Moriarty- The Road

by Jack Spain

  ‘I need a confirmation of that order,’ Nemed replied.

  ‘Deal with him and return to base,’ replied the King. Nemed sat back and looked over at Morphu who was shuddering with terror in the back of the cage. There was a long silence before the voice of the King filled the cave.

  ‘I need a mobile-phone number for the hill to contact Bruan,’ he said.

  Nemed told him the number and confirmed that he understood his orders. He was to deal with, Morphu, and return to base.

  The King had one more message for Nemed.

  ‘Nemed. I’m sorry to inform you that the information you provided on your last mission has been confirmed. It was him. He’s back.’

  ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘Exactly like you said, Nemed. War is coming, so come on home, OK?’

  He hung up the phone and sat in silence for a moment before flipping the phone over and taking the battery out. He then carefully removed the sim card from the phone and placed it in his knapsack, all the time watched by Morphu who was rushing from side to side, trying to escape from the cage. Nemed put the bandages and habit into the knapsack and then changed into a pair of black boots. He took the Comither magazine from his belt, snapped out one vial and placed the rest into the bag. He then leaned against the wall of the small cave and slumped down onto the ground. There he sat awhile, staring at the terrified Morphu in his cage. At one point, Morphu stopped and looked at Nemed, eye to eye, as if to plead for his life, but Nemed had very cold eyes that betrayed no emotion.

  A moment later, Nemed stood up and took a sword from his back. He approached the cage and, in one violent swipe, he cut through the wire and string that held the cage door in place. Morphu made a last desperate dash for freedom but he was too slow. Nemed tripped him up and jumped on his back.

  Morphu struggled to get away. He felt Nemed grab the bandage around his neck but, instead of cold steel sword slicing into his throat, he felt a warm burning sensation.

  Nemed poured the Comither under Morphu’s collar and, a few seconds later, he stopped struggling.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Nemed said. ‘I don’t kill innocents. I confirmed only that I would deal with you, not that I would kill you.’

  Morphu turned to look at him as the Comither took full effect and then Nemed gave him his instructions. ‘You are no longer a servant of Balor. You are free. Run away from this place and the hill and hide, and never come back.’

  Nemed stood up and Morphu rolled over onto all fours. The Comither would ensure that he never betrayed Nemed. Morphu looked at the man for a moment before being overcome by fear and scurrying up a branch and out of the cave. Nemed watched him go and then picked up his knapsack and followed him out.

  Nemed began to walk across the fields in the direction of the Ox Mountains. He walked for hours, contemplating all sorts of things, muttering to himself as he went. Eventually he stopped, with a sudden realisation. He had taken the battery out of the phone in the hill. It was still in the cave with his phone. His King would not be able to call King Bruan and get him to go somewhere else. Unless he replaced the battery, they would all end up at Carrickhill.

  Nemed spun around and began to run back to the tree as quickly as he could. As he did, the sun began to peek above the horizon.

  Trapped

  Nemed wasted no time at all in getting back to the tree and retrieving the battery. It was now daylight and a very dangerous time to be out. He could be seen by early-morning birds and animals and would make a tasty treat. Nonetheless, he bundled the battery into the knapsack slung his over his shoulder. With no time to lose, he peered out from the cave under the tree and, when he was sure that the path was clear, he ran out and made his way over the ridge of the hill where he stopped to work out a safe route.

  From the top of the hill, he could see the roadworks in the distance, the sliced-loaf rock, the small lake, the bridge and the hill. He was able to make out the roof of Old Man Grogan’s house, with smoke coming out of the chimney. There were already cars on the road which was going to make things harder. He pulled the knapsack a little tighter to his back so that it wouldn’t bounce while he ran and took off down the long sloping hill to the road. As he ran, he cursed the situation that he found himself in. At one point, he resolved that he should just dump the battery and leave King Bruan to his own devices, but orders were orders and if he were to prevent them from going to Carrickhill, this was his only chance.

  Moriarty sat on his bed in his little stone hut for what he believed was the last time. As he sat, he fed the fire with his posters of pop stars and musicians, looking at each in turn, sighing, and then crumpling it up and throwing it in. All of his worldly belongings other than furniture were tightly packed into a backpack. There was a knock at the door. Moriarty looked up and yelled that it was open.

