by Guy d'Armen
Natas pressed another button, and shortly thereafter Pao Tcheou appeared from the elevator hidden behind the bookcases.
“Put him with the others. We are almost done here,” Natas said.
Pao Tcheou bowed deeply.
Ardan, Louise and Justine sat in a dank cell deep below Natas’ throne room.
“Louise…” Doc had just awakened from the blow to his head.
“Francis,” Louise asked with concern, “are you all right?”
“Yes, there does not appear to be any permanent damage.”
“I gave you a quick once-over while you were still out, and I agree. Although I have to say this is obviously not the first time you’ve taken such a blow to the head. Or elsewhere, given all those scars.”
Doc looked uncomfortable, and shrugged slightly, but didn’t say anything.
“Thank you for coming.”
Doc finally looked up and took in Louise’s milky complexion and raven hair. Memories and emotions buried for 20 years came swirling back unbidden, but he quickly suppressed them. “Thus far, my presence here has been unproductive,” Doc said ruefully.
“But you came. So thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Ardan looked over at Justine. Her eyes, swirling with gold-flecks, stared blankly into nothingness. “Is that…?”
“Yes. That is Justine. She appears to be hypnotized. They brought her back half an hour ago in this state, and she hasn’t come out if it. I’ve examined her, and she appears to be unharmed, but nothing I do or say elicits a response.”
There was an awkward silence, broken only by the incessant sound of water dripping outside the cell door.
Finally, Doc said, “I respected your wishes. I stayed away from you after Tibet. I didn’t realize it was because we had a daughter.” There was a hint of anger in his voice, although his face remained a bronze mask.
“I had hoped to spare Justine from incidents just like this one by raising Justine alone. You were prepared, trained in that strange program your father arranged, to fight evil all over the world. That is no life for a wife and daughter, and who was I to try to dissuade you from what you had spent your whole life preparing for?”
“Perhaps if I had known, I would have made a different decision.”
“That is easy to say,” Louise flared, “but it is rather less easy to overcome a lifelong program of indoctrination. Your path was set. It didn’t include me. I missed you, and occasionally wondered… But I have not pined away for how it could have been. Justine and I have a good life, happy, safe and healthy. And from all the news accounts, and all the stories I’ve heard over the years of the people you’ve helped, I think things turned out the way they were supposed to.”
Doc was quiet for a bit. Then, he ventured, “Many of those accounts are drastically exaggerated.”
“Nevertheless.” Louise was firm.
“Yes. Nevertheless.” Ardan inhaled, exhaled deeply. “I had another child once, a son. Before we met.”
“You never told me.”
“No… It didn’t turn out well.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You needn’t be.” Ardan looked over at Justine, noting her coppery blonde hair and bronzed skin. “She is a beautiful young woman. And intelligent. Her scientific reputation precedes her.”
He paused, and then looking back to Louise, told her, “You’ve done a wonderful job raising her. You made the right decision.”
Louise took Ardan’s hand in hers and squeezed it, smiling. Then she took him in her arms. “Thank you, Francis,” she whispered.
At a slight moan, they both looked over at Justine, who started to come out of her trance.
“Justine, Justine. Are you all right?” As the girl nodded, Louise went over to her. “This is my… colleague, Doctor Ardan.”
“How do you do, Doctor Ducharme,” Doc said formally. “How do you feel?”
“I feel very well, thank you. As if I have slept for hours….” She stretched.
“What happened in the laboratory?” Louise asked.
“I don’t remember… We went to the lab. There were several men there, all in white coats. One gave me a brief physical exam, and took a tissue sample, which I thought was odd. Then he gave me an injection. The next thing I remember, I woke up here with you.”
“Clearly,” Ardan interjected, “Natas’ men have managed to extract the information they wanted while you were under. Why else return you here so quickly? He must be stopped. Now that Justine is awake, we can leave.”
“How do you suggest we do that?” Louise asked. “Shall we just ring for the porter and tell him we’re ready to check out?
Without answering her directly, Doc unloosed his belt, aimed the buckle at the heavy cell door, and depressed a tiny switch. After about 30 seconds of this, while the two women stared at Ardan and began to doubt his sanity, the door latch started to glow with heat. Doc aimed a massive kick at the latch and the door flew open. He glanced at Louise expectantly, with one eyebrow raised ever-so-slightly–a habit he had also picked up from his old master M. Senak–and gestured for the two women to follow.
“I withdraw the question,” Louise said.
Unhindered, the three traversed several maze-like corridors of the abandoned dairy underneath the clinic before they finally found the elevator’s lower entrance. When they emerged on the top level from behind the hidden bookcase, Natas’ throne room was deserted, save for the telltale hint of ozone.
Doc went over to the teleporter apparatus in the corner and examined it. Looking closely at the rematerialization settings, he noted that they were set for latitude and longitude coordinates which were across the globe. In China.
Doc, Louise and Justine emerged from clinic onto the Rue Mouffetard, and introductions were exchanged with Inspector Maigret. Ardan was quiet, reflecting that their escape was too simple. However, before Ardan could bring Maigret up to speed with the details of their ordeal, the call box outside the erstwhile clinic rang.
