The story so far: Tempus has altered the timeline by ensuring that Jack the Ripper kill Lois' ancestor, Charlotte Dodgson, before Charlotte ever gave birth. With Charlotte's death, Lois ceased to exist. Clark and H. G. Wells have travelled back to Victorian England three days before the murder is to occur in order to try to rectify the situation. They have enlisted the aid of Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson to try to find Charlotte in time to prevent her murder. All of the aforenamed characters and the Baker Street Irregulars spent a day making enquiries, but no one was able to discover anything related to Charlotte. When Clark tells Holmes that Lois was named after an ancestor named "Louise Carroll" who was an accomplished actress and singer, Holmes deduces that Charlotte had changed her name to "Louise Carroll" because her former name would hamper her acting career.
The Case of the Flying Man (5/7)
Tempus had been observing Louise Carroll for several days now. He had noticed that she possessed the same feisty spirit and casual attitude toward danger as her descendent. He knew just how to use those traits to precipitate her demise and therefore that of the Galactically Stupid One. “God, I love irony!” he thought.
He faked an obsequious air as he approached her. “Miss Carroll! I have attended every one of your programmes. Your singing is magnificent!”
Louise tried to walk past him as she said, “You are very kind, sir.” Tempus, however, blocked her way.
“Permit me to introduce myself. I am Lieutenant John Tempess of Scotland Yard. I was hoping to convince you to enlist your thespian abilities to help make our city safer.”
Louise stopped walking and turned toward Tempus. “I’m listening.”
“You, of course, know how Jack has been terrorising the city by committing gruesome murders. We’ve been having the devil of a time trying to find him. I have come up with a plan which, with your help, should draw him out. We need someone to take on the role of a woman of questionable repute to walk around in the areas which Jack has frequented in order to lure him into the open. Jack may be suspecting us to do something like this, so we would require the woman to have considerable acting abilities in order to convince him that she was the sort of woman she appeared to be. I would be most grateful if you would take this role. I would, of course, be keeping a careful eye on you. The moment Jack revealed himself, before he would have a chance to injure you, I would arrest him. With your help, we could stop him from ever killing again. The entire city would be grateful to you. But I must warn you, there is always a slight chance of danger in even the best of under-cover operations.”
Louise needed almost no time to consider her response. “The danger does not concern me. I can supply a costume. Where and when should we meet?”
Tempus thought, “Yes! Wave a red flag in front of her and she charges in just as mindlessly as Lois. Especially when do-gooding is involved. And leave it to an actress to fall for fake flattery. I’m glad she didn’t need much convincing. If I had to keep up this nicey-nice act much longer, I think I’d puke.”
“The sooner we begin, the less chance Jack will have of killing again. Let us meet in George Yard at 9:00 this evening.”
“I’ll be there.”
Tempus knew the rest would be child’s play. He merely had to travel to the place and time of Jack’s last known murder and to use his newly acquired subliminator to “convince” him to be in George Yard at the trysting hour. Then when Louise walked down the street, Jack’s impulses would take over and with Louise’ death, Utopia would poof out of existence. And the villains would win. He loved a good evil ending!
