“That is fair,” responded Tiberius with a sigh. “It would appear that the inmates are running the asylum, so to speak. However I’m getting ahead of myself.
“I followed Lord Lodge through a small closet door, in a derelict building in Medieval Jerusalem and emerged as you did, in the North Tower. At that time there was only the tower and a small portion of the Manor you see it now. However, it still seemed like some kind of wicked magic and scared me more than any battle I had fought in. Lord Lodge’s powering presence was the only thing that kept me composed as we walked along the portal lined halls of the North Tower.
“He explained to me that he had discovered that the portals were linked to different places throughout time. But when I asked them how he discovered them or where he came from, he remained silent.
“Lord Lodge was always vague about his past, although I sense he was some sort of policeman or something similar. He had a distaste for criminals and crime, though he seemed weary from his battles against them.”
“Then why create a club for them?” asked Pierce in exasperation.
“The club was a façade at first,” countered Tiberius angrily. “We created a prison for them!”
“Prison?” said a stunned Pierce, looking from Tiberius to Melrose and MacDuff. They seemed as equally surprised as he did.
“There was just a few of us at first, though we slowly recruited more people like us. People with special skills, losing faith with humanity and wishing to combat evil. It all sounds so sappy now, but we believed it then. In short order we built what is now the North Wing that connects to the Tower and it became our headquarters. We also helped the people on this island, by bringing back simple tools from our travels through the portals. This was the best time in my life.” He finished in a whisper.
“You said this place was created as a prison,” spoke up MacDuff for the first time. “I wish the English had had prisons like this.”
“I asked Lord Lodge the same thing when he proposed the idea to me,” admitted Tiberius calmly. “He told me that if we made this place like a regular prison, we’d spend more time trying to keep the prisoner’s in than finding new criminals. So the Manor was created to appeal to a person’s vanity to keep them here. By providing the comforts of a mansion, they would certainly stay contentedly locked away here forever.”
“Let’s assume that makes sense,” offered Pierce standing up. “Which I’m not prepared to accept yet. But say it does, how did you know who to imprison? I notice that there is a SS officer here, but not Hitler or Himmler. Wouldn’t they be better candidates for this little club?”
“I’m not sure how recruits were chosen or why,” admitted Tiberius slowly. “Lord Lodge said that we had to be careful when influencing the past and future. Some things could be changed while others were set. I’m not really sure.”
“Sounds like cheap science fiction to me.”
“Nevertheless, that is what happened,” continued Tiberius ignoring Pierce’s sarcasm. “Lord Lodge would provide me with a name and a door number. I’d travel through the North Tower and collect the candidates. He always found those desperate to join. People that had lost hope in their present circumstances.” Pierce smiled at having his theory proved correct. “Most came willingly and were content when they arrived. To be frank, you were the most difficult recruit.”
“So you started collecting these so called candidates,” stated Pierce as he started to pace in front of the window. “But they were not all satisfied by the easy country life? They wanted action, excitement, and much more.”
“Precisely,” answered Tiberius shrewdly appraising the young man before him. “So we started hunting on the Manor grounds. I understand you’ve seen much of this on your horseback excursions.”
“Have you been spying on me?” inquired Pierce stopping to stare at Tiberius
“He spies on everyone,” answered MacDuff for him.
“It’s my job,”
“What exactly is your job?” Pierce demanded, veering off topic slightly. “You were here at the beginning, personally chosen by Lord Lodge. But you’re one of the staff taking orders from Cleaver, one of the inmates. Why aren’t you one of the Members of the Hunt?”
“Lord Lodge told me he brought me here to mentor and watch the pack members. In the hierarchy of the Manor, Drummond and I are roughly the same level,” Tiberius explained quickly, annoyed at having to detour from his original story. “He needed an ally that could go everywhere and know everyone. As a member of the Hunt I’d be constrained in my movements, unable to travel freely below stairs. Over time I’ve become accustomed to my place at the Manor and admit that sometimes even I forget the reality of the situation. I suppose the daily routine of the Manor numbed me to the true nature of this place. But I continue to keep up the appearance of my loyal servitude in order to be of use.”
“So the inmates started hunting on the grounds,” continued Pierce as he resumed his pacing. “Deer, boar, and rabbits even?”
Tiberius nodded.
“But again, they weren’t satisfied with this? So you changed things up?”
“We did, though you have to understand the change didn’t take place quickly,” argued Tiberius. “As you might be aware time seems to stand still on this island. So after who knows how long, people became bored with the same old game in the same old venue. Plus they were getting too curious about the doors in the North Tower. We couldn’t risk their returning to their homes. Not with their new found knowledge.”
“So you started hunting game in the real world,” concluded Pierce. “Bengal Tigers in India, Lions in Africa, Crocodiles in Australia? So why was this not enough?”
“Dr. Cleaver.”
“What about him.”
“He was recruited sometime later, but he appeared well suited to this type of incarceration,” began Tiberius almost guiltily. “From the beginning he was a positive influence on the others. He acted like a gentleman and kept his darker aspects suppressed. Over time however he slowly took over more duties within the Manor, eventually becoming the Master of the Hunt.”
“Why would Lord Lodge allow that to happen?” Pierce asked with genuine confusion. “What possible good could have come from that?”
“The position was created specifically for Cleaver and was meant to act as a goal for the other members, something for the more ambitious to strive for. As Master of the Manor, Lodge wielded all of the power and as such he had a large target on his back. He had to watch for possible coups from all directions. But by creating Cleaver’s new position, he built a pyramid that the power hungry would have to climb in order to reach him.”
