Team Seven of Heroes III Chapter 5 & 6

 5.

Sherlock leaned over to pick up the notes he wrote on the other nemesis of his besides Moriarty. He has taken his dose of fix and then began reading the notes. Watson was seated in his usual chair trying very hard to write down the notes on their last encounter. He then looked up and asked Sherlock.

“I wondered why Nayland needed us then to hunt the Doctor Jekyll. He had it wrapped up well.”

“Correction, my dear Watson. It was Mrs Hudson who subdued the other. She shot him with the special rubber bullets but with the modified gun it was fired with a deadly impact. It won’t kill the Mr Hyde for in his transformation the body is heightened with the strength of five folds and its wound heals in seconds. He will live but what he will make to do with Nayland will not be of our concern too.”

“How do you know all this?” Watson asked. “Surely you could not see the future now?”

“No, I am reading the notes left by Doctor Jekyll. He is an avid writer of notes like you.” Sherlock waved the bounded book at Watson. “I found it at the unit where he was shot. It seems that he was going back to his unit to get these.”

“And Mrs Watson was waiting there. How convenient of her to be there?” Watson replied. “So, forget Nayland, tell me of our case.”

“Yes, Fu Manchu.” Sherlock replaced the book and took up another. The pages flew off scattered off to the flooring.  “Pardon me.”

Sherlock leaned over to collect the scattered notes. He picked up some and then tossed them off before he picked up the others.

“Anything in particular?” Watson asked and was not given any explanation. “Never mind.”

Watson knew the other’s particular tendency to keep silent at times. He then turned to book which was about ancient China.

“I found it.” Sherlock snapped out of his silence. “We are going soon to Dover. He was last seen there about three months back.”

“So, Fu Manchu studied there? I thought he did it in Edinburgh.”

“No, he was seen there recently. And soon after in Oxford.”

Mrs Hudson was also busy with the placement of the two protectorates into a safe house. It was not by her expectations but the Government then was paying for it. It was a cottage in the small estate on a five acres land with a pond thrown in next to the cottage. The estate was five miles from the village where the SOE had placed a dozen of their agents there. It was there Mrs. Hudson walked to in her new outfit of the hunting outfit with blouse and flared thighs design jodhpurs tucked into the high leather boots. She had then the waist belt with the double guns holstered. The guns were the Colt 45 pistols; a gift from her first husband.

“Cheerio’s, Dear Sir.” Mrs Hudson stepped into the kitchen there and was greeted by the smell of fresh bread. She saw the baker standing behind the counter there frowned on her greeting.

“Surely, my dear brother would suffice.” The man standing there smile with the flour coated on his apron. He then stepped forth past the counter to approach the one he had hardly seen. The baker looked out of the door and then pulled at the blinds to close twice. It was his signal to the other on guard opposite that it was okay.

“How is your Mama in law?” Mrs Hudson asked.

“She is fine, and she does long for her other missing in law.”

“Well I will tell her myself.” Mrs Hudson stepped to the rear of the bakery and past the ovens to the storage room. There she leaned her hand on the left door frame to slide open the wall next to the door frame. She stepped in there and down the stairs to the basement. She was met by the man seated there behind the table. The table there held a number of switches.

“Hudson, Martha Louise Hudson. Prefix 101. I am here to meet H.”

To the right of Mrs Hudson, the wall there slid open and she was given permission to step in. If she had failed to announce her name, she would have been exterminated there by the hidden traps.

“My dark duckling had returned.” The figure who spoke was named H. “You could had called but you never one to do so. So welcome back, Martha. We thought we lost you since James went missing.”

“My visit will be brief, Mum. I need to handle …” Mrs Hudson evaded the issue of her missing husband. 

“Don’t I know it all? The Head called me. The things you needed are there.”

Mrs Hudson picked up the apron there which she was familiar with. There was the double gauge shortened barrel with the bandolier of bullets. Then she saw the star-spangled metal pieces.