Ardan exchanged glances with the other three, and then walked over and picked up the receiver.
“Oui?”
A familiar mechanical voice recited, “Important message for the Doctor. Important message for the Doctor. Important message–”
“This is the Doctor.”
Once again, a click indicated recognition of Doc’s voice, and another wax cylinder in his New York headquarters carried its message over the Atlantic.
“Greetings, Doctor Ardan! I wished to set your mind at rest that, despite your interference in my affairs, I have extracted the information I needed from Mademoiselle Ducharme. The teleporter can now be aimed much more accurately and at much longer distances, as you no doubt saw when you examined my equipment. No, do not bother attempting to follow me, the apparatus has already self-destructed in the time it has taken you to evacuate the clinic and receive this message. And to further ensure that you do not attempt to follow me, I have arranged a further distraction for you, which, I assure you, you will ignore at your peril.
“I also pledge to you that Mademoiselle Ducharme will remain unmolested by me in the future. Please convey to Justine, and to her mother, my deepest regrets at inconveniencing them, and my warmest regards. They are both the finest examples of their gender, and come from excellent stock, as you well know. I have nothing but the highest admiration for them both. And for you, my dear Doctor. Goodbye.”
The line clicked off and Doc hung up the telephone. He conveyed the gist of Natas’ message to the two women and the Inspector. Natas’ statement about Ardan interfering in his affairs struck him as strange, in this instance. Ardan had really done nothing substantial in terms interfering with Natas’ plans and rescuing the two women, and yet Natas clearly wanted him to think he had. Why?
Nonetheless, Ardan kept his lingering doubts to himself. Instead, he told the two women that he had been considering a semi-retirement from his life of adventuring, in order to focus more of his energies on scientific research. He concl
uded by cautiously suggesting that he visit Louise and Justine when they had more time to become better acquainted. Louise looked skeptical, but Justine was enthusiastic.
“Yes, Doctor, I would like that. In fact, I would very much appreciate your input on a new area of research I’ve been contemplating with my British colleague, Dr. Rushton. It may be that in addition to teleporting objects from place to place, we can actually dematerialize them at one end of the process, and rematerialize them at a different size.”
“The laws of physics–”
“Yes, yes, and just a few years ago conventional wisdom dictated that we would never exceed the speed of sound. The laws of physics state that objects cannot travel faster than light, and yet I firmly believe that as we learn more about the universe, the laws of physics will be rewritten to account for practical interstellar travel. Given your own inventions and scientific discoveries, and what we have seen today with that fiend Natas’ teleporter, how can you disagree?” Justine challenged.
“In truth, I cannot,” Ardan admitted.
“Very good. Now, if we can attain a practical means of rematerializing objects wholly intact, but at a much smaller size, why the possibilities for surgery, engineering–”
“Doctors, Doctors, please!” interjected Maigret. “There will be plenty of time later for these discussions. Right now I must insist that you all accompany me to headquarters, where I must take your statements and file a report on the kidnappings.”
Ruefully, the three scientists agreed, and started to move toward Maigret’s vehicle.
The call box on the Rue Mouffetard jangled again.
Doc raced back and picked up the phone.
“Doc, Doc, is that you?” a high-pitched male voice squeaked.
“Yes, you’ve tracked me down.”
“Well,” the squeaky voice continued, “it wasn’t tough with that phone-tracker thing you invented. Lissen, anyway, Doc, you’ve got to get back here, quick! Somethin’s up in Port City, just up the coast from Innsmouth. Some kinda creature washed ashore, complete with gills and scales and webbed feet and bulging eyes. Johnny’s up there now, and even he can’t identify it for sure. Best he can say is it’s some kinda amphibian frog-thing.”
“All right, Mo–”
“Hang on, Doc, there’s more! There’s some nutjob up there, calling himself Doctor Ariosto! He’s stirring up the local Chinese immigrants with stories about this frog-boy, and it ain’t helpin’ that some of them are starting to disappear without a trace. Me and the boys are heading up there now! Lissen, Doc, where are you, anyway?”
“Go up to Port City to check it out. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can,” Doc said, and he hung up.
The distraction, Doc thought. He turned to Maigret. “I need to get back to Villacoublay airfield right away. Can you drive me, Inspector?”
Epilogue: Honan, 1951
Doctor Natas’ eyes were heavy-lidded and opaque in the darkness of his reception chamber, which was only dimly lit by a few inadequate flickering sconces. The room was redolent with the fragrance of jasmine from a single cone of incense burning in a jade brazier.
Pao Tcheou’s light footsteps padded quietly across the stone-tiled floor and stopped in front of Natas. He waited patiently for Natas to acknowledge his presence.
Natas’ green-flecked eyes glistened as their nictitating membranes slid back. “Well?”
“Success, Master. As you know, after instigating the growth of a clone from the cultures and samples we took from Mademoiselle Ducharme in Paris, that madman Caresco was able to stimulate the clone’s rapid growth to child-bearing age.”
