The Lost Sword

by Pitt, Darrell

  The rain continued to fall as Jack lowered the sword.

  ‘Jack?’

  Scarlet was climbing over the rubble towards him. He threw himself into her arms. Hiro appeared from a building, dressed in his normal clothing, gripping his arm. Together, they all scrambled over the devastation to Mr Doyle and his brother.

  The detective had Edgar in his arms. ‘Just hold on,’ Mr Doyle was saying. ‘Help will be here soon.’

  The front of Edgar’s shirt was drenched with blood.

  ‘I don’t want to let you down, old chap,’ Edgar said. ‘Not again.’

  ‘You couldn’t let me down,’ Mr Doyle said, taking Edgar’s hand. ‘You’re my brother.’

  ‘But you know what the Bard said: All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.’ He coughed, his lips red. ‘You remember the safe house I visited? There’s a few items I borrowed that probably need returning.’

  ‘Oh Edgar...’

  ‘Don’t fret, Ignatius. I’ll be joining mother and father for tea.’

  ‘Hang on. Just a while longer.’

  Edgar’s eyes focused on Jack. ‘What about that sword?’ he said. ‘I always knew it had magic.’

  Jack nodded. He started to speak, but Edgar was beyond hearing. The rain tumbled down, fires burned and people wailed. And the wind howled, eternally.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  ‘Our families are often not what we want,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘Mothers and fathers don’t live up to expectations. Children take paths against their parents’ wishes.’ He paused. ‘Brothers are not what you want them to be.’

  A week had passed since Edgar’s death. Jack, Scarlet and Mr Doyle were back home in London, and Gloria was finally bringing her files up to date.

  ‘My brother was a rogue, a criminal and a conman,’ Mr Doyle said as Gloria handed out cups of tea.

  ‘And he was your brother,’ Jack said.

  Mr Doyle nodded sadly. ‘And he was my brother.’

  ‘So,’ Gloria said, ‘Anna Livanov was working for the Metalists?’

  ‘We believe she was in their employment for some time,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘They paid her off to bring down the Darwinist League. She caused the explosion on the space steamer, Katsu, on the way to Japan. A specially designed escape pod was supposed to enable her to get away. When that failed, she murdered Dr Hodder, hoping the symposium would be cancelled, but it wasn’t. Later, she did her best to destroy Mizu City. Once again, she had a way out: an additional jellysuit that nobody knew about.’

  ‘And the Nazis?’

  ‘They were involved in the search for the Kusanagi sword long before we arrived in Japan. When they realised Edgar was following a trail of maps, they started trailing him. When he went missing, they didn’t know what to do.’

  ‘Until we arrived,’ Jack said. ‘So they started following us.’

  ‘They tried stealing pieces of the map on several occasions,’ Scarlet added, ‘but without success. It seems Drexler had given up on ever finding the sword when the mechanical dragonfly attacked us at the hotel. Of course, that didn’t end well for him.’

  ‘And what about Fujita?’ Gloria asked. ‘Has he escaped prison?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘A few days after the devastation at the hotel, he was arrested for a minor offence by police.’

  ‘A strange coincidence.’

  ‘It wasn’t a coincidence at all,’ Jack said. ‘Mr Doyle had filed a full report on him.’

  ‘By then, they already had him under twenty-four-hour surveillance. The robot dragon had killed the son of a police chief who had previously worked for Fujita, and the tide was turning against him. The police searched the boot of his steamcar and found both the Moon Sword and a priceless painting, both recently stolen from the Japanese museum.’

  ‘Really?’ Gloria raised an eyebrow. ‘Was that your doing?’

  ‘Not at all.’

  ‘So how did the sword and the painting end up in Fujita’s car?’

  Jack leant forward. ‘There is really only one possible explanation,’ he said. ‘The red ninja.’

  ‘Goodness,’ Gloria said. ‘I’m glad she’s on our side. I suppose we’ll never know her true identity?’

  Mr Doyle stared at Jack as if he could see right through him.

