The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Resurrected
Chapter 5 - Three Days Till Dawn
Schlasser sat down in an armchair just opposite Tom; he seemed to be watching him strangely. A minute ago he had been extremely eager to talk but now his fingers rested upon his bottom lip as he pondered something unbeknown to Tom.
The spy was beginning was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable and wished that he could sit up. The trouble was that having his ankles and wrists latched together tightly didn't make the idea of balancing while sitting up look very prosperous.
The Austrian Count opened his mouth finally to speak, but the some doors behind Tom burst open. Schlasser's mouth closed again and he pulled himself to his feet. Tom noted the suppleness and the ease with which he moved. There was a lot more to this man than met the eye.
In fact Tom wondered what he actually knew about Schlasser now he had seen his face. Tome had been right in the fact that he was old, but not as old as he had pictured. His once jet black hair had now gone iron grey and there were obvious lines of age on his face. He had poise that matched the aristocracy of his speech and he seemed to remind Tom of someone, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Overall Schlasser had told Tom nothing, neither with words or his appearance, except for the fact of course, that he had very nice suits.
There was a murmur behind him going on that was similar to what he had heard when he first woke up. He was now able to distinguish two voices, but to his dismay they were discussing things in German,
"Ah, Fishcien."
Ah Fishcien.
"Ich heisse Viscien, nicht Fishcien."
I am called Viscien, not Fishcien.
"Ist das Auto bereit?"
Is the car ready?
"Ja. Was muss Ich mache mit deiner Gast."
Yes. What must I do with your Guest?
"Nichts shon."
Nothing yet.
"Werden wir ihn lösen?"
Are we going to untie him?
"Nein, ich habe keine Vertauen in ihm."
No. I don't trust him.
"Fein."
Fine
"Wir gehen in halbe Stunde. Stellen Sie sicher, daß alles bereit ist."
We leave in half an hour. Make sure that everything is ready.
"Ja Herr Ussell."
Yes Mr Ussell.
Tom gave up trying to understand what they were on about very quickly. His head still wasn't right and straining his ears and limited knowledge of German at the same time was just not good for it. He did manage to conclude however that they were either talking about their plans, him, or both other wise they wouldn't feel the need to conceal what they were saying. Somewhere deep inside him he felt a note of pride, they thought he was to dangerous to talk freely around. Maybe he finally was building up a reputation.
Footsteps faded away and there was the sound of t he doors scraping shut as Viscien left. Tom was proud that he had at least managed to pick that up, every small thing counts he had been told. After all, the entire world runs on the shoulders of small things so really they were quite important. He also decided that when he got back to America to report all of this he'd lodge a formal statement, expressing the importance of Agents being trained more in foreign languages.
The reader of this tale will note of course that Tom thought, "When" he did not think "If." This is because Tom was a self confessed optimist. I find it bad for your blood pressure to be optimistic, you face such big let down. But in Tom's case I don't think it was entirely his fault. I have a theory that it has something to do with growing up in almost constant sunshine. I have yet to meet an optimistic British person.
Well what do you expect with all that rain and cloudy skies?
After a brief interval the slow and formal step of Schlasser's reached Tom's ear and he knew that he was coming back. He hoped that he would jump straight to talking and miss out all the tapping on bottom lips this time. He really wanted to know why on Earth he was here. Being kidnapped was an insult in itself, but not knowing why, when he was the spy was just adding the injury. Although technically he thought it was also fairly literal in his case, he had been injured and he was feeling more than a little insulted.
His philosophical wonderings were cut short however when the iron voice of Schlasser broke the silence. "Forgive me Mr Sawyer, I had to discuss some things with Viscien. You may have picked up that I miss pronounced his name."
He looked inquiringly at Tom, who wasn't quite quick enough to pick up on what he was doing. The blank look on his face told Schlasser exactly what he wanted to hear; Tom did not understand German. He gave him a small smile and then smoothly covered his tracks by saying, "It's our little standing joke. When I first met him, it was at a fish market and it was how I remembered him."
