The Monster Within (21 page)

‘For what reason?' Scarlet asked.

‘The whole bombing campaign was orchestrated to divert attention from their true
purpose—to steal X-29. Today they added the
piece de résistance
: notifying police
that bombs were placed at railway stations across London. They bombed the building,
knowing every
police officer in London would be elsewhere.'

Griffin pointed around the vault. ‘They made quite a mess in here,' he said. ‘But
in the end they got the potion.'

‘Who was the scientist who took the potion?' Mr Doyle asked. ‘The one who it so terribly
deformed.'

‘His name was Ben Sykes.'

Mr Doyle started. ‘You don't mean the Ben Sykes whose brother is…'

‘Bruiser Sykes. Who could guess that one family could create such different men?'

Mr Doyle explained to Griffin that he had been employed to find Ben Sykes. Jack glanced
about. One of the MI5 men was tidying boxes. Another was fingerprinting surfaces.
Using fingerprints in detection was still in its early stages, but Mr Doyle had said
it would one day revolutionise the solving of crime.

An MI5 man carried a box past Jack.

‘What's this symbol?' he said, pointing.

Thomas Griffin glanced over. ‘It's the X-29 emblem,' he said. ‘A picture of a lightning
bolt. Why do you ask?'

Jack didn't answer, but gently grabbed Scarlet's elbow and led her from the room.

‘What is it?' she asked.

‘I've seen that symbol before,' he said. ‘And it means I know where to find Ben Sykes.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Jack and Scarlet quickly explained their mission to Mr Doyle. He wanted to accompany
them, but Jack objected.

‘The fewer people Ben Sykes has to deal with, the better,' he said.

‘Are you sure about the symbol?' Mr Doyle asked.

‘I saw that same image on a piece of cloth in the underground sewer in Whitechapel.
The monster must be Ben Sykes.'

‘But to go alone—'

‘He's already been attacked and hounded,' Jack pointed out. ‘But because he knows
me, I may have a chance to communicate with him.'

‘It's too dangerous,' Mr Doyle said. ‘Anything could happen.'

‘There are always dangers,' Scarlet said. ‘But I'm inclined to agree with Jack. He
may respond to two children far better than an adult.'

It took them over an hour to walk to Whitechapel. The rail network was still closed,
although the promised bombings had not eventuated. Now, as they reached the sewerage
building, Jack felt his confidence fading. The monster he had glimpsed in the dark
had been enormous. If he was wrong…

‘Scarlet,' he said. ‘Maybe you should wait here.'

‘Don't be ridiculous,' she said, grabbing his arm. ‘Come on.'

Inside, Jack pointed at the floor, where burnt timbers were piled about the top of
the stairs. ‘Someone started a fire here,' he said.

‘Toby said some people wanted to hunt down the monster,' Scarlet replied. ‘I hope
they didn't get far.'

Picking up a charred pole, Jack set it alight with a match and they crept down the
stairs. Jack wondered how anyone, or anything, could live down here. They reached
the room with the four tunnels leading away from it.

Jack pointed. ‘That's where I saw him before.'

A trail of water ran down the centre. It looked like these tunnels were some sort
of overflow section, in case there was a blockage elsewhere. Two other tunnels split
off at the end. Jack could easily understand how people could be lost in here.

A few more turns and we'll be completely lost.

‘Which way?' Scarlet asked.

Jack looked down. ‘Here are some footprints. Big ones.'

The shaft opened up into a mezzanine service area where workmen could store their
equipment.

‘Hello?' Jack called. His voice echoed around the chamber.

…hello…hello…hello…

‘Ben?' he said. ‘I want to talk to you. We need your help.'

…help…help…help…

Jack wasn't sure what to do. If Ben Sykes had been living down here for months, he
would know these tunnels well. Jack and Scarlet could spend years searching for him
without success.

‘I know you're down here,' Jack called.

The shadows danced and weaved in the light like ghosts. A fleck of dust drifted past
his face. Jack looked up—and gasped.

The person who had once been Ben Sykes was now a hunchback, twice the size of a normal
man. Orange fur covered him like an orang-utan, except for his head, which was bald.

