THE RESCUE

The secret agent had been watching the building for half an hour. There was only one guard at the door, and he was smoking and looking bored out of his brain. Now was as good a time as any.

The agent crossed the ground between them quickly, keeping to the shadows where possible. He came up behind the guard and felled him with a single, deadly chop to the neck. He bent down, took the key ring from the guard while the body was still twitching, and quickly unlocked the door to the small building. He then dragged the body behind a nearby bush to hide it.

Gun now in hand, he began to open the door cautiously.

"Come in please – do!" said a cultured voice.

The secret agent opened the door fully. He found that the inside of the small outbuilding resembled a "granny flat". He was looking into a reasonably well-furnished lounge room, with a man in a dressing gown doing the "Times" crosswords puzzle at a table.

The man was tall and pale, with a hawk nose and dark hair turning gray. He did not look healthy, but the eyes that looked at the agent burned with intelligence. "What did you do to the guard?" he asked mildly.

"He's out of the picture," the agent replied shortly.

The man sniffed disdainfully. "I deplore unnecessary violence, but ah well…."

The agent came into the room properly, closing the door behind him. He looked at the other man thoughtfully, lowering his gun. "You're not quite what I expected," he said.

"What did you expect?" asked the other man with a wry smile.

The agent looked at him thoughtfully, wondering how much to tell him. "I work for the British government," he said. "You don't need to know which department. We've been watching Lord Avram – whose grounds we are on – for some time; some of his activities have been, shall we say, a bit questionable." The other man nodded his understanding, and the agent continued. "We knew that Lord Avram had abducted someone and was keeping him here - but we didn't know who. It was clearly someone important - but we didn't know if it was a Russian scientist, or an American banker, or an Arabian princess he intended to hold to ransom – or what! Clearly you're an important element in whatever crazy scheme he's putting together, but…" The secret agent shrugged and looked cautiously out of the window.

"You could not simply arrest Lord Avram?" the man asked. "Bring him in for questioning, I think is the preferred term."

The secret agent gave him a shocked look. "He's the Queen's third cousin, the Lord High Chancellor's brother, and related to half the peers in England! He's not your average house-breaker or drug mule, you know!"

The other man laughed rather bitterly. "Of course. Some things in England have not changed," he said.

"We've got to get out of here," said the secret agent.

"No hurry," said the other man. "They only change the guards every two hours – we have almost seventy-five minutes, I would say." The secret agent raised his eyebrows at that, and he shrugged. "Simple observation," he added.

"Very good," said the secret agent. "But look – who the blazes are you?"

"This will sound incredible."

"I've heard and seen some incredible things in my time! Go on. Try me."

The man at the table leaned back and sighed. "Very well. I was the greatest detective of my time – I was well known for assisting the London police in solving crimes which seemed – well, insoluble. I had retired and was living quietly on the coast when I became ill with cancer. A friend of mine named Professor Challenger – almost the proverbial mad scientist – had the idea of freezing and preserving my body. He felt that a mind such as mine should have the chance to live again. I really didn't expect his mad scheme to work, but – here I am!"

The secret agent looked at him incredulously. "Lord Avram found you and ….. defrosted you?"

"Precisely. Here are some documents which might substantiate what I've been saying."

The secret agent put his gun down on the table and looked through the small box of documents. "You were frozen in 1914!" he said with astonishment.

"Just as that nasty war was breaking out – yes," said the other man. "It took me a long time to recover from being, er, frozen – and then I had to be operated on for the cancer, though medical techniques are clearly far more advanced now than they were back in my time. But still, here I am – fairly well recovered."

The secret agent looked at him. "You look a bit pale," he remarked, "but not too bad considering what you've been through. But what on earth does Lord Avram want with you? The fellow's as mad as a hatter, but also quite evil. What does he want with…"

"… with the World's Greatest Detective, as the newspapers called me? Simple: he thought that I should be able to use my talents in reverse, if you like, and plan the world's greatest crime: a crime that nobody would be able to solve."

The secret agent picked up his Walther PPK from the table, went back to the door and looked out. "Surely you had no intention of cooperating," he said.

"No, but…." The other man sighed. "I have weaknesses….. an addiction. He said he wouldn't give me the drug if I didn't….." The man stopped and covered his eyes. He started shaking.

"I understand," sighed the secret agent.

The other man pulled himself together quickly, and picked up a small notebook. "This is what I had already come up with… Dear me, I ended a sentence with a preposition!"

"I'll forgive you," said the secret agent. He peeped out of the door. "The coast is clear. Are you ready to leave?"

"In a moment – I'm not quite dressed to go out!" The tall man dashed into an inner room, and came out soon afterwards wearing a somewhat rumpled suit instead of his pyjamas. "Will this do?"

"Yes – we're not going to the theatre!" Both men went to the doorway and looked out cautiously.

The agent suddenly turned round, stuck out his hand and said, "The name is Bond – James Bond."

The other man shook his hand warmly and said, "Sherlock Holmes – pleased to meet you!"

They moved out of the doorway together.