Revenge of the Brotherhood (Book 3 in the Tom & Laura Series) (25 page)

The vicar was feeling under considerable pressure. He had led the Queen into the church with Lord Palmerston, who was surprisingly agile for a man of 78. Then he had let in a dozen people on Miss Mann’s list before shutting the doors and locking them. Some of the guests waiting to get in were not amused.

“My name is Sir Anthony Baxter and I am the Director of MM3. I demand you let me in at once.” Baxter was already red in the face and Harris watched him in amusement. He had no idea what Trelawney was up, but was enjoying the sight of his boss risking bursting a blood vessel in his outrage.

“It will only be for a few minutes, please be patient.” The Vicar looked at his pocket watch and saw there were ten minutes to go. He wasn’t sure he could last that long.

Trelawney surveyed the people in the pews from where he stood next to the altar. These were just about all the people he trusted in the world, the remainder were in an airship hovering somewhere close by.

“We do not have very much time. Let me explain the situation.” Everybody quieted down to listen.

“The Brotherhood is poised to strike. It may even be today when the Queen returns to the Palace. We know that Baxter has created a plan called Scenario Blue which details the responses Military Magic would make should the Queen or her consort be kidnapped. The plan is superficially plausible, but it leaves out key elements such as the use of Precogs or Farseers to prevent it happening, or to locate and rescue the Queen after it has happened.”

Gareth Jones coughed politely and Trelawney encouraged him to speak. “MM3’s Precogs and Farseers were ordered to take a holiday for a month starting last week. They were told to leave the London area.”

There were gasps of shock from the other guests.

“He has argued that they were making mistakes through exhaustion and were worse than useless in their present state.”

Trelawney nodded. “And that confirms what we suspected. The attack will be this month. There will be a precursor event today. One of my agents has been ordered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire to kill me and my wife at the end of the ceremony. We have reason to believe that the Vienna Witch will be present to take over the task should my agent fail. For that reason, she will not fail. After we are shot, please remain seated and give the royal family time to leave the church.”

“Do they really believe that they can get away with kidnapping the Queen and receive a ransom?” Jones asked.

“That is the thing I do not understand,” Trelawney said. “There seems to be nothing else wrong with Scenario Blue, except that it is an overreaction with far too many people deployed. I cannot see how the Brotherhood expects to make any money on this venture.”

The remainder of the guests were being ushered into the church below the airship. They were low enough for Antonia to recognize her sister and wave at her from the window.

Andrea glanced up at the sky. It looked a little fuzzy where she knew the airship was and she believed she could hear the thrum of its engines. Eric looked up and put his hand over his brow to get a clearer look. Andrea trod on his foot hard.

“We are not trying to alert people to them,” she hissed at him as he hopped in pain.

“Sorry. My brother says he is up there, but I did not believe him.”

“Well, I can see you looking like a fool from up there and from down here, and even twice a fool does not begin to cover it.”

They stepped into the church and an altar boy handed Antonia a piece of paper before running off. When they took a place in the pews Antonia risked a glance at it.

‘Meet me in the sacristy after the shooting. Do not shoot at anybody. T.’

“What does it say?” Eric asked in a stage whisper that must have been audible at the back of the church. Andrea elbowed him in the chest, which dampened his curiosity.

Dougal paced the bridge. “Anybody know what’s going to happen?” he enquired, his eyes firmly on Lucy and Daisy.

Antonia put her hand up as though she was at school.

“Well?”

“There is going to be shooting. Andrea got a message from Trelawney. She is to meet him after the shooting and not to get involved.”

“The man and woman getting married are going to be shot and killed,” Lucy said. “Then the one who shot them is going to be killed by another woman.”

Dougal looked baffled, which pleased Tom because he hated being the only one in the group who didn’t have a clue what was going on.

“The Ceremony has just started. The bride looks lovely,” Edith announced.

“Trelawney is going to meet Andrea after he has been shot?” Dougal asked, somewhat desperately.

Lucy looked perplexed. “Yes, he meets her, I think. But his shirt is covered in blood. It doesn’t make sense because I’m sure he dies earlier.”

“Camilla is on a balcony thing at the side of the church. She has a pistol.” Edith said excitedly.

“Daisy what do you see?” Dougal asked sounding out of his depth and desperate.

“Visions of the Queen and Prince Albert getting killed. It does not seem to be here. Bertie is going to die as well.”

