The Steampunk Detective
Page 9
A confusion of footsteps and mingled voices headed away from Jack. The gas in the lamps continued to keep the interior of the chamber dimly illuminated. He rolled painfully onto his back.
Rather than travelling on top of the truck, he wished it had simply run straight over him. Every muscle in his body ached from the tension of the day’s journey. It seemed like an eternity ago that he had leapt from the side of the metrotower onto the airship.
He closed his eyes.
I’ll just rest for a minute, he decided.
Just a minute.
Just a…
Chapter Fourteen
Jack awoke in gloomy darkness.
He found himself staring up at a stone ceiling. He woke from a dream where he had been buried alive and so he hit hard at the stonework, thinking he lay within a coffin many feet under the earth. The impact of his hand against the cold surface brought him back to reality.
Of course, he remembered. The airship. The truck. The island.
He lifted his head slightly. Only about a foot lay between him and the roof, a godsend, really, because the unlikely hiding place had kept him safe. He rolled over. His body felt stiff, but the total exhaustion that had plagued him the previous day had evaporated.
A sudden panic seized him. He had slept for who knows how long and in the meantime anything could have happened to Scarlet Bell and Jon Harker. He had to find and rescue them.
Jack almost laughed out loud.
He was only a kid. How could he hope to rescue Scarlet and Mr Harker? Still, he had come this far. Not everyone could have done that. Now was not the time to doubt his abilities. All he had to do was find them and get out of here.
Wherever ‘here’ happens to be, he thought.
Listening hard, Jack realised he could not make out a single sound. Good. The occupants of this building were obviously located some distance away from here. He slid around until his legs dangled over the front of the vehicle. He stepped down onto the bonnet and then onto the floor.
He swooned and grabbed the vehicle for support. For the first time in twenty–four hours he stood on solid dry land. Taking a hesitant step he found he could walk.
His thoughts about the chamber around him were correct. It seemed to be some sort of storeroom, packed with boxes and containers. He lifted a tarpaulin and beneath lay some sort of drums. They smelled of oil. Jack made his way to the door, looked down the corridor and saw a long, thin tunnel leading away from him, lit intermittently by oil lamps.
Looking back into the room, he wished he had a weapon, but nothing looked usable. Clenching his jaw, he decided to continue without one. He had only one thing on his side – the element of surprise. The kidnappers had no idea they had been followed. He wanted to keep it that way.
He continued along the tunnel. Walking as quietly as possible, his footsteps still seemed to echo as loudly as if he were walking across a tin roof. The tunnel seemed to go on forever. He wondered where it led. Probably the castle he had spotted from the water.
Finally he reached a wooden doorway, set into the stonework. If the door were locked from the other side, then he would have to give up, but if it were unlocked…
He gripped the ancient handle and turned it. Nothing happened. Then it gave a rusty squeak and he found he could pull the door towards him. He looked out into another stone corridor.
Empty.
He entered. A steep, winding staircase lay at the far end of the room.
As Jack climbed the stairs he listened for sounds from within the building. Distantly, he thought he heard the sound of voices, but the sound was so muffled it was impossible to tell. The ascent seemed to take forever. Finally he reached the top. The stairs met another corridor.
Jack peered in both directions. Nothing moved in the corridor, but now natural light penetrated a number of windows. He had finally reached ground level. The building looked very old. Probably medieval. The structure was clean, dry and cold. He had been in a few other similar buildings with his parents over the years.
He tiptoed to his left. Windows looked out onto an open courtyard. Two men walked purposefully across from one side to the other. Jack’s heart raced with fear. He hurried along the corridor until he reached another intersection. Voices echoed down the passageway towards him.
He slowly made his way down the corridor until he reached a closed door. The voices seemed to be emanating from the interior. He placed his head against the door and listened hard. They seemed to be speaking German. He backed away. Making his way down another passage, he met up with the kitchen. A table covered with a tablecloth sat in the centre of the room. A preparation bench ran along the side. An open door at the other side led out to a grassy area.
A pot was boiling on the stove.
Someone was cooking, Jack realised. They might be back at any –.
Footsteps emanated from the corridor behind him. He made for the exit door, but caught sight of someone heading up the path at the same time. He was trapped!
Jack made for the only hiding place in the room – the table. He climbed under just as someone bounded down the stairs. A woman wearing a long skirt. A moment later a man entered from the garden. They spoke in German for a moment before one of the chairs was suddenly pulled out from under the table.
Jack’s heart almost stopped. He pulled back under the table as the man sat down. Holding his breath, Jack dared not move as the man continued to speak to the woman. She dished out some food onto a plate and it clanked as she laid it onto the table.
The man said something, laughing. Suddenly the woman was dragged close to him and she sat, squirming on his lap.
Jack rolled his eyes.
Bazookas!
A cat sauntered into the room. Jack looked in horror at the creature as it slowly strolled across the room. Its eyes fixed on Jack and strolled directly towards him.
