In which our heroes must battle the agents of a deadly foreign power and their infernal allies to protect the free world from evil Nazi rats.
Act 1: The Terminal Death
Act 2: So far, Soho
Act 3: Hammersmith Stand-off
Act 4: One of Our Spies is Missing
Act 5: House of the Dead
Act 6: The Game's Afoot
Act 7: Hellfire!
Aftermath
Another lazy afternoon at Green Mountain Airfield is interrupted by a cry for help. Working in the shop on a super-secure safe in which to keep the plans for a weapon of horrific power based on Muyaccan crystal technology that he himself would never of course build, William receives a telephone call from his old friend and mentor in British Intelligence, Sir Marcus Talbot (being on first name terms, they naturally address one another as 'Hamilton-Hunter' and 'Talbot').
Talbot tells William that there's trouble at t'mill, as it were. He's on to something big; something terrible. He can't discuss it over the phone, and he thinks he is being followed, but William promises to fire up the zeppelin and round up the chaps and be over as soon as possible.
Two weeks later, the team arrive at Croydon Aerodrome, and are met at the terminal by Talbot. No sooner has Talbot greeted his old friend however, when three shots ring out, and he collapses, dying, in William's arms. Zachariah and Li Mi take off in pursuit of the sinister, black-coated assassin, while the dying Talbot croaks out his final word: 'Hell'.
Zachariah catches up with the assassin just beyond the doors. The man rounds on him, but Zachariah knocks his gun aside, and a scuffle ensues. The assassin belabours Zachariah about the face with the butt of his gun, Li Mi leaps into the fray. Unfortunately, it seems that Li Mi has been too much sparring of late, and not enough engaging in actual combat, and her blows fail to connect properly.
Pinned between the two however, the assassin is eventually overcome, when at last Li Mi lands a solid blow and sends him sprawling.
William checks Talbot's pockets for any clues, but finds only his wallet. Examining the assassin, he finds him dead, with a stench of sulphur on his breath and his face turning purple. He swiftly takes charge, placing a call to a security contact to make sure the police don't get too involved. He then explains matters to the bobbies, who arrange for Sir Marcus to be collected, the assassin to be taken to the morgue, and apologise to Zachariah, explaining that it is in fact very h'un-h'usual for peers of the realm to be shot dead in Croydon.
Zachariah and Li Mi book the group into a hotel, while William bears the sad tidings to Talbot's wife, Lady Cynthia. She admits she has always known the risks of Marcus' profession, and accepted them, but it is still a blow. Since his retirement, she had dared to hope they were out of the game, but it seems that was not to be.
Lady Cynthia tells William that - unusually - Marcus had not confided his worries in her. His most trusted aide since he began working for the Intelligence Service, she was usually privy to everything, but he kept this secret from her. The only person he might have spoken to was his former colleague and close friend, Lord Arthur Warburton, now Head of Eastern Europe. She offers to arrange a meeting, and also promises to look for clues in Marcus' papers, as she is the only one who knows his personal codes.
Later that day, William receives a call from Lady Cynthia, telling him that Lord Arthur will meet him in the Duke's Head, a pub not far from his club, at 5:30. This - he knows - means 5 o'clock.
Leaving Zachariah and Li Mi to stand watch, William goes into the pub at five-to-five, buys a drink form the ex-army landlord, and sits in a defensible corner. Shortly thereafter, Lord Arthur - always a bureaucrat, more than a field operative, and looking extremely tense and nervy - enters. He says that Marcus said nothing to him, and he is concerned that he was even taking an interest in such matters at his age, but he promises to ask around in the Department.
Not long after Lord Arthur's arrival, Li Mi spots a group of men approaching in smart hats and coats, who looks as though they should not be wearing smart hats and coats. William spots them as they enter the pub, and Li Mi and Zachariah follow them in.
The men start making trouble, and when they square off on William he shoots one under the table with his cane. The man goes down, leaving three knife-wielding toughs and their knife-wielding leader. Lord Arthur squeals and runs for it, but William is made from sterner stuff and leaps up, grabbing the small table to use as a shield.
One man lodges his knife in the table, while the others try and fail to reach William. Li Mi accosts the chief thug, who turns on her with violence, and Zachariah breaks a chair over a thug's back. Now there are two.
Li Mi finds her kung fu is still not strong, but better than chief thugs, while Zachariah engages in a little comedic fisticuffs with his opponent, to no effect on either side. William hooks the last thug's leg with his cane, and tips the table on top of him.
Chief Thug scores a nasty, but superficial cut along Li Mi's arm, but takes a nasty blow to the hip in return. Zachariah and thug wave their fists at each other in an ineffectual manner, while William disarms his pinned opponent by stepping on his wrist.
