Recap: with Clive now discovered by Layton, Dimitri decides on a drastic move to further his progress.
The severity of the situation, not unlike the dust stirred up by Dimitri's latest ridiculous explosion, is yet to settle. Things are moving quickly, too quickly. Time is slipping, sometimes it pours, effortlessly, sometimes it drags. Maybe twenty-four hours have passed.
Dimitri is gone, I didn't ask. I haven't seen Claire, as it were. And Luke sits in my office, turning gently in an old leather task chair. Sometimes his eyes stop to linger on the smashed fan, but he hasn't asked.
I'm trying to make a decision. I've been falling short, and I have no room to make that mistake here. I can't make any.
"Um, Clive?" The rhythmic squeak of the spinning chair stops. I stretch before looking back over my shoulder. Luke has been patient, and he has enough sense not to ask prying questions now. I reward him with tolerance.
"Yes?" I reply.
The boy curls his wrist and tucks it under his chin, folding both his arms in. This is a nervous gesture, a kind of self-soothing technique children so often develop. "I was just wondering, where do you normally stay? Like, at night, when you're not here."
Of course.
I stand and run my hand through my hair in an exaggerated gesture, stretching out my back again. I face him and, for a moment, appreciate our familial bond. Luke uncurls his arms and waits for a reply.
"How about I show you?"
The single house is ducked away on the residential side of the Thames. Squat and lonely, red brick against a bluish fake grass. There are no casual amenities—a box of flowers on the sill, a welcome mat, a wreath, a garden. It looks unoccupied, even.
But this is home.
"It isn't very much." The door isn't locked. I don't recall the last time I was here; inside dust whispers of abandon.
"It doesn't look like you come here very often."
"I've been busy."
He takes off his shoes, pushing them out of the way with one socked foot. Then I receive a puppy-dog look, not happy, not sad, curious. I've never bothered, but today I remove my shoes as well. "I'm sorry it doesn't have the usual amenities. It's fairly... bare."
"That's okay." He's quite comfortable. Chest outward he strides through the foyer, peeking to the right—the kitchenette, the left—the sitting room, as if he is a perspective buyer. "It seems like it would be awfully lonely here."
I pull at my tie. "I find solitude calming."
Satisfied, he turns to face me again. I feel the air tighten, like the whistle before a bomb strikes its target. His pink mouth opens. "I always wanted an elder brother."
"Did you?" I ask, caught wholly by surprise. Truth, a foreign muse, fills me with words. "I did as well... a coincidence, hm?" I try to smile but he is thankfully turned away. It would have looked a mess, me trying to be genuine.
"Professor doesn't believe in coincidences, and neither do I."
"Well, what would you call this then?" While I wait for a reply I saunter to the kitchen to see if there is anything left unclaimed by mould. He'll want to eat at some point.
"It was meant to happen."
A laugh, perhaps left over from my spat with Dimitri, finds its way to my lips. "We were both meant pine for an elder brother?" A guardian. "That seems silly. But tell me, why an elder brother? Why not a younger one?"
"Because my father always seemed too busy for me... I wanted an older brother so that I wouldn't have to rely on him so much. Like, if I needed to know something I could ask my brother and not bother my dad. I-if I wanted to run around and play games outside or chess my dad would have to find time for me, and sometimes our plans got cancelled too."
"It seems our cases are equally similar and dissimilar." He has followed my lead and is picking through the kitchen, turning his nose up at the contents of the refrigerator and trifling through the cupboards to find some sort of non-perishable treat. "Being adopted at the age I was, I was always looking for guidance. In the eyes of a child, if you don't belong to a family, you don't belong anywhere."
Momentarily, he stops. "But you had a family, right?"
"Mrs. Dove was an amazing woman." The conversation will go no farther than that, I decide. "Have you found anything remotely eatable?"
"There seems to be… a box of pretzels, I think. And a few cans of soup."
"Do you like pretzels?"
He is fishing something out, half of his small body wedged into the deep cupboard. "Do I ever!" he replies, still struggling.
"How about a snack, then, and a game of chess?"
"To take revenge half-heartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred."
-Pierre Corneille
I start a fire in the hearth and retrieve the old mismatched chess set Cogg gave me a while after Mrs. Dove's death. We played chess often when she was well enough—every summer night after dining we settled into the sunroom. The windows would all be open to a fragrant breeze, and Cogg would tend the plants as the sun set. It would be only Mrs. Dove and I by mid-game. We seldom broke concentration with words. In the winters we were always sure to play curled by the fireplace, where rich, lengthy shadows would stretch across the shining mahogany board
The knock on the door comes during our second game and startles us both. The sun is long set, everything lies silent at night. There are no knocks, no bangs. No disruptive noises of any kind outside the walls of Dimitri's laboratory.
"Should you answer the door?"
I unfold my legs and rise, taken off guard by the simplest of requests. The chilled metal of the door handle assists in reminding me of how strange my actions are.
No one comes calling. There is no excuse, no exception. This is an unwritten rule. On the other side of the door stands a worst case scenario. I pause, feeling something of a chill, and pull the door inward.
The man beyond is stout and white-coat clad. His brow seems to tremble in the failing light. If I've seen him before, I don't recall. "Dimitri told me..." words come out with spurts of breath. Now I see his chest heaving, trying to catch up after exertion. "Right away, he said... you need to go there."
Skittering feet slip up behind me. The man shifts his weight and leans on the doorframe. I understand the severity and already can feel the frustration.
"Luke, there's an emergency. I'll try not to be long." My shoes wait off to the side. Luke follows when I move to slip them on.
"I'll come," he says dutifully, "I promise I can help." The one thing I can't have.
"It's imperative you stay," I tell him sternly. Disappointment shadows the plains of his face. "It's likely to be dangerous if it couldn't wait until morning."
Finally he nods. The scientist moves out of the doorway and I hurry outside, looking back for a moment. Luke watches as we begin away, framed by the sharp electric lights of the house. I wait, and as soon as I hear the door close I begin.
"What's happened?" Our pace becomes brisk.
"I'm sorry, I don't know much, but Dimitri is in shambles." His breath has caught him now, but still an unsure tremble rocks his words. "He said, if I told you to expect the worst..."
"I had figured as much."
Leading Layton into the heart of our operations had included a calculated risk, but the odds were so far against us. Somehow, I knew this would happen. But I had no drive to stop Dimitri. Secretly, I wanted another encounter with the professor. I had seen it, a flash of it while I waited to make a decision about what would be best for Luke.
My own interception. To stop Dimitri together, Layton and I. then I could allow he and Luke to be reunited, perhaps for only a short time, I would tell them I had separated them for Luke's own safety—he is my brother after all, I care about him.
Then, we would quietly move to our revenge on London.
I'm really glad I got this chapter out! I've had a lot of things occupying my mind-good things for once! Mask of Miracle was released in Canada last Sunday and I adore it so far. I've been working on an Eternal Diva cosplay too, and I'm so pleased with the progress! Lastly, November first marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month, an event I'm insanely excited for!
Thank you for reading :D