Part 74 - In the Serpent's Lair
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13th_sherlockby Soledad
CHAPTER 05 – THE SERPENT’S LAIR
Author’s note: This story takes place several weeks after “The Blind Banker” but before “The Great Game”.
PART 74 – IN THE SERPENT'S LAIR
One had to give the Doctor’s ex-companions one thing: they were ready to go in an amazingly short time when the need arose. Martha Jones and Mickey Smith came to the garage, armed and ready, less than ten minutes after Ianto had placed the call.
“If something or someone can switch between dimensions, projectile weapons are useless,” Mickey announced. “The projectiles are too slow. A high-energy taser, however, can interrupt the energy flow and prevent their escape.”
“And you just happen to have one of those on you,” Ianto said.
It wasn’t a question, and Mickey grinned ferally.
“That,” he declared, “has nothing to do with happenstances, Torchwood. It’s called being ready. All the time. Like the ruddy Boy Scouts.”
Ianto rolled his eyes but held back any comments concerning the fact that Mickey would never have made into the Boy Scouts to begin with. It wouldn’t have done any good. In some things Mickey was a lost case. Fortunately, in the more important things he was eminently useful.
“Orders, sir?” he asked instead.
“You and I are going to search Dr Roylott’s room,” Mycroft replied. “Dr Jones and Mr Smith will remain with Anthea and take apart that fake ventilator. I don’t like the sound of it; who knows what the man might be hiding there?”
“Couldn’t it be simply a means to channel poisonous gas into the room of Ms Morstan?” Martha asked. “That sealed window sounds suspicious, too, at the very least.”
“Only if he has the means of keeping the gas from getting back into his own room,” pointed out Ianto.
“Which is why we need to take the thing apart,” Mycroft said. “No, can we get on with it before the night is over?”
The others shut up obediently and filed out of the house. They took Ianto’s car, in the hope to avoid unwanted attention, and Martha suppressed a grin seeing how uncomfortable Mycroft appeared, folding his long limbs into the confined space. Not that the Audi would have been really that small – only compared with the sleek black vessels Mycroft regularly used.
“Sorry to cramp your style, sir,” deadpanned Ianto, who had noticed Mycroft’s discomfort as well, while sliding behind the steering wheel.
The glare the exiled Time Lord gave him would have made an entire platoon of Judoons quake in their boots. Ianto didn’t even blink; just smiled serenely.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They approached Dr Roylott’s house in a roundaway manner through side streets, while Mycroft kept contact with Anthea via Mummy, using his Gallifreyan communications device disguised as a common Blackberry. After arriving, they remained in the car until Mummy notified them that all security cameras in the house had been hacked and fed neutral images of the empty street.
“Be quick,” Mycroft instructed them, getting out first, glad for the chance to stretch his legs. “They might decide to go around in person and check on things from time to time.”
Following Mary’s previous instructions they found the back door of the house easily enough. In earlier times it must have been the servants’ entrance; what purpose it might serve now was everybody’s guess, considering that no-one was supposed to leave the house, ever – with the exception of Dr Roylott himself, of course.
According to this fact, the door was closed.
“Where’s a sonic screwdriver when you need one?” Martha muttered unhappily.
Mycroft gave him an offended look. ”Oh, for God’s sake, Dr Jones! Why on Earth would I stoop to the use of a sonic device?”
He took the beautiful fountain pen from his inner pocket and pointed at the door with it. The top of the pen began to glow in a soft golden light. The various locking mechanisms rattled for a moment as the keys turned and the latches snapped – and then the door opened with a barely audible creak.
Mickey whistled soundlessly. “That was cool, boss! What is this neat little gizmo anyway?”
“A simple quantum device,” Mycroft replaced the pen into his pocket. ”Shall we then?”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Following the plan, Mycroft sent Martha and Mickey to Anthea, while he and Ianto headed to Dr Roylott’s inner apartment. According to Mary’s intel, the man usually celebrated the evening prayer – or meditation or yoga exercises or whatever – with his followers at this time of the day. Said ceremony would last as long as three hours, and afterwards the doctor liked to spend some time alone with the one or other sect member in her private rooms. So they hopefully had the time to search those rooms thoroughly... if they did it quickly.
