The Mechanical Messiah (57 page)

‘Oh yes?’ cried Mark Rowland Ferris. ‘Oh yes? You think you are so clever, do you?’

‘From a detached viewpoint you must appreciate the symmetry, said Mr Cameron Bell. ‘Condemned by your own bravado and your own technology. Surely I deserve a small round of applause.’

‘You will get what you deserve,’ snarled the Fifth Earl of Hove.

‘I do not think your dogs can jump high enough to get me,’ said Cameron Bell. ‘And I perfectly recall that in the telegram
I
sent you, it said to come here
unarmed.’

Mark Rowland Ferris rocked upon his heels.

And then he began to laugh.

His three French bulldogs took up laughter and all became very merry up upon stage.

‘Why, thank you,’ said Cameron Bell. ‘I am so pleased that the humour, although somewhat dark, has not slipped by you.’

‘No indeed,’ said Mark Rowland Ferris. ‘It is all very funny indeed. And what a joy that we do not have to share the joke alone.’

‘Sergeant Case, I presume?’ said Cameron Bell, and he turned his head to gaze up the central aisle of the vast auditorium.

From the shadows beneath the tier of balconies a single figure stepped.

It was
not
Sergeant Case.

‘You are a dead man, Cameron Bell,’ this figure hissed.

he evil Chancellor’s left arm made a forward swinging motion, as if he was engaging in a game of bowls. The severed head of the hansom cab driver rolled down the central aisle of the auditorium and came to rest at the orchestra pit. The face stared blindly at Mark Rowland Ferris. The face wore a puzzled expression.

‘How inconvenient,’ said Cameron Bell, affecting bravado. ‘Now I will have to drive myself back to my hotel.’

The being in black came striding down the aisle. ‘The Ring of Moses,’ he horribly hissed. ‘The Ring of Moses,
now.

Cameron Bell concealed his hands. ‘I gave that bauble away, he lied.

The Chancellor threw back his head and breathed deeply through his veil. ‘I smell your fear,’ he hissed at Bell. ‘And I smell too the magic of the ring.’

‘Perhaps some agreement might be arrived at.’

‘All that exists for you,’ the serpent voice cried out to Cameron Bell, ‘is a period of protracted torture, terminating eventually in a hideous death.’

The private detective weighed up his chances of survival. The scales came down rather heavily upon the none whatsoever side.

The evil creature was now beneath the Royal Box. He angled up his head and Cameron Bell could palpably feel the eyes upon him, even though they remained hidden ‘neath the veil.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer took his hat from his head and dropped it to the floor. Flung aside his cloak and let it fall. The veil, it seemed, dissolved, as did the clothes, and an unearthly being glared at Cameron Bell.

It resembled one of those medieval depictions of the Devil, as might be seen in old engravings, or upon the stained-glass windows of a church, or chapel, too.

Though in form it was a man, the skin was bloody red and scaled, as too the tail, which slim and barbed and snake-like whipped and curled. The hands were claws with taloned nails, the feet as of some lion. Upon the broad back two small bat’s wings flapped and flapped and flapped.

But it was the face of the Beast that was more fearsome than any other part. More loathsome and inhuman, an atavistic horror, with serpent’s eyes and cruel horns and jaws that snapped displaying awful teeth.

It was the very embodiment of evil. Of all evil compressed into a single form. The stench of brimstone filled the air, an air now chilled to freezing and below.

‘You men,’ hissed the evil one. ‘You little men of this world. What are you to me? You are weak, you are nothing. Where is your God now?’

‘Tell me, tell me, who you
really
are.’ Cameron Bell was sweating, though his breath came steaming in the frigid air.

‘You.’ The Hellish creature swung around and pointed a dreadful claw at the Fifth Earl of Hove. The Fifth Earl’s knees were knocking together, his three French bulldogs cowering behind him. ‘
You
who have so much to say.
You
who would tell our secrets to this meddler.
You
tell him all that I am.’

‘Me,
sir?’
asked the shivering earl.

‘You,
sir,
tell him.’ The voice rang loud in the auditorium. Echoing from the domed ceiling, returning from the rear of the stage.

‘Oh yes,
sir,
yes.’ The Fifth Earl grinned most painfully. ‘It is a biblical matter,’ said he. ‘A theological matter. It seems that when God created Heaven and Earth, he also created other inhabitable planets. He put life upon Mars and Venus and Jupiter, too. And each of these worlds was given an Adam and an Eve and placed in a Garden of Eden. God was sort of …’ The Fifth Earl’s teeth were chattering fearfully. ‘Sort of hedging his bets. He thought he would try out four sets of Adam and Eves and see how it all worked out. There were four serpents, too, one for each garden. You have read the Bible, you know what happened to
our
Adam and Eve, how they were tempted by the serpent, ate of the Tree of Knowledge and were cast out of the garden.

‘On Jupiter, however, the original Jovians did not eat from the Tree of Knowledge. They were too sated, having eaten nearly everything else in the garden. God threw them out for being so greedy, making such a mess of the place and not taking their roles as the father and mother of Jovian-kind seriously enough. But he did not visit his wrath upon them. God is rather fond of the Jupiterians.’

The Beast spat something resembling blood.

The Fifth Earl continued the tale. ‘On Mars, things went rather differently. The Martians were just born bad, it seems. They shunned God from the start and worshipped the serpent. God turned their planet the colour of blood as a punishment. Evil things flourished on Mars.’

