Watson was also on his feet now. “Please, Mr. Holmes… , I need to find the man responsible for Evelyn’s death,” he pleaded, knowing that Holmes would not be inclined to let the Earth Hawks near the time-machines any time soon.
“You will learn, my dear fellow, that I need to think about such demands or pleas before I agree or disagree with what each implies or the results they may engender. So you will have my considered answer in a day or so when we meet again.”
“Alright, Mr. Holmes,” Watson nodded resignedly. “May I accompany you to the funicular?”
“That won’t be necessary, Watson,” Holmes said, walking away, “and don’t forget to bring Sarah for tea this weekend. I know she will enjoy tasting the scones Irene has found at the bakery.”
“Of course… ,” Watson replied to Holmes’s back.
Left alone in the quad, Watson sat down again, took his laptop out of its bag, opened it and clicked on the email icon of the desktop. As soon as he found the address he was looking for, he typed one sentence:
As soon as you read this message, call me on Skype. Most important. J.W.
When Holmes arrived at the B&B, he found Irene and Sally engrossed in a discussion involving what sounded like the purchasing of a house in or around Wellington.
The two women were sitting in the parlour of the establishment, sharing in some refreshments.
“Oh, Sherlock, what a splendid time for you to join us,” Irene erupted when she saw her husband cross the threshold of the room. “Come, come, sit down and have some tea, won’t you?”
“Yes of course, my dear… , I’m rather thirsty I’d say,” he replied, taking a seat beside his wife on the sofa and facing a smiling Sally. The latter was a tiny woman, a little on the thin side, but with an amiable disposition that would be (and was) very endearing to her patrons.
“Mr. Holmes,” Sally began, pouring some tea in a cup, “your wife was just telling me that you may want to buy a house in these parts, and I was very excited as you could imagine”—Holmes could not imagine such a thing at all—“and I was proposing to telephone a friend of my husband who’s in the real estate business in town.” Sally stopped long enough to take in a breath and to ask, “Would you like one or two lumps of sugar?”
“No, thank you. I’ll just have some milk.”
Sally poured the milk into the cup and finally handed it to Holmes. “As I was saying to Irene, Mr. Holmes, there are many houses available at the outskirts of the city that may be suitable for a young couple”—Holmes shot a sideway glance at Irene: “a young couple” would not have been the way he would have described the two of them—” . . . and you should really take a look. Some of these properties are much larger than the old houses in town, and if you were to have children—”
Holmes had heard enough. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Norden,” he cut-in, “but we have just arrived in town and it will take us a few more days to decide where we would want to live.” He turned his face to Irene. “Wouldn’t you say, my dear?”
“Absolutely, Sherlock. But I would say getting in touch with this real estate acquaintance of Mr. Norden wouldn’t hurt.” Irene threw a disapproving glance in Sherlock’s direction. He sipped on his tea. “Wouldn’t you say, dear?”
Holmes took the riposte as a signal to apologize to Sally. “I am very sorry, Mrs. Norden, I didn’t mean any offence—”
“None taken, Mr. Holmes, none at all.” Sally put her tea cup back on the tray. “Let me get that name and address for you while you finish your tea.” She rose from her seat and trotted out of the room under Sherlock and Irene’s somewhat amused gazes.
“Now tell me, Sherlock, what did you learn from John?” Irene asked.
“I will, my dear, but for now let’s finish our tea.”
Knowing Sherlock’s reservations when it came to discuss the conversation he may have had with anyone, Irene nodded and didn’t press the point.
Later that evening, at a time he knew Mohammad would be available, Watson opened his laptop and waited for the man to ring him. Sarah was already in bed when the call came through.
“My dear John, how are you?” Mohammad began. “I received your message and I must say it intrigued me. What’s on your mind?”
Watson hesitated. Where to begin? “Mohammad, this is extremely important and I would need your full attention for a few minutes, if you don’t mind.”
“I am here. No one is in the office at this hour. It’s lunchtime, so you may talk freely.”
“Well… , what I’m about to tell you will appear incredible on the face of it, but believe me, the story is factual and verifiable.”
“Okay, John, spare me the preamble and let me hear what you have.”
“Alright, here it goes… .” Watson then spent the better part of the next ten minutes, describing his first encounter with Holmes and their afternoon’s discussion.
Mohammad listened carefully to Watson without interruption, but when he finished, he had to ask, “Did you say the time-machines are in Washington, D.C. – do you know where, exactly?”
“No, I don’t, and Mr. Holmes doesn’t seem prepared to divulge where they are since he doesn’t want anyone to travel in time.”
“Ah-ah, I see,” Mohammad said, cracking a smile. “He is as cagey today as he was a hundred-and-twenty years ago then?”
“Yes, he seems to be. But I think there might be a way to get him on board as it were.”
“How’s that?” Mohammad asked.
“If I could talk to his wife, Irene Adler, privately, I should be able to persuade her to divulge where the machines are – at least one of them – so that you could perhaps restore them—”
“Restore them?” Mohammad cut-in. “Why would we want to restore them? Seems to me they function very well the way they are.”
“No, no that’s not what I meant—”
“What did you mean then?”
