“Sorry to have dragged you into this,” said Watson, over-thinking things as usual.
“Don’t worry,” I told him, “at least it will save me having to do the paperwork.”
“What have you done?” Mitchell was screaming. “What have you done?”
He ran to the laboratory, Holmes and I hard on his heels.
There was a roar from the end of the corridor and Kane stood there, his mouth wide open as he growled his animal hatred at us.
“Gun!” shouted Watson. Holmes, not even breaking his stride, threw his revolver to him and darted into the laboratory after Mitchell.
“Stand down!” Watson shouted, pointing the gun at Kane. “Or I’ll drop you where you stand.”
Suddenly the wall to his left cracked as another explosion took its effect. He fell to his right, the gun tumbling from his hands.
“Watson!” Leaving Holmes, I ran to help him but the explosions had taken their toll on the structure of the old warehouse and the crack in the wall was only the beginning. With a soft crunch, the ceiling sagged and before I could get to the fallen doctor, there was a hail of bricks and plaster as the lot came caving in before me. “Watson!”
“He’s a goner, man,” said Challenger behind me. “If the bricks didn’t get him, that damned dog soon will.”
The passageway was impassable, we were sealed in and Watson was sealed out.
HOLMES
Mitchell ran straight towards his laboratory and I could only assume he had something in there he considered potent enough to help him regain the upper hand. I therefore felt it best to follow.
He struggled with the keys as the explosions rang out throughout the warehouse, but wrestled the door open and dashed inside.
I noticed Kane appear at the end of the hallway. I really didn’t have the enthusiasm to be able to deal with both of them. Isn’t it precisely for situations like this that you come in company?
“Gun!” Watson shouted and I took great pleasure in throwing it to him as I continued in my pursuit of Mitchell. Behind me I was aware of the collapse of part of the ceiling and wall, hardly surprising given the age of the building. I’d placed the majority of it at close to a hundred-and-twenty years old, though some of the bricks had dated from as far back as 1763. Given the temperature of the last few winters and the fact that the place had not been looked after for some years, it must have been fragile indeed. I wasn’t aware that part of it had fallen on Watson. After all, I can hardly be expected to notice
“Come now, Mitchell,” I said, stepping into the doorway of his laboratory. “There’s no earthly use in running, we have reinforcements on the way.”
“Who says I’m running?” he replied, grabbing a hypodermic syringe.
“This is a concentrated dose of my serum,” he explained, rolling up his sleeve, “a chemical capable of turning me into a creature far more powerful than the rest of your pathetic species.”
“Up until it kills you,” I reminded him.
“Not me,” he insisted, plunging the needle into his arm, “I’m too strong, I will develop! I will evolve!” He began to swell, his skin reddening. It was almost as if his madness was taking on physical shape, turning him into a flesh and bone illustration of his own anger and violence. The pig cowl stretched and distorted as his head continue to expand beneath it. The veins were rising on his forearms, blue lines as thick and jumbled as a map of the Underground trains.
“Evolve!!!” it shouted, the voice even more slurred than normal.
I glanced at the door and noticed he had left the keys in the lock. Evolution will never be a replacement for intelligence.
“Evolve your way out of a locked room then,” I suggested, stepping outside and locking the door behind me.
He immediately began pounding on it as I walked away but to no avail; it was a stout door. I joined Mann and Challenger in front of the pile of bricks and mortar that had once been the floor above.
“Watson was caught in it,” said Challenger. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I replied, filling my pipe, “my Watson’s a damn sight harder to kill than that.”
WATSON
The damned sky fell in on me and for a moment all was noise, pain and dust, then blackness as I passed out of consciousness.
The next thing I knew there was a pair of monstrous hands on my lapels, and I was being pulled out of the rubble.
“No,” said Kane, “not like that. That would be too easy.”
He threw me away from the collapsed ceiling, tossing me to the ground at the far end of the passageway.
My head was spinning and it was so hard to focus, I could feel blood washing the plaster away from my temple and cheek. I was no doubt concussed and would need several stitches. If I was lucky enough to get away with no more wounds that is, something that seemed incredibly unlikely given the attitude of the brute staring down at me.
“Father says we should be ourselves,” he said, “feed our animal side.” He snarled. “Very well. Run!”
I didn’t need telling twice, I got to my feet and, shakily, ran out of what was left of the passage and into the open warehouse.
All around was panic and screaming, some of the animals were cowering, some were running in circles. Not so Kane, Kane was in full control.
“Run, man!” he shouted, the words tapering into a howl like that of a wolf. “I wish to hunt!”
I looked around desperately for a weapon but could see nothing. I ran for the stairs that would lead me up to the main entrance, unknowingly passing right by Carruthers and Wiggins on the other side of the wall as they encouraged Mycroft and his security officers up from the underground entrance.
The stairs were hard going, my legs aching terribly as I forced them to move faster up each flight. Finally I was on the ground floor, and I made straight for the door.
Kane followed me outside, his feet pounding on the road as he chased me down the street. I risked a look over my shoulder and saw he had reverted even further. Dropping forward he was loping along on all fours, tongue lolling from between his teeth as he ran.
“Kill you!” he shouted, his voice even more of a canine howl now.
I ran towards the sound of traffic. As much as I didn’t want this thing to harm others I would stand a better chance of dealing with it myself if I could only get into the open.
I emerged close to the Euston Road, Kane at my heels.
“Kill you! Bite you! Suck your bones!” Kane lashed out at me with one of his massive hands and he caught me on the shoulder, sending me tumbling into the gutter.
He rose up and pounded his massive hands on his chest, howling up at the night sky.
I got to my feet, shuffling towards the main road.
“No,” he said, “no more run.”
He leapt for me and I managed to dart to one side, so he collided with a pair of bicycles chained up against a railing. He roared in frustration as the pedals and spokes dug into him. I kept running towards the main road, aware that I had bought myself maybe a few extra seconds, not much, but possibly enough.
I heard the wrenching of metal behind me, followed by a savage barking sound, and then that gallop of his fists bouncing off the road as he ran on all fours. I was scouring the ground as I ran, desperate to spot something I could use—my eyes alighted on the very thing. A dirty child’s ball left in the gutter. And with it a desperate idea!
The Euston Road was always busy with cabs and carts, trucks and coaches, all making their way to and from the station. Stopping at the junction, I turned to face Kane as he charged towards me.
