The Revenge of the Mummy, Chapters 95-7

                                                              Chapter Ninety-Five

Inspector Bloodstone signaled the driver to stop.

Sherlock looked at him.

"I know of a way they may not suspect."

"This way." The Inspector told them, and they piled out of the back of the Constable's wagon and followed the Inspector as he led them through the back of the Highgate Cemetery, where there were no gates, just an abandoned series of buildings that abutted it.

"I learned of these during the Ghost Caper that you helped me with Sherlock."

Sherlock gave him a puzzled look.

"I mean the other...uh...sorry."

Sherlock nodded.

Conan and Challenger both felt memories flush their minds for a moment, then swept them away. There was work to be done.

Edison and Tesla tossed their devices into backpacks they had jury-rigged to carry over their shoulders, then Edison pulled out his tracking device. It immediately lit up and pointed the way.

As they made their way through the maze of deserted buildings, in a decrepit door hanging on rotting and rusting hinges of wood and metal, they scented fragrances that could only be found in the detritus of humanity, the cast off wastes that most produced, but cared little to discuss.

Conan and Challenger wrapped their mufflers about their noses to mute the sharp tang of the odors, while Edison and Tesla, both engrossed in the device leading them, barely noticed.

Sherlock's mind was on the hunt and no hint of death would stop him.

The Inspector and Constable Evans levered their service revolvers to be ready in their hands, then froze as the air shimmered ahead of them.

Sherlock's face broke into a mile.

"You did make it after all."

The shimmering diminished and Professor Langdon appeared. He had a rifle over his right shoulder and bags weighted with something no one could see, but he knew were deadly explosives, made in his own laboratory per Sherlock's instructions.

"Did you ever doubt I would?"The Invisible Man, Professor Langdon, said with a sharp smile that portrayed just the slightest hint of amusement and a brace of anger.

Sherlock put a hand on his arm. "You found him then?"

Professor Langdon didn't have to speak the answer. Sherlock read it in his eyes.

He turned to the Inspector. "Follow your course. We have another path to follow."

"But there is strength in numbers!" The Inspector declared.

"The Queen's Royal Guard should be in place by the time we all reach our goals."

He turned to Challenger and Conan. "You're with me."

Edison and Tesla looked up expectantly.

"Stay with the Inspector. He needs your protection."

"I'm not a helpless old man."

"Listen to Mister Holmes, father. He knows what he's doing." Constable Evans blurted out unexpectently.

The Inspector turned to look at him sharply. "Did you just say what I heard you..."

Constable Evans moved closer and searched the man's eyes. "I did my research. You have been very clever over the years to hide the tracks of your lineage to me, but I found it nevertheless, once the clues had been lain."

"Sherlock!"

Sherlock smiled at him. "We each have someone we love to protect. See that you two do as well."

Without another word he, Conan and Challenger split off and followed Professor Langdon who began to turn transparent, but only enough so that he wouldn't be easily seen, but enough so they could follow.

"When we're within fifty yards, you must go totally invisible." Sherlock insisted.

Professor Langdon began vanishing entirely.

Challenger caught Sherlock by the arm. "How shall we find where he's going then?"

Conan laughed. "Come on, Challenger. You're the big hunter. You've never tracked an animal before?"

Challenger blushed, then shoved past Conan and Sherlock and began following the footprints left by the Invisible Man, Professor Langdon.

                                                               Chapter Ninety-Six

A mongrel searching for scraps usually left behind by the Caretaker by his home, scented something that threw terror into his heart. He ran away, screaming in utter horror.

A moment later ground about the tiny building began to bulge and ripple like water during an massive rainstorm. Slowly, but steadily the building began to rise from its foundations. Even the very base of the building began to rise, as well as various cemetery stones and crosses about the building.

In a few moments the ground erupted, revealing a massive structure that was extremely polished and glowed an odd reddish color. Panels of red and green rotated about its rim, in and out of the earth dropping away from it.

Finally, a snake like hose tore through the building and the structure shattered, revealing the dome of a massive saucer shaped object and a huge snake like metallic hose with a lens of three colors at its tip that glowed faintly.

As it continued to rise it began to emit a high pitched humming sound.

For miles around every animal that could hear in that range of sound began to scream, holler and bark in terror.

                                                        Chapter Ninety-Seven

The golden beauty that was the Nautilus flowed beneath the towering waves high above it like a dolphin finning for home. It moved as swiftly as the most powerful of Tesla planes of that day, of which there were few, logging in nothing less than 90 nautical knots per hour.

James, Captain Nemo, Harry Houdini and Professor Moriarity stood in the nose of the sleep vessel, watching the view forward as the powerful atomic motors of the ship drove its powerful shape through the depths of the sea towards its target.

"This is an extraordinary vehicle, Captain. I commend you on its beauty. It is nothing short of splendid and marvelous." Professor Moriarity almost cooed to the Captain.

The Captain eyed his comrade, somewhat warily.

"Yes. I suppose it is."

"I could see why you would want to live beneath this vast body of water, with such a marvelous piece of machinery to carry you about. The places you must have seen, the extreme bursts of beauty and wonder."

Captain Nemo looked at Harry, who shrugged. "It does me well."

Harry felt this strange energy in his head, then reached into his pocket and took out a minature purple crystal. He gazed into it. "It's begun. We may be too late."

Captain Nemo raised the speaker tube near him to his lips. "More power, lads. We have a date with death!"

Cheers bellowed from the earpiece and about the ship as the might vessel leaped forward even faster.

James eyed Moriarity. "None of us might escape the coming war."

"Then so be it. I can't think of a better place to die than with..."

He started to finish his sentence, but could not.

And in that moment Captain Nemo he would die for this new Moriarity as well as James. He turned back to view their path and his mouth opened to reveal a smile that was almost carnivorous in its intensity. "I have no intentions of dying this day."