"The ABC Affair- Stonehenge, Chapter 7 Letter G

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Prompts; grove, gigantic

They began their trek into the night, following the road by lantern light.

With the night sky above them and the comet still leaving its trail in the heavens, the gigantic stones of the henge were silhouetted against the celestial backdrop.

“I am going to lead Napoleon,”Illya insisted.

“Oh, you think I can’t follow the road?” Napoleon shot back.”Come on, don’t be ridiculous. I did get us here, remember?”

“Yes I remember, and I am still not over the shock of it.”

“Har har, very funny.”

They continued arguing back and forth but Russian stood there with his lower lip defiantly protruding and his arms crossed in front of himself.

“Oh all right,“ Napoleon relented. “Have it your way...you lead.”

“Thank you!”

The doctor overheard the two men arguing back and forth like children about Solo getting them lost. At first she thought it rather amusing, but she decided it was best to keep her humor to herself.

“Boys will be boys. Perhaps she needed to reassess her initial opinion of them not being idiots...

Illya led the way following the long gravel pathway that ran down from the grove.  Following in single file were Ellery, Napoleon holding the other lantern and behind him was Officer Kingsley who had seemingly recovered from his injury. He’d said he was strong enough to walk without assistance.

There wasn’t a sound, not even crickets or grasshoppers singing from the rough grassland. The only sound heard was the crunching of the pulverized stones beneath four sets of feet as they walked.

They hadn’t been moving very long when Ellery called out for them to stop.

“Illya, where’s Napoleon and Arthur?”

Kuryakin spun on his heels, seeing the others were indeed gone.

“Napoleon!” He shouted, but there was no answer.

The Russian grumbled to himself in multiple languages, finally switching to English as he complained that his partner had gotten lost yet again, even when being led.

He and Ellery doubled back, carefully searching for the men, calling out their names again and again,  but they couldn’t find a single sign of them.

It was as if they’d vanished into thin air.

Kuryakin didn’t voice his fear, but the thought of his partner and Kingsley being the next victims in this murderous situation did cross his mind.

They returned to the tent and there Illya commandeered the smallest of tools; he sat by lantern light fidgeting with his communicator.

“Shouldn’t we be out looking for them?” Ellery finally asked.

“It would be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. If I can get my communicator to work, I can call for reinforcements.”

Once opening the device, he found no signs of internal damage other than one small wire. It too was singed like the wires in the car engine and the generator. Thankfully the battery seemed intact.

“I need a piece of metal...something malleable that can conduct an electrical signal.

He rose from his stool, searching the tables for something silver perhaps.

Ellery held up a glass petri dish. “Will this do?”

In it was a very small piece of gold. “It’s part of a filling from one of the victims...I took it out to have it analyzed.”

“Ellery that is perfect!” He snatched the bit of precious metal that was just larger than the head pin and set it on his work table. “Do you have a…?”

She held out a hammer, one with a hook on its handle.

“I hope it’s not too gruesome a tool as it’s used along with a chisel to separate the part of the human skull that holds the brain from the lower skull.”

“Ellery, trust me the things I have seen in my lifetime make autopsies and their tools seem rather tame.”

He took the hammer and began pounding the bit of gold until he was able to fashion a wire, though it was a bit thicker than he’d hoped for.

He inserted it with some effort into the communicator, and after several tries, the device suddenly crackled to life.

“Yo moey!” He exclaimed in Russian. “Beg pardon, I apologize as what I said could be misconstrued as rude.”

“No offence taken Illya as I don’t speak Russian. Just out of curiosity, what did you say?”

“It was merely an exclamation of surprise, and I will leave it at that. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to try to contact headquarters.”

“Open Channel D-overseas relay,” he spoke into the microphone.

The communicator crackled and then a familiar voice. “Mister Kuryakin, where the deuce have you and Mister Solo been? We’ve been unable to contact either of you…”

“Sir, I will explain…”

“Well, what are you waiting for? And this better be good young man.”

Illya inhaled, pausing for a second to get past Waverly’s obvious impatience,” Well you see sir…”

There was a sudden distraction; both Ellery and Illya’s heads quickly turned toward the direction from which it came, that being the entrance to the tent.

A lone figure staggered inside just before he collapsed to the floor with a dull thud...

Comments

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Nice stretch of suspense, and the gold 'barbed wire' is a good thought.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you! A mini-cliffier here. Illya wouldn't be Illya if he couldn't fix a damaged communicator, right? "D