  ‘Jack?’ Mr Doyle said. ‘Do you wish to enlighten us?’

  Jack frowned. ‘Something tells me you already know,’ he said.

  ‘That Hiro was the red ninja all along?’

  ‘What?’ Scarlet shrieked.

  ‘Hiro didn’t swear me to secrecy,’ Jack said. ‘But it’s best if the knowledge doesn’t leave this room.’

  Gloria closed her file.

  Jack explained how he had discovered Hiro’s other identity.

  ‘After we took Hiro to the hospital, she told me Fujita was responsible for both the death of her parents and her uncle. She had sworn she would avenge their deaths.’

  ‘But how did she become a ninja?’ Gloria asked. ‘Especially once her uncle was killed?’

  ‘Well,’ Jack said. ‘She still had an aunt.’

  ‘She was trained by her aunt?’

  Jack shrugged. ‘The best way to keep a secret is to make it seem completely unlikely,’ Jack said. ‘And a long tradition of female ninjas training other female ninjas is about as unlikely as you can get.’

  ‘Come to think of it,’ Scarlet said. ‘He—I mean—she did slip away a lot.’

  ‘Hiro disappeared before every appearance of the red ninja: at the fort, the museum, Fujita’s tower.’ Jack turned to Mr Doyle. ‘But how did you already know?’

  ‘How did I know?’ Mr Doyle said, pulling a lump of cheese from his pocket. ‘In that respect, it was reminiscent of a case involving a stolen garden gnome, a singing duck and—’

  ‘Mr Doyle!’

  ‘Oh, of course.’ He returned the cheese to his pocket. ‘You recall when Hiro was knocked unconscious during our rescue of Edgar from Fujita’s tower? And I tended to his, rather her, wounds?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well…Hiro was lumpy in all the wrong places. Putting two and two together, I realised he was a she. That, in conjunction with his opportune disappearances, cemented it for me.’

  Jack nodded, remembering the red ninja at the museum. ‘I knew her eyes looked familiar,’ he said. ‘It was because they were Hiro’s.’

  ‘And the Kusanagi sword?’ Gloria asked.

  Mr Doyle reddened. ‘There are two aspects to this investigation that will never be fully explained,’ he said. ‘Jack and Scarlet both tell me the sword created a mighty wind that destroyed the dragonfly. I cannot confirm that as I was caring for Edgar at the time. There was a wind, certainly, but I believe it was the storm.’

  ‘And you?’ Gloria asked Jack and Scarlet.

  ‘There was a massive wind,’ Scarlet said. ‘The most powerful breeze I’ve ever encountered.’

  ‘Jack?’

  He smiled. As the wind had
swept down the street towards the dragonfly, Jack recalled looking up at the handle. For as long as he lived, he knew he would always remember the glowing sword rising from it, shimmering as if made from hot glass.

  ‘Jack?’ Mr Doyle ventured.

  ‘Belief is a powerful thing,’ Jack said. ‘That’s all I’ll say.’

  ‘You said there were two aspects,’ Gloria said to Mr Doyle. ‘What was the second?’

  Mr Doyle sighed. ‘I’m sure there’s a logical explanation,’ he said. ‘We went in search of the garden where Hikaru Satou approached us.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘There was a memorial stone in his honour,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘He has been dead for nine years.’

  Jack shivered. Ghosts? How was such a thing possible? But if there was one thing he had learnt during his time with Mr Doyle, the world was a stranger place than anyone could imagine.

  ‘This case has it all,’ Gloria said. ‘Magical swords, ghosts, ninjas. Whatever will be next?’

  Almost as if in response, a ring came from the front office. When Gloria returned, she looked puzzled.

  ‘There’s a man,’ she said. ‘He refuses to give his name.’

  A figure appeared behind her. ‘Herr Doyle and his brats may already know me,’ he said. ‘We met, briefly, some time ago.’

  Jack stared at the man. He had seen him once before, during his first adventure with Mr Doyle. This man had been one of the Nazis responsible for kidnapping Scarlet and her father.

