Sherlock Holmes in 2012: LORD OF DARKNESS RISING (11 page)

“Yes, Mr. Holmes, the Earth Hawks are one of the most respected think-tanks of information and communication technology in the world. Their micro-engineers and computer science experts and their international relations members have resolved a great number of problems in these fields for some years now.”

“But why were you so hesitant to tell me about this? They obviously could be of great assistance in your field of expertise—”

“And in yours, Mr. Holmes!”

“In mine?” Holmes looked at Watson with a question mark on his face. “Where or how would they be helpful to me?”

“Perhaps not to you personally, but since you are interested in finding who’s behind David Penny’s “devilish fantasies” as you called them, I thought they might be helpful in finding the thread that may lead
us
to him.”

“When you say “us”, Watson, I hope you don’t mean
you
; because if you do, I must caution you, on the one hand, that the path you may want to follow could be very dangerous to your health, and, on the other, you have Sarah’s life to consider. She has already lost a mother at the hands of this devil – who ever he is – and I don’t think you would want to risk losing your life and abandon her to a future in your absence.”

“No, Mr. Holmes, I have no intention of risking life or limb while searching for the responsible parties to the terrorists bombings that have plagued our society since the nine-eleven events. On the contrary, my main concern is to protect Sarah from having to deal with terrorism in her future.”

“And you think these Earth Hawks could be of some assistance in uncovering some of the secrets behind the terrorist attacks?”

“I believe so, yes. But more than that, I believe they would be able to locate David Penny, whom you said has disappeared since his London attempt at planting a decoy in the Tube.”

“My dear man, that would be a tall order for anyone. Let me give you some rope before you throw yourself off into the precipice.” Watson couldn’t help but smile at the metaphor. “David Penny has not only appeared in this century but in mine as well—”

“Did he indeed?” Watson blurted, opening his eyes wide.

“Absolutely. As Mrs. Holmes could tell you, this man was living in the 19
^th
century before I heard of him this last August.”

“But, Mr. Holmes that would mean the man has travelled through time such as you and your wife have done – would it not?”

“Yes, Watson, that’s precisely what it means. Besides which, this man was well acquainted with Professor Moriarty in the 1890s, I believe.”

“Would you then deduce that Moriarty has had access to a time-machine, too?” Watson asked, quite puzzled by then.

“Perhaps, Watson. However, one thing is certain; both time-machines are under lock-and-key in this century and I don’t think Moriarty or even David Penny had access to these machines before I took the first one out of Mr. Wells’s property.”

“As I said, maybe the Earth Hawks would be the perfect group to delve further into this problem.” Watson paused. “Where are your time-machines now? Didn’t you say they were in Washington, D.C.?”

Holmes shook his head emphatically. “No! I don’t want you or the Earth Hawks to go anywhere near either machine for now, Watson.”

“Why not? Perhaps they could help them in locating David Penny—”

“And chase the man through time? No, Watson, I would not let you engage or involve anyone in such a venture! If anyone was to go back or even forward in time, it would be me.”

“Could you at least let them look at the machines so to study their mechanisms? It would be of great help to our future engineering development, I’m sure.”

“I will have to think about this, Watson.” Holmes rose from the bench. “And for the time being, I will have to return to our hotel before Mrs. Holmes sends a search party out to find me.” He chortled.

Watson was also on his feet now. “Please, Mr. Holmes… , I need to find the man responsible for Evelyn’s death,” he pleaded, knowing that Holmes would not be inclined to let the Earth Hawks near the time-machines any time soon.

“You will learn, my dear fellow, that I need to think about such demands or pleas before I agree or disagree with what each implies or the results they may engender. So you will have my considered answer in a day or so when we meet again.”

“Alright, Mr. Holmes,” Watson nodded resignedly. “May I accompany you to the funicular?”

“That won’t be necessary, Watson,” Holmes said, walking away, “and don’t forget to bring Sarah for tea this weekend. I know she will enjoy tasting the scones Irene has found at the bakery.”

“Of course… ,” Watson replied to Holmes’s back.

Left alone in the quad, Watson sat down again, took his laptop out of its bag, opened it and clicked on the email icon of the desktop. As soon as he found the address he was looking for, he typed one sentence:

As
soon
as
you
read
this
message,
call
me
on
Skype.
Most
important.
J.W.

When Holmes arrived at the B&B, he found Irene and Sally engrossed in a discussion involving what sounded like the purchasing of a house in or around Wellington.

The two women were sitting in the parlour of the establishment, sharing in some refreshments.

“Oh, Sherlock, what a splendid time for you to join us,” Irene erupted when she saw her husband cross the threshold of the room. “Come, come, sit down and have some tea, won’t you?”

“Yes of course, my dear… , I’m rather thirsty I’d say,” he replied, taking a seat beside his wife on the sofa and facing a smiling Sally. The latter was a tiny woman, a little on the thin side, but with an amiable disposition that would be (and was) very endearing to her patrons.

“Mr. Holmes,” Sally began, pouring some tea in a cup, “your wife was just telling me that you may want to buy a house in these parts, and I was very excited as you could imagine”—Holmes could not imagine such a thing at all—“and I was proposing to telephone a friend of my husband who’s in the real estate business in town.” Sally stopped long enough to take in a breath and to ask, “Would you like one or two lumps of sugar?”

“No, thank you. I’ll just have some milk.”

