Sherlock Holmes in 2012: LORD OF DARKNESS RISING (14 page)

“Could you give me an example?” Holmes asked, not letting on that he had no need for it.

“Well, let’s say that you and Mrs. Holmes were to have a child – that would certainly constitute a disturbance, since neither you nor Mrs. Holmes supposed to be here at this time.”

“I see.” Holmes nodded. “And if we were to return in 1890 before the child was born, would that disturb Time Continuum?”

“You mean if the child was conceived in this century… ?”

“Yes.”

“Mr. Holmes, if your wife is pregnant… , please, do not let anyone force her to go back or I believe she would face a miscarriage. That child would need to be born in this century!”

“Now, Watson, don’t excite yourself, and let me reassure you, Mrs. Holmes is not with child at this point. And if she were ever expecting, I would make absolutely sure no one would force her to do anything untoward or would risk the life of the child or hers.”

Watson exhaled a breath of relief. “Is Mrs. Holmes aware of our discussions?”

“If you mean that she is aware of the Earth Hawks’ existence, the answer is yes. And more than that, she has contacted my brother, Mycroft, in London regarding these people’s involvement in the British government’s affair.” Watson had been listening to the detective’s account head bent and averting his eyes from Holmes’s gaze. “You knew about this, didn’t you?” Holmes asked.

“Yes, I did. I didn’t know about Mrs. Holmes contacting your brother, but I know Dr. Bahareth has talked to the minister, yes.”

“And do you know if my brother has agreed to divulge the location of the time-machines?”

“I don’t know this for a fact, Mr. Holmes, but I believe Mr. Mycroft Holmes was most reticent about giving Dr. Bahareth any detail regarding the machines.”

“Ah-ah, yes, very much like Mycroft. If nothing else, my brother is a decisive and determined individual, Watson. And I have to believe your Dr. Bahareth will have to face an uphill battle if he tries to extract such information out of my brother.”

Watson didn’t answer and stayed slumped on the bench like a discarded doll at the fair. His spirit and enthusiasm seemed to have all but abandoned him.

Noticing this, Holmes went on, “If what we discussed presently has any bearing on the future, I would suggest that the two men are going to meet shortly, are they not?”

Watson nodded but didn’t look up at his friend.

“Very well then. It’s seems to me that the only thing left for me to do is to contact Dr. Bahareth personally and arrange a meeting with him at some point… , wouldn’t you agree?”

Watson sat up. He then turned to Holmes. “Not if I cannot be there with you, Mr. Holmes.”

“And why would that be? I believe I have warned you to stay away from all this—”

“Yes, you have, Mr. Holmes,” Watson interrupted vehemently, “but I cannot let you face the man alone. He will be quite persuasive and his arguments solid enough, I can assure you.”

“Ah, very good! A worthy adversary then,” Holmes exclaimed. “I can hardly wait to meet with him face to face.”

“Perhaps, Mr. Holmes, but he has the learned background, which you don’t have, if I may say so, and he will sink you in a minute with scientific facts—”

“Bah,” said Holmes dismissively, “I will be able to foil his ploy… , you’ll see.”

Not deaf to Holmes’s last words, Watson asked, “Does that mean you would accept for me to attend the meeting?” his face brightening a little.

“If such a meeting would restore your enthusiasm, yes I would.” Holmes crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to ponder his decision for a moment before he added, “I would want Sarah to be there as well.”

“What?” Watson blurted.

“You heard me! I want that child to witness the discussion, where ever it will take place.”

“But why? What could we possibly gain by having her there?”

“Not “we”, Watson, but the question should be what could
“she”
possibly gain by attending such a meeting.” Watson stared. “Yes… , she will gain insight as to our divided intentions and perhaps will come up with an innocent and logical solution to this quandary.”

“What about the stress she will inevitably suffer… ?”

“What stress? The child is avid of learning and thirsty for knowledge. Why, she is the embodiment of our future; she is a force to be reckoned with, Watson.”

No more than three days later, Holmes, Watson and his daughter were on their way to London to meet with Mycroft first and then have a meeting with Dr. Bahareth.

In the meantime, Irene was to make her way to Washington, D.C. Mycroft had sent her a new passport which identified her as Irene Ascot. Irene had always loved the horse races and Ascot was one of her favourite places in the whole of England. Her mission, although a simple one, was one that demanded the tact and savvy of an intelligent woman. Irene was all of those things. She needed to find a place for Sherlock’s time-machine. Too many people knew of the capsule’s location by now. Irene could not rent a facility for it or let anyone see it. So, what she had to do was to free the capsule from its hiding place and transfer it to another site somewhere on the globe some time in the future. Sherlock had left the choice of location and date entirely up to her. At first, Irene was tempted to return to 1890 and see how things stood at her house…, but thought the better of it.
That
would
not
be
a
wise
move
, she told herself. It was only when she looked at her passport, just before handing it to the custom’s agent at the airport in San Francisco that Irene knew where she was going to land with Sherlock’s machine.

