The Lady of Bolton Hill

Chapter 10





Bane tucked away his research on Daniel Tremain and the Baltimore harbor before going downstairs for the Professor’s meeting. The more he learned about Baltimore, the more Bane was convinced it would be a fine city to serve as a base for criminal operations. When he went to carry out the Professor’s errand against Tremain, he really ought to capitalize on the opportunity by laying some groundwork for future endeavors.

“Well, well, the little prince has decided to join us.”

Bane ignored Rick Collier’s taunt as he strolled into the Professor’s spacious library. Everyone in the room knew the Professor considered Bane the heir apparent to the criminal empire, and Bane was fiercely resented by the men who had far more experience in the murky world of the illegal opium trade.

“And how are you this morning, Mr. Collier?” Bane asked pleasantly. How easy it was to irk the man simply by using the word mister, since it emphasized that Bane was still only a teenaged boy. The fact that he was also the most trusted of all the Professor’s criminal lieutenants was doubly insulting. Rick Collier, Sammy Bennington, and Michael Green were all jealous of him, but these men had had plenty of opportunity to impress the Professor. They simply had been no match for the child who had been kidnapped at the age of six, yet managed to figure out a way to survive and then thrive in the Professor’s strange world. Eleven years after the Professor had snatched Bane out of his mother’s arms on the streets of San Francisco, he still treated Bane like a son. Now the teenaged, golden boy’s power was gathering momentum as the Professor turned ever-increasing responsibilities over to him, and his fellow partners in crime did not like it.

“Just shut your pretty mouth,” Collier growled. “The Professor isn’t here to appreciate you kissing up to us, so stow it.”

Bane made eye contact with Michael Green, the smartest of the three other men in the room, and smiled as he shrugged his shoulders helplessly. For months he had been courting Green’s loyalty, and Green was smart enough to play along. Collier and Bennington still stupidly thought the way to win the Professor’s admiration was in proving how tough they were. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Bane’s eyes scanned the walls of the library, lined from floor to ceiling with thousands of rare books, treasures collected from all over the world. The key to the Professor’s esteem was right here before them, wrapped in leather-bound casings and oiled with care. Professor Van Bracken respected power and ruthlessness, but he loved his books. Only people who shared his passion had any hope of earning the Professor’s trust. The mansion was kept perpetually chilly, the optimal temperature for preserving old books. So much did the Professor love being surrounded by his cherished books that he insisted on all his important meetings taking place in this room.

And today’s meeting was of the utmost importance. Only the Professor’s top lieutenants were allowed to know the location of his Vermont mansion. The hundreds of henchmen and small-time smugglers who were foot soldiers in this criminal empire did not even know the Professor’s name. Instead, the Professor had a small group of trusted lieutenants who had been assigned control of the opium trade in specific regions of the country. Bane controlled New England, Sammy Bennington was responsible for the port of Halifax, and Michael Green controlled the entire West Coast. For the past year, Rick Collier had been managing the smuggling from the coasts into the heartland. And at the center of the complex web of operations sat the Professor, spinning his master plan with flawless precision. Every few years the Professor orchestrated a shift in his entire smuggling business in order to stay ahead of the authorities. He called in lieutenants from all corners of the country to strategize how the new procedures would work. Although opium was a legal substance in the United States, taxes on the drug were more than three times the actual value of the raw opium. The high taxes and portable nature of opium made it an irresistible target for smugglers.

The door to the library opened, and every man stood at attention as the Professor entered the room. As always, Professor Edward Van Bracken was meticulously groomed, his salt-and-pepper hair smoothed back with Macassar oil, his beard neatly trimmed, and wearing a custom-tailored suit with a silk vest and starched white collar. But Bane noticed something alarming almost immediately. As the Professor strode into the room, he looked each man in the eye as he greeted them, took his seat, set a stack of papers on the table, and adjusted his jacket. But during the entire exchange, he had failed to blink even once.

It was an odd habit, and one Bane had noticed when he was still a child. Whenever the Professor was in a seething rage, the only indication was that lidless stare in which he rarely blinked. None of the other men in the room seemed to be aware of it, and Bane was not the sort of person to share these little tidbits of insight.


“Well, now,” the Professor said in a smooth voice, “let’s square things away quickly so we can move on to more important matters. We have already agreed to shift our West Coast operations out of San Francisco and into Vancouver. I have not yet decided on the best new port to use on the East Coast. I would like to hear all of your thoughts on the matter.”

Bane was determined for it to be Baltimore. Ever since the Professor had tasked him with extracting Daniel Tremain from Carr & Tremain Polytechnic, Bane had made a great study of the city. It was essential to have a thorough understanding of any city in which he did business, and he was impressed with the infrastructure of the port of Baltimore. He had already been to Baltimore on other business ventures and knew it would be an ideal base for smuggling.

The Professor was waiting for each man’s input as to the new port, and Collier had a firm opinion. “Easy,” Collier said. “If we can’t use New York anymore, we go to Boston. The railroad system in Massachusetts is perfect for what we need, and big enough for us to get lost in.” Others in the room nodded their heads. The Professor turned toward Bane.

“Bane? What are your thoughts?”

For the Professor’s benefit, Bane cast an apologetic nod toward Collier. “I’m sorry, Mr. Collier, sir, but I think Boston would be suicide.”

“And why is that, golden boy?” Collier said.

“The port of Boston has a major naval base,” Bane explained. “A new admiral has just been appointed to the Navy Yard. Five men were arrested last month for accepting bribes, and he isn’t finished cleaning house yet. I don’t think Boston is a good bet until we know more about the new admiral.”

The Professor nodded. “Excellent observation. Where do you suggest, Bane?”

