Asking for help

"Damn!"Ginny cursed, reading the newspaper she had stolen from the teacher's bag that morning. She read the article another time: it said that the police had caught Professor James Ratigan with the help of Basil of Baker Street. Ratigan had been brought in Newgate Prison, and he was to be executed for his crimes the 17th of July.

They got him. HE got him. That goddamn Basil of Baker Street! I won't let him win! I won't let him see my father's death! Two weeks. They'll kill him within two weeks.

Ginny snarled and trew the newspaper away. She watched out of the window.

"I can't wait anymore" she whispered to herself "I must escape tonight!"

"And you want me help him, don't you?" asked the mouse who was sitting at the table. He was tall, with light grey fur and brown eyes. He looked at the Irishmouse in front of him. "It's not so easy, Patrick. He's in Newgate, for heaven's sake, not in an ordinary jail!"

"I know it's not easy" Patrick Keating said "but, beside him, you're the only person who can do a such thing."

Jack Warrik smiled proudly. "Of course I can...the question is: why should I do this for him?"

"I can pay you."

Warrik laughed. "I don't need your money, Patrick. I'm already rich enough, you know."

"He was your friend once, Jack."

"James Ratigan is no longer my friend."

Patrick sighed. "It's for Theresa, isn't it?"he asked.

Warrik shrugged."Maybe."

"My God, Jack, it had been almost ten years ago!"

"Time meants nothing!"

Keating and Warrik stared at the each other for a while, then Keating spoke softly. "Jack, I know you loved her, but Theresa chose him. You must deal with it."

"SHUT UP!" Warrik screamed "that sewer rat didn't love her as I did! He let her die!"

Keating shook his head. "It hadn't been his fault if she had been killed, Warrik, and you know it."

Warrik said nothing.

"Very well" Keating stood up "I'll find a way to free him by myself."

"You would try to help him by yourself?"

"Yes."

Warrik sighed. "It would be a suicide."

"I don't care." He stepped towards the door.

"Wait!"Warrik called. As Keating turned towards him, he seemed a little uneasy.

"They...I mean, James and Theresa...they had a daughter, didn't they? Little Virginia."

"It's Ginevra. She's in the orphanage now."

"I understand"he tought for a moment, then "how is she? I mean, she's like her mother?"

Keating shook his head. "No, she's the portrait of her father. But she has her mother's same voice."

Warrik smiled a little. "Theresa had a beautiful voice."

"I know it."

"And...she loves her father?"

"Yes. She literally worships him."

"Well..."Warrik sighed "where are his henchmice? I know that most of them menaged to escape the night of the Diamond Jubilee."

"Two of them were in my home. I don't know where is the rest of them."

"Very well, I'll try to find them. They could be useful."

Keating's green eyes widened. "That meants that you..."

Warrik nodded shortly. "Yes, I'll help you, but it's not for him. It's just for Theresa's daughter. Now go away, I'll come to your home tomorrow. We must study a plan."

Keating smiled at him and shook his hand. "Thank you, Jack. I won't forget this."

The other mouse looked at him. "Just a question, Patrick...why would you risk your own life for him?"

"He saved my life, twenty years ago. I must return the favour." Patrick said quietly, then he lef the room, closing the door behind him. Warrik stared at the door for a while, speechless.

"What now?" Fidget asked.

"We only can wait, Fidget" Keating said "Jack Warrik is the only person who can do a such thing."

The bat snorted. "This waiting just kills me!"

"We have to be patient, Fidget. I'm sure that Jack will find a way to free him."

"And what about Ginny?" Nuts suddenly asked "she's still in the orphanage! We can't leave her in that place!"

Keating put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry, Nuts, we'll find a way to free her too. We only need time."

"Basil, dinner is served."Doctor Dawson said, looking at his friend who was on his favourite armchair.

Basil simply shook his head. "I'm not hungry, Dawson."

"But Basil, you hadn't eat in the whole day!" Dawson exclaimed "Mrs.Judson will get mad! Are you fine?"

The detective smiled a little. "You're the doctor, my dear fellow. Tell me."

Dawson put a hand on Basil's forhead. "You're not sick."

Basil laughed. "Brilliant deduction, Doctor...you're right, I'm not sick. I'm just a little tired."

"But how can you be tired? You did nothing all the day!"

Basil sighed. "You're right, Dawson" he said soflty looking at Ratigan's portrait, who still was at the top of the fireplace "I did nothing all the day."

Back and forth. Back and forth.

Keating sighed, stopping walking around in his room, and looked out of the window. "Hold on, James" he whispered "I won't let you die. Not like this." Suddenly, his green eyes glazed.

He was remembering.

"NO!" twelve years old Patrick Keating screamed as he lose his balance and began to fall down from the orphanage's wall. He menaged to cling to a jutting brick, but he soon began to lose his grip: it was raining very hard, and the wall was slippery. The little mouse glanced down: it seemed an endless abyss.The frightened child looked up at his friend.

"James!" he screamed "James, help me! Please, help me!"

A little rat about thirteen climbed down towards him. "Hold on, Patrick!" James Ratigan screamed "I'm coming!"

"I can't resist anymore!"

"NO! I won't let you die! Not like this!"

With a great effort, Ratigan menaged to come near to him and hold out his hand. "Give me your hand, Patrick!"

Keating tried to reach for his friend's hand, but it was too far...if only he had been a little closer...just a little closer...

"NO!"Keating suddenly lose his grip and fell down of the wall.

"PATRICK!"Ratigan screamed, then he trew away the rope he had tied to his belt and trew himself after his friend. He menaged to grab him whit his left hand, then he hold out his right hand, trying to find something to stop the fall...

...and his clawed hand hold another jutting brick.

Using all his strenght, the boy menaged to climb on the brick and pull Keating on. They both stayed silent for a while breathing heavily, soaked with rain .

Keating looked at his friend. "You know, James" he breathed "you're the most...the most insane rat I ever met.I owe you my life."

Ratigan laughed, breathlessy. "Oh, yes, you owe me big. So, please...don't call me a rat anymore, ok?

Keating laughed. "Of course, my friend. Of course."

Keating blinked, coming back to the present. He looked once again out of the window, towards Newgate Prison. "It's time to return the favour, James" he said to the empty room "you risked your life to save me. Now it's my turn. And don't worry for your daughter, I'll find a way to free her too. It's a promise."

He couldn't know that, in that same moment, Ginny was ready to escape from the orphanage just as they did twenty years before.