They waited for the flash to subside then kicked for the surface. The boat was singed and smoking and they had to splash water on it before they could climb into it. Once they were in they stared in amazement at the dying craft. Anything that was left of any substance was burning furiously. Slowly it began to sink, as once the hydrogen had disappeared in the explosive flash the airship had lost all buoyancy, now the full weight of the metal framework came into play and that was rapidly dragging the whole of the structure beneath the lake.
They watched as the superheated metal remains sank in a cloud of steam. Once again Jim was reminded of a whale skeleton. Eventually it disappeared from view beneath the surface of the lake as it sank to its watery grave.
Jim and Domingo looked at each other but said nothing. It was as if they had caused the death of some great beast, like an elephant, and they felt somewhat guilty. Domingo grabbed the oars and rowed them back to shore where Marla was waiting for them.
After they had wrung out their clothes and put on dry jumpers, they walked to the local village where they hired someone to take them to the nearest big town, where Domingo contacted his people and, as promised, after some fresh clothes and hot food, they set off for Budapescht by carriage.
***
Domingo’s father was ecstatic to see his son safe again when they returned to the Blue Parrot and couldn’t wait to hear of their adventures. Jim recovered his own suitcases and was able to change into some decent clothing. After a four way discussion it was decided by all that it might perhaps be best to hide the fact that Marla was back in Budapescht, for the time being, so Domingo obtained some fresh clothing for her as she couldn’t go home.
Jim was insistent on her accompanying him to Munchen to prove to Thornton that he had no part in her abduction and she was now safe. She agreed to go with him and accepted that it would only alert the traitor if she announced that she was back and then immediately left the city. They convinced her it was best to remain ‘dead’ for a while and only reveal herself when she was ready to deal with the traitor.
Domingo was adamant that they were both still under his protection until they reached Munchen, therefore he would journey there with them, to see the adventure through to the end. So the next day the three of them (Marla wearing a heavy veil) boarded the train to Wien, where they swapped trains to Munchen.
***
The horse drawn carriage stopped outside the Hotel Konigshof in Munchen and Jim, Domingo and Marla got out. As they stood admiring it, Jim told them, ‘I was actually booked into this hotel before as Michael Lewis, so don’t be surprised when I register as that. Some of them might remember me by that, so it will only confuse things if I try to get a room in my own name.’
He led the way to reception. ‘Good morning,’ he said to the receptionist. ‘My friends and I would like a room each please.’
‘Certainly, sir.’
While the other two signed in, Jim asked the receptionist, ‘My friend was staying here a while ago, a Mr. Thornton Wells, is he still here?’
The receptionist checked the register once he got it back from Domingo. ‘Let me see, Mr. Thornton Wells ... ah yes, here we are. He’s in room 318.’
‘318. Thank you. If you could have our luggage delivered to our rooms, I think we’ll go straight up and see him. Even though he isn’t expecting us, he’ll be glad to know we’re here.’
‘Certainly, sir. Here are your room keys.’
Jim led the way to the elevator and up to room 318. For some reason they all straightened themselves out before knocking on the door, as if they were going in to see the headmaster. Jim even found himself rubbing his shoes on the back of his trousers to polish them.
He knocked on the door and it was shortly opened by Thornton. His expression didn’t change as he looked at Jim. He’s a cool one, thought Jim, but his eyes lit up and he smiled when he saw Marla.
‘Marla!’ he cried. ‘You’re safe!’ He grabbed her in a big hug. ‘Come in, come in.’ He let them in and closed the door. ‘What happened to you? I thought you were dead.’
‘I would have been if it wasn’t for Jim and this gentleman, Domingo.’ Thornton shook his hand. ‘They followed me into the Ukraine and rescued me,’ she told him, excitedly. ‘And that’s not all ...’
‘Okay, okay, wait a moment, this is all happening too fast, slow down a minute,’ Thornton begged her. ‘Everybody sit down and I’ll get us all a drink.’