  Much to his surprise, the Captain of the Guard walked in. Moriarty threw the last of the posters onto the bed beside him and stood up. The Captain glanced at him and then closed the door and took off his beret. He stood up very straight and looked at Moriarty who was more than a little bemused by the visit.

  ‘Tough job,’ began the Captain. ‘Having to throw out hundreds of years of memories.’

  Moriarty nodded but continued to look bemused. The Captain walked over and stood right in front of Moriarty. Moriarty exhaled quietly and prepared himself for a dressing down over the injured soldier.

  ‘My men are very important to me,’ the Captain continued.

  Here it comes, Moriarty thought to himself.

  ‘And as such ... what I want to say is ... um ...’

  ‘I’m sorry that one of them was hurt,’ Moriarty said slowly, hiding impatience.

  ‘Me too,’ the Captain replied. ‘But I’d be a hell of a lot sorrier if you had not been there to tackle that dog. I just had a debriefing with the other men. They wouldn’t hear a bad word said about you. You know, it’s funny. Yesterday they couldn’t say a good word about you. Nonetheless, it was a crazy, idiotic and incredibly foolhardy thing that you did and, in normal circumstances...’

  The Captain paused a moment and pulled a sword and sheath from around his shoulder. He presented them to Moriarty.

  Moriarty was surprised and almost reluctant to take them. He stepped back and looked at the Captain.

  ‘But these are not normal circumstances,’ the Captain continued. ‘So what you did was extremely brave and heroic. It takes a special kind of person to risk his life for someone else, especially for someone who has spent so much of his life deriding you, and you know you gave them a lot of reasons to deride you in the first place.’ He paused again, before returning to the point. ‘In recognition of this, the unit and I have decided to honour you. As we don’t have medals or things, and we figured you wouldn’t like flowers, we decided to give you this as a token of our appreciation. It’s brand new. I understand that you lost yours at the yard.’

  Moriarty was speechless. He didn’t know what to say but muttered some words of thanks.

  The Captain nodded and told him that thanks were not necessary.

  Moriarty took the sword and slid it halfway out of the sheath. It was shiny and new, simple, but slightly ornate. The Captain walked to the door and then turned around.

  ‘I really don’t know if I deserve this,’ Moriarty said. ‘I’ve been a pain in the backside to you guys for over a hundred years.’

  The Captain looked back and smiled. ‘Aye, that’s true. You are a pain in the backside, young Moriarty. However, you are our pain in the backside, and that makes all the difference.’

  ‘Thanks,’ was all Moriarty could think of saying and the Captain left and closed the door. Moriarty sat back down on the bed and looked at the sword.

  Nemed paused for breath at Grogan’s gate. He was panting very heavily. He still had to navigate his way back to the hill without setting off the alarms, and to compound it all, he had to reassume the guise of Morphu. Reluctantly he pulled back his hood and wrapped the bandages around his face
. After one last look to make sure that the coast was clear, he climbed through a gap in the iron gate, and began to run down the driveway. Before long, he had cut back through the hedge in front of Grogan’s house and was on his way up the hill to the secret entrance.

  Seamus was still standing guard on the entrance and waiting to be relieved. The whole hill was in pandemonium as people packed their belongings into hastily created backpacks and carts for the journey. A line of carts already loaded with belongings stretched from the entrance, across a courtyard, and all the way to the King’s residence. Seamus looked at the village clock and then at the alarm board which had one flashing light. There was something in the entrance tunnel.

  ‘Bother,’ he said to himself as he spun around and stood ready to challenge anything that came in, half-expecting it to be a lost mouse. Instead he was confronted by the shadowy figure of what looked like Morphu running through the tunnel. Seamus wouldn’t normally have challenged Morphu but on this occasion, having no memory of Morphu’s having left the hill, he stood in his way.

  ‘Halt!’ he yelled, holding a hand in front of him. Nemed skidded to a halt right in front of Seamus.

  ‘What have you got in that bag?’ Seamus demanded.

