Silver Moon
Adventurer
Chapter 99, “War Story" September 12, 1882, 3:45 AM.
Abby had been keeping back, watching and listening. "I don't know that I'd want to do that. This situation keeps getting murkier. It's getting hard to know who's a foe a who's a friend." Ruby nodded her head. "I agree with Abby. I don't know if we really want to pick sides here and get involved in the war, our whole effort has been trying to stop hostilities and help my friend the Princess. I can't drop a bomb near anywhere she might be. What is the French ship's goal, do you know?" He says, "It is where they brought the Princess's dowery prior to her wedding. It is also probably where the French leaders Dagurerre and Chevruel have gone. If they try to escape from Egypt I can assure you that my ship will sink them."
Maurice says, "Obviously I have a bias, I work for British Military Intelligence, and hold the equivalent rank of Colonel. But my primary objective here is to stop the French, who we all know were the ones that murdered the Egyptian King, either directly or indireclty." Abby ponders, "So they have her dowry... How do they benefit from having the Princess in hand? The King is dead, as is Orabi. Would they hold her as a bargaining chip? Obviously they had to keep her out of the way when she was being impersonated, but what now? It could help us figure out where they would have her now. I will admit, though, their ship seems likely." Ruby asks "Do you think that is where they would have taken the Princess?" He looks up and says, "The Princess is missing?"
Ruby answers, "Yes! They used the actress Sandra Bernhardt to impersonate her at the meeting. I am also taking into consideration that might not been the real Orabi, though even in death it looked like him. Perhaps he wasn't under his own control. But yes, the Princess is missing. That is why we came back here in hopes to find clues as to where they might be holding her. I seem to recall something about them killing the whole royal family with the exception of the Princess and somehow ruling though her. It would be reason for them to keep her alive."
He says, "That could be problematic then, my ship currently has orders to sink that vessel. If the heir to the Egyptian throne is killed by a British vessel it could play right into the French plans." Ruby says, "Which is why I said we can't drop a bomb on any place we don't know for sure if she is there. We don't have much to go on now to find here. Either they took her to the front lines, unlikely, or they took her with them. We think they smuggled her out of her room in her steamer trunk."
As George is examining the doors and hallway he sees Freya heading down from the staircase to the roof. She has only been gone around 20 minutes at this point. George heads down the hall to meet Freya, out of earshot of Maurice. "I hope there is good news?" he asks. Freya says, "The dirigible was on its way back. Only one French wizard was on board, and not any of the older ones. He had some French Foreign Legion troops with him. Instead of Zakazik, they went to the southeast and landed near the battle zone behind the Egyptian rebel forces. I saw another similar-sized dirigible moored behind the British troops as well."
George shakes his head unsure of what to make of the intelligence. "Come on Freya, we have a surprise in the room. We may need your help with it." George said to Freya as he leads her back to the group and the room with the bomb and explains what he wants her to do. She says, "Okay, yes, I could fly that out. What do you want to do with it?" Ruby says, "We're trying to figure that out now. I suppose we should just drop it someplace where nothing is around." "At the least, but we may be able to use it more, uh creatively." adds George. Mina says, "What are you thinking?"
"Well, if we could be sure of anything we could use it on the Armide, or on the French dirigible, or even on one of the damn armies. If we knew anything at least. There are so many uncertainties I am loath to do it, except as a distraction perhaps. Drop it behind the rebel army to unnerve them. Perhaps the best use would be to disable, but not sink the Armide." replies George. Mina says, "If the Princess is on the Armide we may need to mount a rescue. The bomb could be used as a distraction while we board her." Ruby interjects, "That's a good point Nana. It looks like we may have to just check both places, the French ship and also the place where the armies will clash. Unfortunately that doesn't give us a lot of time to do either. Just flip a coin and go. I don't think splitting us up is a good idea at all."
Maurice says "If we're taking the dirigible that you obtained to Herakleion we would need to do so soon, while we are still under the cover of darkness. Once the sun starts to rise it would be visible for miles around." "We need to hit the ship. We can use the bomb near the ship or the armies. But we need to find the princess. It is only through here that we can stop the battle. So going there without her is not productive. The Armide it is. Now where best to set the bomb off." adds George. Ruby says, "Let's take it with us and just go. If we aren't sure and time is out we can drop it in the water." "Time is running out." says George.