“Shuriken? Why am I not surprised that you still love me?” Mrs Hudson smiled. “I am also good at throwing plates.”

“Explosives with love.” The head of the Section replied. “You blew the kitchen wall then.”

Not the fancied tool of a lady but on the high mountains, a figure held the gyaling held in his hands.

“Surely you don’t thing I can charm the blood sucker to come to his knees before me?” Van Helsing looked at the Head Priest. “I need is … my Excalibur.”

“And so, you do there. The tool you hold will suffice for your other more expressive weapons. Trust in the tool I have given you.”

“Why should I? I killed many vampires in my time with the trusted weapon blowing their heart apart with the silver bullets. What made you think this…” Van Helsing held up the musician tool. “Could do what I have done before?”

“And did you kill the Vampire King with your silver bullets? He escaped from you the few encountered you have; wounded but alive. You need a new tool to kill him. That will do.”

“Charming…” Van Helsing muttered.

“The body is made of parts that formed the frame. Within the parts are the miniscule molecules that formed it. Like the things you see before you, everything is made of some miniscule molecules. With that, you can break down the frame and then the molecules. It works on vibrations.” The High Priest motioned to the Mountains. “We are the experts on the topic of vibrations. If a part of this mountain is disturbed on its vibration, then it will protest with its pain. We maintain that as the balance here. We are the ones that held its equilibrium here. That’s why we are able to hold the untamed ones for long.”

“That balance had been tilted now. You are the one to restore it. It will take three points to restore it.” The High Priest concluded. “Three groups with different trails and eventually will end in one to restore it. That is all I have to say for now. Goodbye.”

With that the High Priest turned to walk back to the icy cold mountain peaks. Van Helsing was to call out but was stopped by the Dark Wolves Leader.

“Master, you do not want to upset the mountains with your call. It might upset it and its wrath is thunderous.”

“So where do we begin our music quest?”

“The Lhasa. They serve hot meals there.” The difference in height was about twenty thousand feet and where they were about thirty thousand feet high.

6.

Sherlock took to hire a room overlooking the docks which was to Watson ‘like my Colonel’s tent’ for its layer of dusts and thriving rodents with the discarded clothes. The last discards were the doctors to spite the immaculate Sherlock, who chose to ignore the doctor miscreant behaviour.

“My Colonel then in the Frontier held a very bad habit of leaving his tent in the most deplorable condition. He had a local servant to help him clean up but was dismissed. He once told us that in chaos there is order.” Watson made reference to the other. “We initially thought he meant that in the chaos of the war there, we were the order but we were wrong.”

“Indeed, among the chaos there are some orders being adhered to and the chaos was to hide it.” Sherlock then was in his disguise as an old seafarer out on his luck with any ship to take him on as a crew. He had  on the white wig with the worn out striped shirt and knee length pants while his exposed body parts were muddled with red spots or cakes of dirt. He had on the Dutch clogs for his footwear.

“No dark patch or a fake leg?” Watson had asked of him when he first displayed his look to the doctor.

“I am not looking to be John Silver, nor bend my leg to numb it if I was to run for my life.”

Back to the reality of things, Sherlock was by the window expecting a visitor. He then turned away and motioned Watson to step back to the prepared curtained area.

“Stay there and hold your gun or daggers. I will signal you if I ever need you.” With that Watson was sent to the hidden corner before he could utter a reply. He was to ask for the back room to ease himself there but the knock on the door restraint him then.

“Sparrow? Aye, you the one that will pay a handful of guineas for my tale?” The frail looking sea dog limped in with his left leg dragging. The old dog was an old sailor. He was dressed in the unwashed shirt and pants that were torn in places that will make a lady gasped in embarrassment. He was silver haired and held a dark patch over his right eye.

“A hundred guineas? They are non-existent since Captain Kidd buried his treasure. Or was it Blackbeard. No. I will offer you a huge sum of money to ensure you won’t miss a drink of rum for the next year to come.” Sherlock was generous and it was the government money anyway.

