Posted by Bowen Cates on 3/26/2008, 2:48 pm, in reply to "Chapter 18 part one"
24.207.121.197
“Oh ya, sorry!” He yelled back,
“And bring Bamfield with you; we’ll want him at the yard!”
Theodore looked at him “you okay to come along?” he asked trying to sound supportive.
“Do I have a choice?” he seemed to read Theodore’s answer before ever he opened his mouth to reply.
“I don’t know, I wouldn’t think so, knowing the inspector…but you could tell me all about Fred on the way if you want.”
“Fred? who’s- OH! FRY!”
“Um ya…him…” any less empathetic soul would have rolled his eyes several times by now.
“Well, okay…I guess so…but then again I have to come anyway.”
“It’s not that bad…” Theodore was desperately searching for a way to cheer him up “you know…Mr. Holmes will be there and I bet I could pull him aside for a few minutes if you wanted to meet him.”
Greg’s eyes widened “really? You could do that?”
“Ya sure, he usually doesn’t mind doing me a favor, if I ask him when he’s not in one of his thinking moods.”
“Really? How’s that?”
“Uh…let’s just say that we had a mutual experience…” he was hoping that 2103 Holmes wouldn’t mind stepping in for his other self, being as they were one and the same.
“What do you mean?”
“Uh…”
“Theo get out here!” Lestrade was really losing her temper.
“Come on we better go” and Theodore, feeling infinitely grateful towards Lestrade and her short temper, lead Greg from the tiny office and around the large cabinet to where Lestrade was standing, next to a handcuffed and very sobered looking Doctor Powell.
“Had a nice chat did you?” She glared.
“Ya, we did” Theodore answered with a casual flick of his hand.
Despite herself, Lestrade grinned, “there’s hope for you yet Theo.”
The four of them walked down the hallway and into the large reception room where Theodore had first seen Charlie Traverson as he leered over them from the front steps.
The walk down the small gravel path seemed to take as many years as Theodore had skipped over during his episodes.
No one spoke save Lestrade, who was informing Powell of what would happen when they reached New Scotland Yard.
“I’ll drop you off, then the kid me have an appointment, a constable will see to you there.”
The Doctor himself just nodded, not looking at anyone, even his assistant, who seemed more then happy to return the favor.
Upon reaching the cruiser, Lestrade directed Greg and Powell into the back as Theodore climbed once again into the front seat. He had to admit that he was happy about this, as he had not actually wanted to hear about Fred…or French or whatever his name was.
The cruiser was just leaving the ground when the dashboard communicator beeped into life.
“Can you get that Theo?” Lestrade asked him, her own hands seemed to be rather busy at the moment, operating the many controls of the police cruiser.
“Sure.” Theodore clicked the flashing yellow button in the middle of the control panel, and Holmes’ face blinked into view just as the hover car began on an upward slope, leaving the ground far behind it as the huge mansion of Doctor Powell shrunk into nonexistence.
“Lestrade, Theodore,” greeted the detective, nodding to each in turn.
“Ya, hi Holmes” the latter nodded back, distractedly as she dodged a yellow hover taxi, the sun had started going down a while back and it was getting dark, Theodore could only hope that Lestrade’s driving couldn’t get any worse, although that seemed a pointless thought “which one are you?” she continued in a whisper.
“Lestrade” the detective replied at a similar volume, looking a bit impatient, no doubt he had noticed the other two figures gracing the back seat of the cruiser. “Did I not just call the boy Theodore?”
“Oh ya…sorry, that’s this time right?”
Holmes nodded.
“What is it?”
“A new development has recently taken place and it has become imperative that you should bring Doctor Powell to Hargreaves’ laboratory immediately.”
“What? Why?” she asked, a concerned look slowly traversing her features.
“I cannot possibly express in words how much I should dislike discussing it over this frequency.”
“Oh…alright…I’ll be there in fifteen minutes, okay?”
“Excellent, I shall await your arrival.”
The screen went blank and Theodore clicked it off again, Lestrade turned to him, the concern having now reached her eyes.
“Is it just me or did that sound really weird?”
“Ya…it did…” Theodore answered, keeping his voice as low as possible.
“I don’t like it, something’s wrong”
“What should we do?” He was suddenly conscious of a great deal of panic growing rapidly inside him.
“Well, first things first, let’s try calling him back, then we’ll know for sure if something’s up.”
He took a breath, Lestrade was right, remain calm, don’t panic.
The inspector reached over to the consol, brushing Theodore’s hand out of the way and pressed another button.
The speakers buzzed for a moment but the screen remained stubbornly black.
Lestrade clicked it several more times but still nothing happened.
Theodore looked at her, worry beginning to take over again. “What now?”
“I don’t know…” the inspector looked distinctly pale “I don’t think Holmes – if that was Holmes – would ask us to bring Powell with us unless it was really important. There’s no way I can get backup without any solid evidence that something is wrong but I really don’t want to keep him waiting if he’s in trouble, It’s not like him not to answer his com.”
The yellow button on the consol began to blink again.
Theodore looked at Lestrade who nodded, and gave the button a sharp tap. Wiggins’s face appeared on the screen exactly where Holmes’ had been a moment before.
“Hey Theodore” he waved with a tired smile.
“Hi Wiggins, how’s it going?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I called, look…Holmes just sent us a really weird message telling us to forget about questioning those guys we were supposed to, and meet him over at Hargreaves,’”
Lestrade leaned anxiously into the view of the camera “hey Wiggins, we just got one too, we’re on our way over, there’s no way I can get backup unless we have something definite, but if Holmes and Watson and…Holmes are in trouble I think we better get over there.”
“I don’t like it…it’s not like Holmes to be so…not Holmes…I dunno, everything he said fit, it’s just that it wasn’t him, I can’t explain it.”
“I know what you mean, but I still think that we had better get over there, you know how I feel about you guys helping, but I can’t afford to give up the advantage of strength in numbers, I tried contacting him again, he’s not picking up.”
Wiggins’ eyes took on something akin to fear “what if it’s Moriarty?”
“We don’t have a choice, how long will it take you to get there?”
“About half an hour, we’ll use all the back streets, that’ll cut the time in half, we’d get there sooner but we don’t have our boards.”
“Okay, me and Theo will see you there, you tell Deidre and Tennyson to be careful, the same applies to you, meet me outside the lab, we’ll all go in together.”
“Alright, good luck” and with that, Wiggins too blinked into nothing.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread