Scotland Hard (Book 2 in the Tom & Laura Series) (34 page)

45.
      
Bombs

“Mr. Hans Clerkes to see you, Laird,” Donnan Campbell intoned solemnly. It was five in the evening and Clerkes had arrived on the afternoon train from
Inverness
only minutes before.

Lord McBride sat at his writing desk in his study. He had been examining the factory accounts for the previous month, a necessary task he hated. Clerkes arrival gave him the excuse to put it off for another day.

“Hans, you have returned to us safely,” Lord McBride said, rising from his desk. Clerkes rushed across the room in great excitement and clasped McBride tightly to him McBride in turn, opened his arms to greet the man with his own stout hug.

Hans Clerkes was a small, thin and very neat man. He invariable wore a white waistcoat and yellow cravat. That and the round pair of wire framed glasses made him easily recognizable, even at some distance. He had small beady eyes that peered out from below a shock of dark lank hair, cut as if someone had used a bowl.

“Did you doubt it for a second, Alistair?” Clerkes replied almost mockingly. “I have built you the most powerful bomb this world has ever seen and yet you assume me foolish enough to get caught up in its blast? I am insulted.”

“No insult was intended, Hans,” Lord McBride said jovially, though he hated the man’s continual use of his Christian name. “We were slightly concerned when we found out about the extent of the blast. It shook the walls of the castle here, though its centre was over thirty miles away.”

Clerkes nodded excitedly.

“I must admit it was even bigger than I calculated. But I told you I had devised a clockwork timer, though you were too busy to come and see it for yourself. I gave us twelve hours to get clear and we were safe in
Inverness
before the blast occurred.”

McBride nodded, though he still had a matter of concern.

“You did not arrive on the morning train though.”

“I get out to the city so rarely, Alistair. I thought I would spend the morning shopping, though many shops in the centre had closed because of blast damage. I always thought the Scots more resilient than to let a little thing like a little damage stop them from making money.”

“Quite so, quite so. I fear that many of my countrymen have grown soft in recent years. Did you buy more of your mechanical toys?”

“I bought something even better than a toy. I must show it you now, if you do not mind?” Clerkes asked in excited delight.

Lord McBride had learnt from experience that it was best to let Clerkes show off his toys when he asked; he sulked for days if denied the opportunity.

“See,” Clerkes said. “Assume you are a thief who is pointing a gun or a knife at me.”

Lord McBride felt a little foolish, but reluctantly pointed his right index finger at Clerkes as though it was a barrel of a gun. Clerkes lifted his empty hand and there was a loud click. Lord McBride was astonished to see a miniature, but lethal looking pistol pointing at him from what had previously been an empty hand.

“This has just arrived at the gunsmiths in Inverness, all the way from
Zurich
in
Switzerland
. They assured me it is the only one of its kind in the whole of
Great Britain
.”

Clerkes rolled up his sleeve revealing a rail like mechanism strapped to his forearm.

“The gun is propelled along this rail by a powerful spring when I press my elbow hard against my chest. Halfway along a mechanism uses the force of the gun’s travel to cock its firing pin. There is no front guard on the trigger so that when the gun reaches my hand the trigger needs only the lightest of touches to fire. Naturally, the lethal range of such a small gun is only a few yards and it does require you to be a good shot to kill an opponent. But as you know, I am an excellent shot.”

“I take it the gun is not currently loaded?” Lord McBride asked as he realized only the gentlest touch by Clerkes finger would have sent a bullet hurtling into his chest.

“Of course it is loaded,” Clerkes said disdainfully. “What would be the point of carrying a gun if it is not?” He pushed the gun down the slide and reset the mechanism, pulling down his sleeve when he had finished.

McBride turned the conversation back to the matter at hand.

“I obtained the services of a Class A while you were away and also a staggering good Healer. The boy has healed Giles of his illness while the girl extracted the remainder of the dantium we needed for the second bomb.”

Clerkes looked even more delighted.

“Then we must retire to the workshop at once, Alistair. Now that you have the time, I can show you how to set the new timer on the bomb. I take it your plans for the opening of the English Parliament have not changed?”

McBride expression became grave.

“Not now we have tested the bomb and have the dantium for the second.”

“Good, I am pleased to hear it. Let us go down to the factory at once. I will need to supervise the final stages of loading the dantium.”

McBride nodded his head in agreement and Clerkes turned towards the door. The two men set off down to the factory, Clerks hurrying in front of McBride as was his way.

“We have prepared the dantium ball as you instructed, Lord McBride, and we are just waiting for it to cool down,” Josiah Arkwright, the chief foundry-man informed them as the two men approached the device.

“Put the ball in water at once,” Clerkes ordered sharply. “We do not want to waste the time waiting for it to cool in the air, it will still be hot tomorrow if we do.”

Josiah looked at McBride for approval before carrying out the task. Like most of the men in McBride’s employ, Josiah loathed Hans Clerkes, and would not give him the time of day if he could avoid it.

