Twincy Quinn and the Eye of Horus Part One (11 page)

‘
Twincy,’ she breathed quickly through her words, ‘we have a
problem.’

All it took
was those four short words for my stomach to sink. A palpable
sensation of unease crawled its way up my spine, and my lips
automatically pulled into a strong frown. ‘What do you mean?’

‘
Theodore
has just returned from
work,’ Vanessa did not blink once as she faced me, ‘and he's
brought news of something fantastic.’

‘
What?’ I swallowed carefully.

‘
It appears the father of the child you saved this morning has
spread news of your antics. I assume you told the child to keep her
mouth shut?’ Vanessa went from glaring at me for my obvious lack of
security to looking overcome by the news again. She brought her
hand up and pressed it into the fabric of her simple white cotton
dress. ‘Well, anyhow, it didn't work. The child blabbed. She told
her father. And the silly goose went and spread the
news.’

My eyebrows
crumpled down, my brow rumpling with deep furrows. ‘And?’ I asked
carefully, not wanting to appear trite, yet it was clear I did not
appreciate the true import for Vanessa’s tale.

‘
And the father—a Mr Stuart Fairmont—is friends with one Lord
Ridley. And apparently she shared the tale with Ridley, and
Ridley,’ Vanessa began.

I jerked my
hand forward in a stopping motion, my fingers wide and my knuckles
white. ‘Don't tell me. And Lord Ridley has done something just
horrible.’

Vanessa locked
her eyepiece on me, and for a short moment I caught a glimpse of
the eye lodged deep within. It was blinking, but it was also
narrowed in a clear glare. Of all the children, and of all the
changed, Vanessa was the best placed to understand how serious this
was. John and Carolyn were a little too young, plus, they were also
distracted by their own tasks and abilities. Vanessa, on the other
hand, lived for one purpose: to assess and analyse possibilities,
and to ultimately mitigate risk. She was the perfect person for the
role she held within this little militia of ours. It also meant,
however, that try as I might, I could not begin to dismiss how
seriously she appeared to be taking this.

‘
Twincy,’ she took a step closer to me and looked up sharply
into my eyes, ‘he’s been spreading the tale.’

My eyebrows
descended so rapidly over my eyes it felt like a twitch. My stomach
also gave a perfect kick of sharp, electrified nerves. ‘What?’ I
asked through a dry mouth.

‘
He’s been spreading it all over the town. But that’s not all.
He’s saying you kidnapped her,’ Vanessa finally took a deep breath
and appeared to relax a little. She’d told me her pressing
information, so in a way, her part was done. Now all I had to do
was figure out how exactly I should react to this.

‘
He's pushing the story that a young woman with jet black hair
and a grey dress stole into Mr Fairmont's house and kidnapped his
child. He's also added that the child remembered your name.
Twincy.’

I let my eyes
close as I let out a rather desperate and pathetic sigh. This was
not good, in fact, this was terrible.

‘
I never told that child my name,’ I began, knowing it was a
useless move, but doing it nonetheless.

‘
Do you think that matters? Ridley most certainly knows it was
you, because Esquire most certainly knows it was you who saved the
child. Ridley is just doing what the good doctor tells him to do.
Don't be naive, Twincy, you stepped on their toes and stopped them
from getting something they want, and now they are punishing
you.’

A child of
barely nine years of age was telling me not to be naive. What was
worse, she was most definitely right.

I had won
against the doctor but it had been a preciously brief victory.
Esquire was not used to losing, and would devote all his resources
to the task of destroying all those who dared to stand in his
way.

‘
We knew this would happen eventually,’ Vanessa counselled me
with a sharp shake of her head that saw her short brown bob bounce
close to her small ears.

‘
I suppose we did,’ I conceded as I pressed my hands into my
half-closed eyelids. ‘But I simply assumed we would have more
time.’

