Disclaimer: The characters in this story are the property of SyFy and Nick Willing and are only used for fan related purposes.

Gumshoe

chapter four: the Great Library

Hatter removed his hat, gave the snow that coated it a light dusting with the side of his hand, and placed it back on his head. He acted like he couldn't be bothered with the point of the knife directed at his throat, though, really, he had stopped swallowing in case his Adam's apple got too close.

He knew from experience that it was always important to appear unafraid in front of a prospective enemy. Even an enemy with white hair and wrinkles so deep they nearly hid his watery eyes.

The man's hand was shaking, whether from rheumatism, the cold or the fact that the steel knife was probably too heavy for his grip. Hatter nodded casually. "Put that away, Duck. You know me well enough. You won't be needin' it."

Duck lowered the knife, exhaling in relief as his spindly arm dropped, but he didn't move to put the blade away just yet. Hatter was right—he did know him. "Can't be too careful, Hatter," he croaked, his voice as shaky as his hand had been. He cleared his throat. "Are you here for Dodo?"

Hatter nodded, managing to keep his eye on Duck's knife without ever looking at it. He moved a step to his left, positioning himself between Alice and the old man. Just in case.

"Very well. Come this way." Turning around slowly, resigned, Duck started forward before calling behind, "And please shut the door behind you. We wouldn't want to let a draft in. It's quite cold out."

Alice reached behind her to do what Duck had asked as Hatter rolled his eyes. Certainly it was cold out. His goose bumps had goose bumps and it would be some time before the feeling returned to his toes—until then they were nothing but small rocks of ice rattling around his boot. He didn't even want to think about how she felt behind him, her in such a short dress and probably as much sense as Dormie when she missed her morning coffee. But, hey, at least it was warm inside, even if Duck's welcome was frosty.

The room was small, cramped with the three of them inside but empty of anything else. There were two dingy white doors, one on his left side and one on the right, and a pair of steel doors on the opposite wall from the entryway. Hatter was familiar with the elevator and he wasn't surprised when, with a squeak and a ding, the doors opened up to reveal an even smaller room with peeling wallpaper. Duck went inside first, and Hatter followed after. Almost immediately he felt as if he'd shot up three feet, the room was so tiny.

Duck waited for Alice to step hesitantly over the threshold before he reached for the panel that operated the elevator. Three rows of three numbers ran down the tarnished steel panel but he didn't press any of those. A wizened old thumb jabbed at a tenth button; the letter U was almost rubbed away from constant use. Hatter knew why, too.

They were going underground.

The light above them flickered, an annoying static-filled buzz serving as elevator music as they went down. Hatter caught Alice holding tightly to the rail and raised his eyebrows. She looked unsettled. Claustrophobia, perhaps? Not what he expected but, then again, he'd been in this business long enough by now to know not to expect anything from anyone. He didn't say anything about it, but he made note of her reaction.

It was a detective thing.

Duck was standing behind him now, the knife still kept loosely in his hand. When the elevator arrived with a jolt that made Alice stumble—Hatter expected the short drop and braced his knees for it—and the doors opened with a groan, Hatter was relieved to take a step away from the point of the knife. There was only one problem, though. The doors opened to reveal a middle-aged woman with glasses so thick her eyes were magnified standing there… and, like her partner, Owl wasn't empty handed.

"Your hands where I can see them," she trilled, holding an old sawed-off shotgun uncertainly.

The gun was aimed right at Hatter's chest but he knew better than to think Owl would actually shoot him. Still, it was better to humor her. She did have a gun, after all.

"Ah, not you too, Owl," he said, raising his hands slowly as he stepped out into the narrow, dimly lit hall. In a place like this, there weren't many candles around and for good reason, too. Hatter remembered the last time Duck clumsily dropped his candle while underground. Half a shelf had burnt to ash before Dodo swooped in and stamped the fire out.

Owl stepped back in order to allow Hatter and Alice to exit the elevator. The shotgun followed their every move. "We have orders, Hatter."

