The Guild Chronicles Books 1-3

by J M Bannon

  34

  Thursday the 5th of September, 1861

  8:20 P.M. Hawkin’s House, Paddington

  Rose heard jimmy shouting the whole way down the hall. She couldn’t concentrate on the ledgers she had from the air service. The desk was covered in endless lists of numbers, dates, and names of airships. She hadn’t even gotten to the Naval records that had been dropped off and still sat in a box. Those hadn’t yet been collated it was just stacks of wire-type sheets. What she had hoped would be a whiz-bang application of science only seemed to have created more work and confounded her.

  The doorknob turned, and Jimmy pushed in, “I need you to get after this, they got Ang Lo, and if this is the Dowager, then she won’t stop until she has eliminated everyone that ever worked for the Lo’s, meaning me!” said Jimmy giving Pāora the eye when it looked like the Maori was going to put his hands on the slight Asian.

  “Pāora, it’s alright,” said Rose standing up behind her desk, “What’s this talk of a dowager?”

  “She’s the one who has it out for the Lo’s. It’s a long story but they are long-time enemies, and this Dowager has powers and from what Ang told me she has followers with powers. He called them handmaidens, out to exact their mistresses’ revenge,” explained Jimmy, as he plopped down in the club chair across the desk from Rose.

  “Ang is dead?”

  “Yes, Chen came to find me after he checked in on where we have Ang hidden. Chen said he was dead, frozen!”

  Rose’s eyes darted from Jimmy to the documents scattered on her desk. Mentally she inventoried the situation, Jimmy wasn’t one to show weakness like this. Rose could still feel the terror from when she scryed Weng’s office. Jimmy was never one to ask for the help of others lightly, but Caiaphas was now at the head of an army of enslaved souls marching about in suits that she had a part in making. Rose knew that Caiaphas was on the move and who knows what he planned to do with an army of mechanist men and a soul siphon, “Let me bring in the police, Detective Burton needs to know. I’ve got so much on top of me I need some help,” said Rose.

  “There is no way. I’ll go hire my own wizard if you’re not going to help.”

  “Hire a Wizard? What you going to run an advert in the paper? Metaphysicist needed - battle ready to fight phantom dragons, please provide a reference,” said Rose.

  “You think that might work? What about in this circus you run? That big Pacific Islander got some tricks up his sleeve?” Jimmy retorted.

  Rose thought for a second. Anjelica would be her first pick, but Pāora and Enzo had a few tricks up their sleeves, “Jimmy, it’s time for you to go. I don’t want you corrupting any of these people, this is a safe place.” Her own words made her pause.

  She stood looking at him and assessed what might the best course would be.

  “As a matter of fact, you should stay here. This is as about as safe a place as you can be. The premises are warded against all types of magic, and to your point, anyone that may try to deliver a metaphysical attack would get a very deliberate response,” said Rose.

  She saw a calm wash over Jimmy.

  “It would only be for a few days, and I’ll lay low. I promise,” he offered.

  She was about to give him a dig about being afraid of ghosts but backed off. He was visibly concerned for his safety, and this was a guy who on any given day had two or three people that wanted him dead, “I’ll have Pāora prepare a room.”

  “What’s this, Sister?” said Jimmy pointing at the portal coordinate files she had been trying to interpret.

  “Oh, nothing just something I need to figure out.”

  “Ah, secret police business. I expect you to give me a warning if you’re coming after me,” said Jimmy smiling, “That just looks like some of my secret business; if you need help with numbers and shit like that, I got this guy who is a savant with that sort of kit.”

  Rose thought for a moment. After three hours of intense scrying she wasn’t able to extract any understanding with the Rod. She worried that as each moment passed, ill could befall Azul or Caiaphas would pop up somewhere with his army of undead.

  “Are you serious, he could make sense of this,” she said handing him one of the reams of paper.

  Jimmy looked at the pages then looked at her while he bit his lip, “let’s say hypothetically this gent Augustus DeMorgan, has access to a machine that calculates things very quickly and helps him see patterns in all those numbers you have there.”

