Chapter Fourteen:

Kathryn…

"Mr. Holmes, please," she said, pushing away from him. "For common courtesy, if nothing else." She crossed the room, then looked back at him.

"I'm sorry," he said. Then he pulled something out of his pocket. "To be perfectly honest with you, Miss Bennet, I don't trust your new-found comrades. If you ever need my assistance, use this." He handed her the object. "Show it to no one. And only use it if you need to. Good night." He tipped his hat to Kathryn, then left the building.

Kathryn stood, musing over what had just happened, then grabbed her things and ran to the Nautilus. As soon as she was onboard, she walked swiftly to her quarters. However, before she could reach them, she heard, "Kate." She spun around. It was Sawyer. She clutched the object from Mr. Holmes tightly against her. "What's that?" he asked, indicating to the object she held.

"We all have out secrets, Sawyer," she said. "Let me keep mine." Then she turned and continued down the corridor to her quarters. Entering her quarters, she kicked the door close and got her despatch-box from her wardrobe. Carefully, she retrieved the key from her necklace pendant and unlocked the box. She opened the box and hid the object away in it, then returned the box to her wardrobe.

Sighing, she glanced over at the door leading to the corridor. It hadn't shut completely. She walked over and shut it, locking it. Then she turned to her bed, and without changing into her nightdress, she went to sleep. And as she slept, she dreamed…

Kathryn had been following Mr. Holmes for months, hoping to find Professor Moriarty and dispose of him. It was now April, and Mr. Holmes had been visited by a man that she had never seen before. But he seemed professor-like in his manner. Unfortunately, Kathryn had no way of knowing if he was Professor Moriarty or not. For all she knew, he could have been Professor McGreggor, the literary Professor of Eaton College.

But she kept watch out her window. About midday, Mr. Holmes left his home and began walking down the street. Kathryn quickly grabbed her coat and followed him, keeping out of his sight. He seemed to be headed to Oxford Street, but she couldn't be certain until he reached his destination.

At one point, while Mr. Holmes was crossing the street at the corner of Bentinck Street and Welbeck Street, a two-horse van had sped around the corner and was on him like a flash. Kathryn watched in slight horror as he sprang for the foot-path, saving himself by a mere fraction of a second.

Kathryn noticed that Mr. Holmes kept to the pavement after his close encounter with the van. However, as she followed him down Vere Street, a brick came down from the roof of one of the houses and shattered at his feet. She kept hidden from sight as he called the police and had the place examined. She knew that, when the police discovered bricks and slates piled up on the roof in preparation for repairs and attempted to make Mr. Holmes believe the wind must have toppled over one of them, he didn't believe the police. It was not in his nature. From there, however, he hailed a cab to Pall Mall where he spent the rest of the day.

Wandering down the streets of London, Kathryn discovered Mr. Holmes unexpectedly disappearing into Dr. Watson's home. She carefully hid herself below the sitting-room window that never shut properly and listened to the goings-on inside.

"Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely," Mr. Holmes remarked, in answer to a question that Kathryn did not hear. "I have been a little pressed of late. Have you any objection to my closing your shutters?"

The shutters snapped shut and Kathryn heard the bolt turn. But she could still hear the goings-on. "You are afraid of something?" Dr. Watson asked, slightly concerned.

"Well I am."

"Of what?"

"Of air-guns."

"My dear Holmes, what do you mean?"

"I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognise danger when it is close upon you. Might I trouble you for a match?" Mr. Holmes said rather quickly. Kathryn heard the match strike and Mr. Holmes sigh. "I must apologise for calling so late, and I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall."

"But what does it all mean?" Dr. Watson asked.

There was a brief pause, then Mr. Holmes said, "It's not an airy nothing, you see. On the contrary, it is solid enough for a man to break his hand over. Is Mrs. Watson in?"

"She is away upon a visit."

"Indeed! You are alone?"

"Quite."

"Then it makes it the easier for me to propose that you should come away with me for a week to the Continent."

"Where?"

"Oh, anywhere. It's all the same to me," Mr. Holmes said lightly. There was another pause, then Mr. Holmes sighed again, this time not in relief. "You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?" he asked. Kathryn drew in a sharp breath of air. She knew if anyone knew who this Professor Moriarty was, it would be Mr. Holmes.

"Never."

"Ay, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing!" Mr. Holmes cried. "The man pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That's what puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime. I tell you Watson, in all seriousness, that if I could beat that man, if I could free society of him, I should feel that my own career had reached its summit, and I should be prepared to turn to some more placid line in life. Between ourselves, the recent cases in which I have been of assistance to the royal family of Scandinavia, and to the French republic, have left me in such a position that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion which is most congenial to me, and to concentrate my attention upon my chemical researches. But I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged." Hearing this, Kathryn was almost afraid of what she was getting herself into by accepting the challenge to dispose of the Professor.

"What has he done, then?"

"His career has been an extraordinary one. He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature what a phenomenal mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the binomial theorem, which has had a European vogue. On the strength of it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him. But the man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumours gathered round him in the university town, and eventually he was compelled to resign his chair and to come down to London, where he set up as an army coach. So much is known to the world, but what I am telling you now is what I have myself discovered," Mr. Holmes paused a moment to take a breath.

Then he continued, "As you are aware, Watson, there is no one who knows the higher criminal world of London so well as I do. For years past I have continually been conscious of some power behind the malefactor, some deep organising power which forever stands in the way of the law, and throws its shield over the wrong-doer. Again and again in cases of the most varying sorts—forgery cases, robberies, murders—I have felt the presence of this force, and I have deduced its action in may of those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted. For years I have endeavoured to break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-Professor Moriarty, of mathematical celebrity.

"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed—the word is passed to the professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught—never so much as suspected. This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, and which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and breaking up," Mr. Holmes was speaking so quickly that Kathryn wondered if he would perchance choke on his tongue. He continued to relate the happenings of that day to Dr. Watson, all of which Kathryn witnessed. "Now I have come round to you, and on my way I was attacked by a rough with a bludgeon. I knocked him down, and the police have him in custody; but I can tell you with the most absolute confidence that no possible connection will ever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front teeth I have barked my knuckles and the retiring mathematical coach, who is, I daresay, working out problems upon a black-board ten miles away. You will not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your rooms was to close you shutters, and that I have been compelled to ask your permission to leave the house by some less conspicuous exit than the front door."

"You will spend the night here?" Dr. Watson asked.

"No, my friend," Mr. Holmes said, "you might find me a dangerous guest. I have my planes laid, and all will be well. Matters have gone so far now that they can move without my help as far as the arrest goes, thought my presence is necessary for a conviction. It is obvious, therefore, that I cannot do better than get away fro the few days which remain before the police are at liberty to act. It would be a great pleasure to me, therefore, if you could come on to the Continent with me."

"The practice is quiet," Dr. Watson replied. "And I have an accommodating neighbour. I should be glad to come."

"And to start tomorrow morning?"

"If necessary."

"Oh, yes, it is most necessary. Then these are your instructions, and I beg, my dear Watson, that you will obey them to the letter, for you are now playing a double-handed game with me against the cleverest rogue and the most powerful syndicate of criminals in Europe," Mr. Holmes said.

Kathryn was rudely awakened by someone pouring water into her mouth. She sat up and coughed violently, choking on the water. When she could breathe properly, she looked over and saw a floating black leather overcoat. "What?" she asked, wiping her face dry with her sleeve.

"You're needed in the conference room," Skinner said, then left.

She got out of bed, checked her reflection in her mirror, then followed him, stepping over the discarded water glass.