Chief Thug takes off like a bat out of hell, taking Li Mi rather by surprise. Zachariah gives it his all, and lays out his opponent, while William runs after Chief Thug, in time to see him disappear around a corner.
The game is very much afoot.
William throws down a handful of money to cover the damage to The Duke's Head, and takes off after the goon. Li Mi pauses, but Zachariah sends her haring off after William, makes more formal arrangements with the poor barkeep, then hares off after Li Mi.
For a time it looks as though the goon will get clean away, but then William remembers the experimental bolas round for his concussion cane, and entangles the bad man as soon as he gets a clear shot. The goon cuts himself loose, but William fells him with a regular concussion round. He tumbles down and hits his head on a bin.
Li Mi and Zachariah eventually catch up.
Being near to Soho now, and away from the nicer areas, the Adventurers lug the goon to a slightly disreputable boarding house, explaining to the god-fearing old lady who runs it that they need somewhere for him to sleep it off. They get him upstairs and tie him to the bed.
Searching him, they find a wallet - cash only, of course, and rather a lot of it - a couple of spare knives in his boots, and a tattoo on his arm. It's not a symbol that they really recognise; a sort of weird-looking cross, only lopsided, and with lines coming off the end of the spokes at right angles. It also seems as though the coat is his, despite being too rich for his general appearance.
William also checks his teeth for poison capsules, and finds nothing, although he is no orthodontist.
After a while, they hear a knocking on the window, and find a loveable, Cockney rogue clinging to the windowsill, asking if they really killed Fingers Taylor. He explains that any enemy of Fingers is a friend of his, so he came to warn them that other people might have recognised his coat and his hands - he has, as was mentioned last week - very big hands, and while he doesn't have friends per se, some of them might not be so glad to see Fingers come a cropper.
The boy tells them that Fingers works for a man named William Gilliam, a big shakes in the local underworld who deals in 'the usual', including extortion and beating up 'Jews, gypos, niggers and chinks; no offence, Miss'. They are a particularly hate-filled bunch, but well-heeled and they like flashing their money around. Fingers is one of the worst, beating up foreigners for the hell of it, and beating up on his missus.
The lad seems to take this last especially amiss. Currently brain-skimming, Zachariah detects the image of a very beautiful woman with golden hair and green eyes. Considering her too wealthy-looking to be Fingers' missus, he takes her to be Gilliam's moll (in the parlance of his native land).
The lad adds that they look a little out of place in Soho, and if they need a hand, then they should look him up around Leicester Square. Then he leaves the way he came, although they let him use the sheet as a rope, since the climb down the wall is a little fiddly. On his way, it occurs to William to ask his name. It's Jack Barrett.
When Fingers comes around they question him, but although he freely admits to being instructed to rough up 'the people who showed to talk to the old guy', they get lit more than that, other than threats and abuse, mostly targeted at their ethnicity.
After a little of this, Mrs Creedy, the Landlady, tells them there are some gentlemen here to see them. Zachariah and William go downstairs, and are invited by some nice men with a shotgun to come and pay a call on Mr Gilliam.
They are taken to Gilliam's club - spotting Jack Barrett en route and signalling him to keep an eye on things for them - and to his basement office, where Gilliam - an overdressed heavy, tries to scare them off 'whatever the old guy's got you into'.
Tired of Gilliam's posturing, William calls his bluff. Tired of William's lip, Gilliam pulls a gun on him.
Zachariah goes for Gilliam, making himself the target, then drops out of sight under the desk, the bullet from Gilliam's revolver spanging off the metal chair Zachariah had recently vacated. William uses his chair as cover, but still takes some buckshot to the shoulder from the thug behind him with the shotgun.
William shoots at the goon again - who is so startled at the gun-cane that he completely forgets to fire back. Gilliam leans over the desk to shoot Zachariah, but Zachariah grabs his arm and pulls it down and off target. A goon tries to manhandle Li Mi, and she tries to throw him onto Gilliam; neither has much success.
While the door bursts open to admit extra goons, and Li Mi wrestles pitifully with her attacker - who is no better - William turns and holds his cane on the pinned Gilliam. The injured head goon draws down on William with the shotgun, and a nice little Mexican stand-off is achieved.
When last we left our heroes, they were in a bit of a bind and no mistaking. While William did have a gun to the ghastly Mr Gilliam's head, and while Mr Gilliam was held more or less immobile by Zachariah, Li Mi was having little luck freeing herself from a goonish headlock, and Mr Gilliam's chief goon - while badly battered - had a solid bead on William with his shotgun.
Being an astute fellow, this chief goon notes that they appear to have a Hammersmith Stand-off, which is presumably like a Mexican Stand-off, only colder.
