Dancing on the Wind

Chapter 2

"Stop right there, y'r bloody lordship!"

He halted instantly. Lucien Fairchild, ninth Earl of Strathmore, secret head of Britain's loose-knit intelligence service by profession, and enigma by choice, knew murder when he heard it.

Slowly he turned to face the man who had accosted him, cursing himself for having grown careless since the end of the war. He should have known better. Though the fighting had ended on the battlefields of Europe, the stealthy world of plots, politics, and power was eternal.

He had been walking home from his club and it was late, past midnight. Dry leaves skimmed across the cobblestones, and a block away carriages rumbled through Hanover square, but Lucien was alone in the shadowy street with one-no, two-dark, hulking figures. The faint starlight reflected dully from the long barrels of the two pistols aimed at his heart.

Play for time. Find out who you're facing, and why. "Are we acquainted, sir?" Lucien asked politely.

"Not personal-like, but they say you've been looking for Harry Mirkin for nigh onto two years, so I decided it was time I introduced myself." The man gave a derisive snort. "I'm disappointed. They say you're called Lucifer because you're a dangerous devil, but you're just a whey-faced dandy, too pretty to scare a ten-year-old pickpocket in the East End."

"Sorry I don't meet your expectations. Reputations are often distorted." Lucien gestured at Mirkin with his ivory-headed cane. "For instance, rumor painted you as king of the London underworld. It was said that the French paid you to assassinate the Tory leaders, hoping that the government would collapse and Britain would withdraw from the war. Did rumor speak truly?"

"Aye, that's true," Mirkin said viciously. "And I would've succeeded if it hadn't been for you and your weasel informers. Failure cost me most of my gang, my position in the underworld, and the five thousand gold guineas I would have been paid if I had been successful. I was lucky to escape with my life."

"A good fee for a job, but a poor price for betraying your country," Lucien murmured. "I have wanted to find you, though I can't say that I looked very hard. I've had more important things to do."

"The more fool you for not thinking me important!"

"Obviously I underrated you." Lucien toyed with his cane, surreptitiously loosening the head. "You did a good job of vanishing. What sewer were you hiding in?"

His opponent spat on the sidewalk. "I was in stinkin' Dublin, and it's all your fault. I've come back to take what's mine, and I'm going to start by killing Lord Lucifer, who sticks his nose into things that are none of his concern."

"I'm sure it will do wonders for your reputation when it becomes known that you needed help to kill an unarmed man," Lucien said dryly.

Mirkin waved toward his brawny associate, who stood within six feet of Lucien. "My brother Jimmy here won't give me away. All anyone will know is that you're dead and it's my doing." His voice turned venomous. "Beg for your life, Strathmore. I want you to crawl like the snake you are."

As he tensed for action, Lucien said evenly, "Whatever you say, Harry. Do you want me on my knees?"

There was a brief, predatory flash of teeth. "I'd like that. Grovel well and I may kill you quickly. Otherwise, it will be two bullets in your belly and you'll be weeks a'dying."

Mirkin's pistol lowered slightly as he waited for his enemy's humiliation. And while his guard was down, Lucien dived low and fast into Jimmy. The maneuver was a risk, but with luck he would ruin Jimmy's aim while making Mirkin hold his fire for fear of hitting his brother.

Lucien won the gamble, though only just; as the big man pitched forward onto his assailant, his pistol fired. The ball blasted by Lucien's head and powder grains scorched his cheek.

Ignoring the deafening explosion, Lucien flipped onto his back and yanked the head from his cane, exposing a glittering, razor-edged sword stick. Then he braced the sword stick with both hands so that it pointed straight up at the man falling toward him.

An instant later, Jimmy impaled himself on the blade with an impact that made Lucien's whole frame vibrate. The gunman gave a brief, hair-raising shriek that ended as quickly as it began. Then the full weight of the corpse smashed into Lucien, pinning him to the ground.

Before he could free himself, Mirkin roared, "You bloody, murdering bastard!" He reversed his pistol and slammed the butt into Lucien's head, then drew his arm back to do it again. "For that, I'm going to kill you by inches."

Pain exploded through Lucien's skull. Holding onto the consciousness with grim determination, he snapped, "If you succeed, at least you'll have earned my death honestly."