"Dodo's in one of his funny moods then," Hatter quipped, trying to keep the mood light. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Alice held the same pose as him. He wondered if Duck's knife had anything to do with that.

The old man followed her out into the hall; sure enough, he had his knife held out again. He shook his head, glancing ominously down the passage as he warned, "I wouldn't let him hear you say that if I was you."

"Well, it's a good thing you're not."

Owl ignored him. Using the end of her gun, she gestured down the hall. "You know the way, Hatter."

Hatter nodded and, pointedly lowering his hands, he began to walk confidently forward. After years of surreptitiously working with these two and their ornery boss, he knew the way and, well, Dodo's ways.

The thing was, in a place liked Wonderland, booze and vice and territory wars were the norm. Owl, Duck and Dodo, they were all from the old days when it was a peaceful place, a place of color and light, a place where everyone was welcome and wisdom was shared. Then came the gangs, the White Diamonds and the Red Hearts; with them came the head of the Hearts clan, the Queen, and her urge to provide the locals with a little bit of instant gratification. Almost overnight, it seemed, all knowledge was banned. The library was moved underground, and they moved with it.

And Hatter liked them because, despite their being cut off from the world above, they knew more than he did—and that was saying something. They had more contacts than he could imagine—he was one of them, actually—but he could never figure how they did it. Dodo never answered him when he asked and he knew better than to push his luck where the old librarian was involved. He might be one of Dodo's contacts, but he needed Dodo's answers more than he wanted to admit at times.

Alice, following his lead, lowered her hands and hurried her step until she was walking right beside him. He could see that her hands were balled into fists again—there was no doubt she wasn't exactly pleased by their less-than-welcome welcome—but her curious expression overshadowed any other emotion. Curiouser and curiouser. He wondered if Alice had ever seen so many books in one place before. He knew he hadn't.

Whispering out of the side of her mouth, trying not to draw attention from Owl and Duck, Alice asked, "What is this place?"

"It's called the Great Library," Hatter explained needlessly, gesturing towards the rows and rows of bookshelves that surrounded them on all sides and filled every inch of the room. The passageway was as narrow as it was to fit in just one more book somewhere. "The guy who runs it? Dodo? He was the city librarian until all the bars and casinos and the strip clubs popped everywhere. There wasn't room for learnin' in Wonderland, or for books, so he moved it underground." He dropped his voice. "It's a closely guarded secret. Not many people know it exists now, let alone even remember it was ever here."

Alice listened intently, her eyes wide and staring as she took in the overwhelming sight of hundreds and thousands of books that would never be read again. She gave her head a little shake. "Why is he called Dodo?"

"Spend enough time with only books underground…" Hatter shrugged. "Besides, reading is extinct now. As far as the rest of Wonderland knows, so is Dodo."

From behind them, Duck cleared his throat again. The harsh sound was more of a warning than anything and Hatter let his explanation end there. Sound echoed underground; the last thing he needed was for Dodo to overhear him. Owl was right. The less Dodo heard him say, the better.

Though, Hatter thought uneasily, it seemed that Dodo always knew more than Hatter wanted him to.

The air in the library was stifling, made worse by the smell of it: all musty pages and centuries of caged knowledge in a room with no ventilation and very little light. Being down there always made Hatter antsy. The only way up was back through the elevator and he hated not having any other options. It was a risk every time he went underground but it usually paid off.

For the most part.

At the end of the hall there was an open doorway. Hatter led Alice straight to it but made sure to enter first. There weren't many books kept in Dodo's private office, oddly enough, and the room was filled with so many candles that he was temporarily blinded. He always figured that Dodo did that on purpose.

It took a few seconds for Hatter's eyes to adjust. When they did he found Dodo sitting regally behind an antique of a desk. He looked younger than he was, his goatee covered a noticeably weak chin and not even his enigmatic grin did anything to make him look any less severe. With hardly a change in his expression, Dodo rose up from his chair.