With painstaking care, and everyone moving _really_ slowly, the Adventurers move along the corridors and out of the building, keeping Gilliam covered, then head off down the street as fast as is dignified. On the way out, William recognises one of Gilliam's younger goons as being not a butch Cockney leg-breaker at all, but rather the lovely Baroness Anna von Scharnhorst, German spy and mistress of disguise. After a short way, Jack Barrett - loveable Cockney rogue in residence - warns them that Gilliam's goons will be after them, and takes them to a hiding place behind one of the Leicester Square theatres.
Here they meet his friends, a gang of loveable street urchins. The eldest of these, Tommy, confirms the general low opinion of Gilliam and his mob. He explains that their beating people up activities have been becoming more haphazard of late, apparently conducted for the hell of it, instead of as part of their extortion rackets. They seem to have some kind of new ideology, and keep rabbiting on about master races and manifest destiny.
William explains that Gilliam seems to have been involved with the death of his friend, but that the killer did not seem like Gilliam's usual sort of muscle. For starters, the willingness to die rather than be captured set him apart. Tommy agrees that Gilliam's mob are mostly just cowards and thugs. Fingers is different though, he adds, because he has a kind of vicious, fanatical zeal that gives him courage, of a sort, and conviction.
Tommy asks if this friend was a distinguished gentleman, grey-haired, and William agrees he was. Tommy says that Sir Marcus came around a few times, asking questions about Gilliam, and also went to visit Peggy. Peggy, he explains - after being assured that the Adventurers are not of a fanatical religious nature - is a white witch. He calls over Carol - Jack's sister - and asks her to take the Adventurers to visit Peggy.
Carol takes them to an old apartment building, where she leaves them in an alley and climbs a metal ladder to a second storey door. After a short pause, she calls down to them, and they go up into a small, very neat apartment, which looks rather out of place in the neighbourhood. Here they are greeted by a pleasant, neat lady in her fifties, who offers them tea and invites them to sit down.
She tells them that Gilliam is a nasty piece of work, and always has been. She adds that there is something else behind him now, something dark; and something darker behind that. She warns them to be careful, and advises that Sir Marcus did not believe her warnings; not really. She hastens to assure them that she is sorry that he is dead, she simply wishes he had listened, although even that might not have saved him.
Zachariah shows her the symbol from Fingers' tattoo. She says it looks like a Sanskrit symbol for life, but reversed. She tells them that they'll find out what it means, and so will everyone else. Not immediately, but soon, and with much pain. She is visibly shaken by the mere sight of the symbol.
They finish their tea and make their excuses, and she warns them again to be very careful, telling Li Mi to be especially wary, and that 'he is stronger than he looks'. The funny thing is that he calls her Little Dragon, which is not a name she uses, even among her friends.
Zachariah and Li Mi head for the zeppelin, deciding that it will be more secure than the hotel, especially when William warns them that the Baroness is around. William meanwhile keeps his promise to watch over Lady Cynthia's house.
At the house, William finds a car with two people in it, also watching the house. He keeps out of their sight until about 2am, when he hears a scream from inside. The front door being locked, he races around the back, which is also locked, and hears someone following. He waits at the corner of the house and knocks his pursuer down.
The pursuer, a respectable looking young man, aside from the revolver, seems taken aback to be threatened with a cane, but gives his name as Carfax, and asks if William is Hamilton-Hunter, which he admits to.
William returns to the back door, picking the lock in less time than it takes for Carfax to mention that he has a key, and goes in to be faced with a very capable woman with a gun, who identifies herself as Secret Service, and invites him to freeze. William recognises her as the Secret Intelligence Service's first and only female field operative, March, and she recognises him once he is in the light.
Upstairs, Lady Cynthia is in a state, and tells William that her husband's ghost appeared to her and told her to call off the investigation. He was mistaken - the spirit insists - and so long as his mistake is perpetuated, he can not rest. She is shaken by this, and William - while not doubting that she saw something, for she is not a woman given to hysterics or fancies - does not believe a word of it.
Zachariah is called in, and examines Lady Cynthia's mind for signs of psychic tampering, but finds none. He does however sense a ghastly, nauseating resonance in her bedroom, in the same spot that Li Mi and William both detect the scent of bad eggs. Furthermore, closer questioning reveals that the 'ghost' bore the marks of two bullets in his chest, not three in his back, and it becomes clear that something is rotten in the state of England.
After the business with the phoney ghost, our fearless heroes turn in for the rest of the night. In the morning they share a hearty breakfast, and Lady Cynthia explains that Sir Marcus' journals make no reference at all to anything he might have been working on. This in itself is conspicuous, as Sir Marcus was a meticulous record keeper. The only sign that anything was amiss was in his personal diary, in which he says that he fears there is a rot that goes all the way up in the government.
