Fallen Angel Chapter Three


Sowing Dissent Part Three


"Sherlock Holmes. What the bloody hell is going on?"

The young man's smile was genuine; he clearly enjoyed surprising her. "Do us both a favour and tell your minions to disappear. They can wait downstairs."

She nodded to Simpson, and he collected the other agents. Sherlock waited until the lift doors closed.

"The file is genuine."

Elizabeth tried to digest that fact. "Just what does that actually mean, Sherlock.?"

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, let me make it even more obvious. God ettermiddag, direktør Ffoukes. Hvordan liker du min norsk? Tillat megåpresentere meg selv, mitt navnerLarsSigursson.*" But, you may call me 'The Viking', if you prefer." He shrugged his shoulders. "In fact, it would be best if you did."

She looked down at the file, closed the manila folder over the papers and stood up. Then she walked over to the glass window and looked out over London, trying to think through the implications of the last forty minutes. "What game are you playing, Sherlock?"

"No game. It's real. I'm the person on that file. I have been wriggling my way into Moriarty's network for the past four months."

She turned and glared. "If that's true, then you are guilty of criminal activity of such breath-taking stupidity that even your brother won't be able to save you from it."

That provoked a smirk. "Oh, I wouldn't tell him just yet, if I were you. Not when I am about to explain how you can do the impossible. Want to defeat James Moriarty? Of course, you do. Every Security chief in thirty two countries has him on their most wanted list. But, I can assure you, that not even my brother has been able to do that on his own. You and I, however, will do it."

As he locked eyes with her, she could see he was deadly serious. "I have investigated you very carefully, Elizabeth Ffoukes. I had to be sure that you are not one of his fallen angels. Moriarty cannot suspect anything of what I have in mind. You and I working together are going to destroy Moriarty, once and for all."

She shook her head. "You don't understand…"

He interrupted. "Yes, I do, actually – far more than you do. I have seen every piece of intelligence in MI5 and 6's files on him, what my brother knows that you don't, and added my own information, as well."

"Mycroft would never break security protocols to share that information with you." Now her voice had an edge to it.

The younger man smirked. "Who said he shared anything with me? He has no idea that I've ransacked his systems- and yours by the way- to gather what I needed to know. Neither of you were willing to play, so I just…decided to take matters in my own hands. Now sit back down in that chair, and prepare to listen. When I am done, then you can decide whether you are going to remain a part of the problem, or become part of the solution."

oOo

Almost two hours later, Elizabeth Ffoukes emerged from the lift to rejoin her agents. Twice during the time when she was upstairs on the 63rd level, she responded to Simpson's texts to verify that she was fine- just taking a while. She also broke off her discussion with Sherlock just long enough to contact her private office and tell her PA to cancel the rest of the afternoon's meetings. She'd not be returning to the office tonight, but would head directly home after this meeting.

Now sitting in the comfort of her own living room, looking into the flames of her gas fire and sipping from a glass of chilled Gavi wine, she was thinking things through very carefully. Her husband, a noted QC practicing in the City of London, was out at a corporate dinner tonight. Barristers needed to network. Just as well, because she needed the quiet time to think it through.

"Not a plan", Sherlock had said. And he was right. It was far more diabolical than that. As he talked her through it, every time she thought of an objection, he answered it in his next breath- before she could even put her concern into words.

"Think of it as a series of interlocked scenarios. Not a linear plan- that would be visible to Moriarty and allow him to duck it, just as he has every other attempt to stop him. No, this time, I am using a different strategy, one that remains flexible no matter what he does."

"But what about Moriarty's own contingency plans? Sherlock, he's held off the wrath of the world's secret services with the threat of what he will do if he is taken prisoner. For every day he is held, there will be another crime that even he can't stop. It's a dead man's switch, escalating every day until a final doomsday scenario for the country stupid enough to lock him up. You cannot begin by doing just that. It's madness!"