Go away, he urged, glaring at the creature. It ignored him completely, taking up residence in the tiny gap under the table. Jack tried to push it away. He waved his hands at it.
Suddenly the man’s foot moved forward and connected with Jack’s leg. Jack bit back a scream as the man pushed the woman off his lap, dragged the chair back and stood up.
“Vas ist das?” the man said.
Thinking quickly, Jack grabbed the cat and flung it out from under the table.
The man laughed, picking it up. He and the woman spoke for another moment until footsteps sounded on the landing. Another man arrived.
“They have finally spoken,” he said. The man spoke with a broad American accent. “The man, Bell, revealed the location when his daughter was threatened.”
The other man replied in German.
“English, please,” the other man said.
“My apologies,” the German said. His voice broad and loud. “Are they still upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“I will contact headquarters and find out what we will do with them.”
“Surely we will just dispose of them?”
“Most likely,” the man said. “But I will check. If we kill them prematurely, they are difficult to bring back.”
They laughed.
The three people exited the room and Jack found himself alone with the cat. He slumped onto the floor under the table. They most likely intended to kill Scarlet and the others. He had to act now.
Jack climbed out from under the table and made his way to the doorway leading to the passageway. Making his way carefully to the end, he arrived at a set of stairs. The man had said Scarlet and the others were located upstairs.
Scaling the steps cautiously, he suddenly heard footsteps coming along the hallway towards him. He raced up the remaining stairs as quietly as possible until he reached the top. He stopped. The footsteps passed by the bottom. Letting out a sigh of relief, he turned his attention to the upper level. The corridor headed in two directions, windows on one side, doors on the other.
Oh dear, he thought. So many doors and so little time.
Glancing down the corridor, he looked at the doors receding away from him. They appeared identical, but Jack suddenly realised a large key poked out from the lock of one of the doors.
Why would they keep a room locked?
He cautiously made his way down the passage. Placing his ear against the door, he tried to listen for sounds. Nothing. He let out a sigh. Finally he turned the key in the lock, grabbed the handle and inched the door open. He saw a mirror. A sideboard. A bed. A chair…. with someone tied to it.
Scarlet.
She sat in the chair, her hands and legs tied to a sturdy wooden chair, a gag across her mouth. She looked up at him with amazement.
He closed the door, hurried to her side and removed the gag.
“Oh Jack.” She almost wept with relief. “How is it you are here?”
“It’s alright, Scarlet,” he said. “I hitched a ride on the balloon and then the truck.”
“Where are we? Is Mr Doyle with you? What –.”
“Hang on a minute and I’ll explain.” He started to tell her his adventure when he suddenly heard the distant sound of voices. Crossing to the door, he stuck his head into the hall. The voices were drawing closer. Now he heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs.
He closed the door. There was no time to untie Scarlet. If her assailants were returning to the room, then he would be captured and none of them would escape. He made a difficult decision.
“I’m sorry, Scarlet,” he said. “You’ll have to wait a bit longer.”
“What –.”
He retied the gag, all the while hearing the approach of footsteps. The kidnappers were almost at the room! He scurried across the floor and rolled under the bed.
Not a moment too soon. Jack heard someone fiddling with the lock. He peered up at Scarlet and saw the panicked look in her eyes. She allowed her head to sag, as if asleep.
Two people entered.
“I thought I relocked the door,” a man with a deep voice said.
“No matter.” The other spoke with a slight accent. “She is securely tied.”
Deep voice untied Scarlet’s feet and dragged her into a standing position.
“Your father has been most helpful,” he said. “We needed only to threaten your safety. A man is only as strong as his weakest link.”
Scarlet said something through the gag.
“Never fear, my lady,” deep voice said. “We are taking you to the doctor in the forest. He will look after you.”
The other man laughed unpleasantly.
They dragged her from the room and closed the door behind them. Jack heard a rattling at the lock – and then he heard the key turn.
No!
He heard the footsteps recede. After a moment, he made his way to the door and tried it. Locked!
Bazookas! he thought. How would he get out of this?
He looked around the interior. There was only one way out. The window. He crossed to it. It was a double hung window where either the top or bottom could slide or overlap the other.
Jack undid the latch and slowly pushed it open. The window looked out onto a small rear courtyard, a series of walls and the forest beyond. Jack looked just below the window. A small ledge ran the length of the building all the way to the end. If he could make it to the end, a thicker wall led from that corner to the end of the building. From there he could climb down to ground level.
The ledge only looked about six inches wide. Of course, he had walked along balance beams that width a million times – except he had a net below him when he did it.
Thinking of the unpleasant laugh of the man who had taken Scarlet away, he climbed out of the window, his feet finding the narrow ledge. His legs shook. He could not make such a dangerous walk if he was paralysed by fear. He took three deep breaths.
