The Monster Within (23 page)

‘You're just a man,' Jack said. ‘And you'll be jailed for your crimes.'

‘You can't jail what you can't catch.'

Dudley turned and gripped a nearby chimneystack, wrenching the square brickwork from
its foundations.

Grabbing Scarlet, Jack scrambled up the steeple.

Dudley lifted the stonework above his head. ‘Catch this, child!'

He threw the enormous piece of masonry. It slammed into the building beneath them,
shaking the foundations.

The old church won't survive this.

Jack and Scarlet climbed higher. Now they were a hundred feet above the street. One
slip and they'd be doomed.

The spire continued for another fifty feet. Once they reached the top, there would
be nowhere to go.
And what will happen then?

A Scotland Yard airship swooped low. A man with a megaphone appeared at a window.

‘Make your way down to the street,' the voice demanded. ‘Surrender yourself to police.'

Dudley laughed, picked up a brick and hurled it with all his might. It flew a hundred
feet through the air, punching a hole in the balloon, and the vessel plunged to the
ground.

Another airship came near. Gunshots rang out and Dudley fell back under the impact,
but Jack could see the bullets were like bee stings to him.

‘He's indestructible!' Scarlet said.

‘Not entirely,' Jack said. ‘But close.'

They climbed higher. Only another twenty feet to the top.

Dudley scooped up a tile. Like a discus thrower, he flung his body around and hurled
it. The tile sailed through the air and smashed into the airship's engine.
There
was a spark—and then it exploded into flames.

‘Oh no!' Jack cried.

The blazing airship crashed into the side of a building, and catapulted down into
the street. More airships were turning up with every passing minute. Half-a-dozen
opened fire, peppering Dudley with bullets, but he simply shrugged them off.

‘I am a God on Earth!' Dudley snarled. ‘And the human race will kneel before me!'

‘The power's gone to his head,' Jack said. He remembered the meek little man back
at Bee Street. It was hard to believe he was the same person. Maybe years of resentment
and hatred had now come to light. ‘I don't know what can take him down.'

Dudley wheeled, focusing on them. ‘I'm coming for you!' he yelled. ‘Be careful not
to fall!'

He would be on them in seconds, and then they would stand no chance at all. ‘I'm
going back,' Jack said.

‘What?'

‘If I can slow him down—'

‘Slow him down?' Scarlet asked. ‘How? By showing him your stamp collection?'

The airships continued to fire as Dudley advanced on the spire. Most of the tiles
were gone. Gripping one of the veiling struts, he snapped it in his hand.

‘I'm going to crush you,' he said, his eyes wild with fury. ‘And grind your bones
into dust. You'll regret you were ever born—'

Bang!

Mr Doyle had fired Clarabelle into the air. He stood twenty feet behind, his gun
now trained on Dudley. ‘Surrender,' he told him. ‘This can only end one way.'

‘You're right about that, Doyle,' Dudley said. ‘I will build a throne made of human
skulls—beginning with your own.'

He advanced on Mr Doyle. The detective fired point blank, and though Dudley twitched,
the bullets, even at this range, were nothing more than irritations. Mr Doyle was
driven back to the edge of the roof.

Jack and Scarlet started down the church spire, but Dudley's last attack had weakened
the structure. The whole thing was swaying. It could collapse at any second.

Mr Doyle finished by emptying Clarabelle directly into Dudley's face. This time Dudley
winced, turning away. One of his eyes was bleeding. Mr Doyle had finally found a
weak point.

But then Dudley leapt at Mr Doyle, knocked the gun away and grabbed him by the scruff
of the neck. Lifting him over the edge of the building, Dudley turned back to Jack
and Scarlet.

‘Time to say goodbye,' he said, and dropped Mr Doyle.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Jack screamed.

But he did not hear himself. The world went silent as Mr Doyle fell, his arms clawing
the air as he disappeared from sight.

No-one could survive that fall. Warren Dudley had killed him as surely as a man stepping
on a bug.

Scarlet grabbed Jack, tears in her eyes. ‘Jack,' she moaned. ‘Oh no.'

