"All right, miss." " Sergeant Drake." " Miss Rose, I..." "Such a beautiful posy, sergeant." "Heh." "There's, nothing's more lovely than a rose." "I, took the liberty of purchasing tickets." "Sergeant." "Please." "Call me Bennet." "Well, Bennet, shall we?" "It's so romantic." "But they die." "Yeah, of wild passions." "Where souls do couch on flowers We'll hand in hand" "And with our sprightly port Make the ghosts gaze" "You could be an actress, Miss Rose." " Do you think so?" " I'm sure of it." "If such would please." "I knew a girl, Peggy worked on her back from 10 years of age fell in with a company of players and toured continents." "They showered petals on her, Bennet." "What, so she done acting instead of--?" "That is, work on her back?" "Yeah." "But on her back's where she met her gentleman." "An actress needs a patron, silly." "Look." "Lovebirds, they are, miss." "Very friendly." "And, may I say, good with children" "Should such be a consideration, heh." "I mean no harm, of course." "But, now, listen, Mr., --?" "What do they call you by, good sir?" " Drake." " Mr. Drake." "Why, a drake's a duck, is it not?" "You're practically related." "Birds of a feather." "Heh." "They're adorable, Bennet." " How much?" " Ten and six." "Just for one?" "Can't part them, sir." "These are lovebirds." "See how the good lady's taken a shine?" "Never mind, Bennet." "Sergeant." "Pardon me, miss." "I didn't realize that the sergeant was, um" "What is it, boy?" "It's my afternoon off." "The inspector, he needs you." "It's urgent-like." "I'm sorry, Rose." "I better go." "I'll see you around." "Drilled clean through again." "You needn't have dressed up, sergeant." "Same crew that's robbed Wheen  Harker Insurance?" "If it is so, I fear what else lurks in their arsenal." "Chloroform for the driver, smoke bombs in the street, and now this." "Advertisement for these in the Evening Post." "Guaranteed blast proof." "Caveat emptor." "That ain't black powder." "What is it?" "What indeed." "Jackson's en route." "Haul of gemstones, Hobbs said." "Struck a lot luckier this time, didn't they?" "Luck?" "The carriage is unmarked." "The jeweler changes his route every week." "Nobody's that lucky." "What, someone tipped them?" "Or they had the wit to find what they needed to know." "Right between the eyes, at movement, from a rooftop." "Could you have made that shot, sergeant?" "I can't rightly say, sir." " I was never a marksman." " And you'd need to be." "Hobbs." "Hobbs, I need this scene examined before the street's cleared." "Where in hell is that Yankee?" "It-- it seems he's refused to rouse, sir." "He what?" "I want that man dragged from his rank pit, trussed if need be." "Yes, sir." "Fetch a saw." "I had a headache." "Needed the soothing attention of a fair maiden's hand." "Jackson, when I send for you, you will come or else I'll" "Else, I know, you're gonna do a thing, lock me in a place and drop me on my so forth and what have you, right?" "Smokescreen was potassium chlorate, by the way." "Excuse me." "Bicarb moderator so the crates didn't burn." "It's nice enough work." "How they blew the safe, however to that I doff my bowler." "It's not gunpowder, is it?" "Gunpowder wouldn't even dent that box." "Nitroglycerine?" " Trinitrotoluene?" " No, it makes a bang..." "...but a bitch to detonate." " Then what?" "Search me." "Say it isn't so." "Our noble surgeon stumped and stymied." "Care to take the reins?" "Do it, man." "Go west, young man." "Well, southwest." "Forty-five caliber." "You see here where it's hexagonal?" "This slug definitely came from a Whitworth." "It's a ri?" "e." "Sharpshooter's favorite." "Kind of shooter that would keep his eye in at a gun range." " Rifle range, Wimbledon." " Ready a hansom." "Now, Reid, I know you're no gunslinger but most folks like to see what they're shooting at." "The light's falling, sir." "Club will be closed before we cross London." "First thing, then." "We've other business." "Jackson, get to work." "And fetch a mop, man." "You're not at home now." "Sir, I wonder if I might have a minute of your time to discuss a matter of-- Inspector." " I have brought the records you requested." " Thank you, Mr. Wheen." " I'm aware you've pressing matters at hand." " Well, indeed." "And order shall be restored at Wheen  Harker Insurance." "I only give thanks to God that there was no money on the premises..." "...when the villains came a-calling." " You may wish to ration your gratitude." "White's Row, clear as day." " Surely you can't be suggesting" " Mr. Wheen, these men are not