Read Online Island of Doom: Hunchback Assignments 4 (The Hunchback Assignments) by Arthur Slade - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Arthur Slade
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tonight.
He encountered another agent, who saluted, but Modo just stomped by. A guard at the door to the stairwell also saluted, but Modo didn’t even look at him, giving the air of a man in a hurry. He burst into Bélanger’s office and closed the door, then immediately exited out the office’s back door and climbed the stairs to the fifth floor.
Room 5498 was exactly where Colette’s map had indicated it would be. He opened the door and charged in, just as he imagined Bélanger would do. This was a mistake, as he banged his knee on a desk. He cursed and flicked the brass switch for the light. It flickered to life. This room was smaller and bursting at the seams with perfectly piled papers, folders, and files.
He went to the desk Colette had told him about and discovered that the file drawer had been locked. It took him more than a minute to pick the lock with two small pins he had in his vest pocket. He chastised himself for not practicing enough recently. The lock eventually clicked and he pulled open the drawer; all the papers inside had been neatly placed in labeled folders. Ah, the bureaucrats were good at this sort of thing.
He found a thick file marked
Subject Modo: 24601
and began to read its contents. At first there was very little of interest or import, only conjecture on his whereabouts. Someone had seen him in India. India! He laughed. He’d neverbeen to Tharpa’s homeland. Then he went back to the drawer and thumbed through several more files, stopping at one marked
Ictíneo/Brunet/Modo
. He opened it and skimmed the pages until his eyes found this: “Agent Brunet insisted that an agent with the code name ‘Modo’ was able to change his shape and his facial features. Her description led Investigator Quint (47b321) to doubt her sanity, but after several tests by doctors she was certified as sane. Quint searched records in England …”
He folded up the page and stuffed it into his pocket. Perhaps there was something else in the file, but it would take days to read through it all. He was here for one file only.
He noticed an envelope had been clipped to the back of the file. Curious, he opened it. Inside were several pages, including a handwritten note in French: “Copies of pages 1 through 8 appear under
Brunet
,
Colette: 15901
. It is important detail for file
Modo: 24601
. Agent Brunet complains of nightmares and is easily excited. Her discovery of the
Ictíneo
was exemplary, but the loss of the
Vendetta
leads us to conclude that ultimately she failed in her mission. She complains of dizziness and lack of sleep, and when interviewed by the physician she blames this on seeing the face of the English agent Modo, a face she describes as being ‘gargoyle ugly.’ She has mental fatigue compounded by physical exhaustion, and an extended stay in a sanatorium is recommended. When Brunet is released again, she should be put on light duty only.”
Mental fatigue? Blames this on the face of the English agent Modo? Gargoyle ugly?
So seeing his face
had
marked her. The deaths of hundreds of her comrades, the weeks spent as a prisoner on the
Ictíneo
, the fight for their lives: these were allhardships, but none were listed as contributing to her illness. It was seeing
his
face. His true and ugly self.
That
was what had broken her. He skipped ahead where three sentences had been underlined:
Brunet has become extremely delusional and is no longer in full control of her faculties. She was sent to Laroque Sanatorium for three months, but the stay did not improve her condition. She was declared unfit for duty and released from employment on July 7
.
She’d spent time in a sanatorium! He’d seen the inside of Bedlam, London’s most infamous home for the deranged. The people there had been totally cracked. This information threw everything into question. Had anything Colette said so far been the truth? Were his parents actually alive? Was he even French? No, that part was true. Mr. Socrates had confirmed
He encountered another agent, who saluted, but Modo just stomped by. A guard at the door to the stairwell also saluted, but Modo didn’t even look at him, giving the air of a man in a hurry. He burst into Bélanger’s office and closed the door, then immediately exited out the office’s back door and climbed the stairs to the fifth floor.
Room 5498 was exactly where Colette’s map had indicated it would be. He opened the door and charged in, just as he imagined Bélanger would do. This was a mistake, as he banged his knee on a desk. He cursed and flicked the brass switch for the light. It flickered to life. This room was smaller and bursting at the seams with perfectly piled papers, folders, and files.
He went to the desk Colette had told him about and discovered that the file drawer had been locked. It took him more than a minute to pick the lock with two small pins he had in his vest pocket. He chastised himself for not practicing enough recently. The lock eventually clicked and he pulled open the drawer; all the papers inside had been neatly placed in labeled folders. Ah, the bureaucrats were good at this sort of thing.
He found a thick file marked
Subject Modo: 24601
and began to read its contents. At first there was very little of interest or import, only conjecture on his whereabouts. Someone had seen him in India. India! He laughed. He’d neverbeen to Tharpa’s homeland. Then he went back to the drawer and thumbed through several more files, stopping at one marked
Ictíneo/Brunet/Modo
. He opened it and skimmed the pages until his eyes found this: “Agent Brunet insisted that an agent with the code name ‘Modo’ was able to change his shape and his facial features. Her description led Investigator Quint (47b321) to doubt her sanity, but after several tests by doctors she was certified as sane. Quint searched records in England …”
He folded up the page and stuffed it into his pocket. Perhaps there was something else in the file, but it would take days to read through it all. He was here for one file only.
He noticed an envelope had been clipped to the back of the file. Curious, he opened it. Inside were several pages, including a handwritten note in French: “Copies of pages 1 through 8 appear under
Brunet
,
Colette: 15901
. It is important detail for file
Modo: 24601
. Agent Brunet complains of nightmares and is easily excited. Her discovery of the
Ictíneo
was exemplary, but the loss of the
Vendetta
leads us to conclude that ultimately she failed in her mission. She complains of dizziness and lack of sleep, and when interviewed by the physician she blames this on seeing the face of the English agent Modo, a face she describes as being ‘gargoyle ugly.’ She has mental fatigue compounded by physical exhaustion, and an extended stay in a sanatorium is recommended. When Brunet is released again, she should be put on light duty only.”
Mental fatigue? Blames this on the face of the English agent Modo? Gargoyle ugly?
So seeing his face
had
marked her. The deaths of hundreds of her comrades, the weeks spent as a prisoner on the
Ictíneo
, the fight for their lives: these were allhardships, but none were listed as contributing to her illness. It was seeing
his
face. His true and ugly self.
That
was what had broken her. He skipped ahead where three sentences had been underlined:
Brunet has become extremely delusional and is no longer in full control of her faculties. She was sent to Laroque Sanatorium for three months, but the stay did not improve her condition. She was declared unfit for duty and released from employment on July 7
.
She’d spent time in a sanatorium! He’d seen the inside of Bedlam, London’s most infamous home for the deranged. The people there had been totally cracked. This information threw everything into question. Had anything Colette said so far been the truth? Were his parents actually alive? Was he even French? No, that part was true. Mr. Socrates had confirmed
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