"Hatter."

Hatter met Dodo's eye and swallowed. He refused to blink as he nodded his own greeting.

Dodo was a pious man, a self-proclaimed virtuous librarian—which meant, of course, that he regarded anyone from up above with less enthusiasm than the dirt beneath his feet. On his good days, he was knowledgeable, maybe helpful; on his bad, he was insane. From the glint in his eye to the weapons Duck and Owl handled uneasily, Hatter was beginning to think today was a bad day.

Not only that, but he was also beginning to second guess the brilliance of turning to Dodo for help with this case. Of course, Hatter would rather eat his hat than to come off anything less than confident. Calling a charming, dimpled smile to his face, he said cheekily, "Guns, Dodo?"

Dodo frowned, a quick twitch and his grin was flipped. He obviously didn't expect Hatter to jump in like that. Hell, even Hatter was surprised. That wasn't the way their meetings normally ran—but, then again, he'd never been greeted with a knife-wielding Duck or a shotgun-toting Owl before.

His frown was short-lived. A queer sort of smile replaced it, a half-smirk that said: ah-ha, two can play this game. Hatter tried not to look unsettled. It was tough.

"There's an oyster loose in the city," Dodo announced. "Questions are already being asked, Hatter." He walked around his desk, stopping for a beat in front of Alice. With unblinking eyes he looked her up and down—she assumed a defensive stance in response to his obvious leering—before slowly turning his attention back to Hatter. "I should've known it would only be a matter of time until you arrived," he sneered at last, "but I hardly would've believed you'd be so… so foolish to take her under your wing."

Hatter bristled and only remembered in time that he was a professional. A paid professional. "She's a client. She hired me."

Looking less than impressed, Dodo asked, "Who is she?"

"She's looking for her boyfriend. A Jack Chance—"

"Chase," corrected Alice.

"Jack Chase," Hatter amended. "You know almost everything that goes on in the city. I was wondering if you knew where we could find him." There were quite a few ways to deal with someone as… unique as Dodo. Flattery was already a good start. And, of course, there was always the prospect of compensation. "She can pay you," he added.

Was that a flicker of interest? "Pay me with what?"

Now, this was where Hatter had to play his cards right. Dodo was like him. It wasn't bills and paper and coins and money that gave him wealth. Just like Hatter collected favors for his services, Dodo collected things.

Hatter nudged Alice on her side. "Alice, show him the ring you've got."

"My ring?" She lifted her hand up as if to get a good look at the ring she wore before shaking her head and closing her hand into a fist. Crossing her arms over her chest, she tucked her left hand underneath so that the ring was out of sight. "I'm not selling my ring to anybody."

It was too little, too late. When Alice raised her hand, she wasn't the only one who got an eyeful. There was a sharp intake of breath and then Dodo whirled on Hatter again. "What is she doing with that?" he demanded, acting like Alice was just something worthless that, unfortunately for him, was attached to the ring.

Hatter shrugged. "It's just a ring, Dodo."

"Just a ring? Your oyster is wearing the Queen's ring!"

It wasn't often that Hatter was caught off-guard. He was good at his job and part of his job meant anticipating moments like these. You needed your wits to work as a private investigator in Wonderland, you needed to always have one up on everybody else. Right now, he felt as if his stomach had plummeted right down to his shoes, followed by his pride. There was no way that the ring Alice was wearing could be the Hearts' leader's prized diamond ring… could it?

It didn't matter. In denial, scoffing, he shook his head. "I don't believe it."

"I'm never wrong."

In a weird way, Dodo was right, too. Damn it! That's what made the librarian such a formidable threat, and that's why Hatter's stomach sank so far and so fast. Dodo had to be right which meant that Hatter was wrong and that Alice had somehow gotten hold of the most expensive—and not just in turns of actual cash, either—item in all of Wonderland.

