The Steed Identity

Chapter 3 ��Ah, Basil. Lola.�� Galaxy greeted them warmly. ��Set yourselves down, set yourselves down. I have exciting news.�� Lola settled herself into a chair, and he perched on the seat arm, continuing to hold her hand. Munsey and Wilde found chairs of their own. So, the gang was all there. Galaxy steepled her fingers together. ��Lola. Things moved faster than I had expected. Mrs. Emma Peel has already been isolated. Or rather, she will be isolated tonight. We cannot lose this opportunity. We take her tonight.�� He gripped Lola�s hand hard. No. No. ��That�s wonderful, Galaxy,�� Lola said calmly. ��How on earth did you manage it so quickly? Galaxy smirked. ��I told you I had friends in high places. I had one of them invite Mrs. Peel to a bridge tournament tonight - in a rather isolated spot. Her friend Steed is not accompanying her.�� Lola laughed, that low contralto laugh. ��Poor Mrs. Peel.�� ��Yes,�� he said, through tight lips. ��Poor Mrs. Peel.�� ��I knew you�d be pleased. So - in order to get their in time you have to leave now. Lola. Munsey, Finley, and Wilde.�� ��Wait a minute,�� he said. ��What about me?�� ��The tournament is taking place at a posh country estate,�� Galaxy told him. ��Sunglasses at night are more unacceptable than sunglasses indoors during the day.�� ��I should be in the car, when they bring her out,�� he said, desperately trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. What could he say to convince her? Why wasn�t Lola saying something? If Emma Peel was anything like Lola.... ��You�re going after Emma Peel, remember. Three men and Lola are not enough.�� ��On the contrary,�� Lola said, disengaging his hand and poking him in a playful manner. ��Three men and Lola are too many. I can handle Mrs. Peel quite well on my own. Both in capturing her and in...disposing of her afterwards, Galaxy.�� ��Oh, quite. You and I alone will be there for the disposal, Lola, never fear. But I want you accompanied by some back up. Basil, I appreciate the fact that you and Lola work as one, but not this time. You have not yet shown that you are recovered from your incarceration. You will remain here. We will return...when we return. Gentlemen, Lola, let us go.�� ��Lola,�� he turned to her. ��It�s all right, Basil,�� she told him, grasping his hands in hers and gazing into his eyes. ��It�s all right. Trust me.�� As he watched them go, hot rage built up inside him. He�d outsmarted himself. Avoided the fighting, the gunplay, thinking he was so clever to do so, and as a result he was trapped inside this house while Lola was free to leave. And she�d not hesitated to do so, damn her. �It will be all right,�� indeed. God, he wanted to believe her...he wanted to trust her...but he didn�t. He pivoted to see Verret and Howard looking at him, grinning. ��Right,�� he said savagely. ��Let�s go to the dojo, gentlemen.�� Once in the dojo, the men slipped off their shoes, but he was raging too much to bother with changing into uniforms of any kind. ��Freestyle, gentlemen. Whatever you want to do,�� he said. Verret came at him first, swinging his arms like huge windmills. His eyes widened as he saw the big bulk coming at him, but he wasn�t thinking in his reactions. It was all instinctual, as if years of training his muscles had taught them what to do and and they needed no input from his brain to react. There was no hesitation. He slid inside the whirling fists, wrapped his arms around Verret�s back, lifted him up, and rushed him into the wall which Verret hit, hard. He dropped Verret, who slid down to his knees, arcing his back against the pain, and turned to Howard. Howard assumed the stance of a karateka. He circled him, bouncing lightly on his feet. Howard gathered himself, sidestepped and launched a lightning fast roundhouse kick at his head. He block the kick by catching it against his arms, and the impact sent his forearms shrieking in pain. Howard laughed, moved to his left, and then spun around with a back kick. It was so quick that it caught him in the belly and sent him staggering backward. Paunch or not, he could take a kick. He straightened, sucking in air, and the next time Howard came at him he grabbed the kicking leg - and kicked Howard�s other leg out from under him. He sensed movement behind him and hunched over just as Verret landed on his back. He used that momentum to rush forward toward the wall, pivoted at the last moment, and once more sent Verret�s back crashing into it. He was breathing hard, but the adrenalin was flowing and god it felt good. He went after Howard, and incredibly, Howard backed away, fear in his face. Perhaps because of the expression that Howard could see on his face. He went after him, grabbed Howard by the shirt with one hand and punched him in the mouth with the other. He brought his hand back to hit again. Howard spat blood, and grabbed at his arm. At that precise moment Verret grabbed him from the other side, and they rushed him into the wall. He sank to his knees, clutching his face. A fireball of light had exploded in his head, and memory came flooding back. Or rather, the last three months evaporated away, and when John Steed looked up he saw two men looming over him, and knew they must have attacked him. He exploded into action. The two men weren�t trying to fight him. They were backing away, desperately trying to block his blows while they screamed at him, ��Basil, Basil, stop! Take it easy. Take it easy!�� He stopped dead, as his eyes went past the two men and he looked at himself in the full-length mirror. He knew that face...and it wasn�t his. Two years ago....two years ago...Basil and Lola and the thought transfer machine of Professor Kellmar. And now...now...he was back in the body of Basil. He went up to the mirror, raised his hand to his face, and watched the apparition in the mirror raise its hand to its face. It was a face with pinkish eyes and fading black crescents underneath them and that damn toothbrush mustache. Two frightened faces appeared behind him. ��Basil, Basil, we�re sorry, man. Are you okay?�� Steed swallowed hard. He turned and managed an insouciant smile. ��I apologize, gentlemen. I got a bit carried away, didn�t I?