  “How so?”

  “Well for example if you wanted to know the chance of a horse winning a race you could test those chances and if they didn’t quite fit with what a particular bookie thought you would have a pretty good chance at winning that wager,” said Jimmy.

  “Oh, Jimmy no—”

  “Don’t you chastise me. You build all kinds of shit that give people pause,” retorted Jimmy.

  “But what I do is to protect us against bad intent.”

  “Exactly, that's what I do, I am keeping all these shifty buggers legitimate. It’s a public service to keep the punters protected. Level playing field and all that.”

  Rose rolled her eyes, she had already heard too much. “I would like to meet with the fellow if he isn’t some criminal. This is a matter of the Crown, and as such, if they got wind I was working with you and some member of your gang who knows what trouble there would be.” Rose agreed.

  “Perfectly fine to have a witch on the payroll, but if an enterprising chink were to help Queen and country well that would get you and I both clapped in irons. Believe me, Sister, I have no interest in anyone knowing about my number loom any more than you want to tarnish your detective badge with our association. I’ll tell you what, let me go tell my driver that I’ll be hanging about here for a day or two and have him go collect my man,” said Jimmy.

  As Jimmy made his way to the door, he stopped, “One thing Rose, the fellow DeMorgan is a little queer about you and has a thing about spiritualism. He has been eager to meet you once I mentioned that you and I are acquainted. Expect him to fawn over you.”

  Rose was just about to say no then hesitated. She needed a break and Jimmy had delivered before.

  * * *

  9:45 P.M. Hawkin’s House, Paddington

  “Jimmy, I don’t mean to be rude, but would you mind stepping out,” said Rose.

  Jimmy was in a waistcoat and shirt sleeves fidgeting with the books in the office bookcase. He gave her a look, “Yes I do, it’s rude, and I’m bored to tears being here, I should at least be able to listen to this.”

  “Jimmy, it’s best you have as little to do with this as you can. I don’t want to tarnish the investigation,” said Rose.

  “If Augustus can help it’s only because of my introduction and likely some work he does on the loom, so it’s as much me helping as him,” said Jimmy.

  “Is it credit you want, or do you have something to contribute?” asked Rose.

  “As I said I’m in need of something to keep my interest.”

  “The whole idea of you staying here is to avoid excitement. You’re the one with rivals trying to murder you,” said Rose.

  Mr. DeMorgan was sitting in a chair across from Rose’s desk. A portly fellow with a gut that protruded and a silly smile on his face. His head turned back and forth with the interchange, “Mr. Lin are you in some danger? More to the point am I in some danger?”

  Jimmy stared at DeMorgan then turned to Rose. “Ok, I’m not welcome. Where should I go?”

  Rose rang a bell. A moment later Mrs. Ketchall came in.

  “Is there something you need Miss?” asked the housekeeper.

  “Yes, Mrs. Ketchall, could you please see if Mr. Lin needs anything to eat then get him settled in a room on the third floor, Azul’s old room would be good. Along the way, if you see Pāora ask him to give Mr. Lin a tour of the house, so he is comfortable. He will be staying with us for a few days,” Rose instructed.

  “I’ll tell you what Jimmy, have Mrs. Ketchall introduce you
to the young lass with the white hair. Ask her to read your fortune.”

  Jimmy gave her a cross look.

  “Really. If you’re concerned about your fate she might have some insight,” confirmed Rose.

  “Fine,” Jimmy said as he exited Rose’s office.

  “Now that we have some privacy Mr. DeMorgan ...”

  “Before we begin, I would say that if Mr. Lin is not inclined, I certainly will take the opportunity to talk with your spiritualist and learn what fate has in store for me,” said DeMorgan.

  “Let me see if Angelica has time. I shouldn’t be so forward as to commit her to such things, but I needed him out of here. Now let’s see if you can be of service, we are searching for a needle in a haystack, but we developed a needle location device, problem is all of this is what we have to sift through,” said Rose patting a stack of paper.

