Chapter 11 - Taking the Bull by the Horns
Washington, America: September 5th
(Continued)

Sawyer was relieved that they were making progress with this case. Although it had only been an hour or two at the most to find a strong lead, it had felt like a great deal longer. Sawyer had driven the automobile back to the Secret Service and he was glad he insisted that Ishmael stayed on board the Nautilus. He'd had too much of a shock to be up so soon.

He could only imagine how much of a nightmare that Ishmael was reliving. For all Sawyer knew nothing about what had happened, he had a vague intuition that this Robur was perhaps as bad as Moriarty, likely far worse. If Sawyer ever found out that that monster was alive, he could imagine he'd feel the same way.

In all honesty, he didn't like how quickly they moved the investigation onwards and practically found their culprit. It did make sense for it to be this Robur character, but he was too afraid to ignore all other options just because one piece of evidence had been found. That didn't mean that Ishmael's assumption was wrong, but nonetheless, Sawyer had made that mistake too many times. This time there was no room for error.

Still, it did seem that Robur, or rather his associates, had merely been hiding in the shadows ever since he had been killed. Sawyer had a feeling Nemo would be glowing with rage if he knew his flag had been found. It was becoming clear to Sawyer that Robur was the Nautilus's worst enemy. Without hesitation, he added himself to the list of those who despised him, but Sawyer wanted to know if he was hating a dead man or not.

There was only one thing that especially troubled Sawyer. How were they supposed to find Nemo? This would not sway Sawyer from the task ahead but it did seem a lot harder knowing Nemo could have been anywhere. For all the League knew, they could be going in one direction and Nemo in the other.

This mission was becoming more daunting with every moment that passed.

Sawyer only hoped that they had not gone far. Unfortunately, by the looks of the plan that these men had used to capture Nemo so far, they were clever. After all, they had twisted their strengths into weaknesses with ease. These men were not to be underestimated.
Neither is the League, Sawyer reminded himself. He hoped to keep his spirits up and maintain his optimistic look at things, though he found it to be difficult. With any luck, the folder they were searching for would have at least some of the answers the League sought.

"Well then," Skinner suddenly said, climbing out of the front of the Automobile now that Sawyer had stopped driving. "Time to see how bad-tempered this old boy can get."
Sawyer followed his example and also exited the Automobile.
"It won't be pretty, I can guarantee that. I'll have to sign you in or I'll end up being fired for allowing strangers inside. You'll have to keep your coat on too or there'll be a scene and -"
"Relax, Sawyer, I'll be a good boy. Do you want me to hold your hand too?" Skinner teased, taking the greasepaint out of his coat pocket and applying it to his face as he leaned against the side of the Automobile.

"Laugh all you want, Skinner, but this is serious. White isn't someone to mess with. One word from him and I'll be out of the Secret Service forever, so please, just stay out of trouble."
"I'm a thief, Sawyer, not a spy. I'm not going to be looking through the secrets of America, am I? Don't give me that look! At least try to have some faith in me. All we have to do is have a quick flick through a grubby folder and work from there. I'll do whatever you tell me to within reason."
"Just don't talk back to White, no matter what he says," Sawyer said, stressing every syllable with as much authority as he could muster.

Skinner watched as Sawyer sighed and headed towards the entrance. He couldn't help but mutter, "That's why I said 'within reason'..."

(*A Few Minutes Later*)

It had not taken long for Skinner to get ready and for the two to make their way inside and to the almost deserted reception. Miss Finch seemed surprised to see him back so soon. Within a few seconds, Skinner was grinning at Miss Finch. She looked rather uncomfortable with his attitude and averted her gaze. Sawyer elbowed him in the side. "Behave," he grumbled.

Sawyer smiled in acknowledgement and approached the front of the desk in the reception. Miss Finch smiled back. "Mr Sawyer," she greeted, putting on her mask of professionalism. "I see you're back early."
"I'm sorry, Miss Finch, but I can't stay long. It's just that I forgot something. My friend Mr Skinner-"
"Call me Rodney," the thief grinned.