He had laughed. "Yes- exactly. And when his contingency plans are broken, dismantled one-by-one even before they can be launched, then the people he has paid to carry out his threats will not trust him again. You'll let him go before he gets to do anything really serious. But, the damage to his reputation will have been done. His clients, his fallen angels, his own people will know he is not infallible."

"How are you going to outsmart his contingency plans? He doesn't know the details- so interrogation, no matter how fierce, will not get it out of him."

"He will tell us just enough to allow us to dismantle the crimes, one-by-one."

"Why? Why would he risk sabotaging his own contingency? What possible incentive could you give him to hand over even the slightest clue about his intended crimes?"

"Me." He grinned at her confusion. "In exchange for juicy tidbits about me, he will hand over just enough to play the game."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because I'm not the only one who gets bored. And he will think he can out-fox us, get something that he wants, without giving anything significant away. When he is proven wrong, then we will make him very, very angry."

"So, your idea is to…what, royally piss him off with this so he goes after you once he is out of jail? Didn't Mycroft ever tell you that provoking the neighbourhood bully was sure to end in tears?"

Sherlock nodded. "Of course he did. But it didn't make any difference. I got into scrapes- and got myself out of them, too. Big Brother couldn't be with me in the school halls, Elizabeth. I learned how to be smarter than any bully, rather than avoiding a fight. Playing safe with Moriarty is no longer a luxury. We have no choice. It's either on my terms or on his. If I can provoke him into taking this personally? Well, again that fact will be seen, noticed by his clients, his enemies, his own people. Another sign of his instability. We can undermine him."

"He'll kill you, Sherlock."

"Eventually, he will try. But I will make him so angry that he won't go for the clean kill. He will want to drag it out, make me pay. He's already threatened to do just that. And while he is being held, we will feed him what he wants to know.- that I am behind it. He will extort information from his interrogator about me, in exchange for little clues about his plans. He thinks he is clever enough to outwit me. Think of this as my version of his five pips game, only this time, it's my game, not his."

She listened for almost an hour, probing him on the details. Then she made him stop, stood up and walked back over to the windows, where twilight was beginning to fall, and the lights of London were coming on. "You know he won't agree."

There was no reply. She tried to make him see. "It's too great a risk, for both you and for the country. Mycroft won't allow this to happen."

For the first time that afternoon, Sherlock let his temper show. "I don't care whether Mycroft agrees or disagrees. It's not up to him. You and I can manoeuvre my brother into a position where he can't refuse, and he can't interfere, either. Legally, you can go to the Parliamentary Oversight Committee and get him recused from the whole case, if he won't co-operate. Lady Smallwood will keep him in check. He will bluster and fuss, but in the end, there is only one choice. He must either decide to help and make it possible for me to take Moriarty on and win, or he decides to interfere. If he does that, it will cost him his career and I will most likely die in my attempt, because he tried to interfere. Nothing Mycroft does will stop me from doing this, Elizabeth. You need to understand that."

She sighed. "Why you?"

"Because I am the only one that Moriarty will believe capable of taking him on. I have no country to protect, no honour, no loyalty. I can keep this personal and in so doing protect the country from whatever vengeance he might wish on it. If you or Mycroft tried, you'd be risking retaliation. He's held every country to ransom for years because of that. I have nothing to lose."

She looked at him in surprise. "What about John Watson?"

"What about him?"

"Moriarty has already targeted him to put pressure on you. I've read the report on the Bomber, you know."

"That tactic won't work a second time."

"Why not? You've demonstrated it already has worked."

"Because I will be putting distance between John Watson and myself, so he can't be used."

"He's not part of your plan then?"

"No, of course not. He will know nothing about it. When the time comes to disappear, I will. I'll take up my identity as Lars Sigurson, and I will keep working from the inside. I don't expect it will be easy to take Moriarty and his network apart. But that will be easier to do if I am not Sherlock Holmes. He has to believe that he's won."