Sally poured the milk into the cup and finally handed it to Holmes. “As I was saying to Irene, Mr. Holmes, there are many houses available at the outskirts of the city that may be suitable for a young couple”—Holmes shot a sideway glance at Irene: “a young couple” would not have been the way he would have described the two of them—” . . . and you should really take a look. Some of these properties are much larger than the old houses in town, and if you were to have children—”

Holmes had heard enough. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Norden,” he cut-in, “but we have just arrived in town and it will take us a few more days to decide where we would want to live.” He turned his face to Irene. “Wouldn’t you say, my dear?”

“Absolutely, Sherlock. But I would say getting in touch with this real estate acquaintance of Mr. Norden wouldn’t hurt.” Irene threw a disapproving glance in Sherlock’s direction. He sipped on his tea. “Wouldn’t you say, dear?”

Holmes took the riposte as a signal to apologize to Sally. “I am very sorry, Mrs. Norden, I didn’t mean any offence—”

“None taken, Mr. Holmes, none at all.” Sally put her tea cup back on the tray. “Let me get that name and address for you while you finish your tea.” She rose from her seat and trotted out of the room under Sherlock and Irene’s somewhat amused gazes.

“Now tell me, Sherlock, what did you learn from John?” Irene asked.

“I will, my dear, but for now let’s finish our tea.”

Knowing Sherlock’s reservations when it came to discuss the conversation he may have had with anyone, Irene nodded and didn’t press the point.

Later that evening, at a time he knew Mohammad would be available, Watson opened his laptop and waited for the man to ring him. Sarah was already in bed when the call came through.

“My dear John, how are you?” Mohammad began. “I received your message and I must say it intrigued me. What’s on your mind?”

Watson hesitated.
Where
to
begin?
“Mohammad, this is extremely important and I would need your full attention for a few minutes, if you don’t mind.”

“I am here. No one is in the office at this hour. It’s lunchtime, so you may talk freely.”

“Well… , what I’m about to tell you will appear incredible on the face of it, but believe me, the story is factual and verifiable.”

“Okay, John, spare me the preamble and let me hear what you have.”

“Alright, here it goes… .” Watson then spent the better part of the next ten minutes, describing his first encounter with Holmes and their afternoon’s discussion.

Mohammad listened carefully to Watson without interruption, but when he finished, he had to ask, “Did you say the time-machines are in Washington, D.C. – do you know where, exactly?”

“No, I don’t, and Mr. Holmes doesn’t seem prepared to divulge where they are since he doesn’t want anyone to travel in time.”

“Ah-ah, I see,” Mohammad said, cracking a smile. “He is as cagey today as he was a hundred-and-twenty years ago then?”

“Yes, he seems to be. But I think there might be a way to get him on board as it were.”

“How’s that?” Mohammad asked.

“If I could talk to his wife, Irene Adler, privately, I should be able to persuade her to divulge where the machines are – at least one of them – so that you could perhaps restore them—”

“Restore them?” Mohammad cut-in. “Why would we want to restore them? Seems to me they function very well the way they are.”

“No, no that’s not what I meant—”

“What did you mean then?”

“I meant that you could update them by installing a new computer on board or re-fitting some of the engineering parts… since I haven’t seen them, I don’t know.”

“Okay, John. This project sounds not only interesting enough to involve my team, but I would say it would also be serious and far-reaching enough to have some beneficial consequences on our society maybe.” He paused. “Let me think about the details of this enterprise and, in the meantime, I suggest that you do exactly as you proposed; talk to Ms. Adler and see if she would be willing to give you the addresses where the machines are stored.”

“No problem. I’ll contact you as soon as I have more information. But do you think it will be warranted for me to go to Washington shortly?”

“Yes, I think so. It all depends on timing. We wouldn’t want to alert Mr. Holmes of what we plan to do by changing the dates of your scheduled visit in the American capital, of course.”

“I agree. And it may work well with my schedule – I am due to give my lecture at the CIA in Virginia next month—”

“That sounds perfect. Okay, John, I must get back to work now; the day is still young, and
time
waits
for
no
one
.” Mohammad chortled at his own pun. “Hum… , yes… , I’m sorry… .”

“Talk to you later then?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll expect your call.”

Just before retiring for the night, Irene and Sherlock were sitting on the veranda, enjoying a night-cap.

“Would you be ready now, to tell me what you and Watson talked about this afternoon?” Irene asked, having left the subject in abeyance long enough she thought.

Sherlock blew a couple of puffs of smoke from his pipe. “It was an interesting conversation, by all means, my dear,” he replied, without looking at Irene. “He showed me how some companies have access to one’s computer and he described what hackers do—”

“
Hackers
, what are those?” Irene interrupted.

“People who interfere with your correspondence, for one thing, or send what Watson called
viruses
into your computer to destroy its programming.” Sherlock stopped long enough to take a sip of his scotch. “Apparently, these people are engaged by government agencies to monitor the exchange of emails between suspected criminals.”

“But isn’t that illegal – to read someone’s mail, I mean?”

“Oh yes, but Watson said they have laws that have been amended to address this problem.” Sherlock re-lit his pipe. “However, what was most interesting about this was the fact that our friend Weisberg at the CIA must have been surveying Adnan’s correspondence for some time.”

“No doubt of it, if what Watson says is accurate.”

“Oh I’m sure his account is accurate.” He turned to face Irene across the table. “But what was even more puzzling about his description was that he seems to know a lot more about this matter than he was ready to divulge to me.”