He perched on top of the arch like a gargoyle on a church gable. His arms and legs
were gangly; there was not an ounce of fat on him. Everything was muscle: shoulders,
arms, legs, torso. No wonder he had leapt between the rafters at Bee Street with
such ease—he
looked more animal than man. The only clothing he wore was a pair of
ragged shorts. Printed on them was the X-29 insignia.

But it was his face that was the saddest part of the transformation. Half was still
that of a handsome man: a proud, strong face that would have made women's heads turn,
a face that other men would envy.

The other half of Ben Sykes' face could not have been more different. The X-29 potion
had
melted
it. His mouth sagged, his nose was reduced to a drooping lump and his
eye hung where his cheek had once been.

Sykes leapt from the brickwork, landing as nimbly as a cat. Scarlet shrieked as she
fell back in horror.

‘That's it,' Ben snarled. ‘Fear me! You should! I am a monster!'

‘You're not a monster,' Jack said. ‘You're Ben Sykes.'

Ben towered over Jack like a grizzly bear. ‘But I am a monster!' he roared. ‘That's
how people look at me. They want to hunt me down like an animal!'

Scarlet stepped forward. With a shaking hand, she touched Ben's arm. ‘You're not
an animal,' she said, voice quivering. ‘You're a person.'

Ben looked down at her hand. For a moment he appeared ready to tear her to pieces.
‘I could break you like a stick!' he cried into the shadows instead. ‘Snap you in
half.'

Jack had no doubt the man could do exactly as he said. ‘But you won't,' Jack said.
‘You're not a killer.'

‘You didn't want the potion tested on a criminal,'
Scarlet said. ‘Not even a condemned
criminal.'

‘I was a fool!'

‘Being compassionate is not being a fool,' Scarlet said. ‘That's being human. And
there may yet be a cure—'

‘A cure!' The man roared with laughter and the sound echoed around them like bats
in the night. ‘I am condemned to be scarred like this…forever!'

Clenching his fists, he glared at Jack and Scarlet as if ready to crush them, to
beat them to death.

‘Then sometimes we've got to live with our scars,' Jack said. ‘Maybe that's where
real courage lies. When you face something that can't be faced. When you endure what
you can't endure.'

‘That's easy for you to say,' the man growled. ‘You have your whole life ahead of
you. Your
unblemished
life.'

‘I became an orphan when my parents died,' Jack said. ‘Can you imagine what that's
like for me? Do you think a day goes by when I don't think of them? Do you know what
I'd give to see them one last time? Just for one minute. Just for one
second
. But
I can't. I've got to live knowing I'll never see them again.'

There were tears in his eyes now.

‘Do you know how alone I felt?' Jack asked. ‘Like I was the only person left on Earth,
even when I lived at a crowded orphanage.

‘But then I was taken in by Mr Doyle. I met Scarlet. Gradually I came to know people
who care about me. And I care about them too.' He paused. ‘It didn't happen all at
once. It took time—and I had to make it happen.'

‘You may not appear as you once did,' Scarlet told Ben. ‘But you're a good man inside.'

Ben lowered his eyes. ‘Why are you here?' he asked. ‘What do you want?'

They told him about the bombings and the theft of the potion. Ben's face twisted
with anguish.

‘Those fools!' he said, pacing about the chamber. ‘Didn't they know the potion doesn't
work?'

‘They kept experimenting with it,' Scarlet said. ‘It sounds like they've perfected
it.'

‘How is that possible? I'm the only person who understood the process.'

‘No-one could have continued your work?'

‘One man was determined to make it succeed,' Ben said. ‘Warren Dudley.'

Warren Dudley?
Jack thought.
Where did he know that name?

‘The owner of the pharmaceutical company?' Scarlet said. ‘Married to Edwina Dudley?'

Of course
, Jack thought. He remembered the quiet man who had accompanied his wife
to Bee Street.
Could he be behind all this?

‘This can't be a coincidence,' Scarlet said. ‘Dudley must have come up with the idea
of the bombings through his wife. She may even be mixed up in all this.'

‘Mr Doyle said someone else used the bombings as a cover,' Jack said.

