The Monster Within (6 page)

After Mr Doyle ordered lemonades, they found an empty booth.

‘What do we do now?' Jack asked.

‘We wait.'

The next few hours went slowly. Patience was not one of Jack's strong points, though
Scarlet was more than pleased to pass the time regaling him with Brinkie's latest
adventures. She was particularly excited about a model she had recently purchased
of the one hundred storey home where Brinkie lived. Jack had seen it in her room.
The box took pride of place in the middle of the floor, still unopened.

‘The finished piece is quite detailed,' she said. ‘Brinkie's house,
Thorbridge
, sits
atop an atoll off the Scottish coast called Skull Island. There are more than a thousand
pieces, including rubber plants you can stick into the ground.'

‘A thousand pieces. Sounds like hard work.'

‘Not at all,' she enthused. ‘It will be great fun.'

‘Hard to imagine that many people would want to own a model of her house.'

‘You read the first novel,' Scarlet sighed. ‘Surely
you can appreciate it as fine
literature?'

Jack wasn't sure he'd describe it that way. ‘I think she needs some zombies,' he
said. ‘Or aliens. An outer space adventure would be exciting.'

‘That's silly. Brinkie isn't an astronaut.'

‘But she could go to the moon. Maybe even to Mars and fight the Martian hoards.'

‘I don't think there are any Martian hoards,' Scarlet said, rolling her eyes. ‘But
you can always write to Baroness Zakharov. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.'

Jack was offended. ‘Maybe she
would
like to hear from me,' he said. ‘She might be
running out of ideas.'

‘Baroness Zakharov will never run out of ideas. She's an ideas factory. They come
as easily to her as mosquitoes to blood.'

Mr Doyle intervened. ‘I believe we may have a lead,' he said. ‘Someone in the corner
has been watching us.'

He nodded discretely towards a small, dark-haired man with a grey moustache. The
man made his way to the door and motioned them towards the exit.

Mr Doyle paid their bill and they followed him into a back alley, a dead end illuminated
by a single gas lamp and lined with rubbish bins. The man was nowhere to be seen.

Then five men, their features in shadow, burst from another doorway. Scarlet immediately
reached for the door they had just stepped through, but it was locked.

They were trapped.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A clatter came from behind as the door to the bar suddenly flew open. A man appeared.

‘Quickly!' he said. ‘Inside!'

Jack, Scarlet and Mr Doyle fled with the men in pursuit, the door slamming shut behind
them. The stranger produced a bar and levered it across the handle, locking it in
place. Another man lay unconscious on the floor at his feet.

‘He was with them,' he explained, grabbing Mr Doyle's arm. ‘Hurry. It's no safer
in here.'

They passed through the bar, the barman giving them a sour look. Jack saw someone
with an eye patch start to rise from a nearby table, but the barman gave
him a nod.
A moment later Jack and the others were back on the main street among the crowds.

‘I was watching you in there,' the stranger said. ‘I thought there'd be trouble.'

He spoke perfect English. He was stocky, with tattoos on his arms of a mermaid and
an anchor.

‘I assume you weren't in there by accident,' Mr Doyle said.

‘Do you know who I am?'

‘Obviously an agent with some government organisation. I would guess, MI5.'

‘You guess correctly.' The man introduced himself as John Fleming. ‘Scotland Yard
may have compunctions about crossing country borders, but MI5 has no such concerns.
You'd best tell me what you know.'

‘I'm happy to share information, as long as if flows both ways.'

They stopped at another café. After ordering drinks, Mr Doyle told Fleming what he
knew, but it was not much.

The agent nodded. ‘So Tick-Tock
is
behind this,' he said. ‘We suspected as much.'

‘It's interesting that MI5 is taking such an interest in the Valkyrie Circle,' Mr
Doyle said. ‘You said the agency is unhappy with Scotland Yard running this investigation?'

‘Terrorism is best handled by MI5. Getting Scotland Yard involved is one thing, but
now there's this new Wolf Pack.'

‘We were told a little about it.'

‘Getting amateurs involved is a bad thing,' Fleming said. ‘And most of the Wolf Pack
couldn't tell the difference between a dragonfly and a dragon.'