Deciding that they need to try and find out what happened to Lord Arthur, our Adventurers decide that the only logical course of action is to hide outside his club, wait for him to show up and then conceal a message in the back of his car. William contacts his friend Mr Holmes in SIS, who can tell him what kind of car Lord Arthur has, but doesn't know what club he goes to (Holmes took over from Sir Marcus as Deputy Assistant Director for Western Europe, Lord Arthur is Assistant Director for Eastern Europe, and Holmes has only been invited to the AD Western Europe's club so far). Nonetheless they know that Lord Arthur chose the Duke's Head because it was near to his club, and the only place nearby is the Dubrette.
Figuring that Lord Arthur won't show up until the evening on a Wednesday, William recommends the day be spent looking for traces of the devious queen of German Intelligence: Baroness Anna von Scharnhorst. From their past encounters, William knows that - given the option - Anna will be staying in the lap of luxury and moving among society, but that if she has to stay close to less savoury targets, she will not flinch from staying in some seedy flophouse somewhere. In the latter case however, she will always stay somewhere with an unjustifiably regal name: Something like the King's Arms, or the Prince of Wales.
William spends the day touring the lower end of the accommodations market in the Sohoish area, readopting the guise of amiable Hibernian drunkard and intellectually challenged petty criminal George McGinty. Zachariah has a not much more pleasant time of it sharing drinks with a rather ghastly old crony named Havilland-Smith, and asking after any foreign ladies recently arriving on the London society scene. About a hundred single-entendres later, Havilland-Smith says that yes, there's a few new faces around - including a number of Americans.
Havilland-Smith adds that everyone who is everyone will be attending Lady Catherine Sullivan's big charity ball on Friday, and promises to arrange tickets for Zachariah and his socially-challenged friend (a description which I'm sure William will find a way to thank him for later). The ball is in aid of some charity or other, but Havilland-Smith doesn't know what precisely. "Fallen women or something," he says. "So no change to where your money goes the rest of the time, eh?"
Li Mi spends the day slumming around Chinatown, where everyone agrees that Mr Gilliam is a piece or work and no mistaking. She also asks around, looking for any likely lads who might be up for a scrap with Gilliam's hate crowd.
That evening, Zachariah and William go to Zachariah's old club, the Edwardian, where he learns to his horror that he has grown up. They flee the scene and locate a small, quiet jazz club.
Next day, they visit the Aeon Society's London chapterhouse in Hammersmith, with the model of the original device in the foyer. They speak to the secretary, Mr Phibbs, and then to the Chapter President, the redoubtable Mrs Agatha Mainwaring. Mrs Mainwaring explains that they have no record of recent nefarious doings, nor of any serious skulduggery since the Weng Chiang business in Limehouse two months ago. She apologises that she can not be of any greater assistance.
Returning to the house, they learn from Lady Cynthia that Mr Holmes called to let them know that Lord Arthur has not been seen at work today, and was not in all day yesterday either, and it's off to Lord Arthur's house they go!
Finally.
They are met at the door by a cagey maid with a Russian accent, but her mistress - Sara Warburton, Lord Arthur's beautiful, puppy-eyed daughter - tells her to let them in. She admits that she is worried sick about her father, who has not been home in two nights, and brings the adventurers into the lounge and into her confidence, despite the disapproving looks of her maid, Kitty. She says that the last anyone knew, Lord Arthur came in after a meeting, looking scared and shaken; this on Tuesday evening, the day he met with William. He changed and headed out to his club, and hasn't been seen since.
With a start of pure horror, Sara realises that she has failed to offer our heroes tea.
William asks if anyone has seen Lord Arthur's driver since Tuesday, and Sara berates herself for her callous indifference that she never asked after poor James, and immediately sends Kitty to find out if he is alright. Kitty seems deeply unhappy to be dismissed, but swiftly returns with the news that James came in for work this morning, having been given Tuesday night and Wednesday off.
William persuades Sara that he is on official business, and that it would be alright for him to go through Lord Arthur's study. She unlocks the door for him, but does not enter. William searches, but finds no sign of anything relating to his work, only a few personal paper and the household accounts, handled until six months ago by a woman, to judge by the handwriting. They also locate a safe behind a picture, and after some shilly-shallying about whether she should enter Daddy's study, Sara is talked into opening it. As she explained, it contains emergency funds in the form of Royal Mail Postal Orders - good across the Empire. Daddy told Sara he kept these 'just in case', but would not say of what.