  He gave Rose a quizzical look.

  “A specific criminal we are looking to catch had created a device. This device allows a person to travel from one point to another over great distances instantly. Think of it like a door opening here that you could step through and be in Istanbul when your foot fell on the other side of the transom.”

  “This is an actual device?”

  “Yes,” confirmed Rose.

  “Amazing, tell me more,” said DeMorgan.

  “Some of my colleagues developed a device that can detect the signal. It gives us a general direction. We have been placing these devices on naval ships and airships traveling the world hoping with enough readings we could pinpoint the source. When readings are logged, they get wire-typed to our office in London. As you can see we now have these listings of times and signals with navigation readings of the host vessels. I can’t make heads or tails of this. I tried to use my gifts to derive a solution, but I guess I don’t know what question to ask to seek the answer. I was at the air service, and they had one man plotting the coordinates on a map. At the rate he was going I would be in the grave before he had something to look at.” said Rose.

  “What else can you tell me?”

  We know one location for sure, near Sheffield. I found a gate there, one conclusion the air service could make was that the frequency of the readings was up, and the duration of the use was increasing,” said Rose.

  “This is all helpful. Is there the possibility that we could activate the known gate to calibrate our readings?”

  “I suppose we could, but I was hoping this could have some more urgency to get answers in hours, not days or weeks. You see my friend has disappeared and there is a wake of dead bodies this culprit has left behind. I don’t know how much time before there is further loss of life,” said Rose.

  “Understood. You see, if there are patterns and I would argue with humans being involved there will be patterns, we will see them. I will tease out these patterns for you. I would be more confident of the results if I could confirm some reference points, but I will do my best,” said DeMorgan.

  He continued “I’ll need to take that data to ah —"

  “I don’t want to know,” said Rose turning away with a palm raised to DeMorgan.

  “Excellent because I don’t want to say, but rest assured that I will work to get this into some useful conclusions. May I collect these?” said DeMorgan, gesturing to the files on Rose’s desk.

  “Please, I’ll get Pāora to help you take the boxes out to the car.”

  “I’ll return as soon as I have some answers.” assured DeMorgan with a confident smile.

  35

  Friday the 6th of September 1861

  2:15 A.M. Hawkin’s House, Paddington

  The hour was early, and she had tried to sleep, but she tossed and turned in fits with recollections of the laboratory where mechanical men came to life, housing the tortured souls of that frontier town. Alfie wouldn’t be dead in some Tudor manor house if she didn't bring him into this world of hers. Rose wondered if he tried to stop Caiaphas and that resulted in his execution. She thought back further to her meeting her adversary in Italy and him taunting her, telling her that she was destined to play a part in his plan.

  Rose felt worn out, used and tricked. How could that old man, or the thing inside him be so smug and sure? Was his ploy to get her and Alfie to make vessels for him to fill with the souls he could control? Did he somehow know that the events would result in Alfie dying?

  Rose’s thoughts raced and she felt so powerless; a victim of fate. Here she stood more in tune with her gifts than ever before in a home she purpose-built to be a sanctuary from evil and yet she couldn’t think what to do next.

  She noticed out the bedroom window the arc lamps of a steam hack pulling up in front of the house. Two men were in front of the house, Jimmy’s men. There were more, she spotted another in the park and then movement in a steam carriage at the south end of the square. That put a smile on her face that the detective’s house was being guarded by one of London’s most powerful gangs.

  She recognized the fellow getting out of the hired carriage it was DeMorgan. Rose grabbed her robe and ran down the stairs.

  She ripped open the door just as Mr. DeMorgan reached for the door chime.

  “Come in,” Rose posed, ushering the man inside.

  He had a bundle of papers in a bear hug and was struggling to keep it from falling to the stoop.

  “Let me help you with that,” said Rose.

  “Thank you, and I do apologize for the hour, but you did want this as soon as I had the information,” said DeMorgan. He let out a deep relieving breath when she took the papers and smiled at Rose, “Well I have some excellent news.”

