“I’m not sure as yet. As we discussed in the carriage on the way back, I know who he is now. And I think that he will shortly become aware of that if he hasn’t already.”
“So you can’t apply any of your famed strategies?”
“I had one last one up my sleeve, by a favorite Chinese strategist called Sun Tzu called ‘Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.’ I’ve been pursuing a snake theme, you see.”
“I don’t see anything snake like about that. It sounds like every army general’s favorite mantra.”
“Hmm, it is a little bit different; if I can remember it went a little something like, ‘Carefully study the well-being of your men, and do not overtax them. Concentrate your energy and hoard your strength. Keep your army continually on the move, and devise unfathomable plans. The skillful tactician may be likened to the shuai-jan. Now the shuai-jan is a snake that is found in the Ch'ang Mountains. Strike at its head, and you will be attacked by its tail; strike at its tail, and you will be attacked by its head; strike at its middle, and you will be attacked by head and tail both.’”
“Sounds like a load of gobbledygook to me. It advocates doing nothing if you strike at any one part of the snake and it bites you back with another part.”
Hades sighed. “You do have a point, but you see the essence is that you attack the head, tail and middle all at once but only when the snake is not expecting it.”
“And how are you going to do that if the man is expecting you?”
“I’m not quite sure.”
“He’s tried to kill you once already with that snake. Do you know where he lives?”
“Yes. Trump gave me his address.”
“And you say his only identifying feature is that he has hairy ears?”
“Mmm. It seems he is the master of disguise.”
“Oh. Whilst I remember. A note came for you last night. Carter delivered it personally. He was very anxious, you get it.” Freddie took a bite of toast. “I thought no one knew you were here?”
“No one does apart from… oh.”
Freddie looked up from his plate with an interested look on his face.
“Just give me the note, Freddie.” Hades held out his hand. With a sigh, Freddie handed him a small slip of paper that wasn’t sealed.
“Sounds quite interesting.” Freddie stuffed another piece of toast in his mouth. Hades gave him a frown.
Hades smoothed open the small slip of paper on the table and read its contents. He looked up at his friend, who raised his eyebrows and took yet another bite of toast, chewing loudly. “Is it the Viper?” Freddie mumbled.
Hades ignored him. The script was long and flowing and he’d seen it before. What did she have planned now? If he could just collar the Viper that day, perhaps he would be able to attend his appointment with a clear conscience. And perhaps deliver that prize he had been hoping to lay at her feet.
“What are you doing today, Freddie?” he asked.
“Nothing much.”
“Good. Then you’ll come with me. We’ll strike while the iron’s hot. Lisle just might not see us coming.”
“Don’t you need someone else too?”
“Pardon?”
“For the tail of the snake. You said your strategy was to get at the head, middle and tail. I’m assuming that was all metaphor, and that essentially we need to cover every exit to his house.”
“Hmm, yes. Good point.” Melissa’s note must have turned his brain to jelly. He’d been imagining her in a low-cut gown, languishing against the fireplace in his study. The importance of catching the Viper had been demoted into more of a functional to do list.
“Stanton is in town for a while. He’s just come up from his new estate in Kent. He should be able to help us. He has no fear when it comes to dealing with battle-like situations.”
“So I’ve heard,” Hades murmured. This was the man who had been tangled up with Melissa before she disappeared from the ton. He was curious to meet him again. It helped that he was part of the ring that Henry used for his intelligence purposes.
“He said he would call on me this morning. He used to stay here along with Anthony Lovall when we all left the army. Bill should be coming up too in a few days. I think he’s escaping from the estate that Stanton gave him. Making the transition from smith and smuggler to landowner is not going as well as he hoped, I understand.”
A sharp rat a tat tat at the front door reverberated in the hall. Freddie sat up. “What a coincidence. That must be Stanton now.”
A brief muttering echoed in the hall as Lord Stanton greeted the butler for what seemed like an over-long time.
“My butler was in the same regiment with us.” Freddie shrugged. “What can I say, he’s a devil with a spoon.”
Hades’ ears shut down at this. He didn’t really want to know any more, surrounded as he was by pikes and flags and more military hardware than a royal keep.
Quick footsteps clapped against the floorboards in the hall, and the door to the morning room opened. Freddie stood up. “James, hello, old friend. Tired of life in the country already?”
Lord Stanton matched Hades for height, but was a leaner more athletic build. “Stanton,” Hades said, putting a hand out. “I’ve heard about you.”
James nodded and clasped his hand strongly. “And I you. The only discussion in Whites last night was about whether or not you would find the Viper and deal with him.”
“And what were the odds?” Freddie said, grinning.
James sat at the breakfast table and pulled a plate towards him. “Three to one.”
“That’s not ba…”
“Three to one in favor of the Viper.” James cast an apologetic glance at Hades. “Apparently it used to be more favorable in your direction, but since it has been a little time since you have been seen to do anything, people are getting a little disheartened.”
“That’s where your arrival could just help us!” Freddie said cheerfully.
“Freddie!” Hades said loudly. Freddie looked chastened. Hades softened his voice. “Look, we have a name and address for the Viper, but I need to approach it today whilst the Viper least expects it. I need another man to help me,”
“To pin down the belly of the beast,” Freddie interjected.