“Baltimore,” Bane said without hesitation. There were howls of disapproval from the men for the unconventional choice, far south of anywhere they had ever operated, but Bane maintained his composure. “Baltimore has an excellent deep-water port, and it will allow ready access not only to New England but the Caribbean, as well.” He looked to the Professor. “We haven’t done as much as we could with Cuba and the West Indies. Baltimore will let us ramp up our operations. Most importantly, Baltimore does not have a reputation for smuggling. No one will be on the lookout for us if we move our East Coast operations there.”

The Professor said nothing, just turned that lidless stare on Collier and raised his brow. Collier seemed to shrink in his chair. “Crazy,” Collier said. “Baltimore is too far south.”

“Is that the best argument you can summon to counter Bane’s proposal?” When Collier said nothing, the Professor merely sighed. “When a boy of Bane’s tender years shows more insight and strategic analysis than a man twenty years in the business, it gives me cause for concern.”

Collier was under pressure, but this sort of exquisitely mannered questioning was standard for the Professor. It was the fact that the man was barely blinking that had Bane concerned. There was no telling who had set the Professor into a simmering rage, and Bane could not rest easy until he knew.

Green and Bennington both weighed in with their opinions, and ultimately Bane’s recommendation was adopted. Collier relaxed as soon as the decision was made, but Bane kept his guard up. Whatever was bothering the Professor was bound to rise to the surface soon.

The Professor reached inside his tailored frock coat and retrieved a small card. “I received a telegraph message this morning from Halifax.” Sammy Bennington immediately went on the alert, as Halifax was his territory. “It appears that the kidnapping of young Timothy Snyder was not all that it could have been. In short, the attempt to snatch the boy from his private school was thwarted.”

The Professor swiveled his lidless gaze to Bennington. “Now I ask you, Mr. Bennington, how am I to have open access to the port of Halifax if the harbor master continues to accept bribes from my rivals while failing to show me similar consideration?”

Bennington’s face had gone pure white. “We’ll get the boy. We can try again. Immediately.”

“My contact tells me the boy now has a bodyguard.”

“I’ll double up the men on the job. Triple them,” Bennington stammered. “The bodyguard won’t be a problem.”

“Hmm,” the Professor said, clearly unimpressed. A smile that wasn’t a smile curled the corners of his mouth. “We are all part of a team here, Mr. Bennington. If one part of the team fails to perform, it hurts the entire team. And it doesn’t seem fair for all of us to be let down because one team member did not know how to manage a job. I’m not interested in why someone failed, or how he plans to do better. He simply can’t be part of the team anymore.”

The door to the library opened, and four of the Professor’s henchmen walked in, their sleeves rolled up for business. One of them was carrying a sledgehammer.

“I can’t have that sort of carelessness among my top officials. It sets a bad example,” the Professor said reasonably. “You know what this means, Bennington.”

“Please! Please, Professor, no!” Bennington made to bolt for the door, but the henchmen restrained him. Bennington was a huge man, and there was a good deal of scuffling as bodies struggled against one another, but eventually he was hauled back into his chair.

“Please, Professor, just don’t hurt my family,” he said in a voice shaking with fear.

“Now, Bennington,” the Professor said coolly. “Have I said anything about little Polly and the way she takes her puppy for a walk every afternoon right when she gets home from school? Although I must tell you that a loving father would have forbid his children to fall into such predictable patterns. It makes them so much more vulnerable, doesn’t it?”

Bennington swallowed hard. “I’ll do whatever you want. Polly is a good girl and doesn’t deserve any of this.”

“But I am sure little Timothy Snyder is a good boy, and you had no qualms about arranging for his kidnapping, correct?”

Sweat was pouring off Bennington, soaking his shirt and filling the room with the pungent odor of fear. Bane remained motionless in his chair, but closed his eyes in disgust. This was the game the Professor used to keep his men living in terror of him. Sometimes he might lash out at a man’s family, while other times he would simply laugh and deliver a vase of flowers to a man’s wife. It all depended on whatever fickle mood the Professor was in. Bane’s fingernails bit into the palms of his hands, hoping his revulsion was not showing on his face. One of the things the Professor respected him for was his coolness under pressure. Long ago, Bane had perfected the art of appearing utterly serene, no matter how revolting the provocation.

The Professor sighed. “I’m sorry to see this pattern of careless behavior, Bennington. First with failing to secure Timothy Snyder, but especially with leaving your own child so vulnerable to whatever sort of riffraff that might have it out for you. Really, if anything bad should happen to poor Polly, the fault lies solely with you, don’t you think? So I’m going to ask my men to take you out in the yard and teach you a bit of a lesson. Then I’ll make my decision about poor Polly. What do you say? Is it a deal?”

A hint of relief crept into Bennington’s face. If he accepted his punishment without a fuss, perhaps the Professor would have mercy on Polly. “Yes, sir,” Bennington said. “Yes, sir, I think it is a good plan. A very good plan.”


A moment later Bennington was escorted from the room by the four guards. In all likelihood, the girl would be fine. Otherwise the Professor would already be planning her demise behind those lidless eyes, but Bane was relieved to see that he was finally blinking again at the same rate as a normal human.

Not that there was anything normal about Professor Van Bracken. There was something wildly off-kilter about the Professor, but the man held the keys to the kingdom, and Bane wanted access to those keys. The Professor owed him those keys. Because of the Professor’s actions, the only life Bane was suited for was operating within this shadowy criminal racket. And he was good at it. Actually, his skills for managing operations, commanding obedience, and using trickery were nothing short of impressive. The Professor had told him so often enough, and it was why Bane would be entrusted with the Vancouver operation as soon as he could prove his mettle by carrying out the Tremain affair.

The Professor took his seat. “Now that that bit of unpleasantness is behind us, let’s have Mrs. Garfield bring us a nice meal, shall we?”