The shaking in his legs stopped. He took another final breath and started moving along the ledge, gripping the window at first for support, then holding onto the brickwork as he slid along the ledge. This type of work required his full focus. It also needed him to breathe in an absolutely normal fashion.
He heard the sound of a door opening downstairs. Jack stopped. If the person below looked up, he would be in a very bad position indeed. His nose twitched. A sneeze began to build in his nose.
Slowly, he eased his right hand along the brickwork to cover his face. He squeezed down hard on his upper nose. After a moment, the sensation passed. Footsteps sounded on the gravel below and he heard the person move back inside. Taking another step, he continued to move along the wall.
One step after another, he told himself. I’ll just count my steps. One, two, three, four…
He continued counting his paces. When he reached windows along the side of the building, he glanced inside each one and the rooms were – mercifully – empty.
The distant sputtering of a vehicle came from the other side of the castle. It could only be the moving of the prisoners to the doctor’s compound. He had to hurry.
Reaching the end of the ledge, he now jumped to the wall below and hurried along it to the end of the building. He looked down at the end. The wall measured about ten feet in height and looked to be quite smooth. Very difficult to climb down. Fortunately, a tree grew nearby. He leapt from the top of the wall onto a branch, swung momentarily, dropped down to the branch below and lowered himself to the ground.
“All in a day’s work,” he muttered.
Jack made his way through the forest until he reached a road. He had just tried to decide which way to go when he heard a steam truck approaching. He ducked behind a tree as it chuffed past.
Waiting till it turned a bend in the road, Jack came out of hiding and ran after it. He kept the truck some distance ahead of him – he could not risk the driver looking in his side mirror and seeing him jogging after the vehicle!
Finally he heard it slow down and Jack stepped back into the forest. He crept through the undergrowth until he reached a large wooden fence surrounding the compound. He cautiously climbed up over the top and dropped into the interior of the compound.
Surrounded by trees, he slowly crept through the undergrowth until he heard the engine start again. He reached the front entry to the compound just in time to see the truck drive away. A man in a lab coat closed the wooden gates and slid a piece of timber across, securing it.
That must be the doctor, Jack thought.
There looked to be three brick buildings within the compound. The doctor disappeared into the closest. Jack knelt in the undergrowth. He remained unsure as to his next course of action. Looking up at the sky, he reckoned it to be about two in the afternoon. He could wait till night to make his move, but he might be too late by then.
Creeping over to the first building, he risked a glance in the front window, seeing only a plain looking kitchen with a wooden bench. Not much to be seen there.
On a hunch, he decided to investigate the buildings towards the rear of the compound. He rounded the first building and went down a path to the next. Looking towards the remaining two buildings, he realised they looked strange, but he could not work out why.
The penny dropped. They had no windows. Very odd. He crossed to the front door of the nearest building. Made from metal, a single panel covered the centre of it. It had to be some sort of jail.
Other people could be held captive within the prison. Jack pulled back the latch on the panel. He could see only a set of bars and darkness within. The interior smelt like rotting food. He heard someone shuffling about within.
“Hello,” he said quietly. “Is someone in there?”
The shuffling grew a little louder. He heard footsteps approaching. Finally he saw a darkened figure appear at the end of the room.
“Hello,” Jack said. “Do you need help?”
The figure drew closer. Then, while it was still half way across the room, it leapt, covering the distance in a second. It slammed against the bars. Jack fell back in horror, stifling a scream.
The thing looked as if it had been born in a nightmare. Its facial features were that of a man, but there the similarity ended. Short, black hair covered its entire face. Its nose ended in a snout. The creature gripped the bars from the other side with hairy paws, snarling at Jack with sharp bared teeth.
The thing had once been a man, but somehow it had been altered so that it was now part animal. In fact, the more Jack stared at it, the more it resembled some sort of black bear.
Jack turned away in horror – and found himself face to face with the doctor.
“Not so fast, my little friend,” the doctor said, jabbing him in the arm with a needle.
Jack tried to dart past him, but the needle was already taking effect.
Chapter Fifteen
Jack awoke with a woozy sensation in his stomach and a cloudy head. A face hovered above him – a face he vaguely recognised.
Oh, crumbs.
The doctor.
The man introduced himself. “I am Doctor Moran. I wish to thank you for joining our little party.”
Jack shifted his head. He was on an operating table set at a forty–five degree angle in a cold, concrete floor. Jon Harker, Scarlet and a man he assumed to be Joseph Bell were all in a similar situation on tables to his right. Opposite them lay a series of benches with microscopes, test tubes, flasks and Bunsen burners. A line of windows ran along the top of the wall behind them. A bench lay beneath them. Jack was reminded of the interior of Mr Doyle’s apartment.
“What do you want?” Joseph Bell demanded.
“I am a doctor, charged with the task of unravelling the very fabric of life.”
“Who are you working for?” Scarlet asked.
The doctor smiled. “Some things are better kept secret.”
“You’re a traitor,” Jon Harker said. “You’re working with those blasted Germans.”