‘That may or may not be true. At any rate, he must be the one who leaked the information
about the potion
to SCAR and Domina. Possibly he thought he would become rich.'

‘Riches were always Dudley's concern,' Ben said. ‘He's a hopeless gambler. The last
I heard, he owed money everywhere.'

‘So where is the potion now?' Jack asked. ‘Do you have any ideas, Ben?'

Ben frowned. ‘Just before I took the potion, I remember him mentioning an auction,'
he said. ‘It was supposed to take place on board an airship.'

‘That would make sense,' Scarlet said. ‘With London in gridlock, the only things
moving are airships.'

‘We need to go,' Jack said. ‘We must tell Mr Doyle what we've found out and find
the potion before it leaves the country.'

They started towards the exit, but then Jack stopped.

‘We could use your help,' he told Ben. ‘There's a life out there if you want it.'

Ben looked down at his misshapen form. ‘The only life for me is here,' he said. ‘This
is where monsters belong.'

‘You're no monster,' Jack said. ‘No more than I am.'

But the man would not be moved. He wished them luck in their search for Dudley. Jack
and Scarlet returned to the outside world, into late afternoon sunlight where the
air was fresh and the sky clear.

‘That place is like a prison,' Jack said.

‘Some of the worst prisons are of our own making,' Scarlet replied.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

‘We must pursue Dudley immediately,' Mr Doyle said, leaping to his feet. ‘I'll let
Thomas Griffin and MI5 know too.'

They were back in their sitting room at Bee Street. Jack and Scarlet had revealed
everything they had learnt about Dudley. Mr Doyle scribbled a note and gave it to
Gloria, who promised to deliver it to Griffin.

Minutes later, Jack, Scarlet and Mr Doyle were soaring across London in the
Lion's
Mane
.

‘I feel badly about Ben Sykes,' Jack said. ‘I hate the idea of him living in that
hole in the ground.'

‘We will visit him when this is all over,' Mr Doyle said. ‘I'm sure he can be persuaded
to rejoin the world.'

‘I hope so. I don't see why he thinks he has to hide from people.'

‘By all accounts he was an exceedingly good-looking man. It must be hard for him
to reconcile that the people who once admired his appearance are now repelled by
it.'

They flew to Twickenham, landing on a roof in a well-to-do area. The buildings were
all white terraces with red tile rooves: quite old, but lovingly maintained. Tiny
gardens crowded with daffodils and rose bushes fronted the footpath.

Checking the house numbers, Mr Doyle settled on a building and strode up the stairs.
There was no answer when he knocked at first, then the door slowly creaked open,
revealing Mrs Dudley.

‘Ah,' she said. ‘Mr Doyle and his companions.'

‘May we speak with you for a moment?' Mr Doyle asked.

‘I am not receiving visitors today.'

‘It's very important.'

Grudgingly, Mrs Dudley allowed them in, and they followed her through to a sitting
room with a view of the rear garden. A magnolia tree, heavy with red flowers, pressed
against the window.

She sat, looking pale and tired. ‘Have you made any headway in tracking down who
is responsible for these bombings?' she asked.

‘We have,' said Mr Doyle. ‘Actually, we're on the verge of making an arrest.'

‘Really?' Her voice went up an octave. ‘Who are you arresting?'

‘I think you already know.'

‘I don't know what you're talking about!' Mrs Dudley looked terrified. ‘I must ask
you to leave immediately!'

Mr Doyle remained seated. ‘I can understand how difficult life has been for you,
my dear,' he said. ‘I notice you've disposed of six items of furniture in the last
month alone including a Queen Anne dresser.'

‘How did you—'

‘It is obvious. The dust trails on the carpet indicate this room was once filled
with furniture. Piece by piece it has been sold off.' He studied her closely. ‘You
have my condolences, madam. Gambling is a terrible addiction, but there is something
more important here.'

Mrs Dudley remained silent, her chin quivering.

‘People have already been killed,' Scarlet said. ‘I know you wouldn't want that.'

‘I would never want anyone hurt.'

‘Then you must tell us where we can find your husband,' Mr Doyle said. ‘It's vital
to the security of our nation.'