amateurs." "Not the kind to break into your office only to leave empty-handed." "They didn't want money." "They wanted your insurance records." "Everything they needed to ambush this carriage is laid out right here." "No." "That's" "It would mean..." "Hapsburg Jewelers is but one client of hundreds." "Hundreds." "And all have lodged their security provisions their fire plans, their inventories with Wheen  Harker." "Are you suggesting that any and all are at threat of plotted villainy?" "I mean, imagine if word spread." "I would be destitute!" "Inspector." "It's the swag from the carriage, sir." "Right." "It's only been delivered." "Delivered?" "Where?" "To the jeweler who had it nicked, sir." "Left right on the doorstep." "All accounted for, sir, except one thing." "One sapphire." "One single blue sapphire." "Why such keen travail to steal what you don't want?" "All that for one small gem." "Why?" "Is Wheen in on it, sir?" "I smell fear on him, not guilt." "Man like that hasn't the stomach for acts improper." "The safe." "Like you said, it's blast proof." "New design." "Sir, might we, um..." "...have that word?" " What--?" "Yes, of course." "Certainly." "So, Bennet." "Inspector, I..." "My service being of some years now with the greatest of dedication and being, I hope, to your satisfaction I wondered if you might consider, um..." " That is, if you think it merited" " Are you asking for a raise?" "There's no question it's merited." "Whether it's possible is, I fear, another matter." "Resources, as you know, are limited." "Bennet, may I ask does this request come from you or from Rose?" "Your interest in the girl hasn't escaped me." "I..." " I don't think I take your meaning." " Heh, Bennet." "A bobtail like that will look you deep in the eye..." "...only so long as she's deep in your pocket." " No." "She's not." " You don't know her." " All my years of policing I have known her kind plenty, as have you." "I am simply saying-- ...beware the kitten's claws." "My request was..." "I misspoke." "It's foolish fancy." " Nothing more." " Bennet." "Good evening, sir." "Bennet." "Sergeant, listen." "Sergeant." "Stand straight, sergeant!" "At ease, man." "Colonel, ha, ha." "Inspector Reid." "Colonel Madoc Faulkner." "A great pleasure, inspector." "What brings you to London, sir?" "The briefest of business, en route to more tranquil climes as befits a retiree." "Comes a time for every soldier to sheathe his sword, sergeant." "I hoped you might join me for dinner, toast the onset of my twilight." "Well, of course." "And you too, Inspector Reid." " I shouldn't want to intrude on old friends." " Sir, I insist." "Few of my old friends remain, inspector." "Allow me the pleasure of making new." "Gordon was slain by the incompetence of Gladstone and his horde of cowering acolytes." "I have little clemency for men behind desks in high places with low honor." "Are you admiring my heart, sir?" "I've seen its like in the, British Museum." "It was dug from a tomb in Dashur with my own hands." "The Egyptians placed heart scarabs with the dead so their own heart would not betray them." "Do you remember the ceremony of judgment, sergeant?" "I'm not certain if I, um..." "Let me see." "If memory serves they believed the gods placed the heart in the scales against a feather." "The Feather of Justice." "Now, if the heart spoke of no sin the scales balanced, and the soul could join the afterlife." "Some might have it that keeping silent of sin does not commiserate being free from them." "The, Egyptians were a practical people." "Is there so much you hope to silence?" "I would not have thought any man who'd seen war could ask such a question." "The inspector did not serve, colonel." "And you take a position of command." "You think me unqualified?" "I should not presume to comment on your present post, sir." "My wars were against enemies of the empire not the poor and the desperate of its capital." "Is that how you imagine our role?" "I lack imagination, inspector." "What I know is good men who served our queen with their all now languish as reward at Her Majesty's pleasure." "Did they commit a crime?" "They returned from noble service to a homeland which offered neither gratitude nor succor." "The best of us, made hungry and penniless will react, in extremis, with extremity." " I'm afraid that does not absolve them." " No." "All men stand equal before the law, do they not?" "The hero and the warmonger." " That is the law." "It is your law." "Is it yours?" " Colonel, I" " Well be assured you have the finest man