Maurice says, "Probably at sea, we could use a lifeboat from my ship. The city of Heraclueum was the main port of the Pharoahs. It was later used by the Greeks, who renamed it after the Greek God Hercules. It sank twelve centuries ago following a series of earthquakes which changed the entire coastline in that area. The Armide is anchored nearly four miles off shore, above the submerged ruins of the ancient city. We believe that they have been sending divers down to search the old city, looking for some sort of magical gateway." "Magical gateway to where?" Ruby asked curiously. "Either way, we shouldn't bomb an ancient city!"
"Henry! Did you find anything!" George calls out. "But yes, I think we ought to get going." Henry gives George a pile of crumpled papers. Some look to be in French, others in the Altantian language. "They were in the bedroom waste basket," is the boy's reply. "Good job lad" replies George as scans them before he puts them in his enchanted notebook. They look to be recipes for potions. "Well, let's load up and head over to the ship. Let's break open the door frame and get the bomb out to the window. Once outside we can get it airborne through a couple of means. We can decide where to drop it on the way." says George. Lawrence looks around and grabs a crowbar to pry the hinge pins out.
Ruby asks, "Maurice, what was your plan after you left here?" He states, "To find and rejoin my teammates at whichever location appeared most promising, Tel-el Kabir, Herakleion or Gizah." "Sounds like a good plan. George darling, may I have a word with you in the hallway?" She began walking out and took Abby by the arm to join them, leaving Fish and Lawrence inside to keep an eye on things. She spoke quietly, "So, we know some of his story is false. Could he be leading us away from where we want to be?" Mina follows the trio out. She says, "I know something about Mr. Beaujoulais. He would never knowingly work with the French wizards, they were responsible for the death of his parents."
Ruby whispers quietly, "I don't know if we should trust this spy giving us information. He could certainly have his own reasons for leading us astray. So friends, we must decide, do we follow the Frenchman's dirigible or do we listen to Maurice and try Herakleion? My instinct tells me to follow the dirigible but of course, magic could have been used to move the Princess to another site and we'd have no way of knowing. I'm not convinced of either site at the moment."
Mina says that she has a history with Beaujoulais and could ask him questions that only he would know, if there is concern that he may be one of the French wizards in disguise. Ruby replies, "That is an excellent idea Nana! That is definitely one of my concerns, with all the actors and disguises and possible magical controlling going on around here." Mina says, "Well, I can prove that he is Boujoulais, who would never work for the French Wizards that killed his parents, but he could still be under their magical control. George, what do you think?"
Back inside the room, Fish engages Mr. Beaujoulais in conversation, Lawrence continues to check the bedrooms. He finds hidden between the bed cushions a tightly rolled up scroll with a very thin dagger tied to the inside. "OOhhh what is that?" Ruby asked as she goes back into the room with her ever present curiosity. "May I see it Lawrence?" "Yes, I think that at this point it is prudent. Would detect magic detect if he was under some manner of control or enchantment? But yes, vett him while I check out that dagger." whispers back George to Mina.
Lawrence hands the scroll and dagger to Ruby and George as Mina gestures for Lawrence to accompany her back into the other room with Fish, Abby and Beaujoulais. They unroll the scroll which has magical writings in Atlantian script. The dagger itself is lightweight and casts a thin shimmer of golden light. "Wow this is amazing! It's obviously magical but what does it do I wonder? When Nana is done with Maurice we'll ask her to look at the writings." Ruby holds the dagger at arms length and concentrates on it. Casting detect magic . The entire dagger glows with magic, with the tip appearing to contain the most magic.
Ruby is able to ascertain that while the dagger could be used as a weapon, its true purpose is as a special tool used for the creation of magical items. "Um, this can be used to make magical items. I wonder if this scroll is magical too or maybe they are the directions on how to use the dagger. We'll have to look into this more. When Nana is done, we'll ask her. But perhaps we should keep it hidden from Maurice? I don't know if we can trust him, hopefully Nana has insight into that."
Willamina Parker approaches Beaujoulais and says, "Maurice, I would like a word with you." She approaches him, with Abby, Fish and Lawrence also present. Deciding to be direct Mina says "There are some concerns among my colleagues as to your true identity. Their apprehension is justified, given the number of French imposters already encountered and the fact that you are here in their rooms." Gesturing towards Lawrence she says, "The French wizards would be unaware of when you first crossed paths with Lawrence and myself. Would you care to fill us in?"
