I raised my hands. “Who said I’m running?” I asked and dropped into a fighting crouch. The giant smiled and a set of broken, yellow teeth glinted in his broad face. He lumbered towards me, the handcuffs held like a set of knuckledusters in his right hand. Although I stood in a boxer’s stance this was not the time or place for the Marquis of Queensbury rules and he was certainly not the type of adversary to offer those courtesies to.
As he stepped within range I slid forward and aimed a fast snap-kick to his left knee. The connection was perfect and, if it had been any other man, I’m sure the blow would have broken the leg but with him it just seemed to lock the knee in place and he stopped dead with a grunt. I followed the kick with a straightfingered jab to his throat but he was much taller than me and, when he moved slightly, the strike was imperfect. His counter-blow lifted me off my feet and I crashed onto my back. Brilliant stars exploded behind my eyes and a hot, coppery taste flooded my mouth.
As I struggled to my feet, unbelievably the giant shuffled forward and raised his right foot to crush me beneath it. His whole weight was balanced on his left leg and, even though the knee had to be damaged, he never wavered. I shook my head to clear it and before he could stamp on me I swept his standing leg away and he plummeted to the floor next to me. I wriggled to my feet and aimed a blow to his chin, however, as I did so, he moved and my fist made contact with his forehead. It was like punching the floor and I heard a finger break.
Before I could gain an advantage a huge hand flew out and clamped around my throat. The giant sneered as his grip tightened and I was unable to draw another breath. I realised I had seconds of consciousness left. I drove my right thumb into his eye and he bellowed with pain, released me and automatically put both hands to his face. This was perhaps the only chance I would get. I’ve fought many men, some even close to his size, but none as tough as this one. He was like a Neanderthal and he was beginning to turn towards me again. I grabbed his head by his ears and slammed it hard into the floor. The crack was sickening and yet he was still clawing for my face. I slammed him down again and finally he went still. I collapsed onto my back, my chest heaving and the blood pounding in my head.
“ Are you okay?” a wheezy voice asked and I saw a short, thin man in a worn greatcoat trot up to where I lay. “I saw it all, the man accosted you for no reason,” he bent double as if catching his breath,“no reason at all. Are you okay?” He asked again and held out a hand as if to help me up. I ignored it as there was no way in hell a little bloke like this could ever get me to my feet.
“ Thank you,” I replied. “I’m fine. Just a little winded.” I placed both hands on the floor and drew my knees beneath me ready to get to my feet. It was then I saw the flash of silver in the man’s proffered hand and before I could react felt a sudden flash of pain as the stiletto he was carrying scored a wound across the side of my neck. I swore and grabbed for him but he nimbly jumped back out of my reach. I stood up and felt my neck. It was barely a scratch although my hand did come away bloody. I snarled and stepped towards him but for some reason my feet seemed mired in quicksand. My vision wavered and I was sure the little man was grinning at me. As the floor came up to drag me into darkness he might even have said. “You should have just accepted her invite.”
*** John Roxton was half dozing when the nurse entered pushing a wheelchair before her but soon roused himself when he saw how pretty she was. No, she was more than pretty, he thought. She was beautiful and the nurse’s uniform just seemed to compliment her.
“Hello, how are you feeling now?” She asked.
Roxton ran a hand through his hair. “I was somewhat groggy but feeling better minute by minute.” She flashed a smile at him. “Good, you should make a full recovery. It was fortunate that you were only exposed to the poison for a short period of time otherwise you would have been in another branch of the hospital now.” She indicated to the wheelchair. “Are you able to get into the chair by yourself or do you need help?”
“ I think I can manage,” he answered and swung his legs out from under the covers and tried to rise. He wobbled. She came to his side to help. “Although, I might be wrong.”
“ There let me help,” she said as she steered him towards the chair and let him sink into it. “It was a very potent poison. Probably one of my favourites.”
