association, that National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) had a large presence 2 hours away in Saint Louis. 

My bravo-sierra detector went into overdrive at that news. The badly dressed owners of the Moscow Times might pay for travel and offer modest fees for articles on the Army and NGA, perhaps with help from Putin, but Wolverine was not somebody to leave London to hang out in Missouri for a small fee. Wolverine adored large fees.  I detected the secret hand of Peregrine Blonde-Bomb at work.  He could make the Moscow commission a small tip to his larger finder’s fees.

From mike, I knew that Fort Leonard Wood offered fresh Army recruits Basic Combat Training. The Fort also had units that trained all branches of the armed forces in driving military vehicles and trained Combat Engineers and Sappers.  The Army also trained all military specialists in CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear, and explosives) at Fort Leonard Wood.  My budding skills as a journalist told me that it was inconceivable Wolverine was just in Missouri’s Ozarks to write for the Moscow Times and to get sozzled with Snarlson.  Peregrine would have a keen desire to know about the doings of NGA and the training of the soldiers that, for example, responded to CBRNE attacks.  Peregrine also had the money to make a stay away from London worth a stint in Missouri’s Ozarks.  The Moscow gig was a perfect cover for Wolverine’s unmentioned role as an intelligence operative.  Then, too, Wolverine liked the Ozarks.  He felt at home as he stripped to run in his bare fur through the Ozarks, swim in its abundant waters, and climb trees in its vast, tall forests.  He would return to his city clothes and habits refreshed after romps in the Ozark’s lush woods.  It reminded him of a warmer version of Michigan’s northern forests that had made his father rich.