“So he gave power to Cleaver in order to make him deal with the intrigue and backstabbing,” Pierce summed up. “Plus if one of them succeeded, it’s a clean way to dispose of Cleaver. That’s actually pretty smart, so what went wrong?”
“Cleaver turned out to be very adept at uncovering conspiracies and dealing with them quietly. As the hunting became more dangerous, members would perish on the excursions thereby created a regular turnover. Eventually the original Hunt members were all replaced with new ones that had only known Cleaver as the Master of the Hunt. With the power structure firmly in place, few contemplated taking his position through violent means”
Pierce looked across the room, the candles and fire providing just enough light for him to see that both Melrose and MacDuff nodded at the statement.
“By the time we discovered that they had hunted their first person, Cleaver had nearly as much power, influence, and followers as Lord Lodge. The Pack Members; the whips and hounds, had been recruited to act as guards for the Hunt Members and to keep them in check as much as to help them hunt. However some of them became too close to their masters. Plus once Cleaver installed Drummond as the Hunt Secretary, we found that the Pack Members being recruited were not of the same moral quality as the originals.”
“Malicio and his cronies, the Black Pack,” spat MacDuff in distaste.
“P
recisely,” agreed Tiberius. “That was some time ago and the Manor has been at a stalemate ever since. Between the two camps of Lodge and Cleaver, however it’s not an open confrontation. Many don’t realize it exists and many don’t care.”
“But you’re hunting people!” accused Pierce, unhappy with Tiberius’ explanations. “How can you reconcile with that?”
“You don’t understand! Cleaver was cunning,” Tiberius replied, walking over to face Pierce directly. “We didn’t all wake up one day and decided to charge through one of the portals and pillage a village like a murderous horde. Cleaver set it up gradually, like a long winding fuse just waiting for a spark.
“Drummond went to recruit a new member, a very dangerous gangster. The story he told was that the prospect became upset and killed one of the pack members and escaped. Drummond returned a babbling mess, and before Lord Lodge could decide on a course of action, Cleaver, the Black Pack, and others descended on Chicago to hunt him down.”
“So it spiralled out of control from there?” concluded Pierce doubtfully.
“Not at first. That was the first step. Cleaver was no fool and I believe he knew our goal here. Somehow he convinced Lodge that under some circumstances it would be better to kill some of the dangerous people in the world rather than to recruit them.”
“I can’t believe he would go along with it,” spoke up MacDuff.
“Why not?” countered Tiberius. “You’re one of the best men I know, and you’ve been a part of the hunt for ages.”
MacDuff had no response for this and looked down.
“I’m sorry my friend,” he consoled. “He has played all of us. His suggested targets were dangerous people that had escaped punishment. He proposed we met out justice.” Tiberius shook his head at this.
“So everyone just went along with it?”
“Wouldn’t you,” defended Tiberius. “Imagine being able to hunt down a serial killer let off on a technicality, or a rampant child abuser.”
“But you’re killing people,” Pierce repeated once again. “Sure, even I’ve sat around with a beer and said if I could get away with it, I’d kill all of those sick bastards. But nobody actually does it! It’s just something you say when you read something terrible in the paper or see a pedophile’s picture on the news. But it’s supposed to be just talk.”
“What do you want me to say?!” Tiberius shot back, finally tired of Pierce’s moral preaching. “That I’m sorry that I’ve hunted down and killed the scum or the earth? Well I’m not. Would I do things differently if I had the chance? Probably!”
“Ok, ok, I had that coming,” Pierce raised his hands in defence, taken aback by Tiberius uncharacteristic outburst. “It’s just that after all I’ve heard about Lord Lodge, I find it hard to believe he agreed and never tried to stop it.”
“Of course he tried to stop it,” Tiberius replied tiredly. “I was as shocked as you when he went along with Cleaver, so I confronted him about it. Lord Lodge said that he was playing a cautious and long term game against Cleaver. That to act prematurely would only lead to unnecessary violence that would engulf the staff and the people of the island.”
“That makes sense, since the Manor is basically an armed camp with loyalties divided between Cleaver and Lord Lodge,” MacDuff agreed, finding his voice once again.
“But I think it went beyond that,” Tiberius continued conspiratorially. “I think he enjoyed the mental chess game of the struggle, both men using those of us at the Manor like game pieces. He called it a game at the beginning, and I believe that’s how he truly felt. But the problem was that Cleaver was no real match for his mental prowess. Lord Lodge always seemed to see five steps ahead and consistently foiled Cleaver’s plans.”
“It doesn’t feel like he’s foiled anyone now,” Pierce pointed out plainly.
“But like many experts playing a game, I believe he started to lose interest,” Tiberius continued, ignoring Pierce’ comment. “He was so confident in his abilities that he stopped paying such close attention to Cleaver’s activities. He concerned himself about the bigger picture, in a way that only a man centuries old could. But in doing so he ignored the seemingly trivial day to day activities of the Manor.”
“That’s true,” Melrose confirmed quietly, entering into the conversation. “I was one of his valet’s some time ago, and he seemed uninterested in the Hunt. He’d spend days at a time reading books and old newspapers. He even created a small laboratory in his office where he’d toil for endless hours at some experiment or another.”
“A few years ago he seemed to throw off this cloak of lethargy, around the time of Lord Schell’s recruitment. But the damage was done and Lord Lodge was basically the Master of the Manor in name only.”
A Malevolent Manner (Patrick Pierce #1) Page 53