  Nemed didn’t know what to do so he pulled the heavy knapsack off his back and laid it on the ground for Seamus to have a look. Seamus was suspicious so he knelt down to open the bag. As he did so, Nemed pulled a magazine of Comither from his pocket and pointed it at Seamus. However, the magazine was empty.

  Seamus pulled open the knapsack to reveal the battery inside. He looked up. ‘What are you doing with this battery in your—’

  The guard was unable to finish. Nemed had caught him with a karate chop to the neck and knocked him out.

  Having quickly looked around to ensure that nobody had seen anything, Nemed dragged the unconscious Seamus into the tunnel, out of sight. Then, as fast as he could, he ran through the courtyard, with the battery in the knapsack. He turned a corner and could see the telephone hut. It was unguarded. He paused to take a deep breath and immediately felt a hand on his shoulder.

  Nemed swung around to find himself face to face with Balor.

  ‘There you are,’ the druid exclaimed. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’

  Nemed froze to the spot. Balor was the last person he wanted to see at that moment. Having racked his brains for a way to deal with him, he decided on a strategically placed karate chop to the neck, to knock him out.

  Balor bent down to pick something up and Nemed was just about to strike when two men carrying a bed walked by. Balor stood up, holding a heavy rucksack, and was surprised to see what he thought was Morphu holding his hand up above his head.

  Nemed didn’t know what to do so he slowly lowered his hand and scratched the back of his head.

  Despite thinking that this was curious, Balor nonetheless handed the heavy rucksack to Nemed. There was a clinking noise as Nemed took it and he peered down to see what was inside.

  ‘It’s the Comither concentrate,’ Balor told him. ‘We need to set it up around the hill. Finish what you were doing and bring it to Moriarty. He has the detonators. I’ll just set up the wiring.’

  Balor ushered him on his way towards Moriarty’s house. This was not the direction Nemed wanted to go in at all.

  Balor watched Morphu for a moment and thought that there was something peculiar about him, which he put down to the fact he was now carrying two bags. He momentarily wondered what was in the knapsack on his back but decided it must be Morphu’s belongings, or just carrots. Conscious of the need not to waste any time, the druid turned around and quickly headed off towards his hut.

  Nemed kept looking back to see if Balor was watching and when he was sure that the druid was gone, he ducked down another lane to his right and tried to double back to the telephone hut. However, he found every lane he turned into blocked by people and their belongings. The narrow alleyways of the village had become his worst enemy. To compound it all, he caught a glimpse of Seamus coming back down from the entrance. Nemed felt like a rat trapped in a maze, trying to find his way out as part of some experiment. He just wanted to get to the telephone hut.

  Balor was thinking about another matter as he picked up the coil of wire that he was going to use to detonate the Comither concentrate. It was as he pulled out a small strand that he suddenly realised what had bothered him about Morphu.

  Balor was overcome by a sense of dread when he realised that he had just handed the whole supply of Comither concentrate to Morphu.

  He ran back to where he had left him, as fast as his little legs could take him. When he got there, he found Seamus nursing a sore neck and looking about himself.

  ‘What happened to you?’ Balor asked, but without waiting for a reply proceeded to ask the guard if he had seen Morphu.

  ‘Why, if I get my hands on the ... the dirty rat. He knocked me out,’ Seamus exclaimed.

  ‘Knocked you out? Why? What did you do to him?’

  ‘Nothing. He came back into the hill with a bag and when I looked inside, he knocked me out.’

  ‘What was in the bag?’ the druid asked, concerned.

  ‘It was only a battery,’ Seamus complained. ‘He had no reason to do hit me, the stupid zombie.’

  ‘A battery? What sort of battery?’ Balor asked, shaking Seamus.

  ‘A white one with a hologram ... and stop shaking me. I have a sore neck.’

  Balor stopped shaking Seamus and the two men looked at each other. Then they both had the same idea and turned to look down the alleyway at the telephone hut. They were just in time to see what they thought was Morphu disappearing inside.

  ‘Telephone battery,’ the two little men said in unison.

  Balor and Seamus immediately began to run down the alleyway towards the telephone hut, pushing people and their belongings out of the way and leaving even more consternation in their wake.