‘
As did I. I had assumed that the doctor would never want your
name revealed, not to the whole of London, not while he was still
so determined to get you back. But it seems that the doctor has
changed his operation. He is altering his strategy and style and we
must accommodate accordingly.’

I pressed my
lips hard into my teeth and mulled over her words. Vanessa was, as
usual, right.

‘
I think it is safe to assume from the doctor’s increased
attempts at kidnapping children in the past several months that he
is planning something. I think it is also now safe to assume that
he wants you back now more than ever, and is—for the first
time—willing to use the public to enable that. Whether the police
find you or the
suitables
do, is irrelevant to him.’

Her words were
sobering, more than sobering, in fact; they ate right in to any
sense of confidence or victory that I had managed to claim of late.
They burnt through it all and left me with a simple and undeniable
sense of unease.

The doctor
wanted me back. And he was now going to use the police to do so. If
Lord Ridley—who was a respected member of the community,
unfortunately—told people a woman was running around capturing
children, then the community would believe him. Perhaps not all,
but he certainly had the clout to waltz into Scotland Yard and tell
them to prioritise this. He also had the clout to tell the papers
and the town criers to repeat and spread his story.

I would go
from being a virtual unknown overnight to being an infamous
sensation. The people of London would all know my name by tomorrow
morning.

I sighed
again, and it was a rather deep and morose move.

‘
Twincy,’ Vanessa said as she locked me in her powerful gaze,
‘we need to find out a way to combat this effectively. It may no
longer be safe for you to continue your missions so
publicly.’

I deliberately
raised an eyebrow, and made sure she was paying keen attention to
the move. ‘Publicly? Since when is running across the rooftops
public?’

‘
I believe you know what I am talking of, sometimes you are
less than careful when it comes to interacting with people. You
show your abilities, when you ought not to.’

‘
I do what must be done,’ I let my voice dip low, though not
too low. Vanessa, for all her diligence, intelligence, and stalwart
attitude, was still a child.

‘
Then perhaps it is time we change what must be done. Remember,
Doctor Esquire has now raised the stakes. It will not be as easy to
do what you previously did. The police will be after you. If you
accidentally misstep on slate, you may tumble off the roof, only to
face a gang of people, baying for your blood.’

I couldn't
help it. Though the situation was still a serious one, I found
myself giving a sharp chuckle at that. A gang of people baying for
my blood? Oh no, Vanessa was being far too lyrical. What I would
face was what I faced already. The confused, the disadvantaged, the
bored, the under-employed. Though Lord Ridley and Doctor Esquire
were obviously trying to get the police and the populous to hunt me
down for them, I imagined it would not be very effective. As long
as I was a little more careful, was sure to change my clothes, hide
my hair, and keep off the streets, I could continue my work
unaffected.

Vanessa,
however, did not look convinced. Not once did that mildly
frustrated look shift from her face. ‘We will need to alter your
appearance, of course,’ she began.

I put a hand up. It was a gentle move, yet I hoped it still
had a great deal of authority. ‘I understand the risks, Vanessa,
and I also understand how best to mitigate them. But we cannot
allow Lord Ridley and the doctor to scare us into silence and into
doing nothing. We are the only force to stand in their way, and we
must continue to do that. Whatever it has cost me, I still managed
to save that child from the
suitables
last night, and for however
briefly, that will dent Esquire's plans.’

Vanessa
pressed her lips together hard, and peered out at me from under her
rumpled brow. ‘You need to be safe,’ she repeated. ‘I will have
John look into some devices that will help you.’

I managed a
nod. ‘Is that all Lord Ridley spread? Just my name and my
appearance?’

Vanessa
nodded. ‘Your full appearance, he did not leave a detail out. If
his story is to be believed, the child you rescued last night must
have taken notes on every detail of the way you look. He has your
height, your weight, even the measurement of your waist.’

This made me
laugh, though of course it shouldn't have. I should have been
wrapped up by the seriousness of this situation, and not chuckling
at the thought that Lord Ridley had spread my waist circumference
to the people of London.