in your sergeant, sir." "Yes, I'm aware of it." "I was forced to give officers' commissions to spoiled Sandhurst brats who weren't fit to shine his boots." "With an army of Drakes, I could've saved Khartoum." "I never knew a man hungrier for dervish blood." "Police work pleases you?" "Walking the beat?" "The humble bobby's lot?" "I don't think I take your meaning, colonel." "Excuse me." "Be not afraid." "Have you lodging tonight?" "Coin for a meal?" " Thank you." " Let us hope they find shelter before your Reid shackles them for vagrancy." "Thus our glorious Britannia, sergeant." "She takes a man and hollows him." "Spits him back with the marrow still dripping from her maw." "Not every man, colonel." "I would not have thought to hear you speak as one unscathed." "Yeah." "Sweet ma'am, hot damn!" "You do make a rumpus, Captain Jackson." "Well, a man's gotta be vocal in his pleasures, darling." "Hell, I'll bet Drake grunts away like a rutting rhinoceros." "I wouldn't know." " And leave Bennet alone." " He's all right." "He's just so goddamn serious." "Why don't you take me to the theater?" "You think I need a bunch of fake people selling me fake feelings?" "I live in a goddamn whorehouse." "Well, since you mention it, no more free ones." " House rules." "" " But I have a tab with the house." " Heh." " I do." "Look at me." "Is this not the most honest face you've ever sat on?" "The Sergeant Drake I remember had but one mistress." "Or are you now cured?" "What's her name?" "Rose." "Will you marry her?" "I'm not sure she'd..." "My means are modest, colonel." "And what of hers?" "She hopes to be an actress." "Hopes to be?" "What is she at present?" "In extremis, extremity." "Those who need it most in this cruel city find mercy least." "If you love her, make her yours." "There's no riddle to it." "You tell Mr. Reid that." "He and I, it seems, disagree on much." "I think a reunion of comrades merits something stronger, don't you?" "Mr. Reid gave me some brandy last Christmas I've been saving." "I've tried to keep up my reading, sir." "Especially Egypt" "Though it's a bugger to find the time with all my police work." "JACKSON"." "It's military." "Picric acid." "Army's branding it lyddite for new munitions." "Makes gunpowder look like peppercorns." "Smoke bombs, lyddite." "This hardware is not found on the shelves of a musket shop." "Somebody must be supplying it." "Find out who." " Me?" " Yes, Jackson, you." "I'd stake my wage amongst the reprobates and lowlifes that comprise your intimates somebody must know of a gun seller recently giddy with profit." "Is that an actual stake?" "I therefore have urgent questions concerning your products and require conference at the earliest." "Get it to the Chatwood Safe Company." "Right away, sir." " Anything more, inspector?" " Yes." "Where's Sergeant Drake?" "How did you find me, sergeant?" "I'm a policeman." "Have you informed your inspector of my involvement?" "Let it end now, you have my silence." "But I beg of you, leave London." "But ahead lies an operation of true magnificence for which I need you, sergeant." "I'm a policeman." "Then let us speak of justice, copper." "Would you have walked past those men last night?" "Hurried on your way?" "They are your brothers, sergeant." "And the crown you served and serve still will not think twice to leave you heaped with them." "But we will show this rotted kingdom true justice." " Colonel, please, do not ask me" " To remember who you are?" "Or do you prefer to be at Reid's beck and call tethered and lowly as a dog." " I am not" " You are the warrior I forged of you." "Not the slavish henchman of a cripple coward." "But how it must suit him to hold you thus." "Small wonder he'd seek to keep you from your Rose." "Don't you deserve to sleep at peace in her arm?" "To writhe no more in the serpent strangle of your nightmares?" "Every soldier betrayed deserves their due." "And we shall see they get it." "We shall reclaim from this kingdom riches beyond measure." "Reward enough for each man thrown by his bitch queen to the wolves." "And then a life far from here your Rose's pretty hand held in yours for all time." "Stone of perception, to the Egyptians." "Cleopatra herself had sapphires in her eye shadow that she might see the more wisely." "You know where to find me." "My eggs are getting cold." "An elegant weapon indeed, inspector." "Some of our finest marksmen do still favor the Whitworth." "Who?" "Our membership is confidential, sir." "I fear it behooves my custodial duty to ask what this inquiry portends." "We