Team of Seven Heroes Shorts Tales 3; Chapter 11

11.

Mycroft was seated at the café thinking of the past events. He was disappointed that the distractions delayed his task. He will need to think his strategy on completing the task. He was sure that the Ripper was not from the common people but among those monsters he saw at the party, one of them could be the Ripper. One of them who had to step beyond the antics to perform more than a performing act to a real one.

 It was a personal assumption as Sherlock will say it; ‘it like picking the lilies in the field but did you select it by ignoring the other flowers.’

“I believe the seat is mine to take.” Mycroft looked and saw the Lord Millard was there. The other took the seat and then poured himself a tea from the pot into the spare cup. “Do you always hold a spare cup?”

“I…think the staff did it.” Mycroft was a regular there whenever he was in London. “Why are you here?”

“The task, Guvnor. The updates are not coming in and you suddenly pop at my party. There is little you can hide from me in London. I am the Lord here.” Lord Millard looked at the passing traffic. “You were to update me.”

“I was but there was nothing to update.” Mycroft replied. “I was working and your party was a possible clue. I saw you there and left the place.”

“A very convenient excuse. Mycroft, you were assigned although you do not possess the uncanny skill that your other brother had but you have your own. You found my party and that spoke well of you. Now tell me why are you there?”

“I was working on a hunch that the Ripper may be from the Elites.” Mycroft laid his update plainly. “Well, I may be wrong. I need to look….”

“The Ripper may be among us?” Lord Millard sighed. “We are a circle where luxury is there for us to partake unlike the commoner could only think of it. We hold more than we could use and … its never enough.”

Lord Millard stopped and with his expression of deep thoughts. Mycroft saw it and was to ask when the Lord stood up.

“I have to go.” Lord Millard left Mycroft there standing with the teapot half full.

Unfulfilled was what Inspector Weston was then too. He was watching the two gentlemen seated there at the café. It was not what he had planned but by coincidence that he was there two tables away. He was not seen for he was unknown to the both of them. He was just another face in the café. He was waiting for a friend when he listened in.

‘Elites?’ Weston’s mind thought of that. He was on the trail of looking for common murderers and killers but he had not considered the acts could be done by the other society level. He saw the Lord left the table and decided to sit on. The other gentleman intrigued him. He had not seen that person but from his fashionable dressing, he was an exception. In Weston’s line of observation, exception leads to exceptional results. The gentleman was leaving and Weston intent to follow him. He took ten paces trying to blend in with the passing crowd. Well, tailing an Intelligence Officer was not his forte and soon he lost the gentleman. He cursed under his breath and detoured back to the Station.

Mycroft stepped from the hat shop with the new acquisition; the homburg and then he followed the man who was trailing him. He spotted the later following him when he left the café and then on his walk. It was part of his training to intercept such movements and then counter it. He was unsure of the other for his talk with Lord Millard was unscheduled but he will learn who was on his tail. He saw the gentleman walked into the Morgue and that was one place he would not look inconspicuous there. He waited his turn and then saw the gentleman exit out. He was to follow on when he saw two gentlemen approached the former from the rear. He knew the move and was to shout a warning but the attack was swift. The gentleman was stabbed in the side of the neck; military trained method and the other pulled the gentleman down before he was stabbed then in the heart, and rolled over to the side on the ground. The two killers then fled before anyone could react.

“Darn!” Mycroft cursed out.

It was a darned display of moves by the best the Colonel Sebastian had trained. The Inspector was on the list of persons to be removed, and Colonel Sebastian was serving his orders. He looked across to the Doctor who was seated across him on the carriage. He then tapped the carriage ceiling to advise the rider to move.

“A sensible move by you to tell me of the other’s intention.” Doctor Moriarty voiced out. “It may look like our young what his name …. Ryan Loggins may be more than a common foe or an underling of Lord Millard.”

“I did wonder soon after I left the place. He was calm and he turned my mind off then to commit to something I would never had ….”

“Falter not in your intentions, Colonel. We are almost peers in the world we strive in. I am still building my Empire and yes, you are my trusted aide to stand by me but never shed a tear should you find me incompetent. In our world, the fittest survive.”

“I do apologies, Doctor. I do not know what overcame me. I am still and ever your loyal staff.” Colonel Sebastian leaned forward in a gesture of displaying obedience.

“And you are. Colonel. If not, we will not having this conversation. As for young Ryan, his list intrigued me. He wants a number of underlings removed. It could be coincidence or he may be after me.”

“But how does he know of you?” Colonel Sebastian asked.

“It was Lord Millard who invited me into the Council and he works for Lord Millard. I joined the Council for it held a powerful network in London and into the other cities. The Council is bigger than my Empire, and if I am to expand, I will use this opportunity to take over the Council but there is a catch. The real leader of the Council is unknown. That was why I brought you in to strengthen my position. Lord Millard is a lackey of another but who is what I intend to find out.”

“The Ripper?’

“The Ripper is the bait we have all set out mind on. It may look insignificant but I think it will be a major equation that will lead us to the final result. We will work on the listing. A few pawns to allow the Rook to crossover is a sound strategy.”

“Shall we have tea now?” The Doctor asked the Colonel.

Lord Millard was upset that his drop by meeting was disturbed by some other factor. He rushed back to his office and there he met his aide, Ryan Loggins. The later was seated at the office having his tea from the pot with the scones on the side and his left hand held the watch.

“Ryan, I think we may have an issue.” Lord Millard stepped into the office of his in Central London. He held a modest office there for his trading concerns but he also housed his other working needs there.

“And what may that be?” Ryan seated there turned to look at the elderly Lord. “Are we having complaints on our services?”

“No. None of that. The services are good. It’s the other issue; the Ripper.” Lord Millard took to his seat behind the desk. He sat there with his hands held in the posture of praying. “I fear that the Ripper may be among us.”

“Ripper? Among us?” Ryan expression was of amusement. “We are not killers or murderers and even if we are, we do not mutilate the body. There is a fine line between murder and barbaric killing. Start from the beginning, my Lord. Tell me from the start.”

The voice of Ryan Loggins took on the assuring tone that he was adept at when he needed to. He was not any aide but a hypnotist that had studied with the best from the circus to the medical facilities. His tool was his voice and the tone he took could calm ever a raging madman. He studied it when young from his father, the hypnotist who partake in the circus whom the old man learned from his forefather. The old man once told Ryan that he was gifted with the family art but the way to success was to be with the Elites. He was sent to study medicine and from there, he excelled at the art of hypnotism which was secluded but considered a form of cure for madness.

“It was the Intelligence Officer, Mycroft, Mycroft Holmes who raised my concern. He mentioned that the Ripper may be from the Elites. God forgive me, but we cannot have another scandal on us, and not towards the Royals once more. The last one almost tore the members apart and the Queen suffered pains.”

“Tell me of this officer, Mycroft. I need to know him.”

After a session of hypnotic induced confession. Lord Millard was told to rest.

“Sleep well, Lord Millard. When you wake an hour later, you will not recall our conversation. You will only remember coming here to ask me for the ledgers. Rest now, Lord Millard.”

Rest was far from Doctor Illinois’s mind. She tossed the organs from the table. She then took a seat on the chair nearby. She was in an emotional breakdown then when she heard the alarms that told her someone was coming to the factory. She moved towards her wheel chair and then drew on the concealed derringer that she kept on the right side of the chair. The doorway opened and in came her son, Igor.

“Mother, I have given it some thoughts. We don’t have to revive Shelly. We will get a new Shelly.”