He smiles and says, "Absolutely, although until this minute I was unaware that anybody except your husband James knew that it was me. It was on the night of Saturday October 8th of 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. I was part of a British spy team operating on a parallel mission as the American team comprised of you, Mr. Cantrell, Mr. Parker and Doctor Crane.
The Confederacy was in very poor shape. Lee's army was under siege for the winter in Petersburg, Virginia while the Union Army's General Sherman had just burnt Atlanta to the ground and was marching to the coast. Confederate President Davis was desperate for something to quickly change the tide of the war and had made arrangements with the King of Spain to obtain a large cache of magical artifacts to break the siege with plans to then march to the District of Columbia, preferably before the November 8th election. Should Washington fall, it would have ushered in an almost certain victory for the Democratic candidate McClellan over Lincoln. Due to the prior successes of both your team and mine at stopping magical shipments to the Confederacy, it meant that Davis knew that absolute secrecy had to be maintained about the pending arrival of the magic, so the only place to obtain that information was from Davis's own files.
On that night Mrs. Parker you played the role of a Southern Belle, with Doctor Crane as your slave, and distracted the night guards, as Mr. Cantrell and Mr. Parker searched President Davis's office. The two of you managed to find the information but were then nearly captured, due to the untimely return of President Davis and his own executive guard detail to the office. If not for the combination of a clumsy janitor spilling a large mop bucket of wash water on the President and his party, simultaneous to the passing by of a wagon filled with linens that you two American spies jumped from the 3rd floor window into, all would have been lost." Turning to Lawrence he says, "Mr. Cantrell, I was that janitor, and another member of my team was driving that linen wagon."
Lawrence squints at the man, staring intently at his face. Then Lawrence brightens and says, "I knew there was something familiar about you. Let me shake your hand." Lawrence pumps Beaujoulais' hand. "You and your team kept us out of Andersonville or worse. Hah, I wish I could have seen the face on the Spanish ambassador's face when Seward showed him those papers." Beaujoulais says, "It was my pleasure Mr. Cantrell, and I'll have you know that your team returned the favor with interest a few months later. The only communication between our teams was with the two team leaders, who made sure that we stayed out of each other's way, while also overlapping when it was necessary." Lawrence says, "It's a wise precaution. No sense in taking more risks than necessary in wartime. Another time then."
Mina returns to George and Ruby saying "He passed the test, he's the genuine article." "Thank you Nana. It's comforting to know he is himself, though it does not tell us what his intentions are. He still may be completely at odds with our companies goals." Ruby held out the dagger for the grandmother to look over. "Lawrence found this hidden in the couch. I do not yet want to show it to Maurice. It's magical and I think it has something to do with making other magical items. Can you tell what this Atlantian writing says?"
Mina spends a minute looking it over and says, "Yes, it is the instructions for making the potion that Lawrence and I discovered Chevreul working on several days ago. It is a very advanced version of a self-transformation elixir. Some human transformation potions allow you to become anybody you wish and you just need to think of whom. Others require a physical object from the person, often a lock of hair. This one is much, much more complex than that, requiring a more substantial component from the individual, usually a finger or toe, although other body parts of equal size could be used. The item can't be taken from a corpse either, in fact, for the magic to work the person needs to remain alive while the other person is transformed into them.
The main advantages of this potion over a standard transformation item or potion, is that this transformation in undetectable and cannot be dispelled unless the person they resemble dies. It also transfers not only the physical resemblance but also the short-term memories from the person. One main disadvantage is that the potion has a very short shelf-life before use, typically ten to twelve hours maximum." Ruby says, "So... General Orabi? Seems logical to me." Mina says, "Well, he was badly wounded in battle and the French had their physician operate on him immediately afterwards. They could have obtained enough muscle and tissue then from his body to fulfill the material component needed for the elixir."
Ruby shook her head and sighed. "I just have a feeling it wasn't truly him that did such a bad thing. At any rate, let's get back inside all together and we can decide for real where we are going. It seems we can probably trust Maurice." She took the dagger, re-wrapped it and hid it inside her robes. One side of her lip turned into a smile, "Well, I don't trust anyone so let's keep this to ourselves for the moment." She waved a hand for her grandmother to go back into the room first, then followed her in. "What it is that we are waiting until we are all together to discuss?"