The bomb looked like a cannon made by a highly skilled idiot. Its barrel, with a breech at each end, rested horizontally on two mahogany blocks that looked something like the bottom half of a guillotine. At the centre of the barrel, there was an incongruous metal box. Metal strips ran round the barrel clamping the metal box in place.

“This is the new timer?” Lord McBride asked. The only protuberances breaking the smooth surface of the box were a circular dial and a switch. The switch was enclosed within a rubber casing. Lord McBride assumed this was to keep the inside of the box dry.

“Inside the box are a battery and a clockwork mechanism. The dial sets the time in hours between one and twelve. The switch turns the bomb on and off.”

Lord McBride turned the dial to two hours, feeling the clockwork spring wind as he turned it.

“If I were to flip this switch down now, the bomb would go off in two hours?” he asked.

“Yes, flipping the switch starts the clockwork and two hours later an electric charge would detonate the two charges and fling the dantium balls towards each other. The balls are set tight in the barrel and have to be rammed into place. The charges require only the air trapped in the barrel to work and the whole bomb is watertight to a great depth. I have designed it to be used in a harbor or a river if need be.”

“Hans, it will be sitting in a carriage of a train, safe from the elements,” Lord McBride pointed out in mild exasperation.

Clerkes looked offended.

“It is a matter of pride to design the device the best I can, and we do not know what you will need the next device to do, the time after
London
.”

“There will be no third time, Hans. The destruction of
London
will be sufficient for my needs.”

Clerkes shook his head.

“Weapons rarely stop being used once they have been invented, Alistair. You should know that.”

“This weapon will not be used after
London
. Unless the English annoy me, I suppose,” Lord McBride mused.

“Now you understand,” Clerkes replied and chuckled.

Trelawney woke with a start. Sweat dripped from his brow and it took him a few seconds to remember he was in a railway carriage travelling at speed to
Scotland
.

“Are you all right, Ernest? Belinda asked. She had been dozing and woke at Trelawney’s sharp intake of breath.

“I have had a precognition,” Trelawney told her. He was a Grade 3 Precog, though not given to having an abundance of visions. One reason for his rise to the Director of MM3 was that the visions he did have usually involved saving the realm from imminent disaster.

“About McBride and our young agents?” Belinda asked rather unnecessarily. She was trying to help him collect his thoughts as it looked as though he was having trouble.

“We must get the troops on the train as soon as we get to
Perth
and then move straight out to Glen Russell. I believe from my vision that we will arrive at
Perth
at ten tonight and we must be gone within half an hour, if we are to be in time.”

“In time for what, Ernest? The plan is to arrive at Glen Russell at dawn. If we reach
Perth
as early as ten tonight, we could be at Glen Russell by three in the morning. Trying to take Glen Russell at night is not a sensible option.”

Trelawney shook his head as if to clear it.

“All I know is that Laura and the others will require assistance and that even three in the morning might well be too late. If we get to Glen Russell after that, I suspect we will all be killed.”

“Now that is a comforting thought, Ernest. Thank you so much for sharing it with me,” Belinda said dryly.

“And so I arranged that we should meet up with Laura and Tom at the laboratory in the castle at ten o’clock tonight,”
Arnold
said in conclusion. The team had listened patiently as he told them all that happened in the castle.

Cam
nodded as she considered Tom’s plan. The boy had a talent for being direct, where she would have planned something much more complicated.

“We saw a small part of the factory today and Tom is right, it is massive. Stumbling around it in the dead of night hoping to find the device would be a fool’s errand. On the other hand, getting the three of us into the castle without being detected is going to be equally difficult.”

“We’re goin’ too,” Tricky protested. “There might be locks to pick.”

Ebb nodded in agreement. In his view, if any of them were going to the castle, then they should all go.

Cam
scowled at Tricky’s reference to lock picking. It had always been easy for her at Hobsgate, but out in the field she kept coming across types of locks she had never seen before.

“Just what we need, a family outing,”
Arnold
said despairingly. “Perhaps we should pack a hamper with food and take lemonade as well?”

“We have worked well as a team, Arnold, and Tricky and Ebb have each played their part. We could easily have been caught by James Saunders today if it were not for them,”
Cam
rebuked.

Daisy nodded. “I doubt we can stay in Glen Russell beyond tonight. Saunders will have gone to Lord McBride and told him about us. Tom’s plan is probably going to be our last chance to prevent the bomb being used and to rescue Laura.”

“The question is; how do we get into the castle undetected?”
Arnold
asked.

Cam
took a deep breath. “Daisy has an invitation to the castle at nine tonight. Dougal McBride is determined to show her his etchings.”

Daisy blushed. There was no doubt in
Cam
’s mind as to what Dougal was really after, and Daisy heard it in her voice.

“It is a pity he did not invite us all,”
Arnold
said despondently.

“If she ‘its ‘im over the ‘ead, we can get in,” Tricky said.

The others stared at the boy in astonishment.

“Could you take him, Daisy?”
Cam
asked when the shock wore off.

“I could knock him down. If you and Arnold rushed him immediately afterwards, it might work,” Daisy said hesitantly. She had never been any good at unarmed combat.

“You will not get a second chance,”
Cam
reminded her.