Decode- Paramore

We made it to the mansion and I stare at the place with apprehension. Basil hopped off Toby and motioned us to follow. Basil started to pick the lock of the door. Marten however, nudged Toby over to the broken office window and hopped through. Basil sees, smirks, and follows him. Dawson grabs my hand and we both manage to hop through without cutting ourselves on the shards of broken glass. Marten helps Dawson up as Basil lifts me up. We look around the room curiously. Basil goes over to the fireplace and says to Marten. "Keep a lookout."

Marten sees a glass of champagne and touches the liquid; it was warm. Satisfied that no one has been in the room for a while he pours it out and puts it against the door to listen out. He stays at the door and presses his ear against the glass's bottom. Dawson starts to check the drawers and finds a locked one. I rush over and used one of my hair pins to open it. Dawson reads through the papers as Basil comes over and suddenly stares into the drawer with a pensive look. He suddenly grabbed the papers and read them with a crazed possession. As he analyzed the papers; I notice something at the door that Ratigan had entered and exit through. I crept over and saw it was a paper flower. I picked up the little blossom and knew Cassie had made it. She had been making paper flowers eversince we came to Baker Street. I hear scampering and the door suddenly closed behind me. I turn around to see James quickly lock the door and stare at me with a lethargic smirk on his dark face.

Dawson had noticed Belladonna wander through the second door of the study, but permitted her since he could still see her through the door. He tried to read the papers Basil had in his paws—but jumped when he heard the door close.

Basil's head snapped up in surprise and he tensed when he didn't see Belladonna in the room. Marten turned around and saw the second door was closed and he raced up to it. He threw himself into the door, but it didn't give away. Basil shoved him away and picked the lock. Marten and Dawson paled as they heard struggling, growling, and shrieking on the other side of the door. Basil clenched his teeth as the lock finally unlocked and he threw the door open. What the three gentlemice saw was a shock. Belladonna was standing over James White, who was bound with his own tie and had a bloodied nose. Marten smirked at Belladonna as she pulled on the tie to tighten it around White's arms. Marten walked over and wrenched White up as Dawson grabbed a chair. He threw White into it as Basil said. "Care to tell us the truth James Moriratty Ratigan?"

James appeared to be intoxicated and glowered at the detective. "I am not telling you a damn thing—"

Basil quickly snatched something off of James' sleeve, causing the mouse-rat to cry out in fear. Basil sneered sarcastically. "Yes, because you apparently have the upper-hand." He peers at the speck of dirt he grabbed. "For someone who doesn't know anything you seem to have plenty of evidence to connect you with Ratigan…" he grins at James. "I wonder what Scotland Yard would think of this?"

James blanched and stuttered. "N-no! Don't—I can't go to prison—"

"Then tell me what I need to know." Growled Basil.

James stares at the others and says. "I don't have to—you have everything you need."

Basil frowned and remembered the carved words in the drawer: A Dream Within a Dream. It was a poem by human writer Edgar Allen Poe…he remembered:

"O God! Can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?"

Ratigan lectured about these lines in class one day and asked his students their interpretation of it. Basil's interpretation of the poem was loss of one's sense of reality, while others claimed the "grains of sands" lost to the waves were people the speaker loved… Basil glared at White and realized that the carving was meant as another threat…either he goes to Ratigan alone or lose everything he still had. Basil peers at his friends and knew his decision; he was going to Ratigan himself: alone.

We all went back to Baker Street as quickly as possible. I raced through the door and saw Nick and Mia playing chess. Mary was sitting beside them and jumped up with an exclamation of surprise. Mia and Nick tackled me as I hugged them tightly. They then tackled Marten who was able to pick them up and walk with them around the study in a bear-hug. Mary helped me up and gently embraced me. I was so happy to see them all, but seeing Mia and Nick made my heart lurch that Cassie and Olivia weren't with us.

Basil watches the exchange between the Garrios and smiled sadly. he then took the dirt speck and analyzed it: traces of rust and rotting wood. So it was a part of the Tower of London that was falling apart; it was the reconstructed area of the bridge since the decay on White's sleeve showed that the part of the bridge was falling apart and when this happens the humans reconstruct it. He derived from the documents that Ratigan was hiding in the Tower of London; the papers were obviously left for him to find Ratigan. He was going to follow Ratigan's breadcrumbs until the last moment he would change course. He had to shake the others off. He saw supplies were also picked up at a doctor's office: steroids. No doubt White gave them to Ratigan to regain his strength. He looked over at Dawson and the others; he'll send them to the doctor's office and slip away to the bridge. He knew they would be furious with him, but he wasn't going to let Ratigan capture any of them.

Basil, Dawson, Belladonna, and Marten quickly left to face Ratigan. Mary had sent Mia and Nick up to their rooms. Nick got two makeshift backpacks out from underneath his bed as he told Mia. "These packs have everything we need and they can change into parachutes. This one is yours; the sling shot is in the right pocket."

Mia shouldered the pack and stared at her brother. "We're going after them?"

Nick nodded. "As I was pulling on my nightshirt I saw the steam engine book and realized what the words meant: King's, throw, 12, river, and express! King's Cross station, 12 o'clock express train over the Thames river! I think Ratigan is going to make an escape on the train."

Mia squealed. "But Basil and the others don't know that! They're going to the doctor's—"

"That's why we are going to the train station to apprehend Ratigan." Nick got up and took his sister's hand. "We need to see which train is leaving at midnight and if it's going over the river. Are you with me?"

"Do you even have to ask!" Mia exclaimed as the two snuck out of the house and onto Poesy.