Simon Hawke - The Pimpernel Plot

The two men grinned at each other.

“I say this calls for a celebration,” Barrett said. “We’ve got several bottles of claret waiting to be uncorked, old chap. Will you join us?”

“Wish I could, but I must be on about my business,” Finn said. “You’ve done well. Good night and good fortune to you.”

He left them and hurried back downstairs to Lucas.

“What’s happened?” Lucas said, grabbing his arm.

“That son of a bitch has done it again!” said Finn. “He beat us to it and took the marquis out from right under our noses!”

“Took him? How?”

“You’re not going to believe this,” Finn said. “It was that kid, that miserable little pickpocket-”

“ You mean Jean? The same boy that we-”

“That’s him. He walked right up to the door, said the Pimpernel had sent him, and they turned the marquis over to him. We couldn’t have missed him by more than twenty minutes!”

“Fitzroy is going to have a stroke,” said Lucas. “What do we do now?”

“What else can we do? Get back to the coast. But first we’re going to have to go to Fitzroy and tell him what happened.”

“I’m not looking forward to this,” Lucas said, as they started walking back.

“Neither am I,” said Finn, “but at least we’ve got something to tell him beyond the fact that we blew it. There can’t be any doubt about it now. Mongoose is one of the members of the league. If we get back to Cap Gris Nez and find out that somebody wasn’t where he should have been, that’s our man.”

“Otherwise, it’s one of the men who remained behind in England,” Lucas said. “But then, Hastings, Browning and the others wouldn’t have known the plan.”

“True, but they’d know about the hideout,” Finn said. “They’d also know to follow whomever we sent on ahead to Paris. There’s no other way he could have done it. One of them is Mongoose.”

“Really?” said Fitzroy. “That’s very interesting.”

“That’s all you have to say?” said Finn.

“No, not quite all,” Fitzroy said. “I could say that I’m frankly surprised that it took the two of you so long to come to that conclusion. Cobra suspected it right from the start when he arrived. I could say that if you had been more thorough in preparing your men for this rescue attempt, instead of keeping them in the dark about what they were to do until the very last minute, this might not have happened. In fact, I could say a great deal more, but I’m not going to bother. Instead, I am going to assume full authority over this adjustment immediately. I have had about enough of your sorry inefficiency.”

“Now just a minute,” Lucas said, restraining Finn with a hand on his arm. “I didn’t hear you objecting to the plan when we went over it with you. As for taking charge of this adjustment, aren’t you overstepping your authority just a little? You’re within bounds to pass on directives from Plus Time, but Observers aren’t-”

“‘I know very well what the function of an Observer is, Major Priest, I don’t need you to tell me! Yes, you’re quite correct, I am departing from normal procedure, but the two of you have left me no other choice. You’ve been outwitted twice, both times by a boy who can’t be more than twelve years old!”

“You know very well that Mongoose had that kid-” Finn began, but Fitzroy interrupted him.

“I am inclined to agree with agent Cobra that Mongoose does not present an overt threat to this operation. It’s clear to me that he desires nothing more than to embarrass the two of you, and he seems to be succeeding admirably. He’s doing your job for you and doing it quite well, I might add. As long as it gets done, I don’t really care who does it, so long as the Scarlet Pimpernel receives the credit.”

“So what do you expect us to do?” Finn said, angrily. “You want us to sit on our hands while Mongoose does all the work?”

“That’s a very tempting proposition,” said Fitzroy. “However, I will tell you precisely what I expect you to do. I expect you to continue playing your parts and to refrain from any sort of independent action. I will devise the plans for all future rescues and I will expect you to follow them to the letter, to the last detail. I will have my support staff working, with agent Cobra’s team standing by to observe each aspect of each operation, ready to act when Mongoose makes his move. The moment that the object of the rescue is safely out of danger, the agents will move in and apprehend their man. Between my own efforts in this regard and agent Cobra’s investigation, Mongoose will be taken. I will do my very best to keep your part in this as uncomplicated as possible in order to avoid confusing you. I still need a Percy Blakeney. Unfortunately, Delaney, you’re all I have to fill that role, so you will simply have to do, at least for the time being. Now I suggest the two of you make your way back to Cap Gris Nez, where Mongoose will undoubtedly deliver the Marquis de Sevigne to the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. With any luck, perhaps the TIA agents will apprehend him there and you’ll be spared any further embarrassment. Good night, gentlemen.”