Zachariah meanwhile talks to James, the chauffeur, who explains that Lord Arthur dismissed him on Tuesday night, saying he wanted to drive himself, which he often does when he feels the need to clear his head. He also told James that he would not require him on Wednesday, as he would be using his Ministry driver, as he always did when travelling on business. Also from James, Zachariah learns that Lord Arthur's club is the Empire, on the Strand, despite Lord Arthur's claims, nowhere near to the Duke's Head.
And yo ho, it's off to the Empire Club, where William's old school 'friend' - well, the upper houseman he used to fag for - is club secretary. Greeting him warmly as 'Hammy', said friend is only too happy to help out. Lord Arthur's disappearance has been the talk of the club. He left on Tuesday night in the company of Lord Robert North, and neither man showed for their whist game last night, and furthermore - which is how he knows they must be in trouble - neither man arranged for someone to sit in for them. He sincerely hopes that nothing untoward has become of them, as it would destroy the whist - and bridge - teams at the club.
The secretary says he doubts they would have gone back to Lord Arthur's place after they left, because - not wishing to speak ill of a member - Lord Arthur would never let a man of Lord Robert's reputation come within fifty feet of his daughter. He gives William Lord Robert's address and wishes him luck.
With the plot now thickening at an ever-increasing pace, the Adventurers rush to West Wycombe and beat upon the door of Lord Robert North's townhouse. They are admitted by a slender, taciturn Sikh butler, who goes off and confers, before conducting them to the presence of his mistress, Lady Fuscia North, a beautiful, frightened young woman, who admits she is worried for her brother. While it is not unknown for him to go off drinking and consorting with women of low character, he is rarely away long.
The taciturn Sikh brings tea.
Lady Fuscia admits that she is even more worried now, because the only places she knows that he frequents - she has had him followed more than once, she explains - are places that a man like Lord Arthur would never go. She confessed not to have a clue where they might start looking; not that it matters since the drugs in their teas should be taking affect by now.
William and Zachariah pass out. Li Mi starts forward, but the taciturn Sikh smashes a fist into the back of her neck, and she hits the ground, out cold.
Li Mi is the first of our heroes to regain consciousness, lying in the dark, in three inches of cold water. Nearby, someone is being shaken, and someone else is sobbing. As her eyes adjust to the dark, she sees that a woman is trying to shake William awake, and Lord Arthur is doing the sobbing. Zachariah's face is half underwater, so even as William is coming round, Li Mi stands and lifts her comrade clear.
"Don't move!" The woman hisses, but too late. As Li Mi stands, Zachariah is just coming around, in time to see a cobra rear out of the water and lunge at him. Just in the nick of time, Li Mi punches the snake aside, but it becomes apparent that they are surrounded by a fair number of deadly serpents.
The woman tells them that the snakes attack movement, and William recognises her as the Baroness von Scharnhorst. She tells him that there is an opening in the wall about twenty feet up, through which they were thrown.
Anna: Lord Arthur was bitten.
Zachariah: Where?
Anna: In the snake pit.
William points out that among any group of cobras there will be one much larger than the others: The King Snake. If they can kill him, the other cobras will become docile for a time.
With a little help from her friends, Li Mi makes the jump to the opening - barely - but the activity makes the snakes attack. William grabs his by the throat and crushes the life out of it, while Zachariah snatches at his, but misses. Luckily for him, so does it.
Li Mi snatches at the ledge, and tries to crawl in, but then a huge cobra, thirty feet long, leaps from the water, and despite her best efforts, manages to sink its huge fangs into the meat of her ankle. This hurts, and waves of burning pain shoot up her leg as the poison is injected into her.
To distract the King Snake, William throws the dead cobra at it. The monster reptile plunges back into the pit, and Li Mi clambers to safety and sucks what she can of the venom from her ankle. Miraculously, she is almost entirely unaffected by the poison.
Unfortunately, the snakes are now really mad, and lunged at the folks in the pit. William risks life and limb to grab both his snake and the one going for Anna - who is a woman, and thus must be protected, be she a nefarious German secret agent or no; heck, William still thinks Lady Fuscia is misguided, and she poisoned the tea! - while Zachariah dodges a third reptile. Then the King Snake rears up to attack William, who - thinking on his feet - forces open the mouths of the two snakes in his hands and stabs the King with their fangs.
The King Snake freezes, and falls, and the remaining cobras go all quiet.
Anna tells William that he is quite insane, but the she always liked that about him.
Using the corpse of the giant King Snake as a rope, our heroes escape the pit. Behind the opening is a short passage leading to a dead end, but William handily locates the switch which causes it to open, admitting them through a secret door in a wine rack to the cellar. Here they find a rope ladder, and are able to rescue Lord Arthur. They also find William's cane, and Anna's customised silent pistol, and a large cage lined with straw and blankets, in which is a chewed-on joint of beef.
