The Firebird Mystery (20 page)

‘We need you gentlemen to defuse the bombs,' the major said. ‘We had to keep you safe.'

Scarlet and Lucy appeared from the corridor behind them.

‘We're coming with you,' Lucy said.

‘Absolutely not,' her father said. ‘It's far too dangerous.'

‘There's safety in numbers,' Scarlet responded. ‘And we will not take no for an answer.'

The girls appeared so resolute that the men—even General Churchill—surrendered without a fight. ‘Just stay behind us,' he warned.

A squad of armed French soldiers led them along a walkway to the Berlin Metrotower. Jack felt nervous. The main departure area was almost empty. An assistant stood behind a café bar as if ready to serve customers. Two women with a large suitcase sat on a bench, clenching their hands as they watched the intruders.

‘This turn of events has caught everyone by surprise,' the major said. ‘Up until yesterday, the tower was operating as normal.'

‘Did many leave?' Jack asked.

‘It's hard to say,' the major said. ‘I imagine the lower levels were able to evacuate, but there must still be thousands throughout the building.'

‘Well, not on this level,' Mr Doyle said as they marched through an empty marketplace.

‘They're probably hiding until the danger passes,' Lucy said.

Mr Bell was fiddling with a bronze square box with rabbit-ear antennas poking out the top. He waved the box around in a wide arc.

‘I've located both the devices,' he said. ‘They appear to be a couple of levels below us on separate sides of the station.'

By this point they had reached the centre of the tower where the elevators were situated. Jack tried to read the writing above the elevators, but could not decipher the strange language.

‘We will not use these,' the major decided. ‘They may be booby trapped.'

‘Or non-operational,' Mr Harker said. ‘I notice it feels rather cold up here.'

He was right—it
was
freezing in the station.

‘The steam engines that heat the tower may have stopped operating,' Mr Bell said. ‘No power, no heat, no elevators.'

They went down a staircase with the soldiers in the lead. The stairs connected with a T-intersection. They went to the right, and at once encountered a group of German soldiers leaning against a wall, guns at their sides. A French soldier named Leroy challenged them and the men regarded one another warily. They began speaking German and the two groups shook hands.

‘The soldiers are not interested in fighting,' Leroy reported. ‘They are happy for us to pass.'

Jack felt some trepidation as they walked by. Surely it was wiser to take their weapons?

Mr Harker increased his pace as they drew closer to the bomb. They reached a long windowless chamber. It reminded Jack of a sewer pipe. A hatch at the other end opened on to a small fighter craft. Most of the men remained to defend the docking ramp as Jack and the girls followed Mr Bell and the others onto the ship.

The fighter usually accommodated two pilots with bench seating for eight men in the rear. The seating had been stripped out and a long, torpedo-shaped object sat in the centre.

‘That's it,' Mr Bell said in a hushed voice. ‘That's the bomb.'

‘One of them,' Mr Harker corrected him.

He knelt to examine a panel on the side of the device. His face paled.

‘My God,' he said. ‘They've done it.'

‘Done what?' Churchill demanded.

‘They've armed it,' Harker said. ‘They've set the device to explode. It's only a matter of minutes before it detonates.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A stunned silence greeted the news. Jack felt his knees go weak. He was glad the group was huddled close, otherwise he may have fainted.

So this is it
, he thought.
The short life of Jack Mason. Here today. Gone tomorrow.

‘You can't be serious,' Major Evans said.

‘I've never been more serious in my life,' Mr Harker said. ‘I'll try to disarm this device at once. In the meantime, find the other bomb and continue the evacuation of the station.'

‘You girls need to leave,' Mr Bell said.

‘It's too late now,' Mr Harker said. ‘The blast will take out anything within two miles of the tower.'

Jack was confused. ‘So the Germans want to destroy their own tower,' he said, ‘killing their own people at the same time?'

‘The Germans do not!' General Churchill said. ‘This is the work of those confounded Nazis!'

Mr Harker turned to Joseph Bell. ‘You take the scanner and find the other weapon.'

Mr Bell nodded. ‘Are you sure you can disarm this one?'

‘I believe I can,' he said. ‘I did some early work in designing the detonation mechanism.'