  ‘You’re Adolf Hitler,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘One of Drexler’s henchmen.’

  ‘Now that Drexler is dead,’ Hitler said, ‘I lead the party.’

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘To congratulate you, of course,’ Hitler said. ‘It is in the newspapers that the Kusanagi sword has been recovered, and returned to the Japanese government. No doubt Japan will be a loyal ally to England in the future.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘England will need its allies. A war is coming and a reckoning will be paid.’

  ‘The German people will not follow a maniac like you.’

  ‘They may not need to. Many men have led nations, but none have ruled a world. I intend to be the first.’

  ‘You’re insane.’

  ‘They said that about Napoleon too.’

  ‘Why are you here?’ Jack asked.

  ‘I have a long memory,’ Hitler said. ‘I will not forget you, Herr Doyle, or your brats. The day will come when you will regret standing against us.’ He gave them one final twisted smile. ‘I wish you good day.’

  After he had left, Gloria locked the front door. ‘What a horrible creature,’ she said.

  ‘People are always looking for leaders,’ Mr Doyle said, glumly. ‘Sometimes the bad ones are all too easy to find.’

  Jack fell back in his seat, his heart pounding, his hands shaking. His eyes went from Gloria to Scarlet and, finally, Mr Doyle.

  ‘Jack?’ Mr Doyle said. ‘What is it?’

  He looked at his shaking hands as if they didn’t belong to him. ‘Believe it or not,’ Jack said. ‘I’m afraid.’

  ‘Afraid?’ Scarlet said. ‘Jack, you’ve jumped off towers, fought off sharks, battled evildoers, and faced death more times than Brinkie Buckeridge. What can you possibly be afraid of?’

  It took Jack a moment to find the words. ‘I think I’m afraid of the future,’ he said. ‘Hitler says there’s going to be another war, and maybe there will be. Millions of people will die if there is. The Hot Earth Accord has been signed, meaning that Biomechanics will completely change the way we live. It’s all so...big.’ He spread his arms. ‘What are we going to do?’

  Mr Doyle didn’t speak for a moment. Then he said, ‘Come to the balcony.’

  They followed him to the other end of the apartment where they could see the landscape of London. Here, they watched the shifting seas of smoke and fog creasing the horizon as airships cut silent paths across the skyline.

  The London Metrotower, a city in itself, speared upwards to the edge of space. At the top, people were planning to get to the moon, while others dreamt of going even further.

  Jack peered down at the steamcars chugging along crowded Bee Street. Further down the block vehicles disappeared into a cloud of steam and fog, as though disappearing into the past itself.

  The locket of his parents, and the compass, jiggled in his pocket, a reminder that the past was always there, no matter how far he went into the future.

  Jack looked into Gloria’s face. It seemed strange that he had known her for less than a year, yet she had already become like a mother to him. How else could you describe the person who cooked your meals, bandaged your wounds and hugged away your pains?

  His eyes met Scarlet. As she smiled, he hesitantly took her hand. It seemed impossible that there had ever been a time when he had not known her. Jack hoped she would always be the most wonderful friend he would ever know—or maybe, in the future, something more…

  Finally, his eyes moved to Mr Doyle’s face. The detective was strange, brilliant and kind, and he had guided Jack, taught him and given him opportunities where there had been none.

  Wasn’t that what a father did?

  Jack’s mind wandered back to the conclusion of their first adventure. He remembered Mr Doyle had proposed a toast.

  To family.

  This was where Jack was now. With his family.

  Mr Doyle pointed to a man and woman holding the hands of a little boy, as they strolled along Bee street.

  ‘You asked what we will do, Jack,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘Look at those people, a man and woman with dreams of the future. Dreams for themselves. Dreams for their son. They’re not prime ministers or leaders of industry or crime bosses. They’re ordinary people united by love.’

  He pulled Jack, Scarlet and Gloria close to him.

  ‘We’ll do everything we can to make the world a better place. And we’ll believe in love.’