Lord Arthur is by now feverish, and quite delirious, able only to mutter and occasionally cry out the name of his daughter, or of his late wife.
Anna tells them that the cellar stairs emerge at the end of the main hall in the North's house; she located that much when casing the joint last night. They head quickly up the stairs, and peeking out see a footman slumped against a wall. Investigation reveals that the footman is dead,
poisoned by the same compound that killed the assassin at the airport.
William fetches out a car - in which space of time, the Baroness completely disappears - and Zachariah drives Lord Arthur to the Aeon Chapter House, considering the Society the most likely people in London to possess a supply of giant cobra anti-venom. William calls Holmes to keep him up to date, then Li Mi and William stay and look around the house, finding everywhere the bodies of poisoned servants, and nowhere the slightest trace of papers. In places, the carpet appears oddly pricked, as though by clawed feet.
In the kitchen they find the majority of the servants, gathered and dead. In a passage nearby, Li Mi discovers the body of a maid, not poisoned, but rather with the her neck broken by a bite from behind with powerful jaws, akin to a Rapa's, but smaller. Meanwhile, William hears the sound of quiet breathing from a cupboard, and discovers a terrified scullery maid.
At the Aeon Chapter House, Phibbs the secretary hurries Zachariah into the infirmary and goes to fetch the anti-venom, but Zachariah senses something amiss. Concerned, he pressed the doctor call button, and after a moment a dishevelled-looking redhead in a doctor's coat bustles in, introducing herself as Dr Miranda O'Houlihan - an idealistic young Irish doctor with a suspiciously Scottish accent - before busying herself with the patient.
Zachariah: He was bitten by a cobra.
Miranda: Where?
Zachariah: In a snake pit.
I guess I really asked for that one.
Phibbs dashes in with a syringe and prepares to make the injection, but Dr O'Houlihan cries out: "What are you doing man! That's not the giant cobra anti-venom! It's the concentrated tarantula poison!"
Shock! Horror!
Phibbs rams an elbow into Miranda's face, knocking her cold. He shakes off Zachariah's attempt at mental compulsion, and they fight, Zachariah rapidly proving the less deadly of the two, and swiftly feeling very glad of his lightweight body armour.
Then, Mrs Mainwaring appears at the stairs with a gun.
"He was trying to kill Lord Arthur!" Each man cries. Fortunately, Zachariah is the more convincing, and Mrs Mainwaring has had her suspicions of Phibbs loyalties for some time, so she pays the secretary more mind while waiting for Miranda to come round.
Back at the house, William calms the maid - Zoe - and asks her what happened. In a quavering voice, she explains that Lady Fuscia came in with Tanya, and made each of the servants take a small pill. Zoe hid because Lady Fuscia beat her a few days ago, and she was afraid of another beating. Her friend was the girl who ran, only to be run down by Tanya.
Tanya - she tells them - is Lord Robert's pet panther. She used to be a gentle sort of creature, but of late has become aggressive, and snaps at the servants.
Back at the Aeon Society, Lord Arthur suddenly comes to. He grabs Zachariah's arm, croaks out the word 'Hellfire', then lapses into a coma.
Our bold Adventurers meet up at the Aeon Society London Chapterhouse and compare notes. Unfortunately, they don't have that many notes to compare, so they decide to question Phibbs, the treacherous secretary.
Phibbs is initially resilient, made of mighty stern stuff as he is, and able to resist Zachariah's brainskims with ease. However, our heroes plan, and even as Lord Arthur's suffering begins to wear at Phibbs' resolve, they hatch a cunning stratagem: Zachariah will use his power to convince Phibbs that William is in on 'it', and William will encourage him to spill the beans so as to get Zachariah on the move and somewhere William can dispose of him.
The plan works almost too well, as the Adventurers forget just who and what they are dealing with. You see, fallen though he is, Phibbs is not merely some stuffy club secretary, but a hero. Faced with the reality of his crimes, and the leering face of his vile compatriot, he recovers his resolve. Leaping up, he headbutts William, and cries out a warning to Zachariah that he is one of them.
William retreats from view, and Phibbs proceeds to reveal that this vileness all comes back to a club, run by Lord Robert North. It seems harmless at first, he explains, but soon you find yourself doing things that you know you shouldn't, and before you know it you are in too deep to back out. The worst of the lot is Lady Fuscia, who can see your weaknesses, and always knows how to control you. In Lord Arthur's case, she threatened to have her brother seduce and spoil his daughter, while in Phibbs' own she would have revealed the enormity of his sins to his son, who idolises him.