When Mina left the room, Abby stayed behind with Maurice. "What I really want to know, is how come you're leaving out a bit of what you've been up to the last day. I was at the pyramids, and I'm fairly certain you were as well. Perhaps it's not polite to question a spy when he chooses to leave something out, but I never was very good at following rules." Maurice looks at her skeptically, and says, "You are correct in that my story did include omissions, and I consolidated the timeline for some of the facts, but everything that I stated was truthful from the overall perspective of my team. Perhaps we should wait until the others return for me to elaborate further."
Seeing them enter Beaujoulais says, "Miss. Marsters has apprised me that you have some further concerns about me. Please let me explain. In an effort to protect the identities of members of my team who you are not yet aware of I chose to gloss over a few facts earlier, and have now been called out on it. Given the stakes involved it is imperative that we trust one another. Your team was aware of the identities of myself and my team members Henry Jekyll, Callum Stuart and young Henry Jones, so when I described our actions of the last half-day I implied that was my entire team. I purposely left out the identities and actions of two other team members that you were not aware of, as their lives would be in grave danger if their current associates knew they were working for the British Crown.
The fifth member of my team is an Egyptian on the King's staff, and it was he who helped to quickly get us the magical carpet to extract the unconscious Jekyll and then transport him to Heliopolis. The sixth team member then took on the disguise that Jekyll had used earlier, and we went to Gizah. We watched what transpired there from a distance. Our only direct involvement occurred after we saw the Frenchmen Rene Belloq and Henri Moissan blocking off the ventilation shafts of the pyramid that you were trapped inside. We forced them to stop and to flee, and we were trying to reverse their damage when you managed to escape the trap. We withdrew then, where our fifth team member then retrieved us from Gizah using the magical carpet."
George had been staring at the bomb and thinking as he listened to the vetting of Maurice and the discovery of the dagger and the potion instructions. He turns, "Ok, so we have a suspected manner of impersonating Orabi, one that is fairly extensive. It also means that Orabi is likely to be alive, or was a few hours ago. If I were the French I would want to keep him alive so that the body does not suddenly revert to that of the assassin. So we will need to find him. The fact that they had to use Berhardt for the princess says that they had not abducted her in time to acquire the needed body parts before they had to leave to the pyramids. That or they did not wish or fear to remove that much tissue from the princess.
They good news is that if Orabi is alive it completely refutes what people saw at the pyramid, clearing his name and hopefully averting the war. We have two issues remaining: this bomb and to which destination do we travel. To make matters worse, Orabi and the princess may be in separate locations. Nerferka is our primary objective now though. Despite what Maurice has said I think we should follow the other airship as that is the most likely location of the princess. Orabi may very well be out on the French gunship. I realize it will be sunk, my hope is to get there quickly. So we need to decide quickly, to where do we set off? I say the dirigible, but what do you all say?" asks George
Maurice says, "Mr. Eastman, I currently have operatives at all three possible locations. As I had stated earlier, Henry Jekyll and Callum Stuart are at in Heraklieon watching the French ship Armide. My biggest concern now is that they have orders to sink the Armide if it attempts to leave Egyptian waters, and they are unaware that the Princess or General Orabi may be on board." He then says, "My other two operatives are in Tel-el Kabir, awaiting the start of the battle, now a mere two hours away. The Egyptian operative remains in the Egyptian boy disguise and is at the camp of the Egyptian rebel troops. The other operative is currently with the British forces, which also has a team of Frenchmen and small dirigible behind the lines. Young Henry here has been using the magical carpet to coordinate messages between those two operatives and myself."
Mina says, "We also have another option. Both Lawrence and I have been granted authority over United States naval ships. The American Ambassador to Egypt said that there are two such vessels in Alexandria, which you said was fifteen miles from Heraklieon." Lawrence states, "We can send a telegraph. They could be underway in an hour." Beuajoulais replies, "An excellent idea." Ruby says, "Yeah but what would we do with that? Send those ships to try to intercept the French battleship?"
Mina says, "No, just keep it from running away. That way the British won't sink it with the Princess possibly on board." Beaujoulais says, "Well, whatever we decide to do we should do it fast. We do have the flying carpet." Mina adds, "And we came here in a dirigible." Freya interjects "I can fly as well." "As can the Princess's ogre bodyguard". George says, "Good point. My brain is getting addled with all these options! Well, I say at least some of us follow where the French left. We don't know where the Princess is but our best guess is they kidnapped her in the trunk."