Cameron Bell recalled the evil thing he had shot in that bedroom now so long ago, which Colonel Katterfelto had identified as being a creature of Mars.

‘On Venus, though,’ continued the trembling earl, ‘things were again different. When the serpent tempted the Venusian Adam and Eve, they did not heed it. In fact, the next time it visited, they killed it. They literally destroyed the evil of their world. Venus, I am told, is one big Garden of Eden.’

Cameron Bell gazed down at the monster, once more glaring up at him.

‘And
you?’
he asked.

‘Tell him,’ roared the creature.

‘God was so pleased with the Venusian Adam and Eve that he watched over them. Much of what we read in our Bible actually occurred on Venus, you know.’

Cameron Bell touched the Ring of Moses on his finger. He knew well enough.

‘But God kept tempting his chosen people. He kept testing them. But they resisted temptation. Into each generation a serpent, as of the original tempter, would be born. The Venusians would kill this creature—’

‘Creature?’
roared the creature.

‘This
being
that was not as they. And thus their world remained pure. The original magic of the Garden of Eden, the original magic given unto Moses, remained upon Venus. But in our time a Venusian mother gave birth to such a being, and she loved her baby and did not want it killed. She brought it here to Earth. This being stands before you now.’

The being growled, which rattled the chandeliers.

‘Fascinating stuff,’ said Cameron Bell, struggling with extreme difficulty to draw out his very last iota of bravado.

‘I think I have all of that recorded. But I might have to change the wax cylinder.’

‘Will you
please
kill this man?’ Mark Rowland Ferris asked the terrible demon.

‘Oh, be assured.’ The being arose. Rose into the air. Its lion feet leaving the carpeted floor, its tiny back wings all a-flapping. Up that monster went.

And face to face it glared at Cameron Bell.

‘You are a man of considerable ingenuity,’ hissed the evil one. ‘But I feel you have no more tricks to play.’

‘Look out behind you,’ suggested Cameron Bell and, pointing wildly, he continued, ‘Zulus, thousands of them.’

And then the claw reached out and closed upon his throat and things went rather black for Cameron Bell.

The sky above and round about was black. And it was cold too in that sky. The colonel fairly shook.

He and Darwin had been carried aloft by the Mechanical Messiah. This now radiant being held the colonel under one arm and Darwin under the other and flew across the night-time London sky.

Below them, the tall Tesla Towers sparkled with electrical energy, St Paul’s Cathedral swelled, gas-lit street lamps offered a crepuscular glow. In the distance many lights glistened upon The Spaceman’s Club, that marvellous airship tethered to London below.

It was silent up in that sky and there was scarcely a breeze. The colonel craned his head towards Darwin and whispered to his friend. ‘There was nothing in the manual about flying,’ he whispered.

‘I think He made that up for Himself,’ whispered Darwin. ‘I would add that although I enjoy diddling about in the heights, as do any of my kind, this I find frankly alarming.’

‘Soon be there,’ said the Mechanical Messiah. ‘We will soon arrive at our destination, where I must battle the Beast.’

‘And You
will
win?’ Darwin asked. ‘As You do in the Book of Revelation?’

The Mechanical Messiah did not reply to this.

‘Might I ask then
where
we are going?’ enquired Darwin.

‘To the Electric Alhambra, my little brother.’

Colonel Katterfelto groaned. ‘Not fond of the place,’ he declared, ‘you’re either dodging fruit or going up in flames. Lost its charm for me, I’ll tell you that.’

‘The evil one awaits,’ said the man-made God. ‘And he must be cast down.’

The evil one cast Cameron Bell down to the floor of the great auditorium. The private detective slumped in a painful heap. The creature dropped and stood astride its victim. Brimstone breath engulfed the fallen man.

‘I shall skin you alive,’ hissed the monster. ‘But first I would have the Ring of Moses.’

The creature grabbed the hand of the semi-conscious Cameron, tore the ring from his finger. Placed it upon a claw-like digit, stepped back to admire the effect.

And then howled.

‘No,’ cried the Beast, ‘it cannot be!’ As smoke and flames engulfed his scaly claw.

Cameron Bell, his vision double, rose upon an elbow. ‘It does look awfully like the Ring of Moses, doesn’t it?’ he said. ‘I purchased it this afternoon. From a jeweller in Hatton Garden. Had it blessed against evil by the jeweller himself. A Cabbalist, you know.’

The Beast was staggering to and fro, fire leaping around it.

‘You can never have
too
many tricks up your sleeve,’ said Mr Bell and he attempted to rise— ‘Oh my dear dead mother,’ he said. ‘I think my leg is broken.’

‘Get it off me! Get it off me!’ The monster leapt the orchestra pit and came down upon the stage before Mark Rowland Ferris. ‘Pull it from my hand. For I cannot.’

Mark Rowland Ferris stared hard at the Beast. Certain thoughts now entered the Fifth Earl’s head.

‘You would defy
me?’
The creature grasped the top of Earl Ferris’s head with its non-flaming claw. Drew it back and rammed the fiery finger down his throat. He pushed down hard to make the earl’s teeth grip. Then wrenched the finger from his mouth. Mark Rowland Ferris swallowed the ring and fainted dead away.

The cowering doggies started to howl.

The creature silenced them with a single stare.

And then examined his claw. ‘That is better,’ it said. ‘And now I shall have the real Ring of Moses.’

The creature turned its terrible gaze towards Cameron Bell.

But the private detective was no longer where he had landed. He was crawling away as best he could up the central aisle to escape from the auditorium.