‘What do you know about the Valkyrie Circle, Mr Fleming?' Scarlet asked.

‘Only that it has become more radicalised since Lady Death took over. We've tried
infiltrating the suffragette organisations in England, but with little success.'

Scarlet bristled. ‘It's probably difficult when you don't have female agents,' she
said. ‘But why are you investigating peaceful organisations such as the Primrose
Society? They haven't done anything.'

Jack wanted to get the conversation back on track. ‘So what do you know about Joe
Tockly?' he asked. ‘Do you know where he's gone?'

‘Not exactly.'

‘But you have an idea,' Mr Doyle said. ‘I assume you're the person who broke into
his apartment before us.'

‘I may have been there on a reconnaissance mission,' he admitted. ‘Look, there wasn't
much to find, but there was a map under a rug.'

‘Showing what?'

‘Alhambra.'

Mr Doyle turned to Jack and Scarlet. ‘Do you know where that is?' he asked.

‘Uh,' Jack said. ‘Is it near Abracadabra?'

‘It is not. No, Alhambra is an ancient palace first
built in the ninth century, with
extensions added over the last millennia. A masterpiece of Islamic construction,
it is required visiting for any tourist.' He turned to Fleming. ‘And why do you think
Tockly had an interest in Alhambra?'

‘I don't know. Maybe he just visited there, but he may have had another agenda.'

‘Hmm, I suggest we take a trip ourselves,' Mr Doyle said.

Fleming agreed, and they arranged to meet again the next morning.

Jack, Scarlet and Mr Doyle found a steamcab and returned to their hotel. Scarlet
cornered Jack before he climbed into bed.

‘There is something I want to suggest,' she said.

‘Yes?'

‘You remember I mentioned the model to you?'

‘Model?'

‘Of Brinkie's home.'

‘Oh,
that
.'

‘I must confess to not having had much success with model-making,' Scarlet said,
blushing. ‘You remember my Eiffel Tower?'

Jack remembered it all too well. He had offered to help Scarlet put the three foot
high structure together, but she had refused. Several days into construction, she
had emerged from her bedroom with the tower super-glued to her head. Apparently she
had leant over at the wrong moment and it had become attached. It had taken
Jack,
Gloria and Mr Doyle more than an hour to find a solvent to unstick her.

‘How can I forget?' he said. ‘But I thought you wanted to keep it in pristine condition.
You know, as a collector's item.'

She shrugged. ‘Looking at the completed model would be far more interesting,' she
said. I was thinking you could help me. I could describe each of the floors in detail
and slowly go through every single adventure as we build it. It would be great fun.'

‘What part of that would be great fun?'

Rolling her eyes, Scarlet left without saying another word. Jack tried reading a
guidebook about Spain before climbing into bed, but it didn't take long for his mind
to return to Scarlet. Not only was she the most beautiful girl he had ever seen,
but she had fast become his best friend.

Best friends can get married, can't they?

The next morning they returned to the
Lion's Mane
to find John Fleming waiting for
them.

‘I don't recall mentioning where our airship was parked,' Mr Doyle said.

‘I'm MI5,' Fleming said. ‘We're supposed to know things like that.'

They boarded the airship and took off. John Fleming settled next to a window in the
main cabin with Jack and Scarlet. Jack had read a book recently about MI5 and was
dying to ask Fleming all about it.

‘Being an MI5 agent must be an interesting job,' he said.

‘It is.'

‘How did you get involved? Did you find a secret message under your door? Or in your
teapot?'

‘No, there was an advertisement in the paper.'

Jack laughed. ‘That's funny. What really happened?'

‘No,' Fleming said. ‘There
was
an advertisement in the paper. I sent off and applied.'

‘That's amazing. So did you have to swear a blood oath?'

‘Not really a blood oath. It was more like signing a piece of paper.'

‘And have you ever shot anyone?'

‘I've only fired my gun once.'

‘That must have been exciting.'

‘I went hunting as a boy with my father and shot a duck, but I never did it again.
I don't like killing things.'

None of this was what Jack had expected. ‘And what about following people?' he asked.
‘Surely you've tortured someone for information?'