‘
Twincy,’ Vanessa said, her tone peaking high with
warning.

I nodded in
acquiescence. ‘Of course, I shall take this seriously.’

She gave a
stiff nod. ‘As you should. For now, I believe it will be best if
you stay here tonight. I have not detected any suitable activity,
and John has been monitoring his devices, and believes things
should be fine for tonight. You should get some rest,’ Vanessa
added, seriously. It was less of a suggestion and more of an order,
and it was delivered with the exact same tone, authority, and
strictness you would expect from any battle seasoned Major.

I gave a
dutiful nod, even clamping one hand before me and bowing. ‘As you
wish.’

With that,
Vanessa gave me one final looking over, then intoned a little
harrumph, turned on her heel, and walked off, no doubt to keep the
rest of the children in order.

She left me
with an uneasy feeling twisting its way through my stomach. Lord
Ridley had spread false news that I was behind the
kidnappings . . . . No doubt things would get
interesting from here on out. Yet hopefully I would still have my
wits about me, and enough of an opportunity to continue my task.
For if I did not, Doctor Elliot Esquire would have no one to stand
in his way. He would claim what he was after. Domination. Quite
possibly that sounded comical, or at least it would if the doctor’s
motivations weren't plain and simple. He wanted to rule others. Yet
more than that, if others did not want him to rule them, he would
change them. From the inside out. Using the miraculous but frankly
frightful devices he alone could invent.

Feeling
muddled and suitably nervous, I set about cleaning and marshalling
up the children and simply living. Yet all the time my mind wound
on and on. I considered the facts and I considered the best
strategy going forward.

I concluded
that I would simply have to see. Tomorrow morning I would walk out
of my door and I would find out if London was standing behind it,
pitchforks in hand, ready to take me to the gallows.

Michael F.
Stanford

I was
flabbergasted. I was undone. As I stood there, pacing back and
forth in one of the small rooms of my small apartment, I let out
numerous ringing expletives. I fancied they ricocheted off the
walls, and if I were feeling in a particularly imaginative mood, I
hoped they bounced their way right through the window, echoed
through all of London, and made their way to the precious ears of
the inspector.

This was
madness.

Shortly after
I had left his office, I had been relieved for the day, and I had
gone home. Setting about several tasks, I had finally reached my
small apartment. Feeding my dog and cat, I eventually got around to
making some dinner.

I had been
interrupted by a sharp rap on the door.

Grumbling to
myself, and walking quickly down my corridor, I'd open the door to
the sight of an officer. An officer who had quickly recounted some
important information. Information I would have hoped was
apocryphal, yet a story I knew was true.

Lord Ridley,
it seems, had spread a tale. And the tale he had spread was the
tale Jennifer had told, yet with a twist. According to Lord Ridley,
Jennifer Fairmont had been kidnapped by a woman with jet black
hair, grey billowing skirts, and a build of approximately 5’7.
Hell, according to Lord Ridley, he even knew the woman's weight and
waist circumference. All details I was absolutely sure Jennifer
would not have remembered.

Yet that was
not the point. The point was this. I had received a summons from
the inspector. When I had trailed my way across town to Scotland
Yard, the inspector had told me the following.

It was now my
duty to track down this woman. Because he was 100% sure she was
behind the kidnappings. With a straight face, and without
accounting for the fact he had told me Jennifer's tale was nothing
but a lie only that morning, he had given me the following task:
track her down, arrest her, and do it all within two weeks.

For a woman
who only that morning had been fictional, now, apparently, I was to
focus all of my attentions on her.

Luckily she
had a name to go along with the jet black hair and the waist
circumference. A strange name. Twincy Quinn.

It hardly
rolled off the tongue, yet I found it wheedling its way into my
brain. I thought it at the oddest of moments, and now, as I paced
back and forth, my footfall ringing out loudly, I muttered it to
myself.