Maybe it really was just farm machinery and you didn't know it.

Noticing how uncomfortable Ringo became upon seeing Tracy's real eyes (and possibly his ability to levitate knives or straight razors), our intrepid detective quickly reconfigured them to show pupils, putting the ringmaster at ease and allowing him to go on with his story. It is here that we finally get somewhere, learning that nestled within a shipment of farm equipment was some hi-tech weaponry that wasn't just unusual and illegal, but highly unusual and highly illegal, so you know that it can be used for nothing but evil. (Maybe that was how Braces was able to get Magnum into the country, meaning that this story is essentially meaningless because that robot was destroyed.) Seeing what was in the shipment, Ringo immediately ran to the FBI, which I guess makes those appearances by the FBI people make more sense (though I'm not going to figure them into the story until they actually show up at the circus, what with that debacle by the CIA man a few stories back), and we can only wonder where this story is going and when and how we'll get there.

But before we turn our attention to other issues, I'd like to bring up something that's been bugging me about Ringo: his name. If he hasn't always been a ringmaster, why is his name Ringo? Is he in the Witness Protection Program? If he is, wouldn't putting him in so flashy and prominent a position as the ringmaster of a circus be a little dangerous? (Maybe they're going for that element of surprise thing, or following the philosophy of Pippin who said "The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm.") Plus, if someone were in the import business and had the name Ringo, I can't help but turn him into some kind of crime boss or underling of a crime boss running a ring of some sort. Maybe it's just me and the name makes perfect sense and I'm doing a little too much thinking about it. That's always possible (but it still kind of bugs me).