pulled a Whitworth bullet from the brains of a horse whose carriage had been burglarized by armed men." "Now, is your custodial duty sufficiently fulfilled to oblige me in mine?" "Far be it from me to interfere with your police work but may I suggest you commence your inquiries with a Mr. George Doggett?" "Says he won the Queen's Prize." "Our highest award, indeed he did." "Before events led to him perforce being expelled from the club." " Events?" " Stealing." "From other members." "That, and his taste for live targets." "Birds, squirrels cats, dogs." "The local pet owners, alas, took exception." "Sergeant." "Bennet!" "Your attentions seem elsewhere." "I'm quite all right, sir." " Look, about our talk yesterday" " It was the onset of an head cold." "Nothing more." "Mr. Doggett?" "Take it." "If you please." "Thank you." "Copied directly from the policy." "Mr. Wheen's gonna have the vapors." "I know you, sergeant." "You're the one, ain't you?" "Scourge of the goddess." "It's nothing personal." "You let him go?" "No matter." "Look." "The next job?" "Copied directly from Wheen's files also." "Take weeks to match that." " Then we narrow the field." " Yeah." "Time to speak to Mr. Chatwood about his safes." "But our safes are tested." "Repeatedly." "Exhaustively." "I sought out the most nefarious screwsmen in the city all were defeated by our new locks." "Mr. Chatwood whoever we contend with here, they are no ordinary craftsmen." "I have never known thieves to take such a haul only to return it." "I need to know every owner of a Chatwood safe every purchaser of your new model, and I need to know now." "Owners of a Chatwood." "On the double to Wheen  Harker." "Cross-refer with their policy holders." "Find out to which of them this ground plan might pertain." "And if Mr. Wheen is anything less than a perfect host tell him I have a cell he's welcome to fill." "Inspector Reid, this could take me all night, sir." "One day, constable, there will be gleaming machines that will perhaps make light work of such process." "But for now, you'll find in the custody of Sergeant Artherton some exceptional Turkish coffee with which I suggest you make keen acquaintance." "Bennet." "Miss Rose." "What a lovely surprise." "Have you booked me?" "No." "I came to..." "To ask you..." "Yes?" "That is, after what you was saying." "If..." "Well, if, say, I were a man of means and if I could support you in your acting." " Like a patron?" " Yeah." "Yeah, like the very thing what you" "Bennet, what a pretty thought." "May I offer you some tea?" "I should love most of all to see New York." " And I" " Rose." "Don't keep them waiting." "I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me." "If you want her time you'll have to pay for it like everyone else." "Will that be all, sergeant?" "Oi!" "Will that be all, Mr. Drake?" "This is a place of business not a prize ring." "Goddamn it." "I know you're cheating." "Sergeant!" "Sergeant!" "Count me out." "I'll be back." "Care to join our merry game of chance, sergeant?" "Fill these till the cup be hid." "Look, Drake." "I know that we've had our differences, but, you know, I've been thinking, and, well..." "What do you say we bury the hatchet?" "Because from where I'm standing, me and you seem like two fellas with plenty in common." "We have nothing in common." "Men who walk through the fire never shed the heat, sergeant." "They see in each other the burns that other people don't." "Yeah." "Me and you, we got plenty in common." "The worst and the best in life." "War and women." "Yeah." "I heard you, stepped out with Rose." "The theater, no less?" " You leave me be now, Jackson." " You just watch your purse strings." "It's only gratis till you're hooked." "I said leave me be." "A word to the wise, you might wanna keep your strength about you with that one because her sweet little mouth could suck a melon through a rye stalk." "Come on, Drake." "We're friends." "There's no shame in supping a buttered bun?" "He wants to run away with me." "The triple pillar of the world transformed into a strumpet's fool" "Just be kind." "Accident." "I'm not talking about me, you dumb tail." "To Drake." "He has a sweet heart, but" "Heh, Captain Jackson, I'm hardly gonna give myself to some Whitechapel plodder." "That's my meaning exactly." "When you break his heart, be kind." "What do you care?" "I've just been where he's been before, that's all." "Ahem, besides it's going to end badly." "Why do you say that?" "Jesus Christ." "What doesn't?" "Buy a ?" "ower?" " Hobbs?" " Still at Wheen  