Mr Bell took the lead as the group hurried out. A number of the soldiers joined them. Two remained at the entrance to the dock as they crossed to the station.

‘I imagine the Nazis planned to make off with both the weapons in separate steamers,' Mr Bell said. ‘When we arrived unexpectedly, they decided to detonate them rather than let them fall into our hands.'

As they passed a line of windows they saw a huge battle taking place some miles from the tower. A number of German steamers were involved, but a greater number of allied vessels were trading shots with the enemy. Jack identified some French and Swiss vessels. There was one flag he did not recognise.

‘Those are the Austrian ships,' Mr Doyle explained.

‘Weren't they on the side of the Germans during the war?' Jack asked.

‘True,' Mr Doyle replied. ‘I think this shows the depth of the divide between the Nazis and their former allies. At this rate, Germany will be engaged in a civil war by the end of the week.'

Lucy touched Joseph Bell's arm. ‘I'm terribly worried about my father.'

‘He's one of the most remarkable men I've ever known,' Mr Bell told her. ‘If anyone can defuse that device, he can.'

As they turned a corner they encountered a group of armed men dressed in strange uniforms. The men raised their weapons. Major Evans yelled something in German, but one of them fired. The major threw himself sideways as the others scattered out of the way. Jack guessed these men were Nazis. The allied soldiers started firing at the enemy. General Churchill and Mr Doyle drew weapons and joined in the attack.

Lucy grabbed Jack and Scarlet, dragging them away from the action. ‘Stay back here, you two,' she yelled.

‘But I want to help,' Jack said.

‘Stay,' she ordered.

Jack fumed.
I don't want to be treated like a child
, he thought.
I want to be part of the fight.

After a moment the soldiers gave the order to advance. Jack, Lucy and Scarlet followed them. They passed the dead bodies of three men. Jack peered at them and felt a queasy sensation in his stomach.

Mr Doyle pressed his shoulder. ‘Are you all right, my boy?'

Jack nodded. Maybe Lucy Harker had been right to keep them back.

They came to the end of the passageway. Another skirmish began. One of the French soldiers fell, and General Churchill pulled him to safety. Lucy produced a handkerchief and applied pressure to the injured man's wound. A few more French soldiers appeared. They placed their wounded comrade on a stretcher and carried him away from the fighting.

Lucy drew Jack and Scarlet to one side. ‘I'm going back to my father,' she said. ‘I need to make certain he's safe.'

‘I'll come with you,' Jack offered.

‘No,' Lucy said. ‘It's too dangerous.'

‘But if it's too dangerous for us...' Scarlet started.

‘He's my father.'

A moment later she was gone. By now the gunshots were petering out. A group of their men advanced around the corner, leaving Jack and Scarlet with some of the French soldiers. General Churchill returned wearing a grim expression.

‘We've found the other weapon,' he said.

They followed him to a long windowless room. The atomic weapon sat in the centre. Mr Bell went over to it and checked a device on the side. He turned to the others with relief on his face.

‘This hasn't been armed,' he said. ‘They mustn't have had time before they left.'

‘We'll arrange for the transportation of the bomb to the
Jeanne d'Arc
,' General Churchill said. He glanced at his watch. ‘We'd best return to the other bomb. I pray Mr Harker has been successful in defusing it.'

As they retraced their steps through the tower, Scarlet informed the others about Lucy returning to her father.

‘She should have stayed with us,' Major Evans said. ‘It's far too dangerous to wander around alone.'

‘She was worried about Mr Harker,' Scarlet said.

‘She's as pigheaded as Paul,' Mr Bell said. ‘I never could talk him out of anything once his mind had been made up.'

Jack had noticed an insignia on the Nazi uniform. He asked Mr Doyle about it.

‘The modern name of the symbol is swastika, taken from an old Sanskrit word
svastika,
' Mr Doyle explained. ‘It is actually an ancient symbol. Many religions have used it over the centuries. The Nazis have appropriated it for their own evil purposes.'

They arrived back in the docking area. The two French soldiers who had been left to guard Mr Harker lay on the floor, a pool of blood surrounding them. Jack felt a shiver of fear as Mr Doyle examined them.

