"There are no other nurses? No one else sees them?"
"No, I don't think so-but you have made me realise something: the sanatorium, or at least this wing of it, seems very quiet; more so than it should be, even at such an early hour."
"So the dog creatures leave the room-and then?"
"Then the man turns me, looks into my eyes, and tells me to forget; to remember only that Speke's family took the lieutenant. He leaves the room and I follow him along the corridor toward reception. I feel strange. There are nurses standing motionless and, as he passes them, he says something to each in a low voice. We reach reception, and I see the trolley standing empty by the desk. The albino orders me to move over to it and I obey. He speaks to the nurse at the desk and she starts to blink and look around. Then he walks toward the main door and, as he passes me, he says, `Awake!"'
She sighed and visibly relaxed. "He's gone."
"And now you find yourself pushing the trolley and remembering nothing of what just happened?" put in Burton.
"Yes."
"Very well. Close your eyes now. Concentrate on the rhythm of your breathing."
Sister Raghavendra's hands fell from his and she leaned back on the sofa. Her head drooped.
"Sadhvi," he murmured, "I'm going to count down from ten. With each number, you will feel yourself awakening. When I reach zero, you will be fully conscious, alert, refreshed, and you will remember everything. You will not be afraid. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven-"
As he counted, her eyelids fluttered and opened, her pupils shrank into focus, she looked at him, her hand flew to her mouth, and she cried: "Dear God! Did that really happen?"
"Yes, Sadhvi, it happened. A combination of shock and mesmeric suggestion caused you to bury the memories-but we have managed to uncover them."
"Those dog-things were abominations!"
"I suspect the Eugenicists have been at work."
"They can't! They can't do that to humans!"
"Maybe they didn't, Sadhvi. Maybe they did it to dogs. Or to wolves."
Her eyes widened. "Yes," she whispered. "Wolves!"
"What's the motive for abducting Speke, though? That's what puzzles me," continued Burton, thoughtfully. He stood up. "Anyway-thank you, Sister Raghavendra. You've been very helpful."
She rose from the sofa, stepped forward, and placed her hands on his chest.
"Captain, that albino fellow-he's-he's evil. I felt it. You will be careful, won't you?"
Burton couldn't help himself; his hands slipped around her slim waist and he pulled her close, looking down into her deep, soulful eyes.
"Oh!" she gasped-but it wasn't a protest.
"I'll be careful," he whispered throatily. "And when the mystery is solved, shall I return to tell you about it?"
"Yes. Come back, please, Captain Burton."
It was midday, but London, buried in the heart of the congealing fog, was deprived of light. It tried to generate its own-gas lamps and windows blazed into the murk, but their fierce illumination was immediately crushed and reduced to vague patches of yellow, orange, and red. Between them, the vast and sickening gloom writhed like a living entity, consuming all.
"That you, guv'nor?" came a gruff voice from above.
"Yes, Mr. Penniforth. You're still breathing?"
"Aye. Been 'avin' a smoke o' me pipe. There ain't nuffink like a whiff o' Latakia for fumigatin' the bellows! Get yourself comfy while I light the bull's-eyes. An' call me Monty."
Burton climbed into the hansom. "Bellows?" he grunted. "I should think your lungs are more like a couple of turbines if they can deal with that fog and Latakia! Take me to Scotland Yard, would you?"
"Right ho. Half a mo', sir!"
While his passenger settled, Penniforth climbed down from the box, struck a lucifer, and put the match to the lamps hanging from the front of the engine, and the front and rear of the cabin. He then hoisted himself back up, wrapped his scarf around the lower half of his face, straightened his goggles, gave the peak of his cap a tug, and took hold of the steering bars.
The machine coughed and spluttered and belched smoke into the already laden atmosphere. It lurched away from the curb, pulling the cab behind it.
"Hoff we go, into the great unknown!" muttered Penniforth.
As he carefully steered the machine out of Mornington Crescent and into Hampstead Road, there came a mighty crash and tinkling of broken glass from somewhere far to the left.
"Watch out!" he exclaimed softly. "You don't want to be drivin' into a shop window, do you! Irresponsible, I calls it, bein' in charge of a vehicle in these 'ere weather conditions!"
By the time the hansom cab reached Tottenham Court Road, the "blacks" were falling: coal dust coalescing with particles of ice in the upper layers of fog before drifting to the ground like black snowflakes. It was an ugly sight.
Penniforth pushed on, guided more by instinct and his incredible knowledge of the city's geography than by his eyes. Even so, he steered down the wrong road on more than one occasion.
The steam-horse gurgled and popped.
"Don't you start complainin'!" the cabbie advised it. "You're the one wiv a nice hot boiler! It's cold enough up here to freeze the whatsits off a thingummybob!"
The engine emitted a whistling sigh.
"Oh, it's like that, is it? Feelin' discontentified, are you?"
It hissed and grumbled.
"Why don't you just watch where you're a-going and stop botherin' me wiv the benny-fits of your wisdom?"
It rattled and clanged over a bump in the road.
"Yup, that's it, of girl! Giddy up! Over the hurdles!"
The hansom panted through Leicester Square and on down Charing Cross Road, passing the antiquarian bookshops-whose volumes were now both obscure and obscured-and continuing on to Trafalgar Square, where Monty had to carefully steer around an overturned fruit wagon and the dead horse that had collapsed in its harness. Apples squished under the hansom's wheels and were ground into the cobbles; the resultant mush was quickly blackening with falling soot.
Along Whitehall the engine chugged, then left into Great Scotland Yard, until, outside the grim old edifice of the police headquarters-a looming shadow in the darkness-Penniforth brought it to a standstill.
"There you go, guv'nor!" he called, knocking on the roof.
Sir Richard Francis Burton disembarked and tossed a couple of coins up to the driver.
"Toddle off for a pie and some ale, Monty. You deserve it. If you get back here in an hour, I'll have another fare for you."
"That's right gen'rous of you, guv'nor. You can rely on me; I'll be 'ere waitin' when you're ready."
"Good man!"
Burton entered Scotland Yard. A valet stepped forward and took his coat, hat, and cane, shaking the soot from them onto the already grimy floor.
Burton crossed to the front desk. A small plaque on it read: J. D. Pepperwick-Clerk. He addressed the man to whom it referred.
"Is Detective Inspector Trounce available? I'd like to speak with him, if possible."
"Your name, sir?"
"Sir Richard Francis Burton."
The clerk, a gaunt fellow with thick spectacles, a red nose, and a straggly moustache, looked surprised.
"Not the explorer chappie, surely?"
"The very same."
"Good gracious! Do you want to talk to the inspector about yesterday's shooting?"
"Perhaps. Would you take a look at this?"
Burton held out his authorisation. The clerk took it, unfolded it, saw the signature, and read the text above it with meticulous care, dwelling on each separate word.
"I say!" he finally exclaimed. "You're an important fellow!"
"So-?" said Burton slowly, suggestively inclining his head and raising his eyebrows.