Tom rose his eyebrow as the man began to chuckle at the fond memory. Schlasser in turn noticing the expression stopped himself and regained the cold and banal outside he always wore. "Now anyway as I was saying, the reason why I had you brought here. I hope you will understand I cannot reveal to you everything. You see I have heard a lot about you and I know that you will be as slippery as an eel always trying to wriggle out of my grasp. I will not tell to you everything because should you escape you will ruin me and my plans."
Tom finally decided that he was fed up with feeling small and helpless in front of the man, and with as much grace as he could manage he swung his feet down off the sofa and using his stomach muscles, pulled himself up into a sitting position.
Schlasser watched him demurely and then deciding that Tom was quite finished started to explain. "As a young man who fought during the war I am sure you will have been watching the news about it quite closely at the moment."
Feeling that he should add something more to this conversation than blank looks Tom nodded, "Of course. This Wednesday they're signing the Peace Treaty in the Palace of Versailles."
Inclining his head approvingly Schlasser continued, "And I'm sure then that you'll be aware who suffers most from this treaty." He left no time for Tom to answer his question and he could tell from the anger in the mans' voice he was not happy, "Germany and its sister country Austria. We will loose so much, our close ties with each other, our colonies, our land, our troops, our power to help our people."
Tom had definitely been right about the man being unhappy, in fact now his expression seemed to be verging on livid. Idly Tom wondered whether he was just about to become the victim of rant that Schlasser had been practising for weeks. If he could, he would have put his head in his hands. Schlasser had now revealed himself to be one of those patriotic German-Austrians who objected strongly to the fact that they were no longer to be united.
"No country should be faced with that. We were blamed with the war as well Agent Sawyer. Germany took the entire blame on their shoulders, and yet it wasn't just Germany. There were many, many reasons. The expanding empires of Britain and France made Germany feel insecure. The formation of the Triple Entrente, Germany surrounded by hostile ground. I will not say that Germany or Austria is blameless but there were many other factors involved. You look confused Mr Sawyer, surely this would be old news to an intelligent boy like you."
Frowning Tom replied, "No it's not that, it's just I thought all your lands were in Austria. And from what I've heard Austria isn't coming off that badly from the Treaty."
"Agent Sawyer, it is a case of blood and kinship. Germany and Austria have been closely tied always together. My heritage originates from Germany. Germany is in my blood. I can not bear to see my noble country of birth be, be" he struggled to find a word which described the situation well enough, "squashed, by the big super powers of America, Britain and France. But anyway, we side track. My plan is to destroy this treaty,"
"You'll bring the whole of Europe to its knees!", blurted out Tom with all the tact of a warthog.
"No!", he cried then, "No.", more softly. "I will bring no continent to its knees. I do not seek to do anything like that. There is a second dimension to my plan, one that you will never be able to imagine. You can never fathom the workings of a sane mad mans' mind after all. I will not tell you of this element, but it requires the help of two people. Both of which currently reside in Romania."
He paused, "I made contact with this old acquaintance of mine in 1899, just before all this turmoil started to climax. And then suddenly our correspondence stopped, I looked into the matter and found him to be deceased. I thought no more of it but to buy one of the few pictures of him at an auction. He was a dear friend and I did want to remember him. But then the war came, and then the cruel betrayal and blame of Germany and it made my blood boil."
He burst to his feet and began to pace listlessly, "I've been planning this since they started to plan the treaty. I've been planning this since the calls to bring Germany to its knees began. I found the way to resurrect the friend of mine. This friend with qualities unmatched, yes I found the only girl on this Earth capable of bringing him back."
Tom couldn't help but brighten at the word girl, sometimes he forgot himself completely. Even true mourners cannot grieve forever; he'd learned tha the hard way. Schlasser chuckled at him, and Tom settled for giving him the look that he gave criminals that were beneath him.
