Detective Mary

Chapter 39

Even if Sherlock Holmes was quicker, he couldn't outrun a pistol.

Mary, standing outside the factory, could not have got through the window in her dress, and as Captain Carter drew his pistol, Mary made the most effective and only reaction she could make at the moment - the most effective and only reaction she could make at the moment.

A shrill, desperate scream cut through the nightly silence of the factory.

Mary's out-of-nowhere scream startled all the men in the room, even Holmes, who hadn't seen it coming, and stumbled over the wall and landed on his feet, almost unsteadily.

Captain Carter, who had pulled the trigger, reacted instinctively.

As if in response to Mary's scream, the deafening sound of the gunshot echoed through the empty room. But Capt. Carter missed, and when he heard the scream, he rolled over and ducked behind the factory machinery.

It was a move that confirmed to Mary that he had been in the field: where did the red uniforms who were dabbling in the Meryton neighborhood come up with such quick, professional reflexes when they hadn't been in a real fight?

While this was going on, Holmes moved ahead of Captain Carter.

He dodged and leaped directly in front of Captain Carter, poking his cane directly into the officer's wrist, knocking out his sidearm.

In a moment the two men were locked in a struggle. Rising, Captain Carter, without a word, struck Holmes in the face. The detective, on the other hand, slapped away the officer's attack, and in turn he grabbed his foe's arm, catching his opponent's force and causing the two men to quickly switch places.

The moment he stopped his pace, the detective's bony palm reached for the back of Captain Carter's head - a gesture Mary watched with slightly widened eyes.

He was trying to clasp the back of his enemy's neck. And this attacking maneuver existed in modern mixed martial arts mma in the twenty-first century.

It's the Baton Technique!

Not realizing that she would be able to witness Sherlock Holmes employing the Batton Technique in actual combat, the extremely modern fighting technique-like movements caused Mary to snap back to her senses precipitously.

Now was not the time to watch the battle.

She hastily picked up her skirt, jumped off the crate, and darted toward the factory gatehouse without looking back.

Fortunately, Mary's scream and the sound of the gunshot in the room rang through the sky, and without Mary having to look for it, the overseer who had stayed at the factory came hurrying over with a paraffin lamp, "What's happened?!"

"Someone, someone attacked Mr. Hamp," Mary said hurriedly, "It's Captain Carter!"

"Sh--"

The boss was attacked, so what the hell?

As soon as the supervisor heard this, he immediately shoved the paraffin lamp into Mary's hand, and without even listening to any other explanation, he hurriedly ran to the interior of the factory.

By the time Mary followed her into the interior, Holmes was nearing the end of his tangle with Captain Carter, and the addition of the overseer did nothing but quicken the tempo of the end they, almost immediately, subdued the officer.

With the detective's help, the overseer tied up Captain Carter. After double-checking that the room was secure, Mary hurried forward to help Mr. Hamp.

Fortunately, Mr. Hamp was only so stunned that he fell to the ground and was not harmed in any way.

Seeing that he was fine, Mary let her heart drop.

Although she had long felt that Sherlock Holmes did not like the client, and his evasive attitude in dealing with things was extraordinarily excessive - firing Henry Dyke on suspicion of theft, with total disregard for one of the workers; on the whole, the atmosphere of his factory was not bad, the supervisors knew to care about the state of the workers' existence, and the treatment was barely adequate.

In a time when there were no labor contracts and even the legal system was imperfect, Hamp, as a factory owner, had many flaws and faults, but surprisingly, he was also considered a "conscientious" owner.

"Don't worry," she said reassuringly, "the officer has been caught, and if you're still worried about your safety, go to the office and calm down, sir."

"Good, good."

Mr. Hamp swallowed hard and accepted Mary's suggestion, "I'll get a drink."

He left, trembling and holding onto the wall, and only then did Mary get up, "Mr. Holmes, it's-"

Holmes: "Stay where you are."

Mary was stunned, and her foot, which had taken a step away from her, fell, or didn't fall.

But when she saw the cold, alert look in Sherlock Holmes' eyes, she immediately reacted: the order was not to dislike her or question her, but to protect her.

Bound face down, Captain Carter naturally could not see Mary standing behind her, and had no way of knowing to which lady the unfamiliar female voice belonged.

The "Professor" knew that Holmes was investigating the case, that he was a close friend of Mr. Darcy, and that Mr. Bingley was a partner of Hamp's, but he did not know that a young unmarried girl had joined the team of clues that had been pursued since Sherlock Holmes had left London and set out for Netherfield Hall.

