Read Online Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine - Free Book Online Page B

a recent case , he thought. His eye swept through the handwriting for a Case Primary. These notes were difficult to manoeuvre though, as the agent’s handwriting seemed more like wild scrawlings and scribblings. The agent had been in a hurry, and from the frantic script he was determined to get the idea out of his mind before it were to slip away.
    A clamor caused him to start, a tiny yelp echoing in the chamber. Wellington was now looking at Eliza Braun standing before him, her hands still holding on to a crate she had apparently lifted off the table. What remained of the box’s bottom now covered parts of the table and Braun’s feet; papers, ledgers, and pieces of evidence now strewn out before them.
    â€œChaos and mayhem comes naturally to you, don’t they, Miss Braun?” he seethed.
    She tossed the frame aside. “I was only trying to move it a bit closer, Welly. These two crates are—sorry, were —labeled with the same year. There are enough notes here to cover an entire quarter’s worth of cases, but according to these boxes, it’s all the same one.”
    Braun’s eyes narrowed slightly as she reached for a volume lying across her foot. Wellington’s attention returned back to his own ledger. He took in the scent of aging paper, worn leather, and the chamber’s illumination, and the medley of scents cleared his mind. He flipped the pages forward, the handwriting growing less and less intelligible.
    At least, it was unintelligible to him. The sound of fluttering pages tore his attention away from his open book. It seemed Agent Braun was managing quite well with the calligraphy. She was tearing through the tome, her hands tempting the pages to rip themselves free of the volume’s binding. She was not even trying to conceal her expression. From the way the light was suddenly catching her eyes she knew this handwriting intimately.
    His eyes then switched from Braun’s odd expression to a pendant swaying from a chain intertwined in her fingers.
    â€œMiss Braun?” Her head shot up from the book’s pages. “You recognise this handwriting?”
    It may have been a trick of light but Wellington thought Braun did, in fact, shiver for a moment. She blinked her eyes tightly, and then with a deep breath her voice filled the chamber even though she spoke just above a whisper.
    â€œThe Case Primary here was Agent Harrison Thorne. My former partner.”
    Wellington’s head tipped to one side. “ Former partner?” He considered her words for a moment before asking. “You mean, you blew him up?”
    â€œActually no,” she said, letting the jibe slide off her. “Harry is residing in Bedlam now.”
    â€œYou drove him mad?” Wellington said. “Why am I not surprised, Miss Braun?”
    Again, she looked at him in that menacing manner. “You are on very dangerous ground, Books.”
    He took a step back and returned his ledger to the table.
    â€œThis was a case he had undertaken on his own. Doctor Sound had ordered us off it in March. That’s March of 1893.” She closed the ledger and motioned to the corner behind Wellington. “Fetch us a proper box, there’s a good fellow.”
    Wellington raised an eyebrow, but crossed the chamber to replace the former crate. As he returned to the review table, Braun continued. “The trail just ended for us. Well, for him. I was new to the Ministry and he had already been on this case for a time. His partner before me, Arlington I think his name was, had been working it with him initially. Workers were disappearing for spells, and then reappearing in . . . in the most horrific of manners.”
    â€œHow did I not hear of this case?”
    â€œBecause this was being covered by three teams at one time. Three different factories. Three gruesome sets of murders. Thorne was convinced they were interconnected, so he combined case notes. And that was why I