“I meant that you could update them by installing a new computer on board or re-fitting some of the engineering parts… since I haven’t seen them, I don’t know.”
“Okay, John. This project sounds not only interesting enough to involve my team, but I would say it would also be serious and far-reaching enough to have some beneficial consequences on our society maybe.” He paused. “Let me think about the details of this enterprise and, in the meantime, I suggest that you do exactly as you proposed; talk to Ms. Adler and see if she would be willing to give you the addresses where the machines are stored.”
“No problem. I’ll contact you as soon as I have more information. But do you think it will be warranted for me to go to Washington shortly?”
“Yes, I think so. It all depends on timing. We wouldn’t want to alert Mr. Holmes of what we plan to do by changing the dates of your scheduled visit in the American capital, of course.”
“I agree. And it may work well with my schedule – I am due to give my lecture at the CIA in Virginia next month—”
“That sounds perfect. Okay, John, I must get back to work now; the day is still young, and time waits for no one.” Mohammad chortled at his own pun. “Hum… , yes… , I’m sorry… .”
“Talk to you later then?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll expect your call.”
Just before retiring for the night, Irene and Sherlock were sitting on the veranda, enjoying a night-cap.
“Would you be ready now, to tell me what you and Watson talked about this afternoon?” Irene asked, having left the subject in abeyance long enough she thought.
Sherlock blew a couple of puffs of smoke from his pipe. “It was an interesting conversation, by all means, my dear,” he replied, without looking at Irene. “He showed me how some companies have access to one’s computer and he described what hackers do—”
“Hackers, what are those?” Irene interrupted.
“People who interfere with your correspondence, for one thing, or send what Watson called viruses into your computer to destroy its programming.” Sherlock stopped long e
nough to take a sip of his scotch. “Apparently, these people are engaged by government agencies to monitor the exchange of emails between suspected criminals.”
“But isn’t that illegal – to read someone’s mail, I mean?”
“Oh yes, but Watson said they have laws that have been amended to address this problem.” Sherlock re-lit his pipe. “However, what was most interesting about this was the fact that our friend Weisberg at the CIA must have been surveying Adnan’s correspondence for some time.”
“No doubt of it, if what Watson says is accurate.”
“Oh I’m sure his account is accurate.” He turned to face Irene across the table. “But what was even more puzzling about his description was that he seems to know a lot more about this matter than he was ready to divulge to me.”
Irene sipped on her glass of port. “What makes you think that?”
“He talked in generalities – not in detail. And that, my dear, is a sign of someone knowing a lot more than one lets on. Besides which, he described his acquaintance with a team of engineers that he called a think-tank.” Irene frowned. Sherlock smiled in response. “Yes, that’s what he called these people. And this particular group goes under the name of Earth Hawks.”
Irene tittered. “I guess that would be a good name for people who have ‘a bird’s eye view’ of the situation.”
“Well put, Irene, because, from Watson’s description, that would sum up their expertise.”
“Would it now?” Irene was getting more interested.
“Yes. He even suggested that they would be prepared to use our time-machines to chase after David Penny through time.”
Irene stared. It all sounded a little outlandish to her. “But did he tell you where these people are located and on whose behalf they’re working?”
“We didn’t go that far.”
“Why not? It would be interesting to know who he is dealing with and why he is so intent to involve you in the matter.”
“The answer to that is elementary, my dear; Watson believes that the person responsible for his wife’s death is a terrorist who may be associated with our David Penny.”
“Did you talk to him about our escapade to New York then?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I did – not in detail mind you. But no matter, I believe John Watson, same as his great-grandfather, is a man of honour, a respectable fellow, whose life has been marred by the unnecessary killing of his wife. He’s simply trying to find out who killed her.”
“That may be true, Sherlock, but we can hardly involve these Earth Hawks in chasing terrorists across continents and time, now could we? We must think of Sarah—”
“That’s precisely what I told him.” Sherlock paused long enough to inhale a breath of smoke. “I cut our conversation short actually, when he asked me where the time-machines were.”
Irene stood up and went to stand by the railing, crossing her arms over her chest. “We need to have a serious chat with the young man, Sherlock. He’s treading very dangerous waters.”
“Yes, Irene, he is,” Sherlock said as he went to join his wife. “I have invited him to have tea with us this Sunday – I told him about your wonderful scones—”
“Oh, Sherlock, they’re not my scones; I only found the bakery—”
“Precisely, my dear – “Finders Keepers” – isn’t that what they say?”
Chapter Six
Time Continuum
“Do you know these people, Mycroft?” Irene asked during one of her recent conversations with Sherlock’s brother. These Earth Hawks seemed to be quite elusive for some reason, and Irene didn’t like the idea of having them sniff around Sherlock’s past – or hers for that matter.
“Yes, my dear, we’ve heard of them. They’re quite an organization—”
“What do you mean by “we”? Do you mean the British government is using this think-thank for some sort of surveillance?”
Mycroft sounded a little hesitant when he said, “I wouldn’t have much information about their activities at this point, but I could always make some inquiries.”
“Do you know where they are based and who’s at the head of the organization?”