Sawyer sighed. "Mr Skinner needs to be signed in whilst I head to my office. Could you show him down if you have time, please? If not, I'm sure he can find his own way there." Sawyer looked at Skinner in a subtle way, but so he knew what he was implying.
"Of course, I can do that for you, Mr Sawyer."
"Thank you," he answered with a cheerful edge to his voice. Sawyer was about to walk away, but a thought struck him. "Miss Finch, did you by any chance move the folders from my office?"
"Not yet, Sir, I was just about to," she admitted.

"Perfect, that's brilliant!" he exclaimed genuinely. With any luck, White was unaware of the situation. Sawyer could take back the note from White's desk and hope that he hadn't seen it yet. Maybe could get away with this after all.

Sawyer rushed on ahead to his office, leaving the embarrassing Skinner with Miss Finch. He hoped Skinner did as he was told. He didn't want to imagine the ruckus if he was caught doing something he shouldn't have been in a place like this.

When Sawyer entered the office, his heart leapt into his mouth. Mr White was standing, smouldering with fury. "There is a vital emergency concerning a previous mission. Apologies for being unable to speak to you in person. However, this may be a threat to national security," Mr White read out loud, sneering as he read the words on the small piece of paper. "What in God's name is this!?" he roared.

"I'm sorry, sir, I-" Sawyer began, forcing himself not to bolt back out the door.
"No! No excuses. Answer my question! What is this?"
"A note explaining my absence, Sir, because-"
"I don't want to hear it, Sawyer!"
"Yes, sir."

Sawyer took a deep breath and waited for the rest of the storm to pass. He hated when White shouted, he made him feel like a schoolboy all over again.
"Get these folders tidied up now, boy. Hurry up!"
Sawyer struggled to stop himself from hitting White with those damn folders.

When Sawyer found the folder he had needed, he slyly put it on the top of the pile. White stood with arms crossed, trying to rein his anger in. He stared at Sawyer with a stare so cold it could have frozen the paws off a Mongolian tiger. Sawyer tried to hide his annoyance as he sorted out the final few folders. He accidentally slammed the occasional folder onto the growing organized pile. But he held his silence, and so White did not speak.

White turned his head as the door creaked. Sawyer guessed one of the younger agents was listening in or maybe Skinner was waiting outside. White stomped over to the door and slammed it shut. He found a coat on the floor. With a furious mutter, he threw it onto the coat stand. When he turned around Sawyer was standing with a complete pile of organised work folders.

Sawyer noted the coat. It was leather, black and long. Not his.
Oh no.
He opened his mouth to speak, but White interrupted him. "Sawyer, what is my job here?" Mr White went behind Sawyer's desk and sat down, as though proving the point that he was in charge.
"To send the appropriate agent out into the field for a mission, sir," Sawyer replied, trying to remain patient.
"Correct. Now at what point do you decide to ignore the rules of the Secret Service and go gallivanting off like this building is a playground? I know Agent Finn's death hit you hard, but you cannot throw your duty out of the window!"
"I'm sorry, Sir. It's not H-... Agent Finn's death, sir. I've more or less come to terms with what happened… No, sir. I had to go. I received an urgent message from-"

"Sawyer, I don't care if the King of England sent you that message! You ask me if you can go, and if the reasoning is valid, then I will allow you to. Is that clear?" his voice dripping with a burning venom. Sawyer nodded. White had changed his tune so quickly upon hearing that his actions were not out of grief. Had White spoken to Sawyer like that before Skinner had opened his eyes, someone would have had to drag him off him. "Is that clear?!" White yelled.
"Yes, sir," Sawyer jumped, realising he had only nodded as he lost himself in alternate thoughts. How he hated that man sometimes. He never allowed you to put your side across. He always had to bellow at him.

