"The Widow" Bertha

At that moment Sikes knew he was finished.

He knew early on that he would not end well, otherwise what would Bill Sykes be afraid of?He has done too many bad things, and the only thing he wants is not to die on the gallows.

Didn't expect the end result to be like this.

—died in a dark and sunless mass grave.

The gigantic creature on the river bank jumped down, its limbs stepped on the bones and made a "click, click" sound, and the flesh with the mane seemed to be crumbling on the body like wax.

The monster has no eyes, and its face is pitch black, as if it has completely melted.

It seems to have "heard" the existence of Sykes, and the monster moved forward step by step, but never found him.

Bill Sikes nearly peed on the spot.

He watched the strange creatures approaching helplessly, but he really didn't dare to move.

It is impossible to run, there are corpses nearby, if you step on it, there will be movement, and then you will die.don't run...

Yes, it has no face.

In the critical moment, Bill Sikes's not so bright brain finally played its right role, and he simply lay back and covered his mouth and nose.

He stopped breathing, made no movement, and pretended to be dead on the spot.

This extremely effectively delayed the time for the monster to look for him. The gigantic monster looked like a male lion, but there was not much brown hair left, and the flesh was almost completely festered, making it impossible to identify what species he was.It made a circle around Sykes, and then locked Sykes carefully and leisurely.

Oh, God!

When the huge head approached, Sykes could hardly control himself and almost screamed.The distance between one person and one beast was only tens of centimeters, so close that Bill Sykes finally saw the monster's face clearly.

That's not melting, it's getting tangled.

The facial features, fur, and flesh and bones, seemed to be thrown into some machine and thoroughly smashed into crumbs, and then evenly painted back on its face.Facing its face, Sykes only felt an inexplicable discomfort. In addition, the "mouth" organ of the monster still contained the blood and residual flesh of Irish workers, and the stench came to his face. There was a burst of tumbling.

Come on, go on, God, please, please!

The monster skipped Sikes.

Its foul-smelling mouth flung him across the face, but the monster didn't seem to notice Sikes' presence.The behemoth got up slightly and took a step——

Sikes closed his eyes as if after a catastrophe.

However, the next moment, a sudden change occurred.

The "bird" clinging to the walls and the roof cried out loudly like a disturbed child. The sharp cry made the monster stop abruptly, turned its head, and its indescribable face met Sai Ke again. s.

"Hold!!!"

This time he couldn't hold back.

Ruined!

The monster rushed over.

Just before Sykes was about to live out all the experiences of his life in an instant, hurried footsteps came from the far bank of the river, and in the darkness he heard a hoarse voice shouting: "Bill Sykes!"

It's Mrs Thames!

"Help me!!"

Sykes didn't know where the strength came from, and hissed, "Ma'am!!! I'm in the middle of the river!"

An extremely bright flare exploded in the dark environment, Bertha led a dozen boys wearing red scarves holding guns, and when she saw the monster residing in the middle of the dry river, she ordered on the spot: "Shoot!! "

Sykes didn't care about being dirty, he immediately turned over and plunged into the pile of dead people.

At this moment, Bertha is very glad that she came to the end of the nineteenth century and not earlier, otherwise, facing this unknown monster, she would not even have a weapon to resist.

The machine gun fire made a deafening noise in the darkened underground waterway, startling the "birds" into the air, until the monster crawling on the ground fell to the ground, and Holmes came over: "What's the situation?"

"No way."

Bertha said unhappily: "Wait a while, if you are blacklisted by the Irish, I will not be responsible for wiping your ass."

——Hurrying along the way, she had already seen the stumps of two Irish workers.

She just turned around and called for someone, and she caused so much trouble.Bertha really didn't have a good attitude towards Sherlock Holmes, but the young detective didn't care at all.

As soon as Holmes saw the monster die, he flicked his coat and stepped forward. But before he could take a step, Bertha grabbed his back collar with quick eyesight.

The young man was staggered: "What?"

Bertha said blankly, "Don't go down any of you."

Among all the people present, only Bertha had seen the physical state of Pastor White with his own eyes, and the monster who died in the river was in almost the same state as Pastor White—why would you want to go on? !What a joke.

"Throw a rope and bring Sikes up," she began.

Although she still couldn't figure out what it was, Bertha felt that it was best for living people not to be associated with these evil things.

Bill Sykes, who survived the disaster, looked like he had fallen badly, with blood on his face and stinking water all over his body.He couldn't stop cursing, but he couldn't stand anymore.He looked in shock, as if he hadn't realized what happened specifically: "Husband, madam?"

Bertha rubbed her forehead.

"Send him to a doctor," Ned, the little accountant who came with him, saw that Bertha's face was not looking good, and took the initiative to order, "let Sikes rest well."

After speaking, Bertha turned to the middle of the dry river.

The flare had been burned out, but the Thames boys brought torches and still lit up the dark underground waterway. Looking at the corpses that were almost buried in a burial pit, Bertha suddenly felt complicated: "I'm afraid this is me and Mike Luo Ford's responsibility."

Holmes turned sharply.

"How, how do you say, ma'am?" The little accountant was surprised.