Finn was on the verge of making a temperamental reply, but Lucas took him by the arm and firmly pulled him toward the door. Fitzroy watched them with disdain as they left, then shook his head and chuckled.

“All right, Jean,” he said in French, “come on out.”

The closet door opened and the boy stepped out.

“How did you leave the marquis?”

“Asleep, downstairs,” the boy replied. “I pricked him with the ring, just as you said. He glanced at the ring he wore on his left hand, identical to the one Finn had been given. “How does it work?”

“Don’t concern yourself, Jean, you would not understand. You’ve done very well. Here.” He gave the boy a purse. “This is for you and your brother. Take care that no one steals it from you. I’ll have more work for you very soon.”

“Thank you, monsieur.”

“That will be all. Run along now. Take care that no one sees you leave.”

Following the arrival of the Marquis de Sevigne in England the Scarlet Pimpernel became a national obsession. A horse named Scarlet Pimpernel won at Ascot. A milliner in Knightsbridge offered for sale hats “a la Scarlet Pimpernel” and was soon swamped with orders. Several tailors began to specialize in suits and dresses “a la Scarlet Pimpernel” which, in spite of their designation, were available in a wide choice of colors. Scarlet Pimpernels were worn in lapels across the country, pinned to hats, worn as corsages, painted upon snuff-boxes, made from silk and attached to horses’ bridles, used as a garnish for a wide variety of dishes, and embroidered upon velvet slippers, dressing gowns, jackets and handkerchiefs. It seemed that the Scarlet Pimpernel was foremost in the mind of every Englishman, especially the ersatz Sir Percy Blakeney.

Mongoose had delivered the marquis to Pere Blanchard’s hut, dropping the aristocrat off at the crest of the St. Martin’s road and directing him to follow the footpath down to the cottage. The nobleman arrived only slightly the worse for wear, suffering from dizziness and disorientation like the others before him. He had attributed the effects to the “sleeping draught” he had been given, ostensibly to prevent him from knowing how he was spirited out of Paris. However, Finn and Lucas both knew that what he had felt were not the aftereffects of a drug, but of travel from one place to another via chronoplate.

Finn had been encouraged upon learning that the marquis had been taken to the cottage, for the hut had not existed as a hiding place for them until Andrew Ffoulkes had arranged for it shortly after their arrival in France. Obviously, it meant that Mongoose knew their plans and therefore had to have assumed the guise of one of the members of the league. Yet, he had thwarted their efforts to expose him by decoying some of the men away from where they should have been. Just before they were to leave Paris, Wilberforce and Barrett had received a note signed with the red flower, instructing them to leave the city separately for the sake of greater security and telling them to rendezvous at Blanchard’s cottage off the St. Martin’s road. Finn recalled that they had gone out to purchase wine while they waited for the arrival of the marquis, which meant that one of them could easily have arranged for Jean to pick up the aristocrat and then deliver him to Pere Blanchard’s hut, since the other would be traveling alone. Rodney Moore and the Byrne brothers had been separated, as well. Ffoulkes had received a note similar to the one Barrett and Wilberforce were sent. He had found it up in his room shortly after Finn and Lucas left for Paris. It had instructed him of a change in plans, the reason being that the French had “spies everywhere” and it was best to keep altering the plans at the last minute in order to avoid exposing themselves. Ffoulkes had accepted the note without question and had followed the instructions to the letter. He had directed the Byrne brothers to remain at the cottage and he had sent Rodney Moore to watch the St. Martin’s road, where he was to wait for an old woman driving a farm wagon to pass by and then watch to see if anyone followed. The “old woman” would obviously be the Pimpernel in disguise.