Using an idea stolen from Jules Verne (from In the Beginning), the League of Darkness construct a giant underground tunneling machine, the "Mole." The League first kills a diplomat to get papers giving their own agent access to Queen Victoria, whom they plan to kill.

Rebecca has a friend of hers trying to decipher a secret code, behind the back of her superior. She is threatened with a scorpion in her bed, which she manages to kill. Phileas offers to help, but the codebreaker is killed under his protection by the mysterious Cavois.