White sighed in frustration, getting to his feet and pacing. "Amuse me. What was so urgent about the message that you could not wait to speak to me and tidy up? Why did you instead send Miss Finch to tell me? Does that poor woman not do enough for you?!"
"It-"

"Think very carefully before you reply, Sawyer. Very carefully," White seethed.
"Will you kindly shut up and let the poor sod speak?" a new voice exclaimed. The look of surprise on White's face was priceless. His jaw fell to the ground in such a mixture of anger, shock and insult, it was hard for Sawyer to keep himself composed. White saw Sawyer wince at the new voice.

White stumbled to the back of the room, searching for the new person who had spoken. Sawyer knew this meant trouble, but Skinner was as good as Huck for making him laugh. The shock he'd given White was almost worth any trouble. Sawyer wished Skinner had stayed quiet but now he could only hope he didn't get fired.

"Sir, this is Rodney Skinner, the invisible man I worked with on my last mission: a member of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He asked for me to go to the port today," Sawyer explained, taking advantage of the bewildered state Mr White was in. It didn't take long for the man to pull himself together and aim his assault at the invisible man.

"How the hell did he get in here? Who in God's name do you think you are?! Only I tell people who stays and who goes!" White demanded, head moving about looking for a sign of his whereabouts.
The coat moved from the stand as Skinner slipped it on. As he fastened the buttons he said "In that order? Through the main entrance, welcomed by that lovely receptionist. The name's Rodney Skinner if you'd been listening, and you're no more important than Sawyer or anyone else, so get off that mighty high horse of yours."

Sawyer quickly tried to signal to Skinner to stop, but he knew Skinner didn't back down... Oh well, White couldn't say he hadn't tried.

"How dare you! Do you know who I am?"
"A miserable git who's grown too big for his boots as far as I'm concerned, and cheer up for goodness sake. You look like a bulldog chewing on a wasp. You should be grateful you've got a fine lad like Sawyer on your side. You couldn't ask for a finer agent so stop your squawking and let him speak without butting in. This is important and you're wasting time that we don't have!"

When White held his silence in red hot fury, Sawyer began to explain. Sawyer could tell the curiosity was getting the better of the strict boss. "I brought Mr Skinner here to help me. He asked me to go with him earlier today. A different member of the League has been captured. His name is Captain Nemo, an incredible engineer. Sir, if he builds anything for any enemies of the nation, America could be at serious risk. I returned to collect a folder, which we believe links to his capture."

Sawyer took the small flag from his pocket and spread it out on the table. He then opened the folder he needed and showed White how the two images of the sun were identical. "We found this flag at the scene of the crime. For the exact same design to be in a case file cannot be a coincidence."
"I see," White replied, a great deal calmer than before. Sawyer could still see his eye was twitching, which meant he wasn't completely at ease.

Sawyer could see the gears turning in White's head as he rubbed his chin. He looked at the floating coat and back to Sawyer. It seemed Skinner had knocked some calmness into him and stopped him from feeling as high and mighty as he had moments ago when he was scolding Sawyer.

"Sir, with all due respect, I must be allowed to see that folder and leave to look into this. Not only for America, but I owe it to Nemo; he's my friend. His life could be at risk."

White tensed. He had made up his mind. "The result of this little mission you have made for yourself will determine if you still have a job when you return. Take your blasted folder and do not bother me again! If you are wrong, I will personally have you dealt with," he threatened, leaving the office and hitting Skinner's shoulder with his as he barged past.

"Well, he's a right ray of sunshine," Skinner remarked after the door slammed shut.
Sawyer sat on the edge of his desk and rubbed the sides of his head. "That was too close. Damn, that man is impossible- and you were told to keep your coat on!"
Skinner shrugged. "Got a bit too warm."
Sawyer couldn't hide his smile "Come on, if I want to employed after all this, we'd better get a move on."

"Well, get reading," Skinner remarked as he began to apply his greasepaint again.
Sawyer read the content of the folder in his head. This time he made sure to focus on every word, unlike last time.

"Alright, so cut a long story short, about eight years ago these flags appeared on the world's greatest landmarks with days between each report. Paris, London, Egypt, and America. But there's just been another one in Germany on the Cologne Cathedral. People reportedly hear a trumpet whilst the flag is placed on the monument. The entire thing lasts for five minutes and then it all stops."
"Five minutes? How can they get on top of something that big so quickly?"