"Yes, so he will be alive soon, and in return for helping me successfully I give him you. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen."
Nemo stood in front of a large map of Europe. In front of him sat Mina, Jekyll, Denethy, and Skinner was probably around somewhere. Mina noted that when he became upset or worried by something he tended towards his invisibility. It was like his protective cover to hide his true feelings from the world. The ironic thing was, his cover was invisible.
"This S.U. has taken Tom. He sent us two messages, one yesterday the other a mere hour ago."
"I have sent your friends aboard Nemo's ship, two messages."
"One explained what happened to Tom, the other that we must be at the location given by this Sunday night, or they will kill Tom." Nemo held in his hand the first copies of the messages. "They also contain all the information about what has happened to Tom. For those who don't know he was on a job, which had been commanded right from the mouth of President Wilson. The American Secret Service was closely watching all the politicians in all the European countries that had stirred up trouble about the Peace Treaty."
"I of course picked you up in France, or rather Viscien picked you up. You were watching that French politician; he was under the sole control of my bribery. His objection to the Treaty was real, but once I learned that you were the one watching him I bribed him to lead you to that particular pub."
Mina now picked up Nemo's thread and filled Jekyll, Skinner, and Denethy in a little more, "The last we heard from him was a Morse code message the night before he went missing. It told us he was following the man into the town tomorrow. He was covering ground he did not know, we believe that with this weakness in mind this S.U. struck and struck hard."
"I told them that they must be in Romania in 3 days time. And of course that applies to us as well. There we shall pick up my esteemed friend and the girl I mentioned before. Hopefully she will come more than willingly. I believe she is by now quite attached to him."
Nemo now took up a thin pointed stick and stepping to the left of the map, moved the tp along the sea between Italy and the South Coast of France. "We travel from Marseille down through the Ligurian Sea past Genoa."
"Captain Nemo will set a course from the South Coast of France past Genoa, and then through the Tyrrhenian Sea. We can be sure about the time it will take him as long as he goes through the Straight of Messina between Sicily and Italy."
"We will then go through the narrow channel between Italy and Sicily."
Jekyll looked up at the map, his head cocked as though he was thinking about something. Then deciding to pick up the courage he asked out right, "How long is this route going to take us?"
Nemo nodded at the question, it was a fair one, even he was unsure. He pondered whether to tell the truth or not. Somehow though he had an inclination that Jekyll would pick him up if he was economical. "I can't be sure Doctor. This according to my charts and distances is the shortest route we can take."
Quite suddenly Skinner chimed in from somewhere behind them, "Personally I don't think it matters."
Jekyll felt a slight twinge of annoyance, but Mina was the quicker of them, "Pray tell what's enlightened you with this opinion Mr Skinner."
"Easy Mina, easy. It's not that I don't care about Tom, but I just think that If I'd waited this long to get revenge I wouldn't blow it all away like that. I'd want to wait until I had a firm hold on all of us. Tom's just leverage, the time limit to make the threat look real."
"I am relying on your friends to be on time Mr Sawyer, what they will not realise is how strict my time limit is. I must be at Versailles by late afternoon Tuesday. We need that time to place our little bomb and for my men to get into their positions. If they are not there, I'm afraid we'll simply have to kill you. I can't afford to have someone who knows this much running around alive."
"Maybe you are right Skinner," Mina replied, a little more calmly than before, "But personally I'd hope we do make it on time."
Nemo let the dispute die down and then carried on, "Then it's up through the Ionian Sea, through the Straight of Oranto, up through the Adritatic Sea, through the small Islands of Yugoslavia to the port of Rijeka."
Tom watched Schlasser, this whole thing had been most carefully calculated. The entire meticulous planning that separated the minds of the determined, to those of the devoted. The queer names of the seas and Straights that Schlasser was reeling off gave him a headache, and he hoped he might show him a map as to where they actually were, and where they were going.
