Posted by Bowen Cates on 4/4/2008, 1:27 pm, in reply to "Chapter 21 part two"
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Chapter 22: In Which Theodore Once Again Forgets His Manners
Theodore got to his feet slowly. His brain was humming, and all he could think was that he had to get back to his friends as soon as possible.
Moriarty held open the door and beckoned for him to enter.
Theodore did so without a word, his eyes never leaving those of the master criminal.
Inside were two white chairs, a white table and a large amount of strip lighting secured to the equally white ceiling.
Theodore heard the door click into place and a mechanical grinding sound as the lock followed suit. Striding forward, Moriarty pulled out a chair on the outer side of the table and motioned for Theodore to sit.
He then walked around to the other side and did the same, leaning back and crossing his ankles underneath the table in front of him.
Theodore plunked himself down in the chair; it was hard, cold and over all reminded him of a park bench. He crossed his arms and continued to glare into the eyes of his foe. In much the same way he had done to Lestrade during their talk.
Needless to say of course, this was for a very different reason.
Moriarty’s smirk widened and he combed his fingers through his whitened hair contentedly he seemed to be evaluating Theodore, as he would some tasty bit of meat.
“No doubt you have realized Master Trent…” Theodore winced “that I have some amount of preconceived knowledge as to your past and reason for being here.”
Theodore said nothing.
Moriarty clasped his hands in front of him and continued, his eyes glinting sadistically “It may have occurred to you, that my network is rather extensive, and that I have means of making use of systems that are not open to the public…or anyone else for that matter.”
Theodore’s glare hardened.
Moriarty uncrossed his legs and leaned forward suddenly, interlinking his fingers underneath his chin, Theodore could feel the malevolent glee resonating from him along with his body heat.
“So you can imagine how interesting it was when, upon hacking into the satellite feeds of Galileo city, I saw a most unexplainable occurrence…” he said this with the air of a conductor sweeping his orchestra toward to the grand finale.
Theodore was beginning to realize what Moriarty was driving at and he knew it did not bode well for either him or his fellow prisoners, 2103 Holmes’ voice wavered back across his thoughts.
‘He knows you began events…’
The criminal raised his voice suddenly, forcing his way back into the consciousness of his victim.
“I saw an insinuations change in the dark matter just off to the left of the screen, in fact, so quickly did it occur and so suddenly did it dissipate, that at first I believed myself to have taken temporary leave of my senses.”
Theodore bit his tongue as one of those really stinging, once in a lifetime comebacks fought for escape.
“But I of course, quickly acknowledged that to be an impossibility and rewound the tape which I had been recording at the time. I was, of course, correct in assuming it’s legitimacy, but was still baffled as to what could have caused such a disturbance, for the instruments had not registered a comet or any other object which might have tampered with it’s readings…”
Again Theodore had to fight to keep his mouth shut; Moriarty’s grin was getting wider and wider as he watched the boy in front of him become more and more anxious.
“Now, it just so happened that while I was about my business Fenwick was at his usual post outside the historic dwelling of 221B Baker Street, when suddenly an equally unexplainable event took place, do you follow Mr. Trent?”
“Yes” Theodore squeezed the words out between his teeth, rage was smoldering through him, burning the inside of his veins a crumbling black.
“What appeared to be one very strange object smashed through the roof and landed most dramatically on the living room floor in the middle of one of those picturesque little gatherings of your friends in the next room. At which point, so much dust leapt into the air that it became quite impossible to make out anything further.
However, it was not difficult to put the pieces together as throughout the next two days only two things had changed. One was the immensely inexplicable appearance of an extra Holmes, an event which I found most distasteful I can assure you, and the other, was a young, quite extraordinary looking fellow, whom I seemed to remember from an incident in my past. An incident which took place just outside the window of a dilapidated little hat shop just before the mysterious disappearance of the world’s greatest detective.
Of course, when I assembled all the evidence, remembered the Holmes of my time, your disappearance, the strange spatial distortion, and your and Holmes’ reappearance here and now…well, what is that little thing that Holmes is always saying, much to the annoyance of the good inspector?…let me think…not eyes and brains, there was another one…”
Theodore knew that Moriarty was just trying to get under his skin, and he was not going to rise to it.
“Well, it can’t have been anything very special if I can’t remember it…oh yes when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
This was all quoted with a sneering, cruel laughter, which sent shiver’s up Theodore’s spine.
He could restrain himself no longer.
“If you’re expecting me to whimper and beg then you’re going to be extremely disappointed.” The voice of reason in his head was attempting as best it could to silence him, but a small part of him, the same part that had rushed back to save 1800 Holmes when he had been shot was, by some miracle, winning the battle for control. “What is it Lestrade is always saying…? Oh ya, ‘in your dreams clone head’”.
Moriarty froze, the grin struck from his face, but, surprisingly enough, he regained it in an instant.
“Really Mr. Trent, surely you are capable of something more imaginative?” He sneered, placing his hands on the table in front of him, the fingers still intertwined.
“What do you want Moriarty, stop stalling and get to the point.”
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