Abby had been keeping back, watching and listening. "I don't know that I'd want to do that. This situation keeps getting murkier. It's getting hard to know who's a foe a who's a friend." Ruby nodded her head. "I agree with Abby. I don't know if we really want to pick sides here and get involved in the war, our whole effort has been trying to stop hostilities and help my friend the Princess. I can't drop a bomb near anywhere she might be. What is the French ship's goal, do you know?" He says, "It is where they brought the Princess's dowery prior to her wedding. It is also probably where the French leaders Dagurerre and Chevruel have gone. If they try to escape from Egypt I can assure you that my ship will sink them."
Maurice says, "Obviously I have a bias, I work for British Military Intelligence, and hold the equivalent rank of Colonel. But my primary objective here is to stop the French, who we all know were the ones that murdered the Egyptian King, either directly or indireclty." Abby ponders, "So they have her dowry... How do they benefit from having the Princess in hand? The King is dead, as is Orabi. Would they hold her as a bargaining chip? Obviously they had to keep her out of the way when she was being impersonated, but what now? It could help us figure out where they would have her now. I will admit, though, their ship seems likely." Ruby asks "Do you think that is where they would have taken the Princess?" He looks up and says, "The Princess is missing?"
Ruby answers, "Yes! They used the actress Sandra Bernhardt to impersonate her at the meeting. I am also taking into consideration that might not been the real Orabi, though even in death it looked like him. Perhaps he wasn't under his own control. But yes, the Princess is missing. That is why we came back here in hopes to find clues as to where they might be holding her. I seem to recall something about them killing the whole royal family with the exception of the Princess and somehow ruling though her. It would be reason for them to keep her alive."
He says, "That could be problematic then, my ship currently has orders to sink that vessel. If the heir to the Egyptian throne is killed by a British vessel it could play right into the French plans." Ruby says, "Which is why I said we can't drop a bomb on any place we don't know for sure if she is there. We don't have much to go on now to find here. Either they took her to the front lines, unlikely, or they took her with them. We think they smuggled her out of her room in her steamer trunk."
As George is examining the doors and hallway he sees Freya heading down from the staircase to the roof. She has only been gone around 20 minutes at this point. George heads down the hall to meet Freya, out of earshot of Maurice. "I hope there is good news?" he asks. Freya says, "The dirigible was on its way back. Only one French wizard was on board, and not any of the older ones. He had some French Foreign Legion troops with him. Instead of Zakazik, they went to the southeast and landed near the battle zone behind the Egyptian rebel forces. I saw another similar-sized dirigible moored behind the British troops as well."
George shakes his head unsure of what to make of the intelligence. "Come on Freya, we have a surprise in the room. We may need your help with it." George said to Freya as he leads her back to the group and the room with the bomb and explains what he wants her to do. She says, "Okay, yes, I could fly that out. What do you want to do with it?" Ruby says, "We're trying to figure that out now. I suppose we should just drop it someplace where nothing is around." "At the least, but we may be able to use it more, uh creatively." adds George. Mina says, "What are you thinking?"
"Well, if we could be sure of anything we could use it on the Armide, or on the French dirigible, or even on one of the damn armies. If we knew anything at least. There are so many uncertainties I am loath to do it, except as a distraction perhaps. Drop it behind the rebel army to unnerve them. Perhaps the best use would be to disable, but not sink the Armide." replies George. Mina says, "If the Princess is on the Armide we may need to mount a rescue. The bomb could be used as a distraction while we board her." Ruby interjects, "That's a good point Nana. It looks like we may have to just check both places, the French ship and also the place where the armies will clash. Unfortunately that doesn't give us a lot of time to do either. Just flip a coin and go. I don't think splitting us up is a good idea at all."
Maurice says "If we're taking the dirigible that you obtained to Herakleion we would need to do so soon, while we are still under the cover of darkness. Once the sun starts to rise it would be visible for miles around." "We need to hit the ship. We can use the bomb near the ship or the armies. But we need to find the princess. It is only through here that we can stop the battle. So going there without her is not productive. The Armide it is. Now where best to set the bomb off." adds George. Ruby says, "Let's take it with us and just go. If we aren't sure and time is out we can drop it in the water." "Time is running out." says George.
