“I come from the Pimpernel,” Finn whispered.
He was admitted and he entered quickly. Just as quickly Barrett shut the door behind him, lowering the hammer slowly on the pistol he held in his right hand.
“What is it?” Barrett said in a low, urgent voice. “Has anything gone wrong?”
Finn tensed. There was no one in the room except himself the tall and slender Barrett, and the shorter, more heavily built Wilberforce. Both men were staring at him anxiously. There was no sign of the marquis.
“What do you mean?” said Finn, disguising his voice. “Where is the marquis?”
Barrett looked alarmed and he exchanged a quick glance with Wilberforce. “Why, he has gone with the boy, as the Pimpernel instructed,” he said.
“The boy! What boy?”
“The little street urchin,” said Wilberforce looking concerned. “Jean, I think his name was. He brought the woman’s clothing for the marquis and they went out together, posing as mother and son.”
“What’s the matter?” Barrett said. “Something’s gone wrong, hasn’t it?”
“No, no,” Finn said, recovering quickly, “nothing has gone wrong. I just didn’t know that the Pimpernel would use the boy, that’s all.”
They looked relieved. “Well, Alan and I were both a bit surprised that the Pimpernel would use a child,” said Barrett, “but he did seem like a capable young chap and I must admit it was a stroke of genius, using a little boy. Who would suspect a mother and her son?”
“Who, indeed?” said Finn. “I hadn’t known the plan. I was only told the part I was to play.”
“The Pimpernel likes doing things that way,” said Barrett. “Less chance for the plan being discovered, what? Young Jean said we would be contacted regarding any change in plan or instructions for our departure. I expect that’s your job, eh?”
“Right, that’s what I came for,” Finn said. “You are to stay the night. Make your way out of the city tomorrow afternoon.
You are English gentlemen who had heard about the goings-on here and came to see how the Revolution had changed things for yourselves. You’ve had a perfectly marvelous time and now you’re on your way home to tell your friends all about it. If you’re asked about the Scarlet Pimpernel, you are to over-whelm them with questions in return. Everyone in London wants to know about the Pimpernel and who would know better than the soldiers at the gates? They should grow quite disgusted with you and pass you through without further inquiry.”
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?”