Once everyone had a glass and a seat, Thornton said, ‘First of all, why don’t you make the introductions, Darby?’
Still calling me Darby, noted Jim. ‘Well, Domingo, this is the man that hired me, Thornton Wells. Thornton, this is Domingo Sandor. When things went wrong and I had to go back to Budapescht, I was on my own with no support so I enlisted the aid of some businessmen to assist me.’
‘I thought I had explained to you that you were not to reveal the details of our deal to any of your business associates?’ Thornton reminded him.
‘That was for the duration of the mission you hired me for. That ended once I met up with you here in Munchen last time. When I returned to Budapescht again it was for my own reasons, so as far as I’m concerned that restriction no longer applied. It was my neck that was on the line, so the way I saw it I was free to take any steps to protect myself that were necessary.’
‘Fair enough, carry on.’
‘Only Domingo and his father knew what I was up to. Besides, I didn’t tell them who you are or who you work for and they didn’t ask, so there’s no harm there. Anyway, they agreed with my aims and agreed to help me fully. To that end their leader sent his own son, Domingo, along to help me.’
‘And what was the price for their help?’
‘That was a private deal that they worked out with me, that won’t cost you a penny but once you see what we’ve brought with us, I think you’ll agree they deserve a bonus as reward.’
‘Mr. Wells,’ interjected Domingo. ‘I can understand your concern about some shady, underworld figures knowing about your business but I assure you that on this occasion, our interests and yours coincide. As loyal Ungarians we have no wish for Ungary to become embroiled in some dreadful war, so we were happy to give Jim any assistance that we could to prevent that. And your secrets are safe with us, you have my word.’
‘So exactly what assistance did they provide?’ Thornton asked Jim.
‘Well, it was them that found out that Count Seretsky was going to take a private train back to Rooskia and so Domingo and I followed him on the next train, to wait our chance to try and recover the treaty.’
And did you recover the treaty?’
‘That and more, much more. You see the train didn’t go back to Rooskia; it went to a place called Shepetivka in the Ukraine.’
‘Oh, so that’s where you went. We lost you both in Zhytomyr,’ said Thornton.
‘You were keeping track of me?’
‘Of course. I wasn’t sure which side you were on, so we kept an eye on your movements.’
‘Even though I was heading into Rooskia?’
‘Sometimes you have to take a gamble, just cast the runes and then see where they lead you.’
‘Well, your men should have followed us to Shepetivka because that’s where the story gets really interesting. It’s a place that Rooskia has that secretly manufactures airships.’
‘Airships?’ asked Thornton incredulously.
‘Yes, airships. They must be what Rooskia consider their secret weapons. Well not any longer, we three destroyed the lot. Well the lot at Shepetivka that is, the Gods only know how many other bases they might have.’
Thornton laughed, ‘You destroyed them all?’ He looked at Marla, whose word he trusted, and she nodded in confirmation.
‘And not only that, we stole the blueprints so Albion can see what we might be up against in the future,’ Jim finished.
‘But the best bit, as far as I’m concerned,’ said Marla, ‘is that they found me at Shepetivka. Seretsky was
taking me back to Rooskia for an ‘in-depth interrogation’ as he put it and Jim and Domingo rescued me.’
‘What about Seretsky? Where is he?’ Thornton asked her.
‘He’s dead. He came close to stopping us but we managed to end him, good riddance. And guess what? If we play this right it will look as if he defected to the west with the only remaining prototype of the airships.’
‘But I thought you’d destroyed them all?’
‘Yes, but Rooskia don’t know that,’ she pointed out. ‘They saw the last airship flying away from Shepetivka base but unknown to them, we sank the last airship in a deep lake in Ungary with Seretsky’s body on board. No one will ever find it, so it will look as if he and the prototype are in the west somewhere, giving up all their secrets. All you have to do is arrange little security leaks from time to time, having someone claim that they have seen him. It will put their security service back years as they try to change everything he may know. What a coup that will be.’