Phibbs tells Zachariah that he only ever attended meetings of the club at the Norths' residence. There were other meetings, but he was not yet trusted enough to attend those, although Lord Arthur was. Sir Marcus probably found out too much, which was why he was killed. Phibbs hazards that he probably made the mistake of assuming Lord Robert to be the ringleader, and his sister an innocent, but really she is the worst; pure poison. If Sir Marcus told Fuscia his suspicions, thinking her a dupe, it would have sealed his fate.
The Adventurers try to trace the Norths, but they own a great deal of property across the country, including Gilliam's club, the Black River. Finding no obvious leads, they decide to check on Lord Arthur's house. They find it dark, and the door ajar. Cautiously they enter, and find Sara Warbrooke's Russian maid, Kitty, lying in a spreading pool of her own blood, barely alive. Li Mi patches her as best she can, and William fashions a makeshift stretcher to hurry her back to the Chapter House. Kitty finds the strength to tell them that a group of men came and took Miss Sara, led by a man with a scar on his face, and another with very large hands. She says that she tried to stop them, but there were too many of them.
The Adventurers stand in the infirmary, looking on these two victims - A misguided old man, and a sweet young girl - and they see red. So it's hey-ho and down to the armoury, where they break out an assortment of munitions - pistols, Thompsons, shotguns, grenades, and a sword for Li Mi - and head for Soho.
They contact Jack, who does not know where Fingers is right now, but he takes them to Fingers' flat. There, his bruised and downtrodden common-law wife - somewhat startled to be accosted by a very polite young man kicking in the door, menacing her with a Tommy gun and then apologising for the inconveniance - tells them that she thinks he is at Mr Gilliam's club. They thank her, and go.
At the club, William drives their car - borrowed from the Aeon Society - right through the front wall, scattering the punters. The barman is a nasty-looking man with a scar, and he and two goons do not flee.
William demands to know where the girl is, and Scarface tells them he doesn't know. Li Mi hops the bar to attack him, and he smashes a bottle in her face. Sensing a chance, the two goons learn why you don't try to throw down on a man with a Thompson at the ready. Battered and bloody, Li Mi leaps over Scarface, clearing the way for William to gun him down.
Our heroes kick in the door to the basement, and William dives under a hail of bullets, returning a sweep of fire from his Chicago typewriter that settles for the would-be ambushers. Further along he hears more goons ahead, and lobs in a grenade. Finally, they reach Gilliam's outer office, avoid a burst of fire from a desperate goon and pursue him to the inner office - largely ignoring the gibbering clerical staff.
Gilliam's inner office is empty, but they catch up with the goon as he tries to pull back a rug. They incapacitate him, and locate beneath the rug a hatch, under which is a river, dark, cold and fast moving. There is a little landing where a boat could be moored, but no boat.
Securing the goon, the Adventurers question the clericals. Gilliam's secretary does not know where he is tonight, but his accountant tells them that there is an entry in the books - scrupulously maintained - for the hire of 'thirty-five prostitutes and a coach to Medenham Abbey'.
At the Aeon Society Chapter House, the Adventurers lay their plans. From the society archives Zachariah retrieves the plans of Medenham Abbey, while William uses a remote control device to summon the zeppelin to collect them and Li Mi contacts the Soho Chinatown tongs for assistance. With well-oiled precision, the tong warriors move in to surround the Abbey and cut off all lines of escape, while the Adventurers approach from the air. William also contacts Holmes to square the legal side of flying a light attack zeppelin over the 'burbs.
Disabling the thugs on guard with their sonic cannons, the Adventurers make a landing on the tower of the abbey church, accidentally knocking a lump of masonry through the roof, but no harm is done. Then they fix ropes to the empty bell axles, and rappel down.
William lands first, Tommy gun at the ready, and sees that he is near to a rough stone altar. Behind him are the choir stall, in front of the altar a heavy curtain, separating him from a babbling crowd. Chained to the altar is the drugged and naked Honorable Miss Sara Warbrooke, and beside it sits a large panther, its skin covered in blisters and lesions, and a yellowish film on its disinterested eyes. It looks ill, but not weakened in any way.
Zachariah follows William down, and lands badly. The panther looks up, suddenly alert. It begins to go for Zachariah, but plainly knows firearms as it leaps aside, avoiding William's Tommy gun burst before leaping on him, clawing at his chest and shrugging off a volley of fire from Zachariah, and a point blank burst from William, as Li Mi slides down the rope.
The panther sinks her teeth into William's shoulder - although his armour protects him from the worst of it. Zachariah lets rip with the Thompson, and the panther feels that one; then Li Mi cuts her head off.