Maurice says, "Probably at sea, we could use a lifeboat from my ship. The city of Heraclueum was the main port of the Pharoahs. It was later used by the Greeks, who renamed it after the Greek God Hercules. It sank twelve centuries ago following a series of earthquakes which changed the entire coastline in that area. The Armide is anchored nearly four miles off shore, above the submerged ruins of the ancient city. We believe that they have been sending divers down to search the old city, looking for some sort of magical gateway." "Magical gateway to where?" Ruby asked curiously. "Either way, we shouldn't bomb an ancient city!"
"Henry! Did you find anything!" George calls out. "But yes, I think we ought to get going." Henry gives George a pile of crumpled papers. Some look to be in French, others in the Altantian language. "They were in the bedroom waste basket," is the boy's reply. "Good job lad" replies George as scans them before he puts them in his enchanted notebook. They look to be recipes for potions. "Well, let's load up and head over to the ship. Let's break open the door frame and get the bomb out to the window. Once outside we can get it airborne through a couple of means. We can decide where to drop it on the way." says George. Lawrence looks around and grabs a crowbar to pry the hinge pins out.
Ruby asks, "Maurice, what was your plan after you left here?" He states, "To find and rejoin my teammates at whichever location appeared most promising, Tel-el Kabir, Herakleion or Gizah." "Sounds like a good plan. George darling, may I have a word with you in the hallway?" She began walking out and took Abby by the arm to join them, leaving Fish and Lawrence inside to keep an eye on things. She spoke quietly, "So, we know some of his story is false. Could he be leading us away from where we want to be?" Mina follows the trio out. She says, "I know something about Mr. Beaujoulais. He would never knowingly work with the French wizards, they were responsible for the death of his parents."
Ruby whispers quietly, "I don't know if we should trust this spy giving us information. He could certainly have his own reasons for leading us astray. So friends, we must decide, do we follow the Frenchman's dirigible or do we listen to Maurice and try Herakleion? My instinct tells me to follow the dirigible but of course, magic could have been used to move the Princess to another site and we'd have no way of knowing. I'm not convinced of either site at the moment."
Mina says that she has a history with Beaujoulais and could ask him questions that only he would know, if there is concern that he may be one of the French wizards in disguise. Ruby replies, "That is an excellent idea Nana! That is definitely one of my concerns, with all the actors and disguises and possible magical controlling going on around here." Mina says, "Well, I can prove that he is Boujoulais, who would never work for the French Wizards that killed his parents, but he could still be under their magical control. George, what do you think?"
Back inside the room, Fish engages Mr. Beaujoulais in conversation, Lawrence continues to check the bedrooms. He finds hidden between the bed cushions a tightly rolled up scroll with a very thin dagger tied to the inside. "OOhhh what is that?" Ruby asked as she goes back into the room with her ever present curiosity. "May I see it Lawrence?" "Yes, I think that at this point it is prudent. Would detect magic detect if he was under some manner of control or enchantment? But yes, vett him while I check out that dagger." whispers back George to Mina.
Lawrence hands the scroll and dagger to Ruby and George as Mina gestures for Lawrence to accompany her back into the other room with Fish, Abby and Beaujoulais. They unroll the scroll which has magical writings in Atlantian script. The dagger itself is lightweight and casts a thin shimmer of golden light. "Wow this is amazing! It's obviously magical but what does it do I wonder? When Nana is done with Maurice we'll ask her to look at the writings." Ruby holds the dagger at arms length and concentrates on it. Casting detect magic . The entire dagger glows with magic, with the tip appearing to contain the most magic.
Ruby is able to ascertain that while the dagger could be used as a weapon, its true purpose is as a special tool used for the creation of magical items. "Um, this can be used to make magical items. I wonder if this scroll is magical too or maybe they are the directions on how to use the dagger. We'll have to look into this more. When Nana is done, we'll ask her. But perhaps we should keep it hidden from Maurice? I don't know if we can trust him, hopefully Nana has insight into that."
Willamina Parker approaches Beaujoulais and says, "Maurice, I would like a word with you." She approaches him, with Abby, Fish and Lawrence also present. Deciding to be direct Mina says "There are some concerns among my colleagues as to your true identity. Their apprehension is justified, given the number of French imposters already encountered and the fact that you are here in their rooms." Gesturing towards Lawrence she says, "The French wizards would be unaware of when you first crossed paths with Lawrence and myself. Would you care to fill us in?"