Meanwhile, Professor Nebo was also busying himself with preparation to travel to the future with Irene’s time-machine. Mycroft had left precise instructions with him regarding where and when he was to land that capsule. Basically, Mycroft wanted both machines out of the United States and out of the possible reach of the CIA or FBI. He wanted time to devise a plan which would see both Sherlock and Irene return to New Zealand with the promise of no further bother or interference from
interested
parties. What he hadn’t divulged to Professor Nebo was that he, Mycroft, intended to destroy Irene’s time-machine in the near future. Whether he was going to accomplish that feat in a timely manner, he didn’t know. But that was his plan.

Soon after entering the disused warehouse, Irene walked around the vast enclosure quietly and panned her torch light from corner to corner, from floor to ceiling before directing her steps to a pile of debris, old cardboard boxes, a couple of opened crates and mounts of wood-shavings. From Mycroft’s description, it was under this heap of discarded material that Irene would find Sherlock’s time-machine. A few steps from the corner, Irene focused the light onto the tracks in front of her feet.
These
must
have
been
made
by
the
lorry
that
brought
the
machine
in
here,
she thought. Raising the beam of light slowly toward the ceiling, she moved some boxes out of the way, climbed on top of one of the crates and stopped. She then jumped off her perch and took her cell phone out of her coat’s pocket.

Mycroft was in the middle of enjoying a scrumptious breakfast with his three guests, when his mobile vibrated in his breast pocket. “You’ll have to excuse me,” he said to Sarah first, “but I’ve got to answer this call,” he added, looking at Sherlock and Watson in turn. He got up from his seat and walked toward the lobby of the hotel. “Yes, my dear… . , have you found it?” he said, his speech almost inaudible to the people milling about and around him.

“
It’s
gone,
Mycroft
!” Irene shrieked over the line. “I cannot see it anywhere. I’ve moved some of the boxes and things that were blocking the way, but it’s not here… . !”

“Have you looked around the whole warehouse?”

“I’m doing that now. But I am sure it isn’t here. Besides, I’ve seen some tracks that look similar to tire-tracks, I suppose, leading to or from the pile of debris where the machine was left.”

“All right, my dear. No need to be upset—”

“
UPSET
? No need to be
upset?
Mycroft, this is Sherlock’s life we’re talking about! You better believe I’m
UPSET
and you should be too, by the way. Someone knows a lot more than he had us believe, and that,
my
dear
brother-in-law,
means
war
in
my
book!
”

“Will you calm down for one moment?”

“All right – I am as calm as you can expect me to be in such circumstances – what do you want me to do about this?”

“Nothing, Irene, absolutely nothing.”

“You know as well as I do that your suggestion has fallen on deaf ear! I’ll be seeing you… !”

“Irene! Irene!” Mycroft harrumphed as he closed his phone. “The darn woman has got the devil by the tail,” he groaned under his breath as he retraced his steps to the breakfast table.

 
Chapter Seven

From
1891
to
1999

On this gorgeous spring morning, Professor H.G. Wells was delighting in sowing some seeds into the flower beds alongside the back of his house. He turned around and threw a forlorn glance at his workshop – the old mansion that had once been the home of his time-machines. He shook his head. He was now certain he would never see these machines again. Sherlock Holmes had gone with one of them, probably never to return, and even the newspapers had noted the great detective’s disappearance as inexplicable. As for Miss Adler, his guess was as good as anyone’s.
She
will
not
come
back,
he said to himself quietly.

Yet somebody had heard him.

“Why so glum, Professor?” said the young man, rounding the house and approaching Wells with the debonair of someone who’s care for the world amounted to the sneer in his voice, “This is too glorious a morning to be frowning, wouldn’t you say?”

“And who might you be?” Wells asked, depositing the seed bag at his feet.

“Never mind my name, sir, just know that I am the bearer of good news.”

“Good news? What would you be talking about?” Wells was reaching bewilderment rapidly. “And again, I have to ask, who are you?”

“And again, I tell you my name is of no importance, but what I have brought you is.”

Wells shook his head, picked up the bag of seeds and decided not to waste his time with this charlatan.
Probably
selling
something,
he thought. “And what would that be?”

“Ah-ah… , have I peaked your curiosity?”

“No, not really, but since you said you brought me something, it is natural for me to wish to see it.” Wells shrugged.

“Well… , if that’s all you want, let me take you to it then,” David Penny said, taking Wells by the arm and dragging him toward the old mansion.

“Sir!” Wells shouted, visibly obfuscated by David’s insolence, and trying to free his arm from the intruder’s solid grip.

“Don’t say anything… , Professor… , and follow me.”

The professor was no match for David. The latter was much stronger and younger than his captive was.

“Where are we going?” Wells demanded, literally digging his heels in the soft soil.

“To your other house, don’t you see?” David replied, practically lifting the professor off the ground now. “We need to drop off your bag of seeds in there, don’t we?”

Since Wells seemed more and more uncooperative, David stopped and turned to face the professor. “Now, listen to me, you little twerp. I want to show you something that will possibly restore what’s left of your life, but if you continue to be a “drag” – sorry for the pun – I will have no choice but to do you harm, is that clear?”

Wells, in his panic and bafflement, only nodded resignedly.

When the two men entered the house through the front door, Wells’s heart skipped a beat. Right there, before his very eyes, his time-machine stood in place over its pad.