“Yes,” Doctor Natas reflected, “Doctor Caresco may be mad, and his resistance is growing, but he remains under my control, for the time being. We shall dispense with him shortly. And the clone… That magnificent example of the female of the species has been scientifically selected from all the women of the world. And not only selected, but bred, by me. These Westerners are so charmingly predictable. It was frightfully easy to place her parents together in a situation which caused them to gravitate toward each other, so many years ago. Going back generations, Justine Ducharme had better breeding than one could have hoped for, even through a purposeful eugenics program. Justine Ducharme is among the most perfect women, both intellectually and physically, in the entire world. And so is her clone.”
“It was a stroke of genius to cause Ardan to believe that once he had rescued the two women the matter was concluded,” Pao Tcheou said.
“Yes,” Natas agreed, “despite the vast resources at my disposal, I had no wish to suffer the ongoing distraction of making a permanent enemy of Ardan by kidnapping his daughter. His daughter’s clone is more than sufficient, and Ardan need never know the truth.”
Doctor Caresco entered the far end of the chamber and approached Doctor Natas and Pao Tcheou.
“Speak!” Natas commanded.
Doctor Caresco’s face gleamed with dementia and the strain of continually trying to fend off Natas’ controlling drugs. “As you know, Pao Tcheou successfully impregnated the clone of Mademoiselle Ducharme. The pregnancy has come to term successfully. The baby girl is strong and healthy.”
“I am pleased,” said Natas. “The girl will be called Ducharme, in honor of her ‘mother’ and ‘grandmother.’ She shall be prepared for a life in my service.”
“Yes,” replied Caresco, his voice thick with resistance, “the experiment has been a complete success. Justine’s clone will be ready for you after she has recovered.”
“How long?”
“Most likely, in a few weeks.”
“Excellent. For 24 years, ever since I brought together Ardan and Louise Ducharme, two of the finest physical and mental examples of humanity who have ever lived, I have worked toward this moment. The result of their breeding, combined with my own mental perfection, shall culminate in the greatest living weapon ever created! The finest genetic background, combined with my eugenics expertise… My son will be a great avenger, whose spirit shall rise and advance over the West, striking without warning, and executing my will and vengeance wherever and whenever I see fit.
“And then…” Doctor Natas smiled diabolically, “the world shall hear from me again!”
Credits
The Midas Menace
Also Starring:
Francis Ardan Sr.
Josephine Balsamo
The Minions of Midas
Grace Dunbar Gibson
Iverton
Jack Smith
J. Neil Gibson
Victor Savage
Culverton Smith
James Moriarty
The Black Coats
Black Gulf Canyon Gang
Aloysius Doran
Count of Monte-Cristo
Francis Ardan Sr.
Mrs. Ardan
Long Island Cave
Palais-Metropole Hotel
Ahaggar
Created by:
Guy d’Armen & Lester Dent
Maurice Leblanc
Jack London
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Machen
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Paul Féval
Arthur Machen
Arthur Conan Doyle
Alexandre Dumas
Guy d’Armen & Lester Dent
Guy d’Armen & Lester Dent
Arthur Conan Doyle
& Robert J. Hogan
Frank L. Packard
Pierre Benoit
The Biggest Guns
Also Starring:
Hans Von Hammer
J.T. Maston
Lord John Roxton
Pamela Thibault
Biggles
Andrew Blodgett Mayfair
Theodore Marley Brooks
Created by:
Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert
Jules Verne
>
Arthur Conan Doyle
Lester Dent & Pierre Saurel
W.E. Johns
Lester Dent
Lester Dent
The Star Prince
Also Starring:
The Little Prince
Created by:
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Dreadful Conspiracy
Also Starring:
Inspector Ménardier
Berthelaux
Andrew Blodgett Mayfair
Theodore Marley Brooks
Monsieur Ferval
Jules de Grandin
Judex
Leclerc
Ivana Orloff
M. Ming (The Yellow Shadow)
The Shin Tan
Inspector Pujol
Inspector Terrasson
William Harper Littlejohn
John Renwick
Thomas J. Roberts
Judge Coméliau
Doctor Lyndon Parker
The Si Fan
Anton Zarnak
Chantecoq
Chevalier Auguste Dupin
Comtes de Boehm-Orloff
Commissaire Valentin
Doctor Septimus
The Mega Wave
The Depository Bank of Zurich
Created by:
Arthur Bernède
Vincent Jounieaux
Lester Dent
Lester Dent
Arthur Bernède
Seabury Quinn
A. Bernède & L. Feuillade
based on Dennis E. Power
based on Henri Vernes
Henri Vernes
Henri Vernes
Claude Desailly
Claude Desailly
Lester Dent
Lester Dent
Lester Dent
Georges Simenon
August Derleth
Sax Rohmer
Lin Carter
Arthur Bernède
Edgar Allan Poe
Paul Féval
Claude Desailly
Edgar P. Jacobs
Edgar P. Jacobs
Dan Brown
Ardan at the Pole
Also Starring:
Hareton Ironcastle