“All right, my dear… , before I go any further in answering your questions, would you tell me what this is all about?”
“It’s a little complicated, Mycroft, but I’ll try to make this as succinct as I possibly could.”
“I’d appreciate that. At this hour, all I need is sleep… , but do go on, please.”
“As I told you last week, Sherlock and Watson’s great-grandson renewed their acquaintance, so to speak, and at the issue of one of their meetings at the university, Watson came up with the idea of involving these Earth Hawks in finding or chasing David Penny through time.”
“Of all the idiotic ideas… !” Mycroft exploded. “This brother of mine must be fit to be tied, to be sure. I am sending him to the ends of the earth to keep him out of trouble, and he goes searching for it nonetheless! And if that wasn’t enough, he is involving someone else into something that should have remained untold for everyone’s sake.”
Irene listened to Mycroft’s ranting, an inward smile ready to emerge on her lips. Trying not to show her amusement, she said, “Don’t be too hard on him, Mycroft, he had no idea that Watson would be involved with such a group.”
“Nevertheless, Irene, he doesn’t seem to have any restrain when it comes to chasing terrorists across the globe.” Mycroft appeared to calm down a little. “Just tell me that he didn’t say anything compromising, otherwise, I’ll send him to Timbuktu for his troubles.”
Irene couldn’t help but laugh at imagining Sherlock roaming the Sahel and visiting the old pilgrimage site. “At this point, I think Sherlock is well aware of the dangers that could befall him, notwithstanding Timbuktu,” she said with a smothered giggle, “if he were to suggest anything more than what he mentioned already.”
“And what did “he mention already”, that’s what I’d like to know.”
“Nothing more than David Penny being working for Adnan and al Qaeda, I believe.”
“But tell me, why on earth would the young Watson want to be involved with chasing terrorists?”
“That’s because the poor man has lost his wife in the 2006 train bombing in England. And he has a little girl that’s been left without a mother—”
“Don’t say anymore, Irene, I understand.” Mycroft paused. “Alright, let me find out what I can about the Earth Hawks, but in the meantime, I can assure you they are a legitimate organization which, by all accounts, has been extremely helpful in our international relations—”
“But I thought you said you had only heard of them?”
“You’re right, that’s what I said, because I don’t deal with them directly, but my ministry does and I know MI5 does, too.”
“Thank you, Mycroft. It’s a relief to know that someone knows these people. As you can imagine this whole thing sounds so outlandish to me and to Sherlock as well, that it’s hard to come to grips with this new reality. It’s too fantastic for us to believe at times.”
“I quite understand the feeling, my dear, but you can rest assured, as I said, that I am here for you both. Just make sure Sherlock doesn’t do anything foolish, alright?”
“Absolutely!”
As soon as Mycroft reached his office that morning, after a restless night, he opened the Skype window on his laptop. Seeing that Mohammad was ‘on-line’, he called him.
“Mr. Minister, what a pleasure!” Mohammad guffawed, leaning to the back of his chair. “How can I be of assistance on this wonderful day, sir?”
“You can begin by telling me if you’re acquainted with a Dr. John Watson, Dr. Bahareth. And if you know the fellow, I’d appreciate receiving a report of your latest conversation with him.”
Mohammad advanced in the chair and put his forearms on the desk. “Okay, Mr. Minister, I know you’ll find out anyway—”
“Of that you can be sure, Doctor. So let’s have it.
”
“Let’s not be unpleasant about this, Mr. Minister. I have known Dr. Watson for only a couple of years. He is a brilliant scientist, sir, and one that I wish I could employ in my team.”
“I bet you would. But all that is not what I want to find out. I want to know what your latest conversation with him entailed.”
Mohammad didn’t know if Mycroft Holmes knew anything about the time-machines or if he even knew that a brother of his was alive in this century. “We talked about his upcoming visit to Washington.”
“Maybe you did, Dr. Bahareth, but besides that did you also talk about Mr. Sherlock Holmes?”
“Okay, Mr. Minister,” Mohammad relented, “I am aware of the famous detective being alive in this century, yes. And Dr. Watson mentioned that Sherlock Holmes had travelled with his wife in two time-machines all the way from the last century – that is to say the 19th century. But that’s all we’ve talked about so far.”
“Very good, Doctor. I’m glad to hear that you haven’t been approached by anyone else yet regarding this matter—”
“How would you know that I haven’t been approached by some other person than your good self… ?”
“I am a politician, Doctor, and as such, I know how much pressure could be applied on you to keep sensitive information from escaping your lips. Do you understand what I mean?”
“Sure I do, Mr. Minister. But now that I have told you, may I ask what you might want me to do about these time-machines… ?”
“Are you hoping to lay your hands on them, perhaps?”
“Yes, sir, I am. We need to examine the possibilities offered to us by these machines. This is an exceptional opportunity to turn the clocks back and maybe understand some of the errors that we have perpetrated in the 20th century and beyond, without necessarily modifying any of the events that are still affecting our lives to this day.”
“I can see what you’re getting at, and let me assure you that none of what you’re suggesting is going to happen.”
Sherlock Holmes in 2012: LORD OF DARKNESS RISING Page 8