‘Only Mrs Blemms.'

‘Mrs Blemms?'

‘She owns the corner shop. She is very slow at telling me the prices of things and
I get a bit snappy.' He thought for a moment. ‘That probably doesn't count as torture,
though.'

‘Probably not.'

Scarlet dived in. ‘We've had some experience with MI5,' she said. ‘I expect there's
a file on us.'

‘There is,' Fleming said, nodding. ‘I've seen it.'

Scarlet beamed. ‘I dare say it makes for interesting reading,' she said. ‘Lots of
details about our adventures.'

‘Actually, there isn't much there.'

‘What? How much, then?'

Frowning, Fleming said, ‘About a page. Maybe a little more.'

‘A page?' Scarlet looked insulted. ‘There's only a page about me? After all our amazing
adventures?'

‘Oh no,' he said. ‘There isn't a page on
you
.'

Scarlet looked relieved. ‘All right.'

‘You have a paragraph,' he said. ‘And the same for Jack, too.' Then he saw the outraged
expression on Scarlet's face. ‘If it's any consolation,' he added, ‘it's a
big
paragraph.'

Before Scarlet could explode with indignation, Fleming burst out laughing. ‘I must
apologise,' he said. ‘Actually, there's rather a large file on your team, but I'm
not allowed to say more than that.'

Scarlet was mollified. ‘A large file,' she said. ‘Well, that's all right…'

CHAPTER EIGHT

After Mr Doyle set the steering of the
Lion's Mane
to automatic, he joined Jack,
Scarlet and Fleming for a cup of tea.

‘I was looking at one of the guidebooks last night,' Jack said. ‘I didn't know the
Islamic faith had had such a big influence on Spain.'

‘I probably should have given you a potted history of the country,' Mr Doyle said.
‘Several early peoples populated Spain prior to the Common Era. The Roman Empire
eventually took over the country and controlled it for six centuries, naming it
Hispania
.
The Visigoths—Germanic tribes—took over most of the peninsula. Then the Arabs invaded
in the eighth century and held power
until the marriage of Isabella of Castile and
Ferdinand of Aragon. This heralded a new era of expansion for the Spanish empire.'

‘So how did Alhambra get built?' Scarlet asked.

Fleming took up the story. ‘It began as a small fortress in the ninth century, and
was rebuilt in the eleventh century as a palace, and in the fourteenth century it
was expanded once again.'

‘Where does the name come from?' Scarlet said. ‘It's quite lovely.'

‘Alhambra means
red castle
in Arabic.'

The airship continued south-west over the country, where giant crops dotted the crimson
earth: olives, figs and nuts as big as cricket balls, and tomatoes and lettuces the
size of watermelons. The fields were like enormous strips of fabric across the landscape.
Small towns appeared. Unlike Barcelona, the houses in the villages were more conventional;
two-storey detached homes with red roofs and white walls.

Late in the day, they spotted a sprawling metropolis blanketing a valley.

‘That's Granada,' Fleming said. ‘Its history dates back thousands of years.'

‘Have you been here before?' Scarlet asked.

‘I came here for a holiday once. A beautiful spot. I highly recommend it.'

Mr Doyle brought the
Lion's Mane
in to land halfway up a hill. Lush trees and vast
buildings crowded the peak. They disembarked to find tourists everywhere.

‘I suggest we split into two groups,' Fleming said. ‘Ignatius, you and I will start
at the northern end and work our way back. Jack and Scarlet can enter here and meet
us somewhere in the middle, probably at Charles V's palace.'

‘That sounds like a reasonable plan. We'll take the
Lion's Mane
,' Mr Doyle said,
climbing back onboard. He gave Jack and Scarlet strict instructions: ‘If you see
anything suspicious, do nothing. Do not try to tackle anyone alone.' He scribbled
down an address. ‘If you get lost, we'll meet at the Hotel Hermoso. I stayed there
once, years ago.'

After Mr Doyle and Fleming had taken off again, Jack and Scarlet walked through a
high archway. ‘I'm not sure what we're searching for,' Jack said. ‘We don't even
know what Tockly or any other members of the Valkyrie Circle look like!'