Scotland Hard (Book 2 in the Tom & Laura Series) (37 page)

“For a least the hundredth time, no we don’t,” Edith said wearily. “I can see soldiers boarding a train if that is any help. There is also an elderly gentleman and his secretary ordering people about and telling the soldiers to get a move on. He seems to think that they have to hurry. I can see that all that is happening right now, but I can’t see a way out of this dismal trap.”

“We are going to die. I can see our flesh burning off our bodies, the heat is so strong,” Lucy wept.

“It might be worth it, if it warms up me bum when it ‘appens,”
Alice
commented wryly. “I guess it’s all goin’ to be up to me then.”

“What can you do?” Gwendolyn asked. She had worked hard at keeping her skin from touching any of the room’s surfaces. She was convinced that a room like this would be filled with horrors, should she make that simple mistake.

“I shall call Tricky in me ‘ead an’ I expect ‘e’ll come and save us. It’s worth a try in any case. Perhaps one of his fancy adult friends might come as well.”

“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Edith complained.

“I ‘ad to wait till me ‘ead stopped ‘urting, didn’t I? Keep quiet like an’ I’ll give it a go right now.”

48.
      
Complications

Daisy and Dougal walked into the laboratory and stopped in surprise at what they did not find there. The laboratory appeared to be empty of people.

“Perhaps your friends have met up and moved on,” Dougal suggested. “I know where Hans Clerkes keeps his devices in the factory, should we go there?”

Daisy called out to the empty room. “It is all right,
Cam
. Dougal has agreed to accompany us until we can prove to him that his father is planning to attack
London
.”

Four heads, with suspicion written over their faces poked up from behind storage boxes and benches.

“Are you sure we can trust him?”
Cam
asked warily as she stepped towards them.

Daisy nodded. “Dougal gave me his word, and I have a feeling we will need him later on.”

“I swear I shall never work with a Precog again,”
Cam
muttered darkly. “You do things without consulting me and expect us to live with the consequences.”

“But because you are such a brilliant spy it always works out perfectly,” Daisy said, smiling at her friend’s grim visage.

“We expected you to have met your two young friends by now,” Dougal said, trying his best not to sound too skeptical. “It passed ten o’clock a while ago.”

“Laura has a tendency to be late and something may have delayed them. Perhaps your father has inveigled them in conversation?”
Arnold
suggested.

Dougal hesitated and then nodded. “It is possible. He never seems to sleep at night, at least, not recently. So what do we do? Wait here all night in the hope they turn up?”

Everyone looked to
Cam
to provide an answer. “We wait until it is reasonable to suppose that Tom and Laura are not able to get here. They may be imprisoned. We shall wait until one o’clock in the morning. Then we will go to the factory and find a way to stop this bomb without them. Without Laura’s Spellbinding power it will be impossible to steal the bomb, but I am sure we can come up with a method of disabling it.”

“I’m a dab hand with a sledgehammer,”
Arnold
said brightly.

“I take it you are not the newly graduated engineer you claim to be?” Dougal asked wryly.

“I’m afraid not, Dougal, but I have been proven deadly with a cricket ball,”
Arnold
admitted cheerfully.

“It is good to know that Her Majesty’s secret agents are so skilled in sports.”

Daisy looked rueful. “We would still be at school in Hobsgate learning our trade, if Sir Ernest Trelawney had not decided we were the only ones he could trust with this mission.”

“As you pointed out yourself, we found the trail of Tom and Laura in
London
and tracked them here, arriving only a day behind them,”
Cam
said proudly. “I doubt that experienced spies could have done better.”

Dougal sighed. “It is clear to me now that you all believe this delusion. And it is entirely possible that my father may have used illegal means to get Miss Young and Carter here. The Laird does not always play by the rules to get what he wants. But I cannot believe in this bomb and the plot you claim. You are surely mistaken.”

“I heard Lord McBride and the man called Blane discussing using the bomb at the dance,”
Arnold
said as he stared Dougal straight in the eyes. “I was hiding behind one of the tapestries at the time and they were unaware I was listening.”

Dougal turned away from
Arnold
without replying. He was not yet ready to believe that his father was a traitor and murderer.

Ebb eyes bulged in shock and he stepped behind Tricky. A few seconds later Tricky screamed and fell into Ebb’s waiting arms. Ebb gently lowered his friend to the floor.

Cam and
Arnold
rushed to the doors and listened in case anyone came to investigate the noise. Dougal stared at Ebb in surprise, a surprise that quickly turned to dismay as understanding came.

“You are the boy that sees five seconds ahead. I was present at a meeting where my father told Glyn Thomas that you and another boy would be joining the girls in Madam Hulot’s care. However, that cannot be, because you came here with Daisy and how could my father know about you?”

“Tricky can Farsee any time he wants, but only a few feet from where he is standing. Did your father mention that?” Daisy asked.

“No, but he said he had located a girl that could project telepathically into anyone else’s mind, though only over a short range.”

“And it bleedin’ ‘urts when she does it, silly cow,” Tricky said weakly from the floor. “‘elp me up Ebb, me ‘ead feels like someone’s ‘it it with a mallet.”

Ebb was lifting Tricky before he spoke, but Tricky was used to that kind of thing and spoke anyway.

“I take it that
Alice
has joined the conversation?”
Cam
enquired.

“More like joined the shouting match if you ask me,” Tricky agreed. “She says as ‘ow she and the other little tarts ‘ave got themselves locked in a cellar by the Black Widow, whoever she is. The Precog girl seems to think the end of the world is comin’ soon an’
Alice
was wonderin’ if I could give ‘er a ‘and to get out.”

