H2G2 Storytime III: From Prussia with Love. Part LVII
Created | Updated Jan 13, 2007
As the siren's wailed and the red emergency lights swirled, Annabel marched with furious deliberation down a corridor and threw open a door with a bang.
Inside, laying down on a pallet, was Sister Mary.
"We need to talk." Annabel said and closed the door firmly to behind her.
"Yes. I think we do." Mary said coldly.
"What was that charade with Vandeveer supposed to prove?"
"Nothing at all. You'd been comprimised." Annabel said smartly.
"Comprimised? How dare - "
"How dare I?" You come before the council, before me - a hostage of an overly ambitous and careless criminal? The cult was very nearly disgraced, and infiltrated by - by an outsider!"
"Now see here!" Mary raged and stepped up so she was level with Annabel. "Vandeveer was clever and he caught me with my guard down. But don't lecture me on bringing in outside help Miss Smittington. Some of our families have been members of the cult longer than others!"
The air was chilly even for a subterranean base in the antartic.
Annabel said nothing.
"I did what was necessary to complete my mission which was to locate thew Turqoise Moon. I assume, since you are now in charge, that you have it in safe-keeping?" Mary resumed.
"No." Annabel confessed.
Mary scoffed slightly.
"We can't find your friend, the spy." Annabel said.
"Sean? He survived?"
"He came back up from the tunnel with Von Trapp. He was last seen with The Cossak."
"I find that hard to believe; Andrei was in league with Vandeveer."
"The Russian works for me, as I might remind you, do you; I therefore expect and am biterly dissapointed that you have not felt able to share all your knowledge openly."
"What do you mean?"
"This alarm," Annabel indicated the noise outside in the corridor with an outstretched arm, "was triggered only moments ago, there are intruders in the base! I think they used the blizzard as cover to get inside."
"Who could survive out there? It's impossible.!"
"There were agents on board The Moriarty."
"They are resourceful but not immortal. They could not have survived." Mary said repeating the phrase almost as an article of faith. "They simply could not." "They were in the rear carriage, I made sure it crashed."
"So The Agency *does* know of our operation. They may have sent others."
"No...I er...no I don't think so."
"There's one called Robinson. He has a past with Sean."
"I am aware."
"This was personal. Sean and Andrei, they took a girl that Robinson was close to."
"and where is this girl now?"
"Andrei said he killed her. While we in Cairo collecting the diamond. That was where The Moon was located, in Egypt. Sean has contacts that were able to get us the diamond. I suspected Vandeveer, so we kept the diamond hidden from him and his personal assassin, but on board the train, Sean had it last. Wherever he is, The Diamond is there too. I am sure of it. and Robinson won't be far away."
Annabel opened the door to leave and turned back towards Mary, the sound of the alarm outside carried into the room.
"If Robinson is one of the agents, he'll be looking for Daltmooreby. We can use that to our advantage."
and she left.
Mary considered this for a moment and then followed.
Daltmooreby woke up groggily, and detatched his face painfuly off the cold floor by lifting himself up on his arms.
"Urrrgh." he mumbled incoherently. His temple felt sore and bruised. The Egyptian Archeologist. Damn.
Suddenly, a cultist underling appeared at the doorway, just as Daltmooreby cluthched at his skull to prevent the sensation that his head was coming off at the shoulder.
"He's in here!" The young man called excitedly and a gruff siberian growl replied.
Sreka appeared and pushing the monk abruptly aside entered the room, grabbed Daltmooreby by the crook of his elbow and hoisted him upright and vertical.
"Owww." Daltmooreby groaned.
"They are here then?" Sreka bristled.
"Yes. for gods sake. Yes they are here they hit me on the head with that." He pointed with loathing at the discarded metal pipe.
Sreka considered this. "Excellent" he announced to Daltmooreby's astonishment.
"Now you will be angry." Sreka completed his daring psychoanalysis.