"After the Society of Truth was eradicated, the underground 'breeding farms' were naturally unmanaged," Bertha explained, "so some animals starved to death, and some animals escaped, and these escaped harmed countless people in the past six months. "

"The cries of these 'birds' resemble the cries of children," Holmes interjected, "probably have a symbiotic relationship with the hunting monsters. The 'birds' are responsible for attracting people, and the monsters are responsible for hunting, and then these 'birds' pick the monsters to eat. food. It is in line with the biological laws of nature."

After finishing speaking, he turned his head and looked at Bertha coldly: "But there is no need to feel guilty about it, Mrs. Thames, if the Society of Truth is left alone, more people will die."

Bertha sighed.

"I know you want to take the body back for study, Shelly," said Bertha, "but I advise you not to."

"..."

Holmes didn't answer, he just glanced at Bertha with sharp eyes, and then understood her thoughts: "You are afraid that the influence of The Color of Stars (The Color of Stars) will spread to me."

"The color of the stars?"

"Colors out of Space," Holmes repeated what Reverend White had once said, "you have relayed it to me."

Bertha raised her eyebrows slightly. Although she didn't know how Holmes summed up the address, it was indeed quite close to the description of Pastor White.

"Yes," she admitted, "this monster—no matter what kind of creature it is, its body has become like this, which is very similar to Pastor White. Pastor White has faced the 'color of the stars' in your mouth, then This animal..."

"It is also very likely that I have faced the color of the stars."

"Who knows what harm will be caused by indirect contact, Dr. Lear's body is not normal."

Dr. Lear was in better shape than Reverend White, but not much better.Thomas directly tore off his human skin, proving that Dr. Lear had already entered a state of extreme dehydration at that time, and in addition, he had no pain response... It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was a living dead.

"So you'd better be careful," Bertha advised, "If you want to pursue the truth, you have to live, don't you?"

Holmes heaved a sigh of relief in response.

But he loves adventure and has no intention of dying.What Bertha said was right, perhaps Holmes' intelligence made him think a little deeper.

In the end, the young detective accepted Bertha's suggestion: "The animal carcasses in the 'farm' will be safer."

That's it.

In fact, what Bertha didn't say was that she was afraid of radiation.

What is the color of the stars, what is both light and living things, these statements are too vague.Bertha was not sure that the legend was false, nor that it was true.

Compared with South American legends, she is more inclined to think that this strange thing is strong radiation.

After all, Pastor White's physical changes look similar to those of Hiroshima survivors after World War II.

As for those strange creatures that seem to be stitched together, perhaps they also underwent abnormal changes after radiation.

Of course, whether Bertha's conjecture is true or not will not affect the final decision - if it is radiation, then the dead monster cannot move; if it is not radiation, it will be even more immobile. Things that cannot be explained by science are more terrifying than radiation, okay? .

even……

Recalling Sykes' state just now, Bertha felt a little heavy.

"Ned," she said.

"What's the matter, ma'am?"

"When Sikes is settled, no one can see him but the doctor," said Bertha, "nor Nancy."

"……I see."

"I will send some boys to help you carry the dead animals." Bertha turned to Holmes again. "Do you think this matter may have anything to do with the Italians?"

Sherlock Holmes sneered.

"You're so devoted to saving people that you've lost your powers of observation, Mrs. Thames."

As he spoke, the detective directly took the torch from the little accountant, and threw it into the middle of the river.

"Two o'clock," he said.

The torch drew a line in the air, and it went out not long after landing.But this light was enough for Bertha to follow Holmes' instructions to look over, and there lay two dead men with relatively clean clothes.

Bertha took a closer look, and the clothes they were wearing were similar to the men's suits given to her by Marco Esposito.

She understood immediately.

"I see," Bertha nodded, "Whether evidence can be found... depends on Katie."

***

Afterwards Bertha led the men out of the sewer, appeased the Irishman, visited Sykes, and ordered some boys to warn all the sewer entrances near the textile mill, and all the trivial things took a long time.

Bertha left after dinner at the office, and it was late at night when she returned to Pall Mall.

Mycroft was still waiting in the side hall.

He was sitting at the table where the two had had dinner, wearing only his shirt with his sleeves rolled up, reading a heavy book.After hearing footsteps, the man closed the book and turned his head.

Eyes met, Mycroft frowned slightly.

"I'll go first." He said.

"...please." Bertha could only swallow the words in her mouth.

"What happened to the feet?"

The Jamaican girl froze for a moment, then smiled.

"It's okay," she said, "I sprained a little, I'm wearing leather shoes, it's okay."

It's just that I didn't pay attention to my feet when I was on the road with a gun just now, it's nothing.Compared with hurting Bertha, I feel more ashamed—now after all, there are many things that I don’t need to do by myself. Back then, Bertha practiced the skills of wearing high heels without hindering her striding forward to catch up on the news.

The man showed a look of disapproval.

He put down his book, stood up, and brought the chair behind him to Bertha.

"Sit down," said Mycroft, "and let me see what you want to say, please."

This sentence was enough for Bertha to understand that he already knew what he wanted to say.

--what you want to say?

Naturally, the Diogenes Club had previously discussed the plan to lure the Italians to the bait.