Harker." "He telegraphed." "Estimates a return mid-morning." "Provided consumption of my coffee does not provoke a further eruptive crisis of the lad's young gut pipes." "Send another constable." "Blake, Riggs, anyone." "Tell them" "Tip from a fence." "Narks for a tanner." "He was trying to sell this." "Wanted something for my trouble." "More fool them what won't pocket what they pilfer." " Who?" " Dream on, copper." "My throat's good as sliced if I turn nose." "I'll see much worse awaits you if you do not." "You've no idea what awaits." "Had a rummage in me old satchel, didn't you?" "Found something tasty." "Bet you'd give a nut to know where's next." "Get stuffed." "I'm sorry." "What I meant to say was, suck a fat bag of brown sharny!" "Decorated marksman." "To hear some tell it, the finest shot in all the ri?" "es." "And look at you." "Chained like a dog." "And for what?" "We've been kicked like dogs every day since we stopped fighting for gutless bastards like you." "Sleeping in shit and chewing on scraps." "Think we didn't want jobs?" "Normal lives?" "Plenty manage." "What do you know, pig?" "Sergeant." "Again." "Wait." "What say you make it worth my while?" "How's about a little bargain?" "I do not bargain." "You think you scare me." "With your little cell and your snarling grunt?" "What I've seen you'd scream yourself deaf you'd piss your civvie pants." "You wanna stop them, you'll bargain." "And you'll do it quicksmart, or by noon they'll be gone." "What do you want?" "Lose the gorilla." "I don't care for his stink." "Hawkins." "He's the leader and the schemer." "Great, big, beautiful safes stuffed stupid with lucre." "Gonna blow them all and take the lot." "Where?" " Your word." "I don't go down with them." " Tell me." "Your word." "You have it." "Metropolitan Precious Metals Company." "Shadwell." "You stay in this cell till I have Hawkins." "If you're gulling me, I'll tie the noose around your neck myself." "Pull them off the beat." "All." "I need every man." " Should we not wait for Hobbs--?" " Metropolitan Metals checks both lists." " What would you have me do?" " Sir." "And damn it, where is Drake?" "Welcome home, Sergeant Drake." "It's an honor to soldier at your side again." "And yours, corporal." "But this war's worth the fighting." "Saved me from the bottle and the pipe, he did." "And what the colonel's planned here it's an eye for an eye." "Good morning, sir." "H Division, for Inspector Reid." "Listen, there's been word of a coming robbery." " I need to speak to your superior." " Yes, sir." " Never had you for a Peeping Tom." " Out of sight, man." "Did Pinkertons teach you nothing?" "So I've been turning stones like you asked." "Seems these fellows haven't gone unnoticed." "Your thieves are soldiers." "They used to be." "Leader's a colonel with a grudge the size of the Sahara." " Hawkins?" " Close." "Faulkner." "Faulkner?" "Get me a hansom!" "Thanks very much." " Whoa, easy now." " All right." "There you go." "Oi!" "Help!" "Where is Faulkner?" "You're too late, wisecrack." "We'll all be paid in full before you've found the end of Leman Street." "Inspector!" "Only three possibles, sir." "The mint." "They're going for the bloody mint." "Good morning." "Morning, gentlemen." "We have a delivery for you." "What are you doing?" "I thought you said no man would be hurt." "I said no man need die." "Nor will he." "A scratch is all." "Police work's turned you soft." "Everybody pay attention, nobody gets hurt." "Over the other side." "Come on!" "Move it!" "On your bellies!" " Down!" " Get down!" "Down!" "Your attention please." "We are here for Her Wretched Majesty's gold." "Mistake us not for common thieves." "We seek not to harm a single man." "Be still and be silent and return unscathed to your homes and your families." "Have at it." "You too, sergeant." "To the spoils." "Lynch!" "Lynch!" "Jesus Christ." "No!" "Hold your fire!" "Well, sergeant." "Call it off now." "A last chance for you." "I take him in the rest of you leave the gold, disappear." "Please, colonel." "Think twice, Harris." "You have no idea of your quarry." "Not a man amongst you knows the measure of him." "At El Teb, Sergeant Drake was cut off from his regiment." "Trapped and circled by dervishes." "But when the sun fell blood red on the desert that night every single one of them was slain by his hand." "Is it not so, sergeant?" "How I found you screaming in the dunes the limbs of men strewn in offering to your savage goddess." "But today your goddess finds you wanting." "Come here." "Lynch." "Bring