“Madam Hulot is referred to as the Black Widow by a number of her acquaintances. It suits her well, I must admit,” Dougal added.

“We gotta go, Tricky,” Ebb urged, pulling at the other boy’s sleeve.

Tricky pushed his friend’s hands away. “Just cos you fancy the Welsh tart, don’t mean I’m at
Alice
’s beck and call.”

“Did she say where they were being held, or describe the corridors around the room?” Dougal asked. “I could give you directions to find her if she did.”

Tricky stood in front of Dougal with his legs slightly apart and his hands on his hips and gave a short lecture.

“Mister, if you knew
Alice
at all, you’d know she never ever sends me anything useful. Expects me to know all that and never sends it.”

“She’s a girl,” Ebb said sagely from behind his friend.
Cam
gave him a glare and Ebb moved to put Tricky between them.

“The girls will have to wait until we have destroyed the bomb,”
Cam
told the boys.

“I won’t be much use to you if I scream every time
Alice
gets tired of waitin’,” Tricky pointed out. Ebb was already heading to the door and Tricky followed him.

“If you get caught, say you were just in the castle for a liaison with the girls,” Daisy called after them.

“A what?” Tricky asked.

“Meetin’ with ‘em stupid,” Ebb said pulling him into the corridor.

“Ow did you know that?” Tricky asked, as they moved away.

“Daisy told us, in the other future.”

“I should ‘ave known.”

 
“All present and correct, sir,” an army officer informed Trelawney, saluting smartly as he spoke. Trelawney had asked to address the men before they boarded.

Two hundred men equipped with rifles and bayonets were waiting on the platform with enough ammunition and supplies to fight a significant campaign. Trelawney told their officers to leave most of it on the platform. In his opinion, if the British Army could not capture a small town of unarmed civilians without them then they were not up to very much.

Ammunition and field guns big enough to breach the castle wall were all they needed, that and enough rations to keep the in food for a day or so.

Trelawney stepped across the platform to where the men were waiting. It was clear they weren’t happy at being dragged out of their warm barracks on a freezing cold night.

“Your task tonight is the noblest the army can ever do. We have reason to believe that Lord McBride has turned traitor to the Empire. If we are wrong, he will have the Scottish courts in which to prove me so. If I am right, and I am risking my career on this action, then he and his cohorts have made the largest explosive device in history and plan to use it against the Queen at the State Opening of Parliament, where there will be many Scottish nobles attending.”

The troops murmured at this news. Trelawney knew he was talking to a Scottish regiment and attacking Lord McBride would go against their pride in their own country.

“We believe he has already tested this device and killed many fellow Scots in the process. You may already have heard that the villages of Dalcross and Ardersier were destroyed by an explosion yesterday. Some of you may have friends or relatives there.”

Open conversation broke out among the troops as they digested this terrible news.

The officer shouted for quiet and the men once again turned towards Trelawney.

“The villagers of Glen Russell are almost certainly entirely innocent of any crime, but we must arrest Lord McBride and take the castle and factory as quickly as we can. For our own survival, we must not give anyone there a chance to trigger this bomb.”

There were a few shouts of approval.

“This is not a normal battle. I want you to leave this train at Glen Russell and secure the village, the castle and the factory as quickly and quietly as you can. Let us wipe this stain of Scot killing Scot from history before it has a chance to fester. Are you with me men!”

The troops shouted their approval and shook their rifles in the air.

“Then let us board this train and be on our way.”

The men rushed to board the train. Belinda gave Trelawney a quick hug. She had never felt prouder of him than she did right then.

Tom was certain that Rhona was taking them a long way around to reach the laboratory. However, having argued that they didn’t know the route it was difficult to point this out to her. He was worried she had some ulterior motive in picking her route, though he could not imagine what it could be.

Laura had not remembered the route and was feeling quite comfortable as Rhona led them through the castle. They were going where they wanted to go and they had a legitimate escort, Laura considered that things were going well.

“Just wait here a minute, while I check this room is empty,” Rhona told them. “We wouldn’t want to go parading through the Laird’s private party or anything, would we?”

Laura nodded and smiled at the girl as she slipped through the door.

“I think we should run,” Tom told Laura urgently. He has a very bad feeling about all this.

“Don’t be silly, Tom. She is providing the perfect cover for us and we can always overpower her in the laboratory.”

The door opened a few minutes later and Rhona came out smiling. Three men followed behind her carrying ropes. They wore evil grins.

“This is Alan MacTavish and some of his men,” Rhona told them with a smirk. “They are going to tie you up and then you and I are going to wait until the Laird comes here later tonight. You can tell him your stupid story about how he is evil and see what it gets you.”

Rhona’s face reddened with anger. “I am hoping he whips you both for telling such wicked lies. I don’t know what you were planning to steal from the Laird tonight, but I am proud to have put a stop to it.”

Laura and Tom looked around for somewhere to run, but a man appeared in the corridor behind them, grinning as though he hoped they would try something.

“I think we should give up quietly,” Laura told Tom and he nodded. Tom prayed that
Cam
and the others would give them up for lost and complete the mission on their own. Neither he nor Laura were going anywhere for the next few hours, he was sure of that.

MacTavish and his men looked decidedly miffed when Tom and Laura failed to put up any kind of a fight. MacTavish punched Tom in the stomach to try and start something, but Tom’s only response was to double up and groan in pain. They were dragged into the room. It turned out to be a meeting room with chairs and tables arranged at random within it and there was a large roaring log fire in the fireplace.

Tom and Laura were bound and gagged before being tied to chairs. The men and Rhona chatted and played cards for well over an hour ignoring their captives. Then MacTavish stood up and gave Rhona a kiss on the cheek.