"That's just it. The odd person has said that they see a giant cloud overhead. But that's from a distance. There are no witnesses who've seen it up close. It's usually in the dead of the night… That sounds like something that has been built to me. These are big, even capital cities in some cases. There's no way a cloud wouldn't be seen."
"So what, it's some kind of aircraft? It wouldn't be the strangest thing we've seen this year," Skinner remarked. Sawyer began to rub the back of his neck as he tried to think. None of this was making sense. It was a boat that had taken Nemo, not a floating monstrosity. Were the two linked after all?

"It sounds like we have another top-class engineer on our hands. If Robur is responsible for this, or someone who knew him, then we've got a problem," Skinner pointed out, pocketing his grease paint.
Sawyer lit up at Skinner's deduction. He might have just hit the nail on the head."You're right. I'm starting to wonder if Robur is really dead... Let's get back to the Nautilus. Ishmael might be able to explain this," Sawyer suggested.

Skinner nodded and put his hat back on. "As an old friend of mine would say: The game is afoot'..."

The Nautilus
(Continued)

Upon arriving back at the Nautilus, after a small detour so Sawyer could pack a bag for the trip, Sawyer and Skinner could see Ishmael had composed himself and was settled down in his seat with a cup of tea. He wasn't used to everyone fussing around him and it showed quite clearly with his fidgeting. Dr Jekyll and Mina were sitting in their seats beside him.

"You're back," Jekyll smiled, rising from his seat. "Did you find anything?"
"Yes, we got the folder, though it doesn't make much sense yet," Sawyer replied. Skinner sat himself down in the spare seat beside Mina. He shuffled over towards her in his seat. Mina sent him a subtle warning out of the corner of her eye. The invisible man got the message, though he couldn't help but smirk.

"How are you feeling, Ishmael?" Skinner asked, looking over to the first mate.
"Better thank you, sir," Ishmael answered.
"Good, because it looks like you'll be the only one who can make any sense out of this mess," Skinner said.

Jekyll made a gesture, offering to read the folder. Sawyer handed it to him and added, "This folder is from 7 or 8 years ago, but whatever it is has made a reappearance." He sat down and yawned. He hadn't realised how tired he was.
He didn't like reading out loud, so he was grateful for the doctor's offer. After righting himself and clearing his throat, Jekyll began to read.

"Eyewitness accounts supported and occasionally vaguely verified by agents present at the time, report strange occurrences that have taken place at different locations around the world. Flags of unknown origin and purpose have been placed upon several landmarks.

The exact same sequence of events occurs at each site. A trumpet is heard playing a song, identified as the "Chant du Depart" while the flag is fixed into position on the landmark. After five minutes, the music ends and the flag is in place with no further evidence of who or what was responsible for placing it.

Locations of these occurrences include, but are not limited to the following. It should be noted that this is the order in which the incidents have occurred:
Canton, China: the spike of the temple of the Four Hundred Genii
Boston, America: the Bunker Hill Monument
New York, America: the head of the Statue of Liberty
London, England: the cross of St. Paul's
Rouen, France: the metal spire of the Rouen Cathedral
Paris, France: the lightning conductor of Eiffel's Iron Tower from the 1889 Exposition
Giza, Egypt: the top of the Great Pyramid
Rome, Italy: the cross of St. Peter's

The event was repeated in the same circumstances on September 1st 1899. Location: Cologne, Germany: a spire of the Cologne Cathedral

The exact meaning intended by these displays is unknown, but the similarity in method and appearance indicates the events are connected. Due to the short span of time and the great distances between the occurrences, most assume it is likely a group of people organized together rather than a singular individual.

Another possibility kept from the public is that this is the work of a single individual. In some of the reports, eyewitnesses have described observing a "giant cloud'' above the site. If the statements are taken to be reliable, it is likely there is a connection between the two observed phenomena. British Intelligence is standing by in Belgium, and many other agents are at other landmarks in other nations, anticipating the event will recur in a similar fashion as the ones beforehand."