‘They're both dead,' he said. ‘Stabbed with a thin-bladed knife.'

The ship had also disappeared. Something looking like a bundle of rags had been deposited at the airlock door. Jack started along the corridor.

‘Wait!' Mr Doyle warily inched forward, his eyes fixed to the floor. He reminded Jack of a hawk. He reached the pile of rags and examined it.

‘Oh no,' Jack breathed.

‘What is it, young man?' General Churchill asked.

Jack couldn't speak. The words would not come.

Mr Doyle returned to them with a stony face. ‘It's bad news, I'm afraid,' he said. ‘The bomb has been stolen. Paul Harker is dead and a ransom note has been left.'

‘A ransom note?' Scarlet said.

‘Yes. Lucy Harker has been kidnapped.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The airship arced across the English Channel towards the white cliffs of Dover. A glowing sun had appeared after early-morning rain and now the sky shone blue across the horizon. Jack peered through the window, letting out a long breath.

Dear England
, Jack thought.
There were times when I doubted I'd ever see you again.

They were on board the British airship
Calypso
, a hundred-foot vessel owned by the Royal Navy. Everyone was devastated by Mr Harker's death and Lucy's kidnapping. Major Evans had stayed with his soldiers. Now Jack found himself with only Mr Doyle, Scarlet, Joseph Bell and General Churchill. The last twenty-four hours had seen the crisis of all-out war averted, but at huge personal cost. Now an even greater drama was unfolding.

‘England is being held to ransom,' Mr Doyle said. ‘And we have to do something about it.' He removed a note from his pocket and laid it flat on the table before them. ‘This was pinned to Paul Harker's chest.'

They peered at the piece of paper. It read:

The Josephine Diamonds will be delivered to me at a time and place to be later specified.
There will be no tricks. I have the bomb and I know how to detonate it. If the diamonds are not delivered as ordered, I will kill Lucy Harker and reduce the city of London to rubble. Instructions will follow.

M.

‘The Josephine Diamonds?' Jack said.

‘It's a necklace,' Scarlet said, ‘made up of six huge diamonds. I saw it on display once. It's very beautiful.'

‘It was once owned by the Empress Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon,' Mr Doyle explained. ‘It came into British hands early last century and is under lock and key in the Tower of London.'

‘And who is
M
?' General Churchill inquired.

‘He is known as Professor M,' Mr Doyle said. ‘He has been the greatest criminal mind in England for some time. He has no name. He has no face. Even his
nom
de plume
—Professor M—is spoken of in whispers. Few people have ever seen him and those that have never survive. Yet his hand has steered countless criminal enterprises over the last ten years.'

‘Are you sure he's real?' Joseph Bell queried.

‘He is real. Others do his dirty work while he hovers in the shadows like a ghost. He has been behind the deaths of dozens of people. He is my nemesis.'

Scarlet frowned. ‘So how will we track him down?'

Mr Doyle pursed his lips. ‘We have a number of clues. Jack and I will begin the investigation once we land.'

The airship had begun to cross the English countryside. The city of London lay ahead.

‘You can't do that alone,' General Churchill said.

‘They will not be alone,' Scarlet interjected. ‘I will be with them.'

‘What?' Mr Bell said. ‘Absolutely not.'

‘My dear, that's not possible,' Mr Doyle said.

Scarlet turned to her father. ‘I believe I have acquitted myself well in this situation,' she said. ‘You would probably be dead if I had not sought out Mr Doyle's assistance.'

‘That's true,' her father admitted. ‘But rushing into danger is foolhardy. And no place for a young girl.'

‘You have always encouraged me to follow my own path,' she said. ‘Isn't that correct?'

He admitted it was.

‘Then it is time I took those first steps.' Scarlet turned to Mr Doyle. ‘And surely a female perspective would help?'

‘That is true,' the detective said.

‘Father.' Scarlet turned to Mr Bell. ‘Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette, has said that men make the moral code and expect women to accept it. That men are encouraged to fight for their rights and liberties, but women are not. I must make my own way. I must be my own woman. I know there are dangers. But aren't there always dangers in life? And I will not face them alone. Jack and Mr Doyle will be at my side.'