He smiles and says, "Absolutely, although until this minute I was unaware that anybody except your husband James knew that it was me. It was on the night of Saturday October 8th of 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. I was part of a British spy team operating on a parallel mission as the American team comprised of you, Mr. Cantrell, Mr. Parker and Doctor Crane.
The Confederacy was in very poor shape. Lee's army was under siege for the winter in Petersburg, Virginia while the Union Army's General Sherman had just burnt Atlanta to the ground and was marching to the coast. Confederate President Davis was desperate for something to quickly change the tide of the war and had made arrangements with the King of Spain to obtain a large cache of magical artifacts to break the siege with plans to then march to the District of Columbia, preferably before the November 8th election. Should Washington fall, it would have ushered in an almost certain victory for the Democratic candidate McClellan over Lincoln. Due to the prior successes of both your team and mine at stopping magical shipments to the Confederacy, it meant that Davis knew that absolute secrecy had to be maintained about the pending arrival of the magic, so the only place to obtain that information was from Davis's own files.
On that night Mrs. Parker you played the role of a Southern Belle, with Doctor Crane as your slave, and distracted the night guards, as Mr. Cantrell and Mr. Parker searched President Davis's office. The two of you managed to find the information but were then nearly captured, due to the untimely return of President Davis and his own executive guard detail to the office. If not for the combination of a clumsy janitor spilling a large mop bucket of wash water on the President and his party, simultaneous to the passing by of a wagon filled with linens that you two American spies jumped from the 3rd floor window into, all would have been lost." Turning to Lawrence he says, "Mr. Cantrell, I was that janitor, and another member of my team was driving that linen wagon."
Lawrence squints at the man, staring intently at his face. Then Lawrence brightens and says, "I knew there was something familiar about you. Let me shake your hand." Lawrence pumps Beaujoulais' hand. "You and your team kept us out of Andersonville or worse. Hah, I wish I could have seen the face on the Spanish ambassador's face when Seward showed him those papers." Beaujoulais says, "It was my pleasure Mr. Cantrell, and I'll have you know that your team returned the favor with interest a few months later. The only communication between our teams was with the two team leaders, who made sure that we stayed out of each other's way, while also overlapping when it was necessary." Lawrence says, "It's a wise precaution. No sense in taking more risks than necessary in wartime. Another time then."
Mina returns to George and Ruby saying "He passed the test, he's the genuine article." "Thank you Nana. It's comforting to know he is himself, though it does not tell us what his intentions are. He still may be completely at odds with our companies goals." Ruby held out the dagger for the grandmother to look over. "Lawrence found this hidden in the couch. I do not yet want to show it to Maurice. It's magical and I think it has something to do with making other magical items. Can you tell what this Atlantian writing says?"
Mina spends a minute looking it over and says, "Yes, it is the instructions for making the potion that Lawrence and I discovered Chevreul working on several days ago. It is a very advanced version of a self-transformation elixir. Some human transformation potions allow you to become anybody you wish and you just need to think of whom. Others require a physical object from the person, often a lock of hair. This one is much, much more complex than that, requiring a more substantial component from the individual, usually a finger or toe, although other body parts of equal size could be used. The item can't be taken from a corpse either, in fact, for the magic to work the person needs to remain alive while the other person is transformed into them.
The main advantages of this potion over a standard transformation item or potion, is that this transformation in undetectable and cannot be dispelled unless the person they resemble dies. It also transfers not only the physical resemblance but also the short-term memories from the person. One main disadvantage is that the potion has a very short shelf-life before use, typically ten to twelve hours maximum." Ruby says, "So... General Orabi? Seems logical to me." Mina says, "Well, he was badly wounded in battle and the French had their physician operate on him immediately afterwards. They could have obtained enough muscle and tissue then from his body to fulfill the material component needed for the elixir."
Ruby shook her head and sighed. "I just have a feeling it wasn't truly him that did such a bad thing. At any rate, let's get back inside all together and we can decide for real where we are going. It seems we can probably trust Maurice." She took the dagger, re-wrapped it and hid it inside her robes. One side of her lip turned into a smile, "Well, I don't trust anyone so let's keep this to ourselves for the moment." She waved a hand for her grandmother to go back into the room first, then followed her in. "What it is that we are waiting until we are all together to discuss?"