‘And the treaty?’ Thornton asked them.
The three of them emptied out their pockets, they had split all the documents between themselves, but Jim had held on to the treaty precisely for this moment.
He stood up, walked over to Thornton’s chair and handed him the treaty. ‘When I make a deal I keep it. Here’s the treaty you hired me to steal.’
Thornton opened it up and studied it for a moment then he too stood up. ‘I guess I owe you an apology, Jim. I’m sorry I doubted you, it won’t happen again, I promise you.’ He held out his hand which Jim shook, gladly.
‘Apology accepted.’
Thornton spread the plans and documents on the bed to see what treasure there was amongst it. ‘I need to get this treaty to our embassy so they can pass it on to my counterpart in Deutschland. But first, I wonder if I could ask you gentlemen to excuse Marla and I for a while? I’m sure you understand that we have some ‘private business matters’ to discuss. Are you staying in the hotel? Perhaps we can all dine together this evening.’
‘Sure thing,’ agreed Jim. He led Domingo to the door but before he got there, Thornton stopped him, with a, ‘Wait a minute Jim, you’ve forgot something.’
Jim turned round, puzzled.
Thornton went to his bedside table and took an envelope out. He handed it to Jim. ‘The rest of your payment, to be handed over as agreed, on successful delivery of the treaty.’
‘Oh yes, of course. I’ve been so busy the past week I forgot all about this.’ He opened the envelope, removed the document and studied it for a moment. ‘Is this genuine?’
‘Yes.’
‘And is that ...?’ he asked, pointing to something on the page.
‘Yes it is,’ confirmed Thornton.
‘Well I’ll be damned. I never thought I’d see one of these.’
‘Believe me, if everything you’ve told me is true, and I’m sure it is, you’ve earned it.’
Jim replaced the document in the envelope and pocketed it. ‘Well, I’m going to my room. Domingo and I will meet you both in the bar later.’ And with that he let Domingo and himself out into the corridor, where they went their separate ways.
Cornered
Jim unlocked his front door and put his suitcase down in the hall of his house in Londum. He took off his overcoat and hung it on the coat rack. Ah, it was good to be home.
The minute he opened the door into the drawing room he knew something was wrong. He stood there in the doorway, not making a sound and looking around the room, trying to discover what had alerted him. Then he realised, things, ornaments, a clock, had been moved around. Someone had searched the place! They hadn’t broken anything or displaced them but they had made no effort to replace them in exactly the same positions, so they wouldn’t be noticed. Whoever had done this had every intention of letting him know that his privacy had been violated.
By the side of the door was an occasional table, the sort of place you would throw your keys onto as you walked in. Jim knelt down beside it and reached under the table top. He found his pistol there, held in place by spring clips. He gently eased it out of the clips so as not to make a sound and then stood up. He checked to make sure that it was still loaded and backed out of the room slowly. He stood at the foot of the stairs, listening intently but the upstairs was all quiet. He tip-toed down the corridor, checking the other rooms along the way until he arrived at the kitchen, all of them were empty.
After that he made his way up to the first and second floors but except for him, the place was deserted. Pocketing his gun he went down to the front door and opened it. Yes there they were. He hadn’t noticed them at first in his delight to be home again but if you looked carefully you could see the tell-tale scratches where the front-door lock had been picked.
Jim returned to the living room and checked his wall safe, it looked as if it had been opened. Whenever Jim locked his safe, after spinning the dial several times in both directions, he was in the habit of leaving the dial pointing at that day’s date. It looked entirely random to anyone else who looked at the safe after him, but it was a good check on whether someone had been tampering with the dial or not. Unfortunately, it no longer pointed at the date of when he had left Londum for Budapescht. He quickly opened it to find the contents hadn’t been removed, they were all still there.
Not that this was his REAL safe anyway. He knew that anyone breaking in would look for a safe, so he gave them one to find but it only contained random legal documents, some loose cash, a watch and some cuff-links. Nothing of any real value like a passport, or anything incriminating, like stolen jewellery. That he kept in the real safe down in the basement.