Jack started back down the weaving spire, filled with a rage unlike anything he had
ever felt. ‘I'm going to kill you!' he screamed. ‘I'm going to—'

‘The only thing you're going to do,' Dudley said, laughing, ‘is die.'

In one almighty bound, he crossed the roof and pushed the spire. The whole structure
began to topple towards the street.

But then a hand appeared over the edge of the roof where Mr Doyle had fallen. Huge
fingers gripped the brickwork, followed by a muscled arm and shoulder, and the head
of Ben Sykes. He lifted himself onto the roof, a precious bundle under his other
arm.

Setting Mr Doyle onto the roof, Ben dusted his hands. ‘You were always a small man,
Dudley,' he said. ‘Now you're a small man in a large body.'

Dudley stared in astonishment. ‘Sykes!' he said, but then a smile played on his lips.
‘Ben Sykes…the freak.'

‘Only one of us is a freak,' Ben said. ‘And it's not me.'

Dudley gave the spire a final push. Jack raced back towards Scarlet as it toppled
sideways over the street, held on by only a cobweb of broken timbers. Scarlet screamed,
slipping—but she managed to grab an exposed crossbeam.

Skirting the two men, Mr Doyle raced to the base of the spire, now a shamble of debris,
broken timber, tiles, bricks and metal.

‘Hold on!' he yelled, climbing through the rubble. ‘I'm coming for you.'

Jack continued towards Scarlet on hands and knees, balanced on the ever-narrowing
edge of the spire. She slipped further. Jack threw himself along the length and grabbed
her arm. Grunting with effort, he dragged her back to safety.

‘If I'd known today would turn out this way,' Scarlet said, ‘I would have eaten a
smaller breakfast.'

‘Come on,' Jack said. ‘We don't have much time.'

Ben and Dudley were engaged in mortal combat, each trying to smash the other into
submission. Swinging his leg around, Ben swept Dudley's out from under him. Dudley
hit the ground, picked up a rock and flung it at Ben's head, knocking him backwards.

‘You've probably wondered why the potion didn't work,' Dudley sneered. ‘Now you should
probably know the truth.'

Ben stopped. ‘The truth?'

‘There was nothing wrong with the original mix,' Dudley said. ‘Until I tampered with
it. It was my tampering that turned you into a freak—forever!'

Jack and Scarlet edged back along the spire. Mr Doyle was heading towards them, but
he was still several feet away. An airship came in low, but held its fire.
They don't
know who to fire on,
Jack realised. People were watching the battle from apartment
buildings. Others had gathered on the street, transfixed by the scene.

Ben continued to battle the monster, but Dudley was clearly stronger.

Mr Doyle yelled out, ‘The eyes! The eyes!'

Ben scraped up a handful of brick dust and hurled. Dudley screamed, clutching at
his face. Scrambling away, Ben hovered at the edge of the roof.

Still fighting for sight, Dudley charged at him. ‘I'll
destroy you, freak!' he screamed.
‘You'll be sorry you didn't die!'

Ben waited until the very last instant. Only then did he duck, allowing Dudley's
momentum to drive him over his shoulder—and off the edge of the building.

The monster's scream continued all the way to the ground, only ending when he slammed
into the street below.

Mr Doyle reached Jack, then Scarlet. ‘Come on, you two,' he said. ‘Let's get out
of here!'

Forming a chain, they held hands as they started back along the spire.

Ka-chung!

The spire collapsed another foot, almost sending them flying. They were still twenty
feet away from the edge of the roof, but now Jack saw the spire was held on by a
single iron beam. Another few seconds and the spire would fall.

‘Hold on!' Ben yelled, climbing over the rubble, grabbing the beam. He could not
stop it from breaking loose—even he wasn't strong enough for that—but he could slow
it down. ‘Quickly! Now!'

Mr Doyle led them along the remaining length of the spire. Ben Sykes held on with
all his might. His muscles bulged, the sinews in his neck standing out like cords.
‘Can't…hold on…much longer,' he grunted. ‘You… must…hurry.'

Mr Doyle threw himself onto the roof. Jack and Scarlet followed as the iron snapped.
Ben released the
spire and it fell downwards into the street, smashing into the footpath.