�� ��You can say that again,�� one of the men said with a smile. ��Jesus, you�re as good as Lola. Galaxy sure made a mistake, not letting you go along with them.�� ��Uh, yes, Galaxy did.�� Steed agreed. A cold stab of apprehension went through his heart. Lola. He remembered Lola. One of the most vicious women he�d ever met. And if he were in Basil�s body again...where was Basil? And where was Emma Peel? ��You know something, that last little blow did something to the old brain pan. The last couple of hours are...a blur to me, gentlemen. Refresh my memory, will you?�� The two men he�d been fighting exchanged glances, but they weren�t glances of derision. He�d won their respect with his fighting skill, and men who fought for any length of time could understand the old brain pan getting scrambled every now and then. ��You can fill me in over a pint,�� he said, easily, clapping the taller one on the shoulder. What they told him, over their drinks, did not fill him with joy. Lola and three men had gone to a lonely estate to kidnap someone named Emma Peel. ��Lola wanted to go on her own,�� the man with the knot on his forehead said, ��She said she�d have no trouble taking her and really, Basil, we all knew that was true. But Galaxy wouldn�t have it. She sent Munsey, Wilde and Finley along, too.�� ��And they�re bringing her back here?�� Steed said carefully. The two men shrugged and exchanged glances. ��I�m not sure on that point,�� the knotted one said. ��They were talking like they were going to dispose of her.�� ��But that didn�t make sense,�� the other one interjected. ��What was it Galaxy said? She was going to be there for the capturing of her and in...disposing of her afterwards. That�s what she said. But she said it funny, like when they were saying disposal they weren�t really meaning disposal if you follow me. ��Ah, the English language,�� Steed said. ��So open to misinterpretation, innuendo and mistake. Ironic, isn�t it, that we all speak the same language and yet so rarely understand each other.�� ��Uh, yeah, right. But what the �ell. What�s the odds so long as you�re happy, eh? I�ve had enough of this Let�s go play a little snooker, shall we?�� ��Certainly.�� He didn�t want to play snooker with these gobs. He wanted to get out after Lola and Emma Peel and find out what was going on. But he couldn�t. They�d made it clear that Galaxy was the only one who knew where this remote country house was. There was no sense rocketing around trying to find them. Mrs. Peel was just going to have to fend for herself. Steed poured himself a generous splash of whiskey and watched, unseeing, as the man with the knot on his head concentrated on the snooker table. The minutes crawled by, and turned into hours which crawled by even slower. Steed was drinking rather liberally by the end of it, and as a result was losing very badly at snooker. His popularity with the two chaps increased. They heard the slam of a door, and Steed was at the door of the billiard room in a flash, followed closely by Verret and Howard. Three men were standing in the hallway, looking rather grim. ��Where�s Lola?�� demanded Steed. ��She had to stay,�� the one with the Roman haircut said, ��and I need a drink.�� They trooped into the living room and Munsey headed for the bar. Steed followed him and jerked him around. ��Where�s Lola?�� he demanded. Munsey downed his drink and poured another one. ��I�ll tell you just what happened,�� he said. ��We got to the house, and we got this Mrs. Peel dame with no problem. She must have been drugged, or something, because she didn�t put up any fight when we put her in the car. Galaxy had Wilde and Finley stay behind, and I drove them almost halfway back to London. We came to another country house. Galaxy told me to stay with the car, and she and Lola dragged Mrs. Peel into the place. Well, I was curious. I knew Galaxy would kill me if she found me, but I was careful. I got into thehouse, and I saw what they were doing. There was this huge machine, like something out of a horror movie. Lola was sitting in one chair, and Mrs. Peel in another, and Galaxy pressed some switches, and there were all these lights flashing, and then all of a sudden Lola went unconscious and Mrs. Peel stood up and started talking like Lola! And then....and then....Galaxy shot her.�� Steed gripped him by the arm so hard he cried out. ��Who did Galaxy shoot?�� he said hoarsely. ��I don�t know!�� Munsey cried. ��She shot Lola, Lola�s body, I mean, but I don�t think Lola was in it. I think Lola was in Mrs. Peel�s body. And that Lola, she wasn�t best pleased, I can tell you. She said Galaxy should have left that pleasure to her!�� Steed�s heart turned to ice, and there was a tremendous roaring in his ears. The glass in his hand shattered into millions of pieces and blood dripped unheeding down onto the floor. ��Where is she now?�� he gritted. ��Well, I ran like hell back for the car. I don�t know what they did with the body, but Mrs. Peel...I mean Lola in Mrs. Peel�s body, and Galaxy came back. I drove them back to that house, and Lola said she had to stay there, because that bridge tournament was going on all weekend long. She told me to tell you, Basil, that she�d be coming here for a visit on Monday when it wouldn�t be so conspicuous. She said you weren�t to worry about her.�� It took all of his willpower for Steed to reach casually into his breast pocket, pull out a handkerchief, and wrap it around his hand, tsk tsking the while. ��This house, where she�s staying,�� he said casually. ��What�s the address?�� ��Uh, 123 Gloster Lane, up Leicester way,�� Munsey said, ��but why? What are you going to do?�� Steed grinned. It felt like a death�s head grin to him but hopefully it looked lascivious to the rest of them. ��This kind of thing always turns me on,�� he said, ��and I don�t think Lola should be alone tonight. I�m going to pay her a visit. We needn�t tell Galaxy. Give me the keys to the car, Munsey.�� Wordlessly, Munsey handed over the keys. ��Right, gentlemen.'' he said, smiling wolfishly. ''Don�t wait up.�� Go to The Steed Identity Part Four.

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