“What are we supposed to do, Tom?” Dougal asked.

“I could send everybody to sleep,” Laura suggested.

“Fat lot of good that would do,” Tricky put in.

Tom reached a decision, since Dougal seemed to be unable. “Ebb and Jeremiah, go to the gun turrets. Antonia let Lucy take the altitude controls. I want you to tell me what your sister is doing. Tricky, you stay with me to take over the controls if I have to go and do some healing. Alan, go and help Ebb, let him know anything your brother finds out.”

Dougal and Daisy looked expectantly at Tom.

“Dougal, you get ready to give messages to the gun turrets and protect me if I have to go and heal someone. Daisy, give me advice, as you think of any.”

Laura looked hurt at being ignored.

“Laura, go and write some partial binds. Anything you think might be useful. Especially things that might help the royal family if that coach is attacked.”

Laura smiled and ran back to the observation room and her tools.

Alice waited a few seconds. “I could knock Cam out if you wanted? Usin’ mi mind.”

“Not yet, Alice. Trelawney has a complex plan going on down there and we might spoil it if we interfere too soon.”

Cam spotted Annelise in the middle of the church. The woman was using opera glasses to watch the ceremony though it was not that far away. Her eyes seemed glued on Trelawney and his bride. Cam took her pistol and held it out of sight. She was in a space usually used by the choir, but they were camped at the back of the altar today.

“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Cam brought up her gun and took careful aim. These were going to be the most vital shots of her life.

Having kissed, Trelawney and his wife stood close together hugging one another while facing the crowd. They stood perfectly still.

Two shots rang out in the church. Annelise saw blood spray from Trelawney’s shirt and then from the top of Belinda’s dress. The shot sounded strange, a little more tinny than Annelise was used to. She saw Cam stand up on the balcony.

Annelise fired two shots at Cam, but they missed. She turned back to the altar and saw a mass of people surrounding the victims. It was time to kill Camilla Burns, regardless of the fact she had carried out her mission. Annelise set off in hot pursuit.

“She killed them,” Edith shouted. “Cam killed them both.”

“Should I knock ’er out?” Alice demanded.

“There’s some woman chasing Cam,” Edith shouted. “She’s shooting at her.”

“What do we do, Tom?” Dougal asked.

25.
              
Confusion

To Tom, the scene below looked very much like an ant’s nest that had had a stick poked into it. Men in formal suits and women in fancy dresses swarmed out of the church and milled around in the graveyard outside. The Queen and her entourage moved though the swarm as if an invisible force surrounded them, brushing aside anybody who dared to get in their way. The group arrived at the coach and got in. Cavalry men on their horses surrounded the coach from all sides as it began to pull away.

“Where is Cam?” Tom asked Edith. It had proved impossible for him to spot her among so many people down there.

“She is in the crowd, moving around the church,” Edith said.

“I can still knock ’er out,” Alice said petulantly.

“Is the woman who shot at her still following her?”

Edith shook her head. “I can only track one person at a time and there are so many people down there.”

Tom considered his options.

“I am taking the ship down and we shall follow Cam. Keep tracking her Edith. Laura, if you have a disarming bind, get it ready.”

Laura searched through the binds she had written. All of them needed a final word to activate them, another trick she had learnt from Snood. She knew she had written one to stop someone using a pistol, even though it was silly.

Cam stumbled on a gravestone lying flat on the ground and ended up on her hands and knees. People shuffled around her and somebody trod on her hand. Her pistol fell to the gravestone and before she could reach it a man accidently kicked it away. Then she saw Annelise moving towards her through the crowd. Forgetting about the pistol, Cam got up and pushed her way through the guests, trying to get away.

Andrea had lost Eric. Everyone had been moving towards the back doors except for her. There had been a lot of pushing and shoving and she thought she might have pushed the Prince of Wales to get to the sacristy. Considering the embarrassment of that action would have to wait for a quieter time.

The small room was chock-a-block with choirboys. She pushed her way through them to where Belinda and Trelawney sat on a bench. Arnold stood next to them shaking with aftershock. Trelawney and his wife seemed remarkably calm, given the amount of blood covering their clothes.

“Ah, Andrea Wright. I met you once, though you may not remember. We were not introduced,” Trelawney said cheerfully, his eyes twinkling with delight.

