Heart of Brass by Kate Cross Read Free Book Online

opened to reveal a tall, thin man he’d seen perhaps two or three times in the past.
    “Ah, Number Five. Right on time, I see. Promptness is a virtue, you know. Well, inside with you. I’ll take you to the Doctor. He’s been waiting for you.”
    The Doctor. A slight coil of unease wound low around Five’s spine as he tucked his spectacles into his coat pocket. He couldn’t remember the man ever doing anything awful to him, but wariness filled him regardless. He followed the thinner male down a narrow hall to the last door.
    “Here you are. Go right in, lad.”
    Five thanked him and settled his gloved hand on the latch. It clicked under the pressure of his thumb and the door opened, creaking wide to reveal a small sitting room.
    The man he knew as the Doctor stood just inside, on a worn but quality rug of bright crimson and dark blue with traces of gold. He was dressed in crisp trousers, snowy shirt and cravat and a dark brown waistcoat embroidered with hunter-green. His dark hair was heavily pomaded back from his high forehead, revealing the craggy countenance of his face. His moustache had traces of gray in it, but he didn’t seem old, yet neither was he young. He was short and lean, but he was the kind of man that made others shift uncomfortably from the coldness of his gaze.
    “Five,” he said by way of greeting, not looking up from the tray of implements on the table beside him. “Come in.”
    Five did as he was told. He always did as he was told. Odd, but he suddenly realized he hated being told what to do. He was accustomed to giving the orders. How would this man react if Five told him to go straight to hell and walked out? “What is this place?” he asked.
    “Just a building the Company owns,” the man replied. “We acquired it after an associate of ours did some work here back in ’eighty-eight. He was one of our best.”
    “What happened to him?”
    “He was killed by the Wardens.”
    The Wardens. In the business of spying, the rivalry between the Wardens and the Company was the longest and the most volatile. To say that the two were on opposite sides would be an oversimplification. Sometimes they were on the same side, and even then they fought one another. No, it went beyond right and wrong. Their dissension was based on something more complex than morality. They were enemies hell-bent on destroying each other, but wouldn’t know what to do without the other there to fight against. The only relationship he could compare it to would be a marriage between two people who despised each other but refused to separate.
    Or like that of England and France. “Is that a bloodstain on the wall?”
    The man didn’t glance at the mark. “Yes. A woman named Mary Kelly was killed in this room.”
    “Was that the ‘work’ your ‘best’ man was up to?” He wasn’t certain what made him ask, or what put the sardonic twist in his voice, but he knew he didn’t need to hear the other man’s answer—the stiffening of his shoulders was enough.
    “I hear you’ve been having some difficulty carrying out your present task.” The Doctor finally deigned to look at him—barely a passing glance. “I’m going to remedy that. Have a seat.”
    The chair was like a barber’s chair, only with shackles on the arm and leg rests. Five eyed it warily, not quite ready to give himself over just yet. “Since arriving in London I’ve been…remembering things.”
    The smaller man tilted his head thoughtfully, his gaze focused elsewhere. “Is that so? What sort of things?”
    Five shrugged. “Little things—driving in the country, how to get to certain places. I think I might have been someone important, and married.”
    The Doctor smiled, but there was little humor in it. “We all like to think of ourselves as someone important.”
    “I’m not imagining things,” Five retorted somewhat defensively.
    Now the smaller man met his gaze—directly and unflinching. “I didn’t say you were, but in a case such as