Chapter Thirty-Two:
Quartermain…
He watched her walk out of the conference room. Her manner was cold and off-putting. But he approached her anyway. "Miss Bennet, may I speak with you?" he asked her.
She regarded him with indifference, but said, "What do you want?"
"Why did you pull me into this again?" he asked her. "Why did you pull me back into the League? Why are you subjecting me to this all over again?"
She sighed and tugged on sleeve of her black greatcoat. "Well," she said. "You're needed here more than in Kenya. The League needs its true leader returned to them if he is alive."
"Don't beat about the bush, Miss Bennet," he said. "Tell me the truth. What am I really doing here?"
She kept tugging on her sleeve. "I need your help," she said after a brief pause. "I need you to help me kill Moriarty once and for all."
He was surprised. He was inclined to believe she was a bit enamoured with the criminal. "Why is that?" he asked, curiosity building in him.
She finally met his gaze. "Because I can't do it by myself," she admitted. "It isn't because I once loved him or anything. It's because he's too much a genius for me to take on my own. I can create the antidote to the Elixir and give it to him, but killing him after that… I can't do alone. So I need your help doing that."
Then a question suddenly came to his mind. "Miss Bennet," he said, "have you ever had any friends?"
"Just one," she replied, readjusting her greatcoat. "I haven't seen him in years. Good evening." She walked quickly away.