him." "If you care not for their spoils, you shall join me in mine." "You're stealing medals?" "I said I've no interest in tawdry baubles." "And what are these?" "The tawdriest bauble of them all." "They shall know what I think of their medals." "Give me the lyddite." "They shall know my justice is a hurricane of fire." "No." "You shall not come between the falcon and his prey." "Of all men on earth you were the last I thought could betray me." "Colonel!" "Police." "No." "No." "Outside." "Move." "Faulkner!" "Surrender yourself!" "Get thee back!" "May thy bones be broken!" "Let thy poison fall and lie dead upon the ground for I have thrown open the doors of the firmament!" "Reid, attempt ingress and Sergeant Drake will be shot and thrown from this window." "Clear your police." "Provide safe passage for my men onto a ship and away from this befouled land." "Then and only then will Drake see release." "You know I can provide no such thing." "You can and you shall or Drake dies." " Reid." " What?" "You still got that Whitworth?" "Faulkner!" "I accede." "My men are cleared." "You'll have safe passage." "The copper's made good." "Welcome home, Sergeant Drake." "They told me you sought out the black canyon went under knife and needle to slay your dreams." "But all of your pain could not sate her, could it?" "Your Lady of Flame owns you still." "The holy man helped me." "The goddess healed me." "I am what I was no longer." "Tell them that." "Lay down your gun." "Men like us, sergeant we carry her here." "Lay down your gun." "I'm arresting you." "You'll be cut down the instant you step outside." "It's finished." "I had no choice." "You understand that, don't you, sergeant?" "I want you to do it." "No." "Do it." "I cannot, colonel." "An order, sergeant." "I am not your sergeant anymore." "His deeds are righteous in the great balance and no sin has been found on him." "For his heart is yet lighter than truth's feather." "Inspector Reid, I know you're here." "You need medical attention." "Get Jackson." "Wait, inspector." "You should be aware that Sergeant Drake was forced against his will at gunpoint, to become an accessory to these crimes." "He is for his own part as a fine a policeman as he was a soldier and innocent of all wrongdoing." "And, inspector when you return to your home this eve give thanks to your god you will never set eyes upon the things I have witnessed." "The bravest of men butchered like pigs." "Sons and brothers in their hundreds left for carrion." "Dirt beetles crawling at feast in their torn hollows and all for queen and country." "They were fools, the Egyptians." "What god could hope to reckon the weight of one man's heart?" "No!" "Inspector what the colonel said about my..." "My wrongdoing." " I need to tell you-- Sergeant." "I have no reason to doubt the candor of the man's confession." "Wait." "I intend no trouble." "Hello, Bennet." "Miss Rose." "L..." "Good day." "Good day to you." "There's something I should like to say, if I may." "Of course." "There's a story told by the Egyptians of a goddess." "A terrible goddess, of war and pain." "They said her breath was screaming fire what carved out the deserts and howled in the winds." "They said death and bloodshed was balm for her heart." "But in the story, her heart's becalmed." "Her rage is quelled." "And the goddess of war transforms into the goddess of love." "Time was I'd tell myself that story over and over and hope such could be true." "You see, I..." "I'm..." "You know I'm not a rich man." "But what I cannot offer you in wealth and luxury, I..." "Miss Rose, I offer you my whole heart." "For always." "For when I look upon you, I feel a mercy I thought lost to me." "And I would work as hard as any man is able and harder to provide every day for your happiness and to be a better man." "If you would..." "That is to say if you might consider doing me the utmost honor of being at my side." "Bennet." "That is so terribly...sweet." "But..." "You see, I just don't think..." "Well, there's a life I have in mind for myself..." "Miss Rose, please, forgive me..." "No." "No, don't be sorry." "You're..." "You're a lovely lovely friend." "But I can't be a bobby's housewife." "Rose." "I hope that you will always be my friend, Bennet." "You've a queue forming, girl." "Sergeant." "Sergeant Drake." "No man's heart aches forever." "I promise you." "Firebrands and ruffians must be brought to heel." "And the East End is the root of it." "I already have explosions on my streets." "You are an accessory to murder." "Let it go, friend."