"We cannot be sure where Nemo will go from there, but I have a personal suspicion that he will fly. Word has it that he has been building an excellent passenger plane to keep him occupied during the war. We on the other hand will move to Romania in a car this afternoon. We will stay at the town of Timisoara until word reaches me that Nemo is approaching Austria. As soon as they disembark from the Nautilus they will be closely watched. It is vital that we reach Lugoj just before them."
"We will take a new mode of transport from Rijeka and we'll reach Romania in a day after that. Men have already gone ahead with my new contraption and supplies for us. The entire thing has been completely thought out. I have calculated that if we travel night and day at full speed we should reach Rijeka all right. It is impossible for anyone to track my machines, and we ourselves cannot be tracked. What you must understand is we have to try and reach that house before S.U. and Moriarty, it is vital to our success."
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Saturday 25th June 1919
Rosaline is ill, the poor girl. I think she may be suffering from a bout of influenza. The child has been doing some rather odd things though lately. I think she must have picked up the illness yesterday morning. She ran off into the town at the crack of dawn to speak to that dear old friend of hers. I think she must have had a bad dream or something. What bothers me however is that she doesn't feel she's able to come to me with these things. Maybe she feels a little too embarrassed about it.
Anyway, I listened to a delightful concert from Vienna on the wireless today. It's all to celebrate the peace Treaty of course. I cannot for the life of me think what Germany may have to celebrate though. From what I have understood about it they came off rather badly. Still they did cause much of this strife, it's not fair that they should go unpunished.
I was rather lonely at dinner; Rosaline had some cold meat left over from last night, so I made a meal out of that and some bread and cheese. Thinking back to Rosaline she did seem rather panicky as well. I watched her sleep for a while and she twisted and turned and thumped at her pillow like she was trying to fight it. Most queer behaviour. If she does not pick up tonight I will call the doctor to come and look at her. She's not normally one susceptible to such diseases.
In fact, I think now that she has finally succumbed to it she's taken it rather badly. This afternoon her temperature was extremely high, and she was panicky and her eyes had the brightness of one who has a fever. In an effort to soothe her I tried talking to her about every day things and we came to discuss that strange portrait. I told her how it made me feel uncomfortable, like the man in the picture was watching us and didn't like me. I mentioned that I had been thinking about selling it. I can't describe how quickly she changed, at first she was calm, then she went into a great fury. She managed to suppress herself but I could see how she bottled up the scream of frustration and how her knuckles went white as she gripped the bedspread. Then finally, she burst into a flood of tears and begged me not to sell it.
The whole thing is really quite alarming. I've just let her sleep after that incident. Now the atmosphere is quite thick and oppressive. I have had a look outside and there are clouds forming. I think we are finally going to have that long overdue storm. I just hope it is over quickly; I really don't like thunder that much.
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Right now, Authors notes.
I expect you're wondering what on Earth is going on, and are a little confused about the time frame. Let me explain. Basically I want to naturally further the story. The reason why I had both explanations of the League's process going on at once is because I wanted to create a sense of time movement.
By finishing with an extract of the Mistress' journal on the Saturday afternoon, I meant that all the characters had reached that stage. Next time we meet the League and Schlasser they will both be in Romania racing to the house. I did this because travel in stories is very hard and boring to write unless there's actually something to do with the plot going on.
Also I'm trying different writing types because I have exams coming soon in English and I want to practise lots of different styles. Treat it like you would have treated Bram Stoker's different diary extracts, the story will come together when all the points of view meet.
Dorian will appear not next chapter, but the chapter after so all your patience will be rewarded. But Schlasser wasn't joking when he said there was a second element to his plot and believe me there is. There is a lot more excitement to come, not least I've got to start working out some loves triangles, or in my case I suppose knots would be a better descriptive word.
Indecently if you're wondering whether the places are real or not, they are. That goes for the German as well.
Oh and please forgive any mistakes in formatting, it's the first time I've done something like this.
Wish me luck for my exams,
Emmy.