"We can't be seen to be doing business with a criminal active in Moriarty's network. And none of our people can be implicated in any illegal activity. There are rules, Sherlock."

He smirked. "For you, maybe, but not for me. Anyway, who said anything about you doing business with me? I am not now, nor will I ever be working for any British agency. I am a private individual. And any crimes are being and will be committed in the future are by Lars Sigurson, citizen of Norway."

He gestured to the open file on the table. "No one will be able to draw the connection. You'll simply be in contact with a double agent, from a foreign country- which is what you do on a regular basis. I am telling you that it will be deniable, totally. You shouldn't tell anyone that I am behind it, although my brother is likely to deduce it. And you are smart enough to follow my suggestions about how to organise the capture and interrogation of Moriarty outside of the UK and in a place where the incarceration is also deniable. So, this isn't rendition, and you won't get in trouble for it. I can guarantee that Moriarty will not want to broadcast the fact that he was captured, and his plans dismantled- he won't want the bad publicity to show just how he was beaten at his own game. So, you can't use my brother as an excuse, Elizabeth. I take full responsibility."

She was appalled on a personal level for Sherlock. And yet, the more he talked her through it, the more she could see that it might indeed work.

Mycroft would be the stumbling block. She could imagine his reaction. She shook her head again, playing the conversation. "Your brother won't agree."

"All Mycroft has to do is do as he is told. Interrogate Moriarty, lay the bait and set the trap. After that, it doesn't matter; in fact, it's even better if you don't tell him a thing more. I certainly won't be telling him anything. If he wants to keep his job, you can remind him that he has to help in this limited way and then keep clear. If push comes to shove, and the prat tries to make it a resigning issue, then let him. Out of the way, and stripped of power, then he can do less damage to my plans. Whatever my brother thinks to the contrary, he is not irreplaceable. It doesn't have to be Mycroft, anyone could sow the seeds with Moriarty, given what I will give you."

She finally voiced what she had been thinking as he told her his ideas. "What if I don't agree?"

He walked over to the windows and stood beside her, too close for politeness. Using his height to dominate her, he said quietly "Nothing is going to deter me. No one is going to stop me. If you don't agree, then I will simply do this in another way, without you." He gestured to the file. "Lars Sigurson may disappear, so you can't trace him;I have a contingency plan for that, too. I will go undercover and destroy his network from the inside, whether you want me to or not. You get to choose only one thing. Help me, and improve the odds of my success, or stand aside. Simple choice, really."

She thought about the enormity of what the man standing beside her in the growing twilight was planning. "Sherlock, this means leaving everything behind, letting Moriarty destroy everything you are."

"I know that. The difference is that I don't care. No one has been willing to do this, no one has been able to. I'm uniquely capable of this, and I am utterly determined."

Two hours after the conversation, Sherlock's ruthless words still ringing in her ears, she didn't doubt that determination. Elizabeth took another sip of her white wine. It had warmed up in her hand; beads of condensation ran down the sides of the glass, making it slippery. Of all the people in the world, Sherlock Holmes was the only one she thought just might be able to pull it off. She made her decision, and pulled out her phone to send him a text.


Author's Note: God ettermiddag, direktør Ffoukes. Hvordan liker du min norsk? Tillat megåpresentere meg selv, mitt navnerLarsSigurson . In Norwegian, that translates as "Good afternoon, Director Ffoukes. How do you like my Norwegian? Allow me to indtroduce myself; my name is Lars Sigursson." Well, at least that's what Google translate says…

On another note. I am posting this early under the assumption that at some point tonight the St Valentine's Day storm will cut our power and we could be off for a while. Ground water is already half way across my dining room, headed for my living room. The tanker we had coming into the village, which allowed us to flush out loos has disappeared, so life just got a lot worse for us. If you want to cheer me up, review. If you can review a back story of mine, do- it's about the only thing I am looking forward to these days...