Dreading the answer but knowing he had to ask, Hatter turned so that he was both facing Alice and blocking Dodo from his line of vision. The sight of the popping eyes and the satisfied smirk were all too much. "Alice," he said, managing to sound a whole lot calmer than he currently felt, "how did you get the Queen's ring?"

Alice took one defensive step back. Her lips were set in a firm line and she looked determined not to let herself be bullied by Dodo. "It's not some queen's ring, it's mine. And I'm not selling it to him."

"I don't need to buy it from you," Dodo announced, suddenly drawing a gun from out of nowhere. "You're going to hand it over like a good little… oyster."

Hatter made to move in front of Alice. "Dodo, can we just talk about this? Maybe there's something else we can work out where the lady gets to keep the ring." He nodded encouragingly, all the while gesturing with his hand behind him, trying to get Alice to back out of the room. Faced with a crazy Dodo holding a gun much more comfortably than Owl, Hatter forgot that Dodo's two lackeys were guarding the door. "You've known me a long time, right? You can trust me, eh?"

But Dodo didn't trust him—and he certainly didn't want to hear what Hatter had to say. He held up his hand to cut Hatter off and glanced over to where Duck and Owl were watching the whole exchange curiously. Nodding at Owl, he said quite calmly, "Shoot him."

Owl's mouth hung open for a moment before she lowered her gun and shook her head frantically. "Oh no, Dodo, I… I can't."

"Then I will." And he pulled the trigger.

The bullet exploded out of Dodo's gun. Hatter had the sudden realization that it was going to hit him a split second before it did, slamming into his left shoulder and knocking him off of his feet. Like he noticed before, there weren't many books in Dodo's office but, just his luck, he managed to crash land right into the one stack that had been set haphazardly off to the side. Heavy books rained down all around him, the thudding loud enough to drown out his cry of pain.

Owl was panicking. Hugging her shotgun to her chest as if it were her shield, she started to tremble. It was one thing to hold a gun to keep people in line—but to actually fire it? "He shot Hatter," she screeched. "Duck, he shot Hatter!"

"I'm not daft, woman! I can see that!" Duck looked from Owl to the spot where Hatter lay on the floor back to Dodo's victorious expression. He cleared his throat. "Dodo, I—"

"Shut up," Dodo snapped, taking his eyes off of Alice as he turned to look at his underlings. "Both of you, just shut up!"

Even from his place on the floor Hatter could see that that was a mistake. Alice hadn't reacted to the gunshot but the second Dodo's attention was distracted, she moved. Like a rattlesnake she attacked, three quick hits in succession before she landed a heavy kick against Dodo's knee. The man folded like a house of cards, the gun flying out of his hand as he dropped to the floor. The gun followed its master, skidded halfway across the small room and stopped right at Duck's feet.

Duck hesitated and was just about to bend down and retrieve the gun when Alice spun around, her borrowed overcoat fanning out behind her. She spotted the gun before Duck could get to it, kicking the handle with her boot; the gun slid out the door into the hall. Alice chased behind it, fleeing down the passageway that would lead back to the elevator.

Back to freedom.

Hatter watched this all happening from a detached view, as a bystander rather than a participant. His left shoulder was throbbing, he could already feel the bruise that would be there come morning but the thudding of Alice's retreating footsteps revived him—that, and the sight of Dodo angrily trying to get back on his feet.

He was going to go after Alice. And Hatter, for reasons the gunshot blast made a little hazy, couldn't let that happen.

In order to be a detective, you had to think like a criminal. In that respect, based on past experience, Hatter was the best investigator in all of Wonderland. For one thing, he was always prepared; for another, he didn't leave his office without a trick or two up his sleeve—or in his pocket. Pulling himself to his feet before Dodo was entirely straight, he swiftly drew his trusty pistol out of his coat pocket with his left hand, holding onto his injured shoulder with his right. It hurt like hell, but he gritted his teeth, raised his gun and pointed it right at Dodo.

"Leave her alone," he demanded, breathing heavily as he eyed the librarian. "Let her go."

-- stress, 02.07.10