“I heard tales…. I was once shanghaied and then worked on a ship for that penance I owed my mother, poor soul. I was on this ship ….”

“I am not interested in your sailing tales. Tell me what you know of Fu Manchu.”

“The old quid with the streak of moustache from the top of his chin. I met him once. He also appeared on those mirrors that he will speak to us. Or more less the Captain.” The Emperor was fond of new technological innovations and he will have his image on the mirror surface while a transmitter voiced his words. 

“I last heard of him three months ago, when we sailed to the north to the cold islands on his order. The Emperor wanted us to scout those islands.  He believed in the myth that a tree of life exists there. According to what he heard, it was in the heavens where the first humans lived, a pregnant woman fell and landed in the sea here. She was saved by a giant turtle….”

“And the world was formed by planting from the bark of the tree. I heard of that myth and it was by the Iroquois tribe. How did it end there?” Sherlock was upset and felt his time wasted.

“How was I to know this? Maybe they moved.” The old sea dog turned to leave but Sherlock stopped him.

“Hold there! You are not whom you claimed to be.” Sherlock grabbed the silver hair and pulled. It was unfortunately real.

“Yowl!” The silver haired man screamed. “Stop pulling my hair. It’s the only thing that still grows on my body.”

It was then Watson stepped out with the gun but the silver haired man had then twisted his body to lay a chopping blow to Sherlock’s outreached arm. He then turned his body to lash out the side kick which landed the sleuth on the back.

“Stand still, old man. I got a gun here.” Watson warned the attacking man but he had to duck when he saw the dagger thrown at him. He fired when he side stepped the dagger. His previous training in the art of daggers taught him how to avoid one. The old man went down with the bullet in his left thigh. He tried to get up but the pain was too great. Watson had then reached the old man with the gun to the head.

“Move and I will give you one less growing part.”

“Don’t shoot him! I need to talk to him.” Sherlock then rushed over. “Lao Fu, you could have told me that it was you.”

“Lao Fu is the personal adviser of the Emperor. He was always at his side.’ Sherlock explained. “Why are you here and in this deplorable condition? I have seen paintings of you. Your tattoo on the right wrist betrayed your identity.”

Lao Fu aka the Sea Dog looked at the tattoo of the heavenly dragon that stretched from his right wrist to the elbow. He was the adviser of the Emperor for many years and started off as the man servant to the young boy. He was also the bodyguard of the boy. Sherlock propped the old man against the wall while Watson attended to the wound. The old man then pulled out the dagger hidden inside his pants. He dropped it for the doctor.

“You may need it to cut the cloth there.” Lao Fu looked at Watson. “A wounded tiger does not mean it’s without it claws. Beware of that when you approached my master.”

“Your master…. Tell me where I can find him. He is missing which what I knew a few days ago. I want to help.”

“He is missed while other sits on his throne.” Lao Fu sighed. “The Emperor does not trust his own advisers even though with age we are still wise to provide him answer.”

“The Emperor was last here on his own doing. He came here to seek the Tree of Life. He believed that if he could find the tree he would know the secret to the Elixir of Life. He left behind his double to give an impression that he was there. I am an old man but one who was his companion from young, even the moles on his body are known to me by shades and locations.”

“I followed close behind but he evaded me in this strange land. I had no choice but to hunt like I did before when I was younger. I left trails of baits for the preys that may tell me of his whereabouts. I found one that told me that he was captured and sent to a ship. I followed the lead here and scouted the ships but I found none that met the description. It has been a month now and ships do take that period to return unlike the flying carriages, they are faster.”

“Who could have captured the Emperor? He is among his spies here? He needs to shout and they will come running.” Watson remarked back.

“True but if he is travelling in disguise then the Emperor does not exist but only the man.” The old man replied. “Fu Manchu is a proud man. He does not want the world to know he is ailing in health. He needed that elusive Elixir.”

“Which ship was he on then? And to which port of call?” Sherlock asked.

“The Obelisk. It was calling to Port Onega near to Murmansk, Russia.”