Read The Monster Within Online
Authors: Darrell Pitt
The Monster Within
P
RAISE FOR THE
J
ACK
M
ASON
A
DVENTURES
âA fun story, easy to read and full of action⦠Bonus points for being the first kids'
book of its kind I've come across that gives mention to the suffragettes!'
Books+Publishing
âLots of mechanical mayhem and derring-doâbreathless stuff.' Michael Pryor
âNon-stop action, non-stop adventure, non-stop fun!' Richard Harland
âSet in a fantastical London, filled with airships, steam cars and metrotowers stretching
into space, this fast-paced adventure and homage to the world of Victorian literature
and Conan Doyle offers an enjoyable roller-coaster read for fans of
Artemis Fowl
and the Lemony Snicket seriesâ¦[a] rollicking who-dunnit that will keep young Sherlocks
guessing to the very end.'
Magpies
âCharming, witty and intelligently written⦠This series no doubt will be a huge hit
for early teens, the writing is intelligent and Darrell Pitt has created characters
that challenge and provoke readers to invest in the storyline.' Diva Booknerd
THE JACK MASON ADVENTURES
Book I
The Firebird Mystery
Book II
The Secret Abyss
Book III
The Broken Sun
Book IV
The Monster Within
DARRELL PITT
began his lifelong appreciation of Victorian literature when
he read the Sherlock Holmes stories as a child, quickly moving on to H. G. Wells
and Jules Verne. This early reading led to a love of comics, science fiction and
all things geeky. Darrell is now married with one daughter. He lives in Melbourne.
The Text Publishing Company
Swann House
22 William Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Australia
Copyright © Darrell Pitt 2015
The moral rights of Darrell Pitt have been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of
this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner
and the publisher of this book.
First published in 2015 by The Text Publishing Company
Design by WH Chong
Cover illustration by Eamon O'Donoghue
Typeset by J&M Typesetting
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Author: Pitt, Darrell
Title: The monster within: a Jack Mason adventure / by Darrell Pitt.
ISBN: 9781922182876 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781925095777 (ebook)
Target Audience: For young adults.
Subjects: Detective and mystery stories.
Dewey Number: A823.4
This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia
Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
To Rob
THE MONSTER WITHIN
CONTENTS
Ka-boom!
The shockwave hit Jack Mason like a locomotive. One moment he was buying an apple
from a fruit cart on Carmody Street, the next he was thrown to the ground.
Jack sat up, his ears ringing. Bodies were littered across the ground and fruit had
been strewn across the pavement. Next to him, an awning had caught fire.
What happened? Where am I? How did I get here?
Jack furrowed his brow, for a moment utterly dazed by the blast. He was fourteen
years old, an assistant to Ignatius Doyle, the world-famous detective, and he lived
in London. After picking up a parcel from the post office, which contained a model
of a famous space
steamer,
Carpathia
, Jack had been enjoying the first day of summer.
But he hadn't been alone. Someone had been with himâ¦
Scarlet Bell.
She was his friend and also an assistant to Mr Doyle. A year older than Jack, Scarlet
had bright red hair. A few minutes before the blast she had gone to buy a hair comb
from MacMillan'sâan immaculate haberdashery across the road. Now the shopfront window
had fallen in and a girl with red hair lay motionless on the footpath.
âNo, please,' Jack moaned. âNot Scarlet.'
Extricating himself from the fruit, he started across the road. Someone screamed
a warning and he threw himself backwards as a shrieking, out-of-control horse flew
past, missing him by inches.
Reaching the girl, he turned her over. It wasn't Scarlet. The stranger stirred, rubbing
her head. âWhere am I?' she asked. âWhat happened?'
âThat's what I'd like to know,' Jack replied.
MacMillan's front door had been blasted right off its hinges. Inside, the shop was
in disarray, with glass everywhere and mannequins lying in an untidy pile of arms
and legs. When they started to move, for one mad moment Jack thought they had come
to life.
âWhat on earth happened?' came a voice.
Scarlet had a heart-shaped face and wore a pale-blue dress. A hat now sat lopsided
on her head. She dragged it off. âOne moment I was looking at myself in
the mirrorâ'
she began.