When Mina left the room, Abby stayed behind with Maurice. "What I really want to know, is how come you're leaving out a bit of what you've been up to the last day. I was at the pyramids, and I'm fairly certain you were as well. Perhaps it's not polite to question a spy when he chooses to leave something out, but I never was very good at following rules." Maurice looks at her skeptically, and says, "You are correct in that my story did include omissions, and I consolidated the timeline for some of the facts, but everything that I stated was truthful from the overall perspective of my team. Perhaps we should wait until the others return for me to elaborate further."
Seeing them enter Beaujoulais says, "Miss. Marsters has apprised me that you have some further concerns about me. Please let me explain. In an effort to protect the identities of members of my team who you are not yet aware of I chose to gloss over a few facts earlier, and have now been called out on it. Given the stakes involved it is imperative that we trust one another. Your team was aware of the identities of myself and my team members Henry Jekyll, Callum Stuart and young Henry Jones, so when I described our actions of the last half-day I implied that was my entire team. I purposely left out the identities and actions of two other team members that you were not aware of, as their lives would be in grave danger if their current associates knew they were working for the British Crown.
The fifth member of my team is an Egyptian on the King's staff, and it was he who helped to quickly get us the magical carpet to extract the unconscious Jekyll and then transport him to Heliopolis. The sixth team member then took on the disguise that Jekyll had used earlier, and we went to Gizah. We watched what transpired there from a distance. Our only direct involvement occurred after we saw the Frenchmen Rene Belloq and Henri Moissan blocking off the ventilation shafts of the pyramid that you were trapped inside. We forced them to stop and to flee, and we were trying to reverse their damage when you managed to escape the trap. We withdrew then, where our fifth team member then retrieved us from Gizah using the magical carpet."
George had been staring at the bomb and thinking as he listened to the vetting of Maurice and the discovery of the dagger and the potion instructions. He turns, "Ok, so we have a suspected manner of impersonating Orabi, one that is fairly extensive. It also means that Orabi is likely to be alive, or was a few hours ago. If I were the French I would want to keep him alive so that the body does not suddenly revert to that of the assassin. So we will need to find him. The fact that they had to use Berhardt for the princess says that they had not abducted her in time to acquire the needed body parts before they had to leave to the pyramids. That or they did not wish or fear to remove that much tissue from the princess.
They good news is that if Orabi is alive it completely refutes what people saw at the pyramid, clearing his name and hopefully averting the war. We have two issues remaining: this bomb and to which destination do we travel. To make matters worse, Orabi and the princess may be in separate locations. Nerferka is our primary objective now though. Despite what Maurice has said I think we should follow the other airship as that is the most likely location of the princess. Orabi may very well be out on the French gunship. I realize it will be sunk, my hope is to get there quickly. So we need to decide quickly, to where do we set off? I say the dirigible, but what do you all say?" asks George
Maurice says, "Mr. Eastman, I currently have operatives at all three possible locations. As I had stated earlier, Henry Jekyll and Callum Stuart are at in Heraklieon watching the French ship Armide. My biggest concern now is that they have orders to sink the Armide if it attempts to leave Egyptian waters, and they are unaware that the Princess or General Orabi may be on board." He then says, "My other two operatives are in Tel-el Kabir, awaiting the start of the battle, now a mere two hours away. The Egyptian operative remains in the Egyptian boy disguise and is at the camp of the Egyptian rebel troops. The other operative is currently with the British forces, which also has a team of Frenchmen and small dirigible behind the lines. Young Henry here has been using the magical carpet to coordinate messages between those two operatives and myself."
Mina says, "We also have another option. Both Lawrence and I have been granted authority over United States naval ships. The American Ambassador to Egypt said that there are two such vessels in Alexandria, which you said was fifteen miles from Heraklieon." Lawrence states, "We can send a telegraph. They could be underway in an hour." Beuajoulais replies, "An excellent idea." Ruby says, "Yeah but what would we do with that? Send those ships to try to intercept the French battleship?"
Mina says, "No, just keep it from running away. That way the British won't sink it with the Princess possibly on board." Beaujoulais says, "Well, whatever we decide to do we should do it fast. We do have the flying carpet." Mina adds, "And we came here in a dirigible." Freya interjects "I can fly as well." "As can the Princess's ogre bodyguard". George says, "Good point. My brain is getting addled with all these options! Well, I say at least some of us follow where the French left. We don't know where the Princess is but our best guess is they kidnapped her in the trunk."
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