originally published Shadows Over Baker Street, Del Rey, 2002
Dr. Watson is brought a wax cylinder recording, apparently made by Prof. Moriarty.
On the recording, Moriarty crows about his latest scheme, while riding a train. He has drained off the water from a sunken, ancient village that contains even more ancient temples to the Old Ones. He has in his possession a copy of the Necronomicon.
Weird chanting is heard from the village. The train passes into another dimension, possibly the Dreamlands. Then it turns into a nightmare vision of some Cthulu-ian otherworld. The chief engineer, Hatherly, turns out to be Holmes in disguise. He hurls the Necronomicon out the train window. The train comes back to our world. Moriarty tosses himself out the window as well.
A rather minor plot, but a clever gimmick and good writing - the description of the Dreamlands/Otherworld is very evocative - raise this story up the charts a bit.
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