Andrea looked at the hole in his shirt over his heart and the black gooey mess surrounding it. “You appear to be in good health for a man shot through the heart.”

Trelawney looked down and pointed at the hole. “Camilla is a fine shot.” He undid the shirt buttons and then some straps holding a large metal plate over half of his chest. The plate had the remains of a wet leather bag attached to it.

“Strengthened by Spellbinders. I’ll still have a nasty bruise, but it is better than being dead. Camilla used half-charge bullets so there was little risk provided she hit the shield. I told her it was half the size to give her incentive to practice.”

Belinda stood up a little unsteadily. “Well, this has been a busy day. I have my suitable clothing in the vicar’s office, Ernest. If you don’t mind, I’ll go and change.” Trelawney nodded and Belinda left them, cutting her way through the choir boys.

“Did you see who fired the later shots?” Trelawney asked.

“My sister tells me another woman shot at your assassin.”

Trelawney frowned. “That must be Miss Shultz. Part of this charade was to convince her that Camilla was loyal to the Austro-Hungarians. It must not have worked. We must go and help her. The Vienna Witch is a formidable assassin.”

“She is in that direction according to a girl called Edith.” Andrea pointed through the wall.

“Follow me,” Trelawney said. He held a pistol in his hand. “Do come along, Arnold.”

Andrea and Arnold followed Trelawney to a small oak door that opened out in the side of the church.

Cam ran from the crowd, picking the nearest street to run into. A single shot fired and she fell to the ground as a bullet hit her shoulder. Searing pain ran through her body and for long seconds she could not move at all.

When she found the strength to roll over she saw Annelise standing a couple of yards away with a pistol held ready to deliver the killing shot.

“Did you really think you could escape the Vienna Witch, Camilla Burns?”

Cam sat up and the pain from her shoulder nearly knocked her out. “I fooled you for a long time though, didn’t I?”

Annelise smiled. “Only the final victory counts, not the battles along the way. Goodbye Ingrid.”

As she pulled the trigger, her weapon transformed into sponge cake and crumbled in her hand. Annelise snarled and shook the pieces away.

“Yes,” Laura shouted in delight on the bridge. “Eat my cake, witch.”

Lucy yelled, “She’s going to throw a knife.”

Camilla grinned. There was only one Spellbinder on Earth that would change a gun to cake and she had been mourning her passing for nearly two days. Laura was alive and somewhere close.

Annelise reached for the knife she killed the cat with. Then she screamed and clutched at her head before falling to the ground unconscious.

“That’ll teach ’er,” Alice said with great satisfaction, having just followed Tom’s terse order.

In the observation room, the bind making the ship invisible burst into flames and consumed itself on a metal tray.

Cam blinked in astonishment as an enormous fox appeared in the air thirty feet above where she lay. The fox resolved into some kind of painted sausage shaped balloon with windows near its belly, as her eyes finally made sense of the impossibility of it. She saw Tom and Laura wave at her through the window before Tom turned on his heels and disappeared into the bowels of the ship.

Tom and Dougal jumped from the Hubris and ran towards Cam. She began to feel faint as blood poured from her wound.

As Tom knelt to heal her, Dougal saw Trelawney, Arnold and a girl who could only be Andrea running towards them.

“Lord McBride, you got my message I see.” Trelawney took a good look at the airship. “That is a highly decorative paint scheme you have there.”

“It’s a long story,” Dougal said wearily.

Arnold stood next to Annelise Shultz’s body, his gun in his hand, looking around warily for any other threat. The massive airship spooked him, its hovering being so unnatural. He kept glancing at it, expecting it to fall to the ground at any second.

Camilla moaned and Tom slumped in front of her. Dougal stepped towards his friend and Trelawney knelt to hold Camilla. Her wound was healed, but she had lost a lot of blood.

Arnold never heard Annelise move. One moment he stood over her, the next he was on the ground in front of her and she had taken possession of his gun.

“Gut,” Annelise said in English. “A six shooter will work out perfectly. Now I vill consider vich one of you to shoot first.”

“I think the Healer.” Her gun changed its point of aim.

A small red rose bloomed on Annelise’s forehead as a single shot from a Gatling Gun killed her. Tom turned his head and waved towards the airship.

“Thanks, Ebb.”

Trelawney looked puzzled. “An eleven year old boy just saved our lives? Should he even be in charge of a gun?”