Hades frowned. “At the very least to help us cover the entrances to the address to make sure no one gets away.”
“It sounds like my kind of thing,” James said with a lazy smile. “Life in the country has been a little too slow and settled of late. A little action would liven things up. Have I got time for a coffee?”
Hades admired the coolness of James. It seemed as if nothing would faze him. “Let’s plan to leave in an hour. It is early yet.”
“Agreed. I will dig out some pistols from somewhere for us. I’m sure I used to have rather a nice set of them…” Freddie poked at a draped flag that lay behind his chair. “I really should get this collection in order.”
“The last time I saw them they were under the bed in the guest room,” James said, gratefully accepting a cup of coffee from the butler. “Thank you, Willson.”
“I’ll get Willson to clean them out. From memory I have at least seven, so that is three each for you two, and one for me.”
“Why do we get three each?” Hades asked, puzzled. “Surely you should have at least two?”
“Can’t handle them with my stick as well. I can only hold one in my hand and my stick in the other. I can use the stick too sometimes.”
“Hmm, I remember,” Hades said, thinking of the unfortunate Jeffries. “What we really need to look out for are snakes.”
“Snakes?” James showed his first worry line of the day in a crease in his forehead.
“Yes. Our Viper, Professor Lisle, has a great interest in snakes. I think that is how he killed so many people in an unexpected and unidentifiable way.”
“The gasping throats etc?”
“Exactly.”
“Gruesome.”
“Yes.
”
“So what does this man look like?”
“Unfortunately he does not have any identifying features. I myself have never seen him without a mask on, and those that have met him always forget what he looks like instantly.”
“Sounds like magic.”
“I think he probably has a great talent for hiding in plain sight. Seeming like ‘just another man on the street’ and so on. Just like a Viper when it is hunting for its prey.”
“So let me get this right, we are going to go to the Viper’s address, and then we are not going to be able to identify him when we get there?”
“Yes. We do have one point of identification…”
“Go on?”
“The man has exceptionally hairy ears.”
James almost spat out a mouthful of coffee. “Hairy ears? Excuse me Mr. Viper,” he pantomimed knocking at the door, “nice to meet you and oh, could you just turn to the side so that I can see your ears?”
Hades smiled slowly. “That’s why there are three of us.”
“One to greet him, and one to look in each ear?” Freddie said guffawing. “I didn’t realize your famed strategy was so personal!”
“I don’t believe it,” James said.
“Don’t believe what?” asked Freddie, still laughing.
“The famously dour Earl Harding cracked a joke. And it is the first time I have met him!”
Freddie stopped laughing. “That’s true,” he said, “Hades, are you alright?” He turned to look Hades square in the face and his face lightened. “By God. That meeting tonight. It’s nothing to do with the Viper. It’s a woman isn’t it?”
Hades’ face flamed. When Freddie wasn’t drunk you could not get anything past him.
“It might be,” he said cautiously. “But I think we should concentrate on the Viper for now.”
“It’s not just any old woman though, is it?” Freddie mused slowly, eyeing James curiously. “It’s Mel—”
“That’s enough, Freddie. Who I see is my own affair. James has no interest in what I do.”
“But of course I am…”
Hades cut James off mid-flow. “Freddie, those guns?”
“Err, yes of course.” Suitably chastened, Freddie rose slowly to his feet and, with his cane, tapped out into the hall and up the stairs.
“Can we use your carriage?” Hades asked James. “The Viper knows that I am after him and the great bloody Harding crest on the side of the coach will give the game away”
“Of course. I don’t have anything on mine. Helps when arriving in places where you are not wanted.”
“Good, even better.”
“Now the plan will work like this…”
Two hours later, the three men sat in the Stanton carriage staring at a nondescript house in Isleworth. Being a fair way out of the city, and on the banks of the Thames, had allowed the Professor to build a large mansion in its own grounds, with a boathouse, a large garden and tall wall surrounding it.
“We should have brought more than three people,” Freddie said, staring up at the huge house. “I must say, it doesn’t look very lived in.”
“Either that or someone has very recently left,” James remarked, pointing covertly at the morass of cart tracks that lined the front entrance of the mansion. The front gate outside which their coach stood, was slightly open and was not guarded.
“Freddie, I want you to come with me to the front door. Stanton, you take the boathouse. Those are the only routes of escape as far as I can see. Down the drive or out through the river.”
James nodded. “Sounds reasonable,” he said.
Hades and Freddie waited whilst James crept stealthily through the mature garden to the side of the boathouse. With a backwards nod, he slipped inside the nearest door and shut it soundlessly.
“Shall we?” Freddie said. Hades nodded, uncomfortable. Two pistols were strapped to the inside of his coat, whilst he held a third in his hand. Freddie had rather insouciantly pushed a pistol barrel first into his waistband.
Freddie raised the knocker on the front door and let it fall with a crash. For a few moments there was no sound, until a few steps became audible, pounding the hallway to the door. A small man answered, dressed as a butler. Hades faced him directly whilst Freddie stood just outside eyesight to the side.