When Mirkin drew his foot back for a kick, Lucien heaved Jimmy's massive body off himself and into his opponent's legs, then lurched to his feet. He spent precious seconds trying to wrench his sword stick free, but it was lodged too firmly in Jimmy's chest. He would have to face Mirkin unarmed.

"You're a tricky bastard, aren't you?" Mirkin raised his pistol. "I'm going to shoot you like I shoulda done in the beginning."

Before he could fire, Lucien lashed out with one foot and kicked the gun from the other man's hand. It flew through the darkness and landed with a metallic clatter.

"By God, if I can't shoot you, I'll rip your head off with my bare hands, you filthy swine!" Mirkin bellowed as he hurled himself forward in a charge that knocked both men to the ground.

Lucien struggled to escape the lethal embrace, but Mirkin had started his criminal career as a thief on the London docks, and he still had a stevedore's size and brute power. He pinned Lucien to the cobblestones, then locked his hands around Lucien's throat and squeezed with all his might, cutting off air and threatening to crush the windpipe.

As his vision darkened, Lucien heaved himself upward to unbalance his attacker, then jerked his knee toward Mirkin's groin. The other man's instinctive recoil gave Lucien the chance to break away. Cat-quick, he leaped to his feet and caught his enemy's head from behind. With one savage twist, he broke Mirkin's neck.

After the hideous snap, all was silent save for Lucien's ragged breathing. He let Mirkin's limp body crumple to the ground, then stepped back and wiped the sweat from his forehead with one wrist. "In a way you did me a favor, Harry," he panted. "I dislike coldblooded killing, but for self-defense, I feel no remorse at all."

Men were starting to come from the nearby houses, drawn by the sound of Jimmy's shot. It must have been no more than three or four minutes since Mirkin and his brother had accosted him.

Long enough to kill two men.

Half a dozen neighbors arrived bearing lanterns. One, an acquaintance of Lucien's named Winterby, exclaimed, "My God, Strathmore's been injured. Send for a physician!"

Lucien looked down and saw that his fawn-colored cloak was saturated with crimson. "No need-the blood isn't mine."

"What happened?"

"Two footpads attacked me." Lucien bent and picked up his hat. Now that the crisis was over, he was shaking with reaction. It had been a near thing, a very near thing.

"Shocking that a man ain't safe even in Mayfair," someone said indignantly.

A thin man who had knelt and examined the bodies gave Lucien a strange look. "They're both dead."

"Fortunately, I had my sword stick." Lucien retrieved the two sections of his cane. After wiping the blade clean on his ruined cloak, he screwed the handle back onto the base.

The thin man glanced down at Mirkin, whose eyes stared glassily and whose neck was bent at a strange, impossible angle. "Very fortunate," he said dryly.

Another voice murmured, "No wonder they call him Lucifer."

Raising his voice to cover the comment, Winterby said, "Come into my house for a brandy while the magistrate is summoned."

"Thank you, but since I live just ahead in the square, I'd rather go home. The magistrate can interview me there."

He took a last look at the bodies of the two men who had tried to kill him. What a strange life he lived, where forgotten business from the past might surface and destroy him at any moment. If Mirkin hadn't felt the need to explain himself, Lucien would be the one lying on the cold stones.

Wearily he turned toward Hanover Square, accompanied by one of Winterby's footmen carrying a lantern. The attack was a forcible reminder that it was time to address some unfinished business. Harry Mirkin had been only an instrument in the hands of another, more powerful figure, an agent of Napoleon who had worked against Britain for years. Mentally, Lucien had dubbed him the Phantom, for he had been as elusive as a ghost, always staying in the background while he worked his mischief.

After Napoleon's abdication in the spring, Lucien had concentrated on monitoring the treacherous undercurrents that swirled around the Congress of Vienna. That work had been more urgent than finding the Phantom, but the Congress was proceeding well, and the time had come to destroy the spy whose activities had prolonged the war and might complicate the peace.

Where to begin? There had been hints that the Phantom was a well-born Englishman, quite possibly someone known to Lucien himself. He would evaluate what little evidence he had, add a dash of instinct, and devise a plan to capture the traitor.

As Lucien climbed the steps to his house, he gave an ironic, self-mocking smile. Even a phantom could not evade Lucifer.