The door leading to this private sanctuary was not locked – nobody would dare to enter without invitation, most likely – and when they opened it, they saw in surprise that it was all one large room, separated by artfully painted wooden screens. It was airy and well-lit through two large windows, though these were obscured by floor-length curtains.
It was sparsely furnished, in a style that mixed traditional furniture with an Oriental flair. A low, rectangular bedframe – known in India as a charpa – stood in one corner, discretely screened, covered by a cashmere throw and a great deal of small, flat silk cushions in once brilliant yet now faded colours. An old-fashioned bureau with a matching armchair stood between the two windows, clearly serving as a desk.
The wall on the right was practically hidden behind the open bookshelves, artfully carved of dark, polished wood; the motifs spoke of Indian handiwork. Surprisingly enough, most books were of scientific or technical nature – not exactly what one would expect from a traditionalist ayurveda doctor.
There was a small, round table with a hookah, an Oriental water pipe positioned on it – and a large, old-fashioned iron safe on the left side of the bureau, screened off from the rest of the room. A beautiful, albeit faded Persian rug lay in the mostly empty middle of the room.
“Has Mary mentioned the safe?” Mycroft asked, scanning every piece of furniture with hi quantum pen.
Ianto, who was doing the same with his Torchwood-issue handheld device, nodded absent-mindedly.
“Apparently, this is where Dr Roylott keeps his business papers,” he replied.
“Has she ever seen it open?”
“Only once, some years ago; before the death of her mother. She remembers that it was full of papers.”
“Interesting,” commented Mycroft languidly.
Ianto raised an eyebrow. ”Is it? In what way, sir?”
“In the way that it emanates a high level of Artron energy,” Mycroft answered grimly. “Whatever it is that has contaminated Dr Roylott, is being kept in there.”
“I think we’re going to learn what that is very soon,” Ianto said, listening to the sound of heavy footsteps from the corridor. “He’s coming.”
“Behind the screen, quickly!” Mycroft hissed.
They barely had the time to hide behind one of the screens each when the door opened and Dr Grimesby Roylott walked in, leaning heavily on a bamboo walking stick.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
He looked very differently from the aggressive, imposing man that had visited (and threatened) Sherlock in 221B. His posture was slack, his face had an unhealthy pallor and he moved slowly, almost painfully... like a man twice his apparent age. He was muttering something under his breath in a language that sounded Hindi but beyond recognising it, Ianto didn’t understand (although he knew Mycroft did, due to his connection to Mummy), while all but dragging himself to the safe.
Ianto, hiding behind a screen within reach, held his breath.
With badly shaking hands, Dr Roylott pulled a key ring with only two keys out of his trouser pocket. It took him several attempts, but in the end he managed to unlock the safe.
“Come, come, my beauty,” he murmured, this time in English, and tossed the heavy iron door open with some difficulty. “Come and work your magic. Bring me new life, as you always do.” He then wobbled over to the armchair and practically collapsed in it.
From the safe, a strange creature emerged. It had a long, translucent, milky white, sinuous body – as long and thick as a man’s arm – with irregular silver speckles and the diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a serpent. However, it wasn’t like any serpent that had ever lived on Earth. It had no visible eyes, and the outline of its body flickered, as if its shape were not constant... or not fully solid.
Nonetheless, it could move around as smoothly and surely as any common reptile. It slithered lazily along the wall, then wound its way up the curtain cord that touched the floor, and vanished through the ventilator shaft opening into the late Julia Morstan’s room.
Mycroft uttered an oath in Gallifreyan and kicked the screen behind which he’d been hiding to the side.
“Watch the man!” he ordered Ianto. ”I think I know what we’re dealing with; and if I’m right, the others will need me.”
“Of course, sir,” Ianto replied calmly to the retreating back of his boss.
Then he took out his gun – a Torchwood-issue one, enhanced with alien technology – aimed at Dr Roylott and leaned causally against the open safe.
“Well, doctor,” he said with a bland smile. “It seems that it’s just you and me at the moment. I suggest that you behave peacefully. I have no intention to hurt you... unless you give me a reason, which would be very unwise.”
~TBC~
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Date: 2014-06-23 09:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-24 11:41 am (UTC)