âThere's been an explosion,' Jack explained. âI don't think it's an accident.'
The proprietress had been hiding behind the counter. After checking her condition,
Jack and Scarlet went back outside, where steam-driven ambulances were now arriving,
as was a fire engine. The media had gathered too; a photographer was setting up a
camera on a tripod as a journalist asked questions.
Jack and Scarlet made their way to the centre of the blast, a six-foot hole in the
middle of the street. Two injured horses lay nearby.
Scarlet grabbed Jack's hand. âMrs Gregg,' she said.
âWho?'
âThe fabric woman. I've been buying buttons from her for years. I need to make sure
she's all right.' Scarlet's eyes scanned the carnage. âOh no.'
She pointed. The sign hanging over the front window had read
Mrs Gregg's Button Shop
,
but the lower half of it had been torn away. The entire front brickwork, glass and
all, had been obliterated. Scarlet started towards the gap.
Jack made a grab for her. âNo,' he said. âThe building might collapse.'
But Scarlet pulled free and climbed over rubble into the store, leaving Jack no choice
but to follow. The interior was in ruins. The buttons, once held in hundreds of bottles
lining the walls, now lay everywhere. Other debris littered the floor.
A motionless figure lay among the destructionâan elderly woman, with a single coin-sized
wound in the middle of her chest. She looked so peaceful she could have been asleep.
âShe's gone,' Scarlet said, checking her pulse. âI can't believe it.'
âI'm sorry,' Jack said, feeling inadequate. âI don't know what to say.'
âI've known her for years.'
Jack's own parents had been killed in an accident at the circus where they worked
as acrobats. He still felt a sharp pain in his chest whenever he thought of themâthe
grief never left him. He looked back to the street. A little girl stood on the other
side, a motionless body at her feet. âScarlet,' he said. âSomeone outside needs help.'
âI'll come with you.'
âAre you sure?'
She wiped a tear from her face. âYes,' she said. âI can't do anything here.'
They crossed the street. The girl was about six years old, her eyes wide with shock.
It was her mother on the footpath, a piece of metal in her side. She was bleeding
badly.
âWe need to put direct pressure on this,' Scarlet said to the mother, tearing off
a piece of her dress and pressing it around the wound. âWhat's your name?'
âEmily,' the woman said, her voice shaking. âMy daughter, Catherine, is she all right?'
âShe's fine. Help is on the way.'
Jack turned his attention to the little girl. âCatherine,' he said. âMy name's Jack.
Your mother has been in an accident, but she's going to be fine.'
âThere was a big bang,' Catherine said. Her face was covered in dust and smoke. A
timber splinter a foot long hung from the bottom of her dress. A few inches higher
and it would have killed her. âMummy fell down.'
Two more steam ambulances pulled into the street. Everywhere, people were giving
assistance, doing what they could to help.
Jack wiped a smear from his face. Blood. A cut ran across his forehead from the explosion.
His eyes shifted to the London Metrotower, a structure that speared all the way into
space.
It was business as usual elsewhere, but terror had arrived on Carmody Street and
the people here would never forget this day. They may have lost loved ones. Friends.
Brothers. Sisters. Some people's lives would never be the same again.
âWho made the big bang?' Catherine asked. âWho did it?'
Jack didn't answer, but he had a pretty good idea.
âThe Valkyrie Circle is a terrorist organisation,' Ignatius Doyle said. âAnd they
must be stopped.'
Jack and Scarlet were in the sitting room of 221 Bee Street. It was the strangest
home Jack had ever seen, as if someone had decided to collect unusual items from
across the globe and cram them together in one place. There was no rhyme or reason
to the belongings, the latest acquisitions being a desk that had once belonged to
Louis IV, twelve paintings of boots painted by someone named Vincent, and an organ
from a church that had burnt down in Plymouth.
Huddled between these items were visitors to the apartment: Inspector Greystoke from
Scotland Yard,
Edwina Dudley from the Primrose Society, an organisation that fought
for women's right to vote, and her quiet husband, Warren Dudley, the owner of a pharmaceutical
company.
A full day had passed since the bombing in Carmody Street. Two people had been killed
and more than a hundred injured.