Roxton sat back as she placed a blanket over his legs and then he frowned. “Did you say it was your favourites?” He asked and looked up at her. The syringe pierced his pyjama sleeve and sunk into his arm before he knew what was happening and, as his blue eyes fluttered and closed, she patted his head softly.
“One of my favourites,” she replied with a smile on her lips, “I have many others.”
*** I very rarely get drunk now since getting married and therefore hangovers were a thing of the past. However, when I awoke the first thing I thought was that I’d rather overdone things at the club before comprehending that I’d never reached the club, never had a drink but had been drugged. I was sitting in a chair. I raised my head and shivered. I was in what appeared to be the cold room of an abattoir. Half carcasses of cows, whole sheep and pigs hung from the wooden ceiling, and there amongst them, strung up by his wrists and in his pyjamas, was an unconscious Roxton.
With difficulty I tried to rise but saw I was bound by ropes to the arms of the ladder-back chair and also its legs. As I rocked the chair to and fro it caused it to screech.. The door to the cold room opened and the small man who had knocked me out, with some drug or other, entered. He drew his greatcoat around himself and breathed out a puff of misty breath. “Well the temperature has dropped a bit. It’s going to be a cold winter, don’t you think?”
“Let Roxton down before his arms get pulled out of his damn sockets,” I told him. “You’re not in any position to make demands my dear Professor,” he replied, “and if you are not compliant I can assure you that your friend Lord Roxton will not have need of his arms in the near future.”
“I’m going to tear off your head little man,” I warned him.
“I bet you could,” he replied and his face darkened,“you certainly did for poor Gustav.”
I smiled. “He’s dead?”
“As a dodo. You cracked open his skull, as thick as it was.” I think my smile might have turned into something more garish because he flinched when I said, “Just imagine what I could do with yours.”
A woman entered the cold room. She was tall and elegantly beautiful. She wore a long black fur coat from the bottom of which peeped the hem of a black dress. Casement’s letter came back to mind. This was her. The woman who had killed him. She spoke. “Come now gentlemen, there is no need for confrontation. I am sure Professor Challenger will concedeto our wishes, don’t you think so Mr Toliver?” Her crony, Toliver, shrugged.
“He doesn’t strike me as the cooperative type, ma’am,” he stated. “Oh I’m sure we can persuade him. Wake up his friend please,” she told Toliver. The small man picked up a bucket which I presumed was full of water. He threw it over Roxton who gasped and awoke.
“What in God’s name?” He spluttered and then saw me. “Challenger?”
“It seems we’ve become entrapped in The Black Widow’s web, Roxton,” I said. “ Oh, I like that,” the woman intervened. “The Black Widow.”Then she approached Roxton. “They are very poisonous, deadly in fact.” She looked at her hands and particularly at a ring she was wearing. She did something with the big green stone on it and then pressed it against Roxton’s cheek. He flinched and pulled away but I could see a small dribble of blood run from a tiny wound on his face. “Antidotes are available however. But they must be administered as soon as possible or there is no going back.” She turned to me. “Your friend has quite a nasty poison in his system now that is reversible but I suggest you bring me the diamonds forthwith. Even I cannot raise the dead.”
I glowered at her.“How much time do I have?” She glanced at a gold watch that hung on a chain around her pretty neck. “Certainly no more tha
n three hours. Toliver will accompany you. If you bring me the diamonds in time I give you my word I will administer the antidote and let you both go free.”
“ Your word,” I snarled as Toliver produced his stiletto again and cut through my bonds. “And if I just decide to kill the two of you now instead?” Both she and Toliver produced pistols and held them steadily at Roxton and me.
“Then we kill you now and cut our losses I suppose.”
I waited a moment and then nodded. “They are in a safe deposit box at my bank.
“Good. I advise you to move in all haste. Banks, poisons, time and tide wait for no man.”
I walked swiftly to the door with Toliver following me like a puppy.
*** I’ve been with The Chancery Lane Safe Deposit Company since they opened in 1885 and, although it was reaching closing time, they allowed me in.