‘That was too close for comfort,' Mr Doyle said.

Jack grabbed his arm. ‘Mr Doyle,' he said. ‘I thought…when you went over the edge…'

‘I know.' Jack and Scarlet threw themselves into his arms. ‘I thought I was finished
too.'

They followed Ben Sykes down to the street. Warren Dudley lay in a bloody heap. Emergency
services had already arrived. People were reappearing from everywhere now that the
crisis had passed. Police had turned up, uncertain who to arrest—if anyone needed
arresting. The fire brigade put out spot fires.

People stared in silence at Ben Sykes. First they began to clap. Then they began
to cheer.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

‘So Warren Dudley was behind the entire scheme?' Gloria said.

Three days had passed since the fight on the roof. The fires had been put out, the
rubble taken away, and that entire part of London evacuated, until engineers could
determine when it would be safe to return.

The crash of the
Stapleton
had resulted in more than twenty deaths. Many were in
the auction room where the potion was being sold; others were the bridge crew who
Warren Dudley had brutally murdered. But most of the passengers in the gondola below
had been evacuated without loss of life.

Thanks to the efforts of Ben, Jack, Mr Doyle and Scarlet, there was only one fatality at the church.

Warren Dudley.

‘Not only was he the mastermind behind everything, but he was also Lady Death,' Mr
Doyle confirmed. ‘Police were able to establish a match between the handwriting of
the letters and those found in his desk. After learning of the Valkyrie Circle through
his wife, he decided to use them as a cover to mask the theft of the potion. You
remember the organisation simply made threats for a number of years. It was only
in the last year that the bombings began. That was Dudley's work. Creating the persona
of Lady Death made it appear the organisation was under new leadership, hence the
bombing campaign. He then formed a partnership with SCAR and Joe Tockly, who built
the bombs.'

‘And Mrs Dudley?'

‘We'll never be able to prove it,' Scarlet said, ‘but we think she may have been
a member, or even in charge of, the Valkyrie Circle, before it was hijacked by her
husband.'

‘You haven't been able to catch any other members?'

‘They were a loose affiliation at best,' Mr Doyle said. ‘Mostly the organisation
inspired others to acts of insurrection, such as painting on walls and sending letters
to the newspapers. Most of the members probably never met each other.'

‘So why did Mrs Dudley ask you to join the investigation?'

‘She really
did
want to track down whoever had
taken over the Valkyrie Circle,' Scarlet
said. ‘In the beginning, Mrs Dudley probably had no idea it was her husband. Later,
after we found the bomb at the suffragette meeting, we think she realised he must
have set it.'

‘Why?'

‘He headed off very suddenly, saying he had to leave for a meeting. When we checked
his appointment book later, there was no record of any meeting. She probably noticed
the same thing.'

‘It must have been a terrible shock when he found out he was prepared to kill her.'

‘It wasn't so much that he wanted to kill
her
,' Mr Doyle said, ‘as much as he wanted
to kill
us
. He was afraid were getting too close to the truth.'

‘And what happened to Joe Tockly?' Gloria asked.

‘He was one of the men at the meeting on board the
Stapleton
,' Mr Doyle said. ‘He
was killed during the gunfight.' He paused. ‘How Dudley and SCAR contacted each other,
we'll never know. Possibly SCAR initiated the scheme. According to Griffin, they
have a talent for approaching people in dire financial straits and offering them
a way out.'

‘And Dudley thought selling X-29 would do it.'

‘Absolutely. He had more faith in Ben's work than Ben himself. He doctored the potion
so it would appear a failure.'

‘And caused his terrible deformity,' Scarlet added.

Mr Doyle continued. ‘Working in the same lab as Ben, Dudley dearly wanted to steal
the potion,' he said.
‘But security at the lab was vigorous. It was impossible for
him to simply walk out with it. And if he did steal the potion, suspicion would fall
immediately upon those working in the lab.

‘He needed a scheme to divert attention from himself. Hence, the bombings. That final
threat against the London rail network was enough to make Scotland Yard and MI5 withdraw
their security to aid in the evacuation of the stations, leaving X-29 undefended.'

‘So how did John Fleming get involved?' Gloria asked.