The panther expires. As she does so, a foul stench rises from the body, and her lesions fade. The film departs her eyes, and she is left looking rather forlorn and innocent.
William frees Sara, but she is too out of it to move very fast. Zachariah lobs a couple of concussion grenades through the gap in the curtains - just because, I guess.
Then, a group of robed figures emerge from behind the choir stalls. They are led by a man in a red robe and a demon mask, who is dismayed to see the dead panther, and gives an agonised cry of 'Tanya!' Next to him is a woman in a half-mask and a kind of nun's habit that hangs open at the front. They are flanked by six robed goons - one of them the large-handed Mr Fingers Taylor - Mr William Gilliam in a Franciscan friar's habit, and a man in a dog-mask, who can just be identified as the sikh bodyguard.
'Kill them', Lady Fuscia hisses, and the goons attack. Li Mi drops two in short order with a pair of devastating kicks, while William lays the hurting on another goon and on Gilliam, by blazing away with a pair of Lugers. The goon drops, but Gilliam scors a shallow cut across William's chest, even through the armoured suit. Zachariah hoses down the goons that come at him, and Fingers learns that a Soho thugs does not make for much of a bulletproof shield. Li Mi dodges as the sikh swings his tulwar at her, but takes a nasty cut to the arm.
Gilliam lunges at William with his knife, but William grabs his wrist, turns the blade and thrusts it into Gilliam's chest. "I told you you were small fry," he tells the dying man.
Zachariah slams the butt of his Thompson into Fingers' nose, dropping him to the floor.
The sikh slashes his sword across Li Mi's abdomen. She desperately leans away from the cut, but the blade bites deep under her ribs. She falls to the ground, but as she goes is able to thrust her own blade up, impaling her foe.
Not one to quit easily, the sikh rushes his remaining foes. Zachariah takes a shot with his luger, to little effect, but William grabs the sword jutting from the dying man's chest and turns, slicing through his body and effectively cutting him in two.
Checking out the front, Zachariah sees that they only now have to worry about a large group of aging civil servants, but the two leaders - Lord Robert and Lady Fuscia - have vanished, and Li Mi is bleeding out. Fortunately, William is able to stabilise Li Mi and hand her over to the tong healers, before he and Zachariah - accompanied by tong veteran Wu Xiao - head down into the choir stalls, quickly locating a secret passage.
Following the passage, they emerge onto a path above the Thames, to see the Norths climbing aboard a boat called the Wehrwolf and disappearing into the cabin. Quick as a flash they pursue and jump after them, and the German sailors - wiser than their Soho brethren - leap overboard instead of facing down two Tommy guns.
The Adventurers head for the cabin, and see for a moment a red light under the door, before Lord Robert stumbles out, clutching the dagger thrust into his heart. 'But it was just for show', he gasps, then collapses to the deck, and behind him the cabin erupts as a great, cloven-hoofed, bat-winged demon strides forth.
Well, this does look dicey and no mistake, but forth our bold soldiers go. They evade a flurry of savage blows from claws and tail, which shatter the decks, then Zachariah replies with the Thompson, and burning ichor begins to fall onto the deck. Wu Xiao clobbers the fiend with a boat hook, then a second strike tears its head open. It falls on top of Zachariah, but with William's engineering know how, Wu Xiao levers it up and gets Zachariah free before the boat becomes a bonfire. They heave the demon overboard, where the water seethes.
The Adventurers note that Lady Fuscia is gone, and William reckons he saw which way she went.
Wu Xiao flies off in pursuit of Lady Fuscia, and finds her standing, knife in hand, over another woman in a plain dress. He kicks the knife from her hands, and in her earnest gratitude, the other woman raises a pistols and says: 'Right. Now neither of you make a move'. Zachariah arrives in time to be menaced with the pistol, as the woman crouches and lifts a leather folder. Finally, the injured William joins the party.
William still has a loaded drum in his Thompson, unfortunately any threat would be futile. This is after all the lovely Baroness Anna von Scharnhorst, and she knows for a fact that William would never shoot a woman.
The Adventurers still have a trick up their sleeves however. With a distraction from Zachariah, William tosses him the Thompson and swings his cane into play, as he has no rules about not stunning a woman; or at least not if she's threatening him with a gun. At the same time, Wu Xiao recklessly tries to throw a blinding powder in Anna's eyes, missing and taking a bullet in the shoulder for his trouble.
William shoots Anna in the chest with his concussion cane. She drops the folder and flies back into the river. Seeing only bubbles, William dives in after her, but finds nothing. Zachariah holds his Thompson on Lady Fuscia.
William checks the folder and finds it is full of British government secrets. He returns this to Holmes and arrangements are made for the civil servants involved to quietly retire.
Here ends this adventure.