“ Box 455455 please,” I said to the assistant who recognised me and produced the twin key to my own and we went down to the vaults. Toliver looked distinctly uncomfortable and his right hand never left his bulging coat pocket.
Once inside the vault room the assistant placed his key in the wall lock and then gave me a nod and left, closing the room’s door behind him. I turned his key and heard the satisfying click as it engaged. Then I produced my own key and eagerly inserted it into the second lock and turned. The little door flew open and I reached to pull the handle of my box when Toliver spoke.
“ I can manage the rest, Challenger. Just oblige me by putting the box onto the table. Don’t open it.” I must have looked crestfallen because he grinned. “I warrant you keep a gun handy in there, eh?” I did not answer but did as I was instructed. “Move back,” he said and I did so. Toliver transferred the pistol he had trained on me to his left hand and then opened the box with his right.
I closed my eyes. It was a very small explosion but an effective one. It propelled a mixture of pepper and xyxyl bromide, which a chemist friend had concocted for me, into Toliver’s face. He staggered back dropping both the box and the gun. With my breath held, I collected his gun from the floor and cracked him over the head with it and he fell like a puppet with its strings cut. By now the tears were cascading from my eyes too but I managed to exit the room with no problems. The assistant, upon hearing the commotion, had already called for the manager and security. It took me precious minutes to explain the situation but my solid reputation stood me in good stead and I was allowed to leave before the police arrived.
*** It was simple enough retracing the steps we took from the abattoir back, and within twenty minutes I was outside the building. There were no lights showing, even though dusk had fallen, but my eyes were accustomed to the gloom as I tried the small door set into the roll-down shutters. It opened easily and I stepped in and moved to one side not to present a target in the doorway. I waited for a moment and then proceeded to the back of the building where the cold room was. Although I am a heavily built man I am quite capable of moving stealthily and I utilized that skill to great effect for soon I could see someone sitting on a chair outside the cold room looking down at a book which was illuminated by a guttering candle. It was the woman. I silently approached her and was almost within a few paces when something made her look up and she gasped as she saw me alone. I raised the pistol but before I could say anything she blew out the candle and a profound darkness engulfed us.
I had a split second to decide on a course of action. I leapt forward with arms outstretched and was fortune enough to catch her within my grasp as she stood to run. With her securely wrapped in a bear hug, and with no possibility of her inflicting damage on my person and thereby introducing a poison into my system, I kicked the cold room door open and blinked at the light from within. She struggled and even tried to bite at my neck but I carried her into the room and pushed her down onto the vacant chair. I pointed the gun at her and pulled back the hammer.
“ Keep very still. I would prefer not to shoot you but will do so if needed,” I warned her. By now she had regained her composure and gave me a smile, albeit a wavery one.
“ I should have guessed Toliver would be no match for you, Challenger,” she said with a sigh. “No matter. If you kill me your friend will die. If you delay, your friend will die. Your only choice is to let me go. You can accompany me to the main door, once outside I will lock it and then shout through to you with the location of the antidote. It is the only way you will save your friend.”
I stared at her. She was certainly beautiful but certainly just as deadly and I felt no assurance that she would keep her word. I examined her eyes but saw no clue there. I examined her hands and then smiled as she looked at me and wrinkled her brows into a frown. Before she could react I grabbed her wrist and twisted. Her hand came up and she gasped. I found the finger with the green-stoned ring and the tiny mechanism which caused a small needle to spring out. I was relieved to see it glistening moistly. I forced her hand to her face and when the needle punctured her cheek I drew her hand back and removed the deadly device from her finger.
“ Now we have another alternative,” I said. “We stay here until your poison works. Works on both you and my friend. Obviously he will die first but you will never leave this room either. Your only chance is to tell me where the antidote is. If it works and Roxton recovers I will leave the rest of the antidote in this room. Perhaps you will have enough time to take it and leave before Scotland Yard arrives, or perhaps not,” I said and then unhooked Roxton and lowered him gently to the floor. He looked grey and had lost consciousness again. I put him into a comfortable position and walked to the door and sat down with my back against it. The woman before me shivered and rubbed the cheek with the puncture wound but still did not tell me where the antidote was.