There was a dreadful, heavy moment of silence. Though the report was brief, Ishmael appeared to understand. He had closed his eyes and drew a few breaths in silence, trying to compose himself before he spoke. Sawyer could not help but feel as though someone was slowly digging their nails across his back. It was his infamous feeling of unease. Without warning his body had a sudden cold shiver.

"Ishmael?" Sawyer said, distracting himself from that horrible feeling of dread. Ishmael leaned forward in his chair, resting his chin between his thumb and index finger, forcing himself to be calm. He seemed to be almost entranced as he stared down at the floor. Everyone present braced themselves for the inevitable bad news.

After swallowing a lump that rose in his throat, he began to speak. "Then it is true," he looked up and forced himself to lean back. "They're back, only I do not know if Jean Robur is alive or if one of his men has picked up where he left off. This will all be for revenge no doubt, even after all these years," Ishmael's words began to stick in his throat. "If they're out for blood Captain Nemo won't stand a chance… Robur has already taken too much from us." Ishmael's gaze met Skinner's. The thief read in his expression so much fear and pain, Skinner couldn't bear to not speak.

"Then we'll have to beat them to him," Skinner said, sitting up in his chair. He displayed as much courage and determination as he could in front of the first mate. He hoped the rest of the League would do the same.

"We'll be trying to find a needle in a haystack, but Skinner is right. Perhaps if we go to Belgium and find one of these agents, we might be able to pick up a trail," Jekyll suggested.
"But nothing has happened yet. How do we know that there will be anything there? There's every chance we'll be wasting time," Mina interjected, taking a drink of her tea and resting the cup on her lap.
"We very well might be, but it looks to be the best course of action for the meanwhile," Jekyll said.

"Nemo's still got a good chance, Ishmael," Sawyer reassured him. Ishmael was not comforted and as he spoke Sawyer realised why. "That cloud the report spoke of is actually Robur's invention. It is called The Albatross, his flying ship - it must have been rebuilt or repaired. Sooner or later, I think they will strike Belgium if they're up to their old tricks. The ship seems to be in that vicinity. Robur was a megalomaniac - hoping to take over the world. I expect his men shared his dream. That damned airship can reach over double the speed of the Nautilus. We'll never catch them!"

"Anyone else getting a sense of Déjà vu?" Skinner muttered.

"We have to try, just like we did with Moriarty," Sawyer insisted, standing up from his seat. He couldn't help but feel as though time was running out, as was his optimism. "If Belgium hasn't been hit yet, then we ought to go. If we head to the ports we might hear about this strange boat Nemo was taken in any way. This is the warmest trail we've got and Nemo hasn't got the time for us to wait to find a better one."

A cold, stinging silence filled the large room. Something seemed to be bothering Ishmael. After a few seconds, he began to speak. "Nemo and I were held prisoner for a long time whilst the Nautilus was being built. We were trapped on Robur's island stronghold. When we escaped, we tried to make sure the island was damaged to the point of no return."

"What are you trying to say?" Skinner asked.
"So long has passed since then I wonder if the Island has become habitable again. It would take us several weeks to reach there and the Nautilus's crew would prefer for that hellish place to be our last resort, but it is an option should this trail grow cold." Ishmael set his cup down on the table and stood up feverishly. "I'll get the crew ready to leave for Belgium. Please excuse me."

With that, the first mate left without another word.

"He's struggling to cope beyond what is bearable," Jekyll observed, running his hand through his hair.
"All of the crewmen are," Mina added, putting her cup on the table beside her. A dismal heavy air tried to fall upon the room, like a curtain at the end of a play.

Skinner slapped his thighs and pushed off them to stand up. "Well, pack your jammies and your toothbrush because it looks like we'll be leaving in a few minutes. These buggers have picked the wrong League to mess with and I think we ought to tell them personally, don't you think?" The remains of the League nodded in approval.

That filled Sawyer with more confidence than any level of optimism could ever achieve
Hold on, Nemo. We're onto you now...