  Moriarty had just burnt the last of his old belongings when he became aware of the commotion outside. He picked his new sword up off the bed and walked to the door. When he opened it, he saw a few people running down the alleyway. A crowd had formed at the end. Thinking that this was very curious, he went outside and walked up the alleyway, pushing his way to the front where he found Balor and Seamus arguing about who was to go into the telephone hut first.

  ‘Who do you want to call?’ Moriarty asked innocently.

  ‘Nobody,’ Balor replied in hushed tones. ‘Morphu is in there.’

  ‘Oh good,’ Moriarty replied innocently. ‘Has he got the Comither concentrate?’

  ‘Comither concentrate?’ Seamus was startled. ‘You mean he has explosives? In that case, Balor, you had better go in there first.’

  ‘What is going on?’ Moriarty demanded.

  ‘Morphu is in the telephone hut with a battery and the Comither concentrate,’ Balor told him. ‘I don’t suppose you have any idea what he is after?’

  There were mutterings of the phrase ‘explosives’ from the crowd.

  ‘Why don’t I go and ask him?’ Moriarty said as he pushed his way through and walked towards the hut. Balor and Seamus looked at each other and then looked back down the alleyway which was now completely deserted.

  ‘They must have overheard us talking about explosives,’ Balor suggested. He turned back to the telephone hut just as Moriarty disappeared through the door.

  The telephone hut was quite dark inside. The curtains had been closed and Moriarty found Nemed putting the back on the telephone and swinging it around to replace on the chair that held it upright.

  ‘Who are you calling, Morphu?’ Moriarty said calmly.

  Nemed was startled and spun around but, on seeing who it was, sighed with relief. He put his hands up as if to say it was nothing important and then bent down and picked up the Comither concentrate. He threw the strap of the bag over his shoulder and began to walk towards Moriarty.

  ‘You know, Morphu,’ Moriarty said as he held up a hand to st
op Morphu. ‘Balor doesn’t think you are really Morphu.’

  Nemed froze on the spot. Somehow he had been rumbled. Moriarty wasn’t dumb, and, unlike the rest of the little people in the hill, he was fast, very fast. A karate chop would not work here. Nemed reached up and pulled the bandages from around his eyes revealing his own white hair and the black bandana around his face. He then pulled the hood of the habit clear of two sword handles protruding slightly over each shoulder.

  ‘I have no quarrel with you, Moriarty,’ he said. ‘Let me go and I’ll do you no harm.’

  ‘Where is Morphu? What have you done with him?’

  ‘I let him go. He is completely unharmed.’

  ‘He hasn’t come back,’ Moriarty replied. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Wandering out there somewhere. He has no memory of this hill anymore.’

  ‘And what if he is captured by humans?’

  ‘Captured?’ Nemed asked, and then it slowly occurred to him why he had been told to kill him.

  ‘We’ll be hunted down. All they need to find is one of us and it is all over. Do you realise the danger you have unleashed?’

  ‘I’ll find him. Don’t worry. I’ll kill him.’

  ‘Kill him? Why? Who do you work for?’ Moriarty demanded.

  Nemed didn’t answer. Instead he threw the knapsack hard into Moriarty’s chest, knocking him back and then grabbed it as it bounced off his chest and darted past him out the door. Moriarty leaped back and followed him as quickly as he could.

  If Nemed was expecting a straight dash to the exit, he was sorely disappointed. The entire King’s Guard had been called out and had formed a circle around the exit of the hut with Moriarty at the entrance.

  ‘Throw down your swords and you won’t be harmed!’ yelled the Captain of the Guard.

  ‘No,’ Nemed replied.

  ‘Then I’ll order my men to take you by force,’ warned the Captain.

  ‘It will hurt,’ Nemed said calmly as he pulled out his swords.

  ‘Take him,’ yelled the Captain.

  The King’s Guard charged while Moriarty moved in from behind, but within a few seconds, Nemed had successfully and expertly, like a ninja warrior, managed to disarm or knock over them all. Even Moriarty was surprised to find himself picking up his new sword.