"Angry? Are you kidding. I'm going to flay Robinson alive." and he stalked out of the storeroom into the corridor stopping only to scream as loudly as he could:
"DO YOU HEAR ME ARTHUR? - YOU'RE DEAD!"
That got everyone's attention.
"Split into teams and search every crevice of this base until they are found and then bring them to me." Daltmooreby barked orders at the assembled cultists who seemed to shell-shocked to obey.
"NOW!"
Hurridly they all did what he asked and set of down the different corridors.
Behind him Daltmooreby heard someone arrive he spun round and was surprised to see Mary leaning nonchelantly against the wall.
"M - mary." Sreka stuttered.
"Hello boys. Good to see things are firmly under control."
"Don't patronise me." Daltmooreby seethed.
"Andrei is right Sean, you are useful when you are angry but we need to play this one smart...."
Arthur turned around
you ' r e d e a d wandered down the corridor."We'd better hurry we can't stay here. Now what is it that's so important?"
"It's right here, just round this corner." Jamila said. "Go see for yourselves."
Arthur took a peek and couldn't believe his eyes.
"That's a ...er a..um.."
X peered round his partner's shoulders. "Bloody Nora! They've stolen a space shuttle!"
Arthur blinked trying to absorb this new information.
It really was a Space Shuttle - the sort you usually see parked on some deserted Florida launch pad on the TV.
It was illuminated with spot beams and stood next to a tall metal tower laden with pipes that occasionally hissed vents of vapour. All around it there was a hive of activity. From this distance Arthur struggled to pick out people but the headlights of small conveyors and trucks could be seen milling about beneath the massive conical booster jets at the base.
"Could they use that as a platform to focus a beam through that diamond?" Arthur asked X.
X paused thoughtfully, "Theoretically yes."
"But the diamond is a dud right?" Arthur said looking to Jamila. If they are expecting it to focus the beam centrally it won't, have I understood you right doctor?
Jamila was slightly taken aback by the formal address.
"Well..er..no, not exactly. If that diamond behaves as it did in the Turquoise Moon chamber, then it will focus the beam in a particular direction - but we have no way of telling now, which direction it will focus in. They won't be able to control it. The most likely thing is that the beam will miss-fire into space.
" or through a major city or maybe into the shuttle itself, blowing it up and raining down flaming debris onto civilian areas?" Arthur said grimly, deliberating over some imponderable options.
"I..er....I didn't think of that." Jamila said glumly.
"no, no, you did well - but we need to stop them launching that thing. It's the only way. I've a feeling it's going to be soon. Assuming of course they know how fly one, but then after all they've built it so I suppose it's reasonable to expect they've been training pilots for it too."
Ody volunteered a new question. "How did they manage this? How did anyone not notice one of the shuttles in missing?"
"I...I...I don't know." Arthur stammered. A distant memory wandered forth. Something Sfret had said to him underneath the Lauterbrunnen golf course in Vandeveer's secret base. How he'd been in charge of building a machine. Sfret had struck Arthur at the time as being something of an engineer. but who could have thought he'd been building a space shuttle? " But I have a shrewd idea." He said finally.
"Probably been stealing spare parts for decades you don't assemble something like this just overnight." X considered "It'd be easier to do if you knew how than trying to steal a shuttle."
"What can you do?" Jamila said, asking Arthur directly.
"Us?" X said with disarming honesty.
"Well yeah." Ody said, "You're the good guys right?"
X and Arthur exchanged glances then X said. "Do you still have those radios Bert gave us in Gibralter?"
"X! Brilliant!" Arthur exclaimed and produced the two compact communication devices from the recesses of his suit.
"Oh but those won't work underground." X said "Remember?"
"No, you're right we'll have to get back to the surface again if we are going to warn The Agency about the cult's plans.
Then, suddenly, voices from just round the corner were the group were crouched.
"Quickly Hide!" Arthur hissed as X, Jamilla and Ody scrambled for cover...
