Page 10 (1/2)

Miss Holmes

A Most Curious Device

Oncetiht I met Miss Adler, I hastened to her office

Uncle Sherlock had i every streetwalk, road, alley, railway route, and business in London was i capacity, and so I had taken it upon myself to study hborhoods I knew the schedule for every train, underground or otherwise, as well as the buses One never knehen one ht need to utilize public transportation

Since it was still several hours before noon, she wasn&039;t in residence Fortunately, I&039;d acquired a key and was able to gain access on my own I had preparations to make before I atteht at Witcherell&039;s Pawnshop

Living in an age of great technology and scientific progress, I was skeptical of the legend of Sekhmet that the Ankh promoted, but I also knew I couldn&039;t fully discount it as being an excuse for soe through their daughters or overthrow the government After all, Miss Stoker was evidence that vampires did exist And, as had becoue the latter was a scientific endeavor and not that of some supernatural force

And, much as I tended to discount the idea, it see with Sekhh time

I&039;d cos I&039;d collected during my week of research into Sekhmet&039;s instruments If three of the instruments had been located, I wanted to know as much about them as I could, as well as about the fourth

Lilly had retrieved the cuff herself And based on Miss Stoker&039;s inforht of Miss Hodgeworth&039;s death with a long, slender item in hand, one would conclude that the second one was the scepter That left the sistrum and the diadem

I sat at Miss Adler&039;s desk and closed my eyes to reviehat I re in estures, the speech, and even the actions when she co about the Ankh niggled in nize Soed in ly into the room

"Irove-Pitt had been at the ball when I returned from the excursion to the Society of Sekh with another person

Still There was so about the Ankh that remindedLady Cosgrove-Pitt today at the Fauntley mansion only served to remind me of it It was the way she tilted her head, the way she loved hand

And then there was the fact that, apparently, Miss Hodgeworth had received an invitation to the Roses Ball And soe on that very same invitation

The door to Miss Adler&039;s office cracked open, shattering

"Mina," said Dylan, "I&039;lad you&039;re here"

"And I&039;ed from your exile below," I said tartly, as a rush of war with ?

"I realized you were right about what you said this -I can&039;t just stay down there forever," he said as he came into the office and shut the door behind him

I was acutely aware that the two of us were alone in a private roo I can to help send you back to your time, but until we can determine how to do that, I believe it&039;s in your best interest to interact with the people and life here After all, we don&039;t kno long it could take" Gad, I was babbling, and I didn&039;t seem able to stop myself

He smiled, and my cheeks arm "I realize I&039;ve been a jerk, and I&039;, and that wasn&039;t right"

"Neverboth discoaze settled on reen stare of a certain detective

"I&039;ht be able to help you I feel like an idiot for not re before now Do you knohere inal clothes?"

"Of course" I&039;d brought them with me when I bailed him out of the jail, and they were in a cupboard in this very chah it I couldn&039;t resist picking up one of the very odd rubber and leather shoes It laced up like a corset, and the sole curved up and around the sides and front of the shoe On the back in small letters, it said NIKE

Of course, I kneho Nike was-the Greek goddess of victory But I couldn&039;t understand why Dylan would have her name on his shoe I hoped he wasn&039;t part of some sort of Society of Nike that came fro out the sibilance of the last consonant in a sort of victorious sound "I thought so"

"What is it?"

He was looking at a pamphlet of some shiny type of paper he&039;d just extricated froh it was crinkled and worn, it was also very colorful, with the words The British Museum printed on the front, and a picture-

I reached out and touched the paper where the i like it It raph, but it looked so real, so colorful, like a flat nized as the very one in which ere standing-but different

Dylan unfolded the pamphlet, and I could see that it was a description of the museum that came from his time While I wanted to snatch it away from him and examine every last detail, I refrained and looked over his shoulder while he pored through it

Then he stabbed a blunt finger at a page "Look at this, Mina! Don&039;t you think this could help?"

At last I was able to take the paht, smooth, shiny texture of the paper ave a little flip

The Cult of Sekhe of a delicate, filigreed coronet that looked veryof Sekhh my veins, I read further, still fully aware of how close I was to Dylan

The newest exhibit in the Egyptology salon (third floor, East Wing) is a collection said to belong to Amenemhat I, the Twelfth Dynasty pharaoh who created a cult around the goddess Sekhmet He was so devoted to her that when he became ruler and moved the capital, the shrines and worship spaces of her cult were also otten rooence attributed to the goddess

"I&039;ve never heard of Ah the implications Time travel was a complicated concept "His tomb ists excavating in Egypt right now, but it could be years That means the Ankh couldn&039;t have found the diade to do with the legend of Sekhmet, she can&039;t do it without the diadem"

"Wait, there&039;s more I remember this! We saw the exhibit and the diadem-you knohen I was in my ti Wait I ht still have it"

He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the sleek telephone "The battery&039;s getting lower," he said, stabbing at the face of the device with his finger "Da to have to turn it off for a while But first"

I watched in awe as he poked at it, slid his finger over the surface, and e Then all at once, there were pictures on there,"What is that?"

"Oh, I hit the wrong app," Dylan said To ht away, and I looked down at the tinyfroain They were dolls or people, maybe even mechanical devices, for they had oddly shaped heads-or else wore hats-and all wore the sa cane-like sticks and they werea small black object on a white floor

"That&039;s hockey, and that&039;saround "I play hockey Back home It&039;s a sport, likeumcricket?"

"Brilliant," Itheto the ground, and even began to hit each other But the way they ical

"This is aain and the pictures went away, to be replaced by the rows of little square is, but it needs electricity You know, that awful contraband Electricity" He looked atas if it were some private joke between us

My cheeks heated, and I foundback as hts scattered

He returned his attention to the telephone "I had looked up the information and I found a descriptionhere it is" He slid his finger and stabbed at the glass "It&039;s still pulled up on uage

"They found the diadee rooms of the British Museum It&039;s already here The article says &039;The diadeotten crate in the Archaic Rooold worknored because it had been thrown in a box with pieces of ruined statues and pottery The diade destroyed&039; "

"It could still be here The task for which Miss Adler was engaged by theall of the crates and ship the first part of the century Sarcophagi and statues and countless artifacts were packaged up, shipped here, and then forgotten"

Dylan nodded "I reyptian people, as well as becorave robbers, who stole from their own country and sold antiquities to the Europeans There was a show on the History Chann-uh, anyway So that means it&039;s still here"

"Or the Ankh could already have it"

We looked at each other, and for a moment, I couldn&039;t breathe He was so close to me, and our faces were al

Then I thought of my prominent nose and my too-wide mouth and how tall and cluun to bubble hopefully inside irl who didn&039;t knohen to stop lecturing

A handso man like Dylan would never-

"Mina," he said His eyes hadn&039;t left ainst mine "I think you&039;re really cool"