“Yes?” the butler said, standing just inside the doorway. Hades said nothing, which exasperated the small man. He took a step forward to the outside beyond the door. Hades continued to look at him silently, glancing occasionally at Freddie. Freddie looked carefully at the man’s ears and then shook his head.
“We’re here to see Professor Lisle,” Hades said.
“What about?” asked the butler.
Hades hadn’t expected this. “Hierophis Viridiflavus,” he said. It was the first thing that came into his head.
“You should have said so at first!” the butler said irritably. “He’s on the veranda at the back of the house. You can make your own way through.”
“Bloody snakes. Thank God I don’t have to deal with that anymore,” the butler said as he stood back inside the door to let them in. Without a farewell, the butler disappeared, and they were left to walk their way to the back of the house.
“Look,” Freddie whispered, pointing to the floor. Hades nodded. Large rectangular shaped dark patches were spaced at intervals down the hallway, surrounded by patches of dust. “It looks like someone has moved a lot of things recently.”
Choosing a door on the hall, Hades pushed it open and peered inside. The room was only half full of furniture and covered in dust drapes. It was the same with the next door that he opened.
Reclosing the door, Hades pulled Freddie away from examining the floor, and motioned towards the last door that opened onto the veranda at the back of the house.
Taking a few giant steps, Hades opened the veranda door with a bang and leapt onto the terrace. A man sat in a wicker chair, calmly eating a cake and drinking some lemonade. He made no effort to get away.
“Professor Lisle?” Hades asked disbelievingly.
The man nodded. “Do call me Bertrand, after all, we are practically friends are we not, Harding?”
“Earl Harding to you, traitor,” Hades said before he could stop himself.
“As you wish,” Professor Lisle said, continuing to eat his cake. He stopped and looked hard at the door to the hallway. “I don’t believe I have met your friend,” he said casually. “Perhaps he might like a seat?”
The professor stood and laid out two more chairs. Hades looked hard at the man. He was certainly nondescript but his cravat almost covered his ears making it impossible to tell if they were covered in hair. He had not expected such a welcome from the Viper.
“Come on, Freddie,” Hades said resignedly. It seemed they were not just going to be able to walk in and accost the Viper.
He sat gingerly in one of the wicker chairs and stared hard at the professor. The guns dug into his side. Freddie winced too as he sat down—it served him right. Stuffing a gun down your trousers was a recipe for disaster. Freddie cradled his stick in his hand and looked from Hades to the professor and back again.
“Now then, I heard you wanted to discuss “Hierophis Viridiflavus;” interesting creature that. Did you know it is not actually venomous but still can cause mild problems if someone is bitten? Of course the green whipsnake is my favorite…”
“Hand it over, Professor,” Hades said. He wasn’t going to keep up the pretense.
“Hand what over?” The professor looked genuinely puzzled.
“The list of names you stole from the War Office.”
“No,” the professor paused, “I can honestly say I have no idea what you are talking about. I merely work here…”
“Look, you, you Viper!” Freddie shouted, “Just come clean and give it back. And then we will take you in for questioning.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to do that.”
“I won’t? Why not?” Freddie blustered.
“Because I am…”
“Because he is not Professor Lisle, Freddie.” Hades wiped his face tiredly.
“How do you know?” Freddie said plaintively. “He’s admitted that he is the professor. He’s at the professor’s house.”
“Because he is wearing the same uniform as the butler and he has just told us rather directly that he only works here.”
Freddie whipped the sheath from his walking stick to reveal the deadly blade beneath. With a fast slash, he pushed the professor’s cravat away from his ear. There was nothing there apart from a pair of clean, and non-hairy ears.
“Where is he?” Freddie yelled at the cowering man. “Why isn’t he here?”
“I don’t know where he is,” the false professor shouted, his calm bravado dissipated in the face of Freddie’s anger.
“Who put you up to this?”
“Pedro.”
“Pedro?” Hades had only heard one other person name a Pedro, and that was Leonard Trump. He had said that Professor Lisle’s other right-hand man was called Pedro something and was a queer fish. “When?”
“What when?” the man’s brain had obviously turned to mush.
“When did Pedro tell you to act like Professor Lisle?”
“Half an hour ago. He was busy collecting some last things and he said that the Professor would have liked it very much if I pretended to be him for a couple of days.”
“Where is Pedro now?” Hades drew one of the guns from his coat. The man’s eyes bulged.
“I… I have no idea,” he protested. He fell off his seat and tried to crawl away. Freddie stabbed at his coat tails with the sword stick and skewered him to the floor.
“You must know,” Hades said accusingly. “If he was only here half an hour ago…”
“More importantly,” Freddie said. “Where is the professor?”
“Nobody knows,” the man wailed, sitting on the floor and trying to get as far away from the swordstick as his constrained coat would allow. “We just received orders to pack up the tanks in the hall, and to load them onto the carts. We haven’t seen Professor Lisle in months.”
“Tanks?” Freddie pushed his sword more firmly into the wood of the terrace as the man struggled.
Dangerous Diana (Brambridge Novel 3) Page 21