Interview with the Devil: Professor Moriarity...Part Two by John Pirillo

Interview with the Devil: Professor Moriarity...Part Two by John Pirillo

As you know in the first part of this interview I spent quite some time hunting down the legend of the Black Hand, not for a moment thinking that it would lead me to the Master Criminal, Professor Moriarity. But it did. And not in the middle of a huge crime scene, but a humble shop dedicated to the Black Hand and run by of all people, his own daughter.

After I recovered from his statement, I settled back down, took a moment to sip the tea his daughter had brought me and let the statement simmer in the back of my mind.

"My name is Morina." The girl told me, as if reading my mind. 

Upon my look of surprise, she giggled, just like a child might, a look of extreme humor curling her lips. And I might add quite sensuous lips at that. I must have been staring hard, because her father cleared his throat, to bring my attention back to him. I looked that way and a hint of amusement lit his eyes for a moment, before he settled into a more somber tone.

"So it's the Black Hand you're looking for?"

I nodded. "Yes, but it seems I've discovered much more."

"Not really." He stated, as if I had just spoken a bit of nonsense. He leaned forward in a posture I would grow quite familiar with over the course of our interview. "You see, I founded it."

There it was. Another shock. I actually became quite scared at that point, as the legends of the Black Hand were not pleasant ones, but of brutality, rape and torture. He saw that in my eyes and actually laughed at me.

"Fools!"

I recoiled, not sure what he meant, then he wiped the smile from his face and caught my eyes again in that magnetic glance of his. The one thing I will always take from this interview is that stare, and how it drew me in like a magnet draws iron fragments. "Fools. Whom?"

He gestured all about him.

Morina refreshed our cups, then left us to speak alone.

"She's a lovely child."

I was caught off guard again. "Who?"

"My daughter." He caught my flush of embarrassment and shrugged it off. "Don't worry, I've never killed a man for appreciating my daughter."

I felt comfortable for the first time after that statement, and then realized it was a veiled threat. Hands off!

I shook my head. "I'm just a simple author. I have no desire to date anyone."

"Are you saying my daughter is not someone worth dating?" He asked, a hint of menace in his voice.

"Sir." I said as I started to stand up. "I can see this conversation is not going the way I had hoped for. Rather than fumble with word games, I'd rather head for my hotel, pack up and return to America."

He tapped the table, indicating for me to sit back down. I hesitated. "That's not a request."

I sat back down. Hard.

I began to sweat profusely even though the room was not hot in any way whatsoever.

"It's this way." He said. "Many a man has assumed he has the right to court her, but only a few have that right in her eyes, let alone mine."

"I see."

"No, you don't." He said fiercely. "She's a Moriarity. We don't take lightly to fools or idiots!"

I snapped to attention. "And I...?"

He smiled thinly, revealing his sparkling teeth once more. "That remains to be seen. Ask your first question, even though there have been many already. I'm ready."

I set the cell phone in front of us, flicked the recorder on.

"Mister Doyle..."

"Ah, Arthur, I knew him well. He worked for me a time in my shop in Hampton."

"He worked for you?"

"Aye. He was quite young at the time and desperate for work, hoping to pay for his medical training with some kind of craft he could pick up while he worked."

"And you hired him?"

"But of course, I did. The man was brilliant." He gave me an amused look. "And from what I've read of his adventures in your Baker  Street Universe, he's remained so."

I let that comment go. I had bigger fish to fry. "How long did he work for you?"

"Long enough for me to train him in the art of the science of deduction." He leaned forward again, his eyes filling with a kind of mist as he slid back into the past with his memories. "He was always the curious one, and when he saw me working on my various potions."

"Potions?"

He cocked an eyebrow in an unmistakable gesture that would've made Sherlock Holmes proud. "I live in this world only part of the time. The rest I live in mine. Where magic and science co-exist."

"But not in my Baker Street  Universe?"

"Were I to disclose that, I might have to end our interview...and..." Long menacing silence.

I hurriedly went on. "And so you are saying that he learned how to do forensics from you?"

"Oh yes. And much, much more. My daughter..."

"Wait,  you're saying that Morina was there as well?"

"But of course she was, a daughter's place is by her father, where he can keep her from harm and protect her from the ravages of male hormones."

I laughed. "You don't sound so different from other fathers in that respect."

"I should hope not. A father's role is sacred. Family is always first."

"I agree. So you trained Mister Doyle..."

"Conan."