“You get used to it after a while,” Dougal said solemnly. “He saved Laura and Daisy in Brittany.”

“If he shoots anyone he is not supposed to, I shall have severe words with him,” Tom added.

Trelawney helped Cam to her feet while Dougal helped Tom.

Arnold felt his face go red. “I’m sorry about the woman, sir.”

Trelawney suppressed a smile at the contrite agent, “You were hardly the first to be taken by surprise by her. The world has just become a much safer place.”

“What now, sir?” Dougal asked.

“You and Thomas should board that amazing contraption of yours and check that the Queen has reached the Palace safely. The rest of us will see if we can figure out what the Brotherhood is up to.”

“I want to go with Tom and Dougal,” Cam said.

“You can barely walk, my dear. There will be time for reunions later.”

Cam sighed. Then she grinned. “Tell Laura I loved the cake gun.”

“Trelawney puts on the most interesting weddings,” Albert said as he settled down on the other side of the coach to his wife. His son sat on the other side and both men held guns in their hands.

“This could only happen in England. Perhaps we should visit Prussia for a long holiday,” the Queen countered.

“Scotland is easier to get to,” Albert pointed out.

“Yes, we should go to Scotland and heal some of the wounds Alistair McBride’s actions created. I shall talk to my secretary when we get home.”

The coach began to move away from the church and they all gave sighs of relief. In a few minutes they would be back in Buckingham Palace and safe.

Ross yelled to his men and the canvas cover was ripped off the charger. Tony got into the seat next to Ross while Brains and Ernie sat in the back. Tony had a set of binds that were nearly complete.

“Can you write binds like that?” Ross asked.

“I was taught how to do it by a chap named Snood. I would not want to try writing much when this thing is moving.”

Ross pushed a lever forward and the vehicle skidded as its metal wheels spun on the cobbles. Then they got sufficient traction and the Charger shot forward. The cavalry and coach had just gone past on the main road. There were people in the crowd in their way but Ross aimed the Charger into them and people screamed as they were crushed beneath its wheels. A splattering of blood came through the front viewing slit and Ross wiped it from his goggles.

“Taking out the cavalry behind the coach now,” Tony said as he completed a bind. Horses and men turned to sheep and goats, which the Charger crashed through.

The Queen’s coach could barely travel at twenty miles per hour safely. It reached twenty-five as the coachman looked back and saw the threat behind him.

“Taking out the snipers,” Tony said calmly as bullets began to ping on the Charger’s metal roof. The only sign that anything had happened was that the shooting stopped. On the roofs, goats struggled in military clothing.

“Now the Cavalry in front.” A third bind left cows where men and horses had been. The coachman had no choice but to bring the coach to a shuddering stop as they blocked the road.

Brains and Ernie opened the doors and Ross yelled at them.

“Not yet you fools.” A bullet from the coachman’s rifle pinged off the open door.

“I learned this one from Snood too.”

As the bind completed, the royal family and the coachmen collapsed into sleep.

“How long will the binds last?”

“Only a couple of minutes at most. We need to get moving.”

“You heard him,” Ross snarled and got out of the Charger. Tony stayed in the vehicle as the other three ran the few feet to the royal coach. They carried the Queen and Prince Albert over to the Charger and threw them in the back.

“Now Bertie,” Ross said to Ernie. “Injure him, but don’t kill him. It’s important.”

Ernie pulled the unconscious Prince out of the coach. His orders were to shoot the Prince in the leg, but he hated royalty and shot him in the gut. Bertie twitched, but remained asleep.

“Come on,” Ross yelled. Ernie ran back to the Charger. Ross pushed the velocity lever forward and turned the vehicle down the first side street.

“He’s going to shoot the Prince of Wales in the stomach,” Lucy said urgently. They heard the shot almost before her words finished.

“Handing command back to you,” Tom told Dougal. “Follow that thing and save the Queen. Edith, keep on tracking the Queen, do not lose her.”

Dougal clasped Tom’s hand. “Good luck.”

“You too.”

Tricky took the wheel as Tom kissed Laura and ran for the doors in the observation room. They were still speeding to the scene and were too high to jump even if stationary. Tom slid down a rope to dangle above the road. They were going far too fast for him to let go, but at least the fall would not kill him. As they approached the coach, Tom felt the propellers shift into reverse. The speed dropped dramatically and he let go, scraping his hands on the cobbles as he landed.