“ I wonder if it will be quicker for you as you have certainly a smaller frame than Roxton and he is a very fit man. How much time do you think you both have?” I asked.
With trembling fingers she reached for her watch and examined it. Her eyes must have been blurry because she had to rub them to be able to tell the time. “He hasn’t much time left,” she said.
“What will be will be. However, rest assured you will not leave here alive should he die.”
She sighed and stared at me. “I think you would leave the both of us die,” she said.
“Count on it,” I replied. “I never bluff.” “ The pig carcass,” she nodded to the animal’s body hanging not far from Roxton. “It’s in the body cavity. A syringe. Give him half and then half to me, please.”
I stood and walked to the carcass and without taking my eyes from her felt about. Sure enough there was a large syringe inside. I removed it and examined it quickly. “If this kills him then it will kill you too.”
“It’s the antidote,” she said.“It will save him, and me.” I nodded and injected Roxton’s arm using half of the syringe’s contents. Then I carefully made him as comfortable as possible again on the floor.
“You promised you would leave me the antidote,” she said and her voice sounded worried.
“All in good time,” I replied. I wanted to see if Roxton revived first. “ He should show signs of recovery within minutes,” she looked at her watch again.“When do you think the police will arrive?”
“They’ll be here but how much time you have I cannot say.”
“Give me the remaining antidote!” She almost screamed.
“No, I said I would leave it here when Roxton and I left. He is still unconscious,” I replied angrily.
“I’m awake now old sport,” Roxton said gruffly as he struggled to sit up.
“There, I told you it was quick acting,” she said.
I helped Roxton to his feet and with one arm around him we proceeded to the door and opened it. “ Wait!” This time it was a scream and I stopped.“You promised! I thought you were a man of your word, Challenger!” She yelled and flecks of white formed at the edges of her mouth.
“ I always keep my word,” I said as I looked upwards. The ceiling was a
bout twelve foot high and was made of the same material as the walls, wood. “I said I would leave you a share on the antidote in this room. I did not say where.” I threw the syringe like a dart upwards and it stuck into the ceiling out of my reach and out of hers. As Roxton and I left the cold room and I closed the door on her she screamed again and I shouted back.
“You are The Black Widow, spin yourself a web and climb it to get your precious antidote.”
Roxton looked at me with obvious discomfort in his eyes over what I’d done. I shook my head at him. “ At least she has a sporting chance old bean and that is more than she gave Casement, the sergeant, you or me, and who knows how many others?” I said as we reached the door set into the roller-shutters and I helped him through.
As I pulled the door closed behind us I faltered for a moment as a brief image of the woman’s beautiful face flashed through my mind. She was at the centre of a huge web and was pressing a syringe to her arm…
THE VENDETTA VIRUS
by Rhys Hughes “ His beard bristled exultantly, his chest was thrown out, and his hand was thrust into the front of his jacket. So, in his fancy, may he see himself sometimes, gracing the vacant pedestal in Trafalgar Square, and adding one more to the horrors of the London streets.”
THE LOST WORLD Time had passed and various adventures had befallen us, and I really have no need at this stage to explain what those adventures were and who we are. Our exploits in South America are famous; the incident of the poisonous cloud that engulfed the planet and sent everyone into a sleep akin to a temporary death is almost as well known. And yet it seems rather impolite not to introduce myself as Edward Dun Malone. How do you do?
I have learned to expect enormous and abrupt changes in this life of ours, in a world in which the miraculous is never absent but only sometimes hidden from plain sight. A man accepts the word of science that dinosaurs are no longer alive anywhere on Earth; then that man travels to a plateau and encounters them face to face. The result is a shock, but also a positive thrill, for it suggests that a thousand other impossibilities might be true.
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