"Conan. Yes. In the art of forensics."

"Yes. And I brought him out on his first case."

Again I was shocked. "He never told me about this?"

"Why should he, he's not your Conan, but mine."

"Oh." I lapsed into silence a moment.

"One thing you must understand, Mister Pirillo, is that science and magic are just different sides of the cup of life. One feeds the other, as the other feeds the one. You have discovered the denizens of your...uh...Baker Street Universe...and before you ask, yes I've been reading your adventures. Could make them a bit longer, I might add. I just start getting into them and they're over."

"That's because most Internet people don't have the time, or are too busy to read much longer stories in one gulp."

"Yes. I suppose they are. Such a strange world this one is. No magic and lots of science. Mad science from I see in the headlines." He leaned closer. "Do you think that Global Warming is solvable?"

"I believe it is if we act as a whole of mankind, rather than from petty needs and concerns."

"Such as collecting wealth and power?" He asked, that amused look back in his eyes once more.

"Yes."

"Good luck to you then." He said, speaking no more of it.

"Okay, as I understand it you trained Conan to become a forensics expert, but what about his schooling?"

"That was is schooling. Do you truly believe that any school can teach you thee practicalities of day to day life? Honestly, do you?"

I have to admit, at the time I did not believe so. I'm not even sure now. "I think it can, if a person is thirsty for the truth."

"Bah." He cursed. "Most of the kids are so self absorbed in their games and online chat rooms that they care for little else."

I started to reply sharply to that, but then remembered my own experiences as a teacher, and the children constantly stealing glances at their cell phones for messages, videos and so on. So even though I felt angry at what he said, inwardly, I sighed, because there was too much truth in it.

"I hope that one day they will get past that."

"As I." He said finally after some thought. "For if they don't, this world will need another world to escape to."

At those words I was at a loss to understand him, but I assumed it was just his own way of commenting on the dreads of our present world....loss of income, global warming, and terrorism to name a few.

"Okay. First big question."

"Fire away." He said using a finger like a gun to make a gunshot sound.

"Uh.." Momentarily caught off-guard, I quickly recovered to ask. "What set you out on the road to criminality?"

He burst into laughter so long that at first I thought he had gone mad, but finally he slowed down, then shook his head. "Son, you have me all wrong."

I considered my next words carefully. I didn't want to end up in a concrete cube at the bottom of the Thames. "Uh...the Black Hand..."

He slammed a fist onto the table, causing our cups to spill their contents and blasted at me. "Dear God in Heaven man, have you heard nothing I've been telling you?"

I dared not speak.

He calmed down, then leaned closer. "The Black Hand was the same as your own Baker Street Adventurers, but led by me. We were and are a society of explorers and criminal experts who seek to right the wrongs of the world."

I was flabbergasted by his comment. "Like?"

"Exactly like, except with no Sherlock, no Watson, no Houdini."

"My God" I exclaimed. Unsettled by this revelation. "Then why haven't I heard of you?"

"From whom would you have heard?" He asked. "Your world always dirties the truth, or beautifies the ugliness so the common person doesn't have to face reality. They can sit nice and comfy in their air conditioned  homes, watching TV, and absolutely thinking about nothing, except the end of their work week, and eventually retirement."

"I don't think everyone's that way." I offered in defense of my world.

He dismissed my words. "Too many, or else there would be no Isis...terrorist groups...unjust wars, famine  and disease ridden countries. Your world would be at peace and kind to another."

"And your world is?"

He sighed, then settled back in his chair. He shut his magnificent eyes, and shook his head, striving not to let the passion take over him again. "Like yours. Lost in the glamour of possessions and control."

My cell phone began making a beeping sound. I shut it off. 

"I need to recharge my phone."

Morina came back into the room. "We have a plug back here you can use."

She must have been listening to everything. She gave her father a worried look, then assisted me in setting up my charger and phone at the socket. She turned to her father. "I suggest we have a meal." 

She looked to me hopefully. "I make a mean spaghetti."

I laughed. "I've never had one of those."

She laughed.

Professor Moriarity rose and stood between us, again a warning to me to be careful. "I think Mister Pirillo might like some time to meditate on what we've discussed so far. How about you and I doing the cooking, while he sits here..." He eyed me for confirmation. I nodded. "...And considers what his next questions should be."

And that is all of this part of the interview. I'll return with Part Three and what happened during the brief meal and the interview later.

The Author and Interviewer

John Pirillo