  “Please, share it,” said Rose

  DeMorgan walked in. Rose gestured him towards the study, “Excellent, I took the liberty to map out the points after triangulating readings based on times, and I am certain that I have the source location. The map is at the top of that bundle.”

  Rose followed DeMorgan into her study a plopped down the stack of files. He unfolded his map covered in notations and lines. His finger went right down onto Westminster.

  “The source of your Nexus is right here in London. How crafty your adversary is to locate the contraption right under our noses here,” said DeMorgan.

  When she looked at the spot, she was deflated.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry Mr. DeMorgan, I left out a critical piece of information, but only did so out of the need for the Empire’s secrets, we have reconstructed the device, and Her Majesty’s Navy operates it from the clock tower. I’m so sorry did I stuff up all this work?” said Rose.

  Rubbing his chin, and furrowed his brow “That would have been good to know, that really confuses matters — greatly,” said DeMorgan,

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So many of the readings overlap with the operation of the Westminster location. It just made sense that it was the nest of your villains. In fact, the latest readings almost always have common operation times,” said DeMorgan.

  “How can that be? That gate has only been used a handful of times and right now the only connection point is to Greenwich,” said Rose.

  “Only Greenwich eh,” DeMorgan mused as he worked through a ream of paper. He pulled out reading glasses and reviewed the sheet, “so, five times, actually.”

  “I would have to check with the service to be sure, but that sounds right,” said Rose.

  “The Greenwich signature was logged five times, but the Westminster signal has been logged twenty-seven, and those other twenty-two instances align with the signal of a location in Rome. This Rome location has instances that coincide with your Sheffield location. There are several other places, but those are the most significant clusters I had identified by my analysis,” said DeMorgan.

  He then asked, “can we confirm with the Admiralty and the logs of use?”

  “Burton and I can go over in the morning and inquire,” said Rose.

  “And tip them off?”

  Rose and DeMorgan both looked up to see Jimmy in a silk sleeping gown.
>
  “What are you doing up?” asked Rose.

  “I don’t sleep much, and an unfamiliar bed does not help,” said Jimmy.

  “That is a handsome dressing gown Mr. Lin, may I inquire where you procured the garment?” asked Mr. DeMorgan.

  Jimmy gave DeMorgan a cold stare, “It's imported.”

  “I would expect no less, the fabric clearly not of local manufacture,” said DeMorgan.

  “Where did you get that Jimmy?” asked Rose.

  “Hong Kong, alright are we all clear on where to procure quality sleepwear. Should I get one for you when I get DeMorgan his?” asked Jimmy.

  “No, I meant where did you get the extra clothes, those clothes?” asked Rose.

  Jimmy’s left eyebrow scrunched as if he was in pain, “Was I supposed to sleep in my shirtsleeves? I sent my man to get me a bag.”

  Jimmy stepped in and continued, “Augustus, I expect you to be dense about human nature, it is your shortcoming. I suspect all those number smarts pushed the common sense out, but you witch lady, you're smarter than this. You’re spending too much time with your peeler mates, and so you are thinking like them.”

  Rose took offense to the comment. Jimmy was brusque on a good day, and he was a crook, but this was her house, her office. She glared back with her arms crossed, “If you’re here to insult me, then you and your silk nightgown can go upstairs, breakfast is at seven.”

  “I’m helping. You’re standing next to my guy, who used my number loom to decipher in mere hours what you and the navy couldn’t figure out in weeks. The sooner you get your mind off of this,” Jimmy waved his hand at the paperwork, “the sooner you can get to helping me deal with my problems.”

  Rose relaxed a bit. He was a help.

  “From what I heard, sounds like you have someone on the inside. Someone on your side is helping the other side. Come on Rose don’t be a fool, there are two penny pickpockets in the city who have constables on the payroll. You know what Ang told me? The reason he was able to build his illegal enterprise was that he led the country’s law enforcement. The Emperor’s top constable was also the biggest gangster.”