"Stand still," Holmes admonished, "there is nothing here that you need be near, and I can hear you."

Mary was a little surprised; she looked around her surroundings almost reflexively, and then realized that the position was just right.

The machines and other facilities in the factory were just enough to block her from view, Mary was in a shadowy corner where the moonlight didn't shine, and one step further and she would have been in danger of being exposed.

"I will not go over," so Mary responded earnestly, "I will stand where I am."

It was only when he heard Mary's promise that the detective withdrew his gaze.

He coldly watched as the overseer lifted Captain Carter from the ground, "Getting a contract and trying to kill people, not bad for an artilleryman who came back from Afghanistan."

Captain Carter, panting, looked up sharply at Holmes' words, "How did you know I was from the Afghan artillery?"

Even Mary could tell alright! What officer would wear Artillery boots if they weren't Artillery, and by the looks of you you must have been in combat.

This kind of cheap observation is an insult to the detective to even ask it.

And Holmes, who was willing to explain his basic deductive thinking with John Watson, but would never explain it to an enemy, simply gave a curt, "Was it also the instructions of that 'professor' to shoot to silence?"

"......" Captain Carter's gaze became extremely vicious, and he had the good sense to choose to shut up.

But shutting up did not mean that Mr. Holmes was helpless.

"No, it was not his instructions," the detective denied himself, as he looked Captain Carter up and down, "it was your own idea. The supplier on the contract has been made known to me, and it was a dereliction of duty on your part, and being unable to do so right or left, you had to hit upon the idea of killing Hamp to save yourself, and using his life as a chance of redeeming yourself for the crime you had committed."

Holmes' words landed, and the haste and anger on Captain Carter's face told Mary that he was right.

But his opponent would not admit it, instead the officer burst out laughing, "You don't take yourself too seriously Holmes, it's only one supplier in the district, do you know how many the 'Professor' has on hand?"

"Just one?"

Holmes sneered and tugged at the corner of his mouth, "Brooke, Green, Hardy, and Reed and Armstrong."

Captain Carter: "......"

"These are the factory owners who went bankrupt in two years when their financial chains broke because they blindly switched to cheap foreign cotton suppliers," the detective continued, "factories went bankrupt one after the other, thousands of workers lost their jobs, and even children selling newspapers on the streets could notice the anomalies, and you think that's just 'one in the district'?"

The officer clenched his teeth.

"And," Holmes had not paused, "it would be easy to trace down this line and find out the list of suppliers--whoever that 'professor' is, the mere fact that he believed you could do it in London without a sound He is greatly mistaken."

"--You don't understand the professor at all!"

Captain Carter finally pressed his fire and scrambled to his feet, "And you don't have the slightest idea what you're doing either! I respectfully submit to you, Holmes, that if you really want to do any good, you will desist at once; the Professor has his noble purpose in doing this!"

"What purpose could there be?!"

Holmes' words made the overseer also fire, "With so many factories, thousands of workers losing their jobs, and countless families and children behind them, tell me instead, what purpose can be nobler than human life?"

"What do you know?"

Even when the overseer looked like he wanted to beat up Captain Carter, the officer just returned the scornful look, "These are necessary sacrifices, what the professor is trying to do is to stop a world war that is so far-reaching that it involves all nations!"

What?

What world war?

Captain Carter's hiss was nothing more than a dying cry to the overseer, but his words vibrated in Mary's ears and sent chills all over her body in the dark corners.

As clever as Sherlock Holmes was, he would never have predicted that in the near future, just as the twentieth century was entering its twentieth year, the entire world would be embroiled in a war of unprecedented proportions because of the fundamental flaws of the capitalist economy.

None of them knew, but Mary did!

--That was World War I.

"What war, you say, what war?"

Even though Holmes had specifically instructed her to do so, Mary stood still and could not help but open her mouth to question, "Who is that professor, anyway? You must tell me who that professor is?"

Captain Carter heard a hint of nervousness in Mary's voice, and mistaking it for fear on the part of the lady in the shadows, he burst out laughing in triumph.

"The professor?"

He replied, "It's Professor James Moriarty-"

As the last syllable hit the ground, sudden changes clumped together.

The sound of breaking glass shattered all smoothness, and for a few short seconds afterwards silence fell upon the room. The first to react was Mr. Holmes, the always cool and calm detective changed his face violently, he pulled the overseer while still trying to shield Captain Carter, "Sniper!"

But it was too late.

A second shot, fired from the factory toward the sunny side, struck Captain Carter's head with unerring accuracy.