Anno Dracula - Kim Newman [175]
CHARLES
Penny wants us to turn.
ARTHUR
Clever girl. You should look after her. Well, cheerio, old man. The sun will be down soon, and I’ve a thirst in me that this pig-stuff won’t slake.
CHARLES watches ARTHUR breeze out. He is breathing heavily, sweating. He touches his cut cheek.*
* * *
ALLEY, WHITECHAPEL. EXT. DUSK.
We are near DRAVOT’s bolt-hole. ARTHUR and HENTZAU, dressed down a bit, loiter. The fog is thickening again.
ARTHUR
We’re a lot alike, Rupert. We depend on the patronage of our elders. You serve Dracula and I’m Ruthven’s man. In the old days, ambitious men in our position could console themselves with the thought that their superiors wouldn’t live forever, but...
HENTZAU
That’s a dangerous line of thought, Arthur.
ARTHUR
Ruthven’s sharp, but a dilettante. He gets bored with power. That thing with Tennyson. It was petty, childish. And Dracula...
HENTZAU
Is mad. How could he not be mad? The course he has charted. They say he disguises himself and passes among his subjects, bat-ears a-tremble for treachery.
ARTHUR
The years must weigh heavily.
HENTZAU
Elders aren’t all like that. This Dieudonné snip, who caused so much grief for the late Count Vardalek.
ARTHUR
The girl with Charles Beauregard?
HENTZAU
She bears watching.
DRAVOT’s door opens. DRAVOT emerges.
ARTHUR
And so, evidently, does this gentleman. The Diogenes Club is in this to the elbows. (DRAVOT looks around, senses them, and retreats inside.) Damn, I should have remembered. Mycroft teaches his men well.
HENTZAU
He has to come out again.
ARTHUR
There’ll be a dozen back ways out. We’ve shown our hand. We might as well follow through...
ARTHUR and HENTZAU climb to DRAVOT’s door. ARTHUR pushes it open.
DRAVOT’S FLAT, WHITECHAPEL. INT. DUSK.
ARTHUR
It’s not even locked.
HENTZAU finds the same paper on the desk.
HENTZAU
Ho, what’s this?
ARTHUR (looking at the scrawl)
We have him, Rupert. And them, the Diogenes Club. It’s a plot. Mycroft’s calculating brain invented the whole thing. There’s no mad vampire killer, rallying the warm to revolt. Just clever men, warm and un-dead, undermining the rule of Dracula. We must catch Dravot and expose this conspiracy. There’ll be credit in it for us all.*
* * *
MILLER’S COURT, WHITECHAPEL. EXT. NIGHT.
CHARLES and GENEVIEVE step into the courtyard. GENEVIEVE senses but does not see DRAVOT, who stands red-eyed in a corner. A window glows with candle-light, and we hear wet sounds. CHARLES and GENEVIEVE fix their attention on the door of MARY’s room. CHARLES pushes it open.
MARY’S ROOM, WHITECHAPEL. INT. NIGHT.
CHARLES and GENEVIEVE are shocked silent. SEWARD kneels on the bed, in the middle of a ruin barely recognisable as MARY. He is still working, apron and shirtsleeves dyed red. His silver scalpel flickers in firelight. Blood and other substances are spread across the bed and the floor, around the walls up to the height of three feet.
SEWARD
Nearly done. I have to be sure Lucy is dead.
SEWARD stands up and futilely wipes his hands on his apron. CHARLES points a revolver.
CHARLES
Dr Seward, put down the knife and step away from her.
SEWARD keeps the scalpel but steps away. CHARLES, eyes on SEWARD, steps near MARY and looks down, holding his horror rigidly in check.
SEWARD
Van Helsing says her soul will not rest until she is truly dead.
GENEVIEVE
Oh, Jack, Jack...
CHARLES cocks his revolver and aims at SEWARD’s heart.
CHARLES
It’ll be a mercy.
As his finger tightens on the trigger, MARY surges up from the bed – her insides open and red – and takes hold of CHARLES from behind, fangs near his throat.
MARY
No, you mustn’t hurt my Jack, my doctor...
GENEVIEVE dashes to help CHARLES, and SEWARD comes for her with the scalpel.
SEWARD
You’re Lucy. You’re Lucy too. I have to keep... helping Lucy...
SEWARD’s scalpel nears GENEVIEVE’s throat. CHARLES fights off the sorely wounded MARY, and hauls SEWARD off GENEVIEVE. SEWARD raises