He quickly headed down there and checked it. It was hidden beneath some flagstones and it hadn’t been touched, of that he was certain. He checked the outside and the contents thoroughly. Satisfied that his secrets were safe, he went back up to the drawing room. He hid the gun under the table again and was just pouring himself a drink when he noticed some papers on the coffee table. They hadn’t been there when he’d left.
He sat on the sofa and picked them up, sipping his drink as he read them. It was a warrant to search his house and a note from Inspector Corner informing him that in his absence, the warrant authorised them to enter his premises and search it for any materials relating to the theft of the Hetheringham Necklace.
Damn the man! thought Jim. He’s really got it in for me.
Well, this was disturbing, he thought he’d got away with that free and clear. In fact, he had almost forgotten about it due to the excitement over the past few weeks. He sat there sipping his whisky while he planned his strategy. First of all go to Mr. Roper and hand over the document that Thornton had given him. That way it would be safe and it would also involve someone on Jim’s side, from the legal profession, just in case Inspector Corner tried to railroad him over this. Jim did not put it above Caledonia Yard’s finest to manufacture, or conversely lose, evidence in support of their case.
He checked in his jacket to make sure the document was still safe. It had a secret pocket that Jim had his tailor sew into all his jackets. Inaccessible by pickpockets or casual thieves and it avoided any possibility of dropping anything by accident.
Jim finished his whisky, put the warrant and the note in his pocket and headed out for Mr. Roper’s office.
***
Nothing happened the next day but the day after that, after Jim had finished his breakfast and was about to head out to The Golden Gryphon, he heard a knock at the front door. He opened it to find Inspector Corner, Constable Peabody and one other uniformed officer, standing on his doorstep. Behind them was a horse-drawn police wagon.
‘ “Corner of the Yard!” ’ Jim greeted them cheerfully. ‘I’ve missed you. Do come in and let’s chat.’
Inspector Corner and the constables filed into the hallway and Jim shut the door behind them. ‘Do you mind answering a few questions, sir?’ asked Corner.
‘About what, exactly?’ Jim replied.
‘A
bout the theft of the Hetheringham Necklace.’
‘And if I don’t feel like answering any questions?’
‘You know, I was hoping you’d say that. In that case, I have a warrant for your arrest for complicity in the theft of the aforementioned Hetheringham Necklace, from Hetheringham Manor. I caution you that you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something that you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Constable Peabody, cuff ‘im.’
‘Can I at least get my hat, it might be raining when I’m released.’
‘Oh you’re not coming out again sonny, not for a few years anyway, I’ll be bound,’ gloated Inspector Corner. ‘But we wouldn’t want to see a gentleman such as yourself improperly dressed would we? Please, help yourself.’
Jim, who was already wearing his jacket, picked up his hat, placed it on his head and then calmly held his hands out in front of him, while Peabody produced the handcuffs and apologetically placed them on him.
‘Right, you’re coming down the Yard with us,’ said Corner and led the way to the police wagon. Jim followed with a constable on either side of him and together the four of them climbed into the back of the wagon and away it went.
***
Jim sat in the interview room, sipping a cup of tea he had managed to charm out of them. There was a wire mesh over the windows of the room, where someone could watch him, unobserved due to the tight grid of the mesh. This wasn’t the first time he had been in interview rooms around the world and he was familiar with the different procedures.
Some places would accuse the prisoner of some really horrendous crime, leave him to sweat for a while and then speak to him again, by which time he would probably be willing to confess to a lesser crime, the one he had really being apprehended for. Some places they just came in and started beating the confession out of you. But that was abroad, and anyway neither method would work on Jim, not now, not ever. But Caledonia Yard usually played it straighter than that. Here, they just charged him and then left him to sweat.
The Londum Omnibus Volume Two (The Londum Series Book 12) Page 28