Tracey had finally managed to find a store that sold the prepaid phones she wanted and had gotten them activated. She considered going back to the flat but decided to stop for a quick lunch and give Artemis more time to wake up. When she walked out of the cafe after having enjoyed a superb grilled cheese sandwich and cup of soup she was surprised at how empty the street was. It unnerved her a little and she quickened her pace. She was surprised when a sleek black car pulled up and a woman opened the door from the inside. "Would you mind coming with me please?"
Tracey stiffened her posture and shouldered her messenger closer to her body, looping it diagonally over her chest and making it harder for anyone to snag it from her and made a run for it. She gazed and the rather pretty lady from the car door and then looked over the car. It was like any standard black, British London car and she raised an eyebrow at the woman and rolled her eyes.
"Such a fan for the dramatics aren't we." She mused and then stepped closer to the car. "Usually I would mind, but if it means a free ride home, I'll take it."
Tracey knew of only two people who would do this in London and one of the two was nowhere to be seen so that left the only other one possible. She'd find out if she was right in a little while, but she was pretty sure she was going to see the man who had his fingers in so many of London's pies.
The car dropped her off at a rather upscale cafe where instead of tables scattered in an open area there were private cubicles. The decor was very japanese with seshi screens in place of the doors for the cubicles and rather than the usual hum and clatter of a busy cafe, voices murmured like the slow slosh of the sea on a sandy beach. A thin man in a dark suit escorted her to a cubicle in the back and told her to make herself comfortable. A few minutes later Mycroft Holmes settled into the seat opposite and the seshi screen was drawn closed. Tracey sat down on a very large, very plush and comfortable pillow and crossed her legs under her and her back straight. She had set her messenger bag beside her and folded her hands into her lap, waiting for her "date" to arrive. When he did, she just watched him with her hazel eyes, the rest of her face completely impassive until she spoke.
"Good afternoon Governor, are you ready to get chummy and have a spot of tea with me?" Tracey asked, mimicking a British accent and smirking a little before she could help herself and returning to her normal speech. "You could have called me before setting up this little get together... I'm pretty sure you and your intelligence agency already have our new numbers."
He gave her a meaningless smile and waited while a waitress set a large teapot, two cups and saucers and a tray of cream, sugar and lemon slices down. Once she'd left shutting the seshi screen behind her Mycroft started pouring tea for them both. "I much prefer face to face meeting. Especially with people who do not technically exist."
"Aw now that's interesting." She replied, giving him a smile and blowing on her tea to cool it. "If I don't exist then how am I here at this moment... the only reason that you and yours thinks we don't exist is because you haven't been able to find anything on us. And you find that just a little frustrating, don't you."
She stirred in her sugar and then sipped, not wanting to burn her lips or her tongue. Picking up a menu, Tracey ticked off the sushi that she was feeling a craving for and then waited for their waitress to come back. She watched Mycroft and studied him in silence. He sipped his tea for a moment then set it down. "It is incredibly frustrating. I imagine Sherlock must be all a dither over it. I'm going to be frank, especially since you tasered my brother and I found that highly amusing. "Who are you? Why are you here and who sent you?"
Tracey couldn't help but giggle and set down her teacup on its saucer, recalling Sherlock's twitching body on the floor of her bathroom. She looked at Mycroft and rested her hands in her lap again.
"Now why should I tell you anything about myself and whom I keep company with Mycroft?" Tracey retorted with, smirking and resting her chin in the palm of her hand and her elbow on the table. "Oh and Sherlock is, he's out of his ever loving mind too. He assaulted me only seconds after I returned to my apartment and not a few hours before dinner he snuck into our apartment to be a creeper."
Mycroft shook his head. "He's not a creeper. I doubt he's ever entertained any lascivious thoughts about a woman… or a man for that matter. He was looking for clues in his own inept way. I am doing you the courtesy of asking directly, I can be indirect if you prefer but I prefer to be much more civilized."
"An unfortunate quality that your brother lacks." Tracey answered off-handedly and took another sip of her tea and smiling. "Oh what the heck, since you're buying me lunch I guess it can't hurt to answer a few of your questions to the best of my abilities."
The waitress came forward and took their orders, coming back within fifteen minutes with their food and placing them on the table. Tracey picked up her chopsticks and ate a few pieces of sushi, closing her eyes and savoring the taste before tapping her chopsticks on her plate and looking back up to Mycroft.
"Can't tell you who sent us... We're here on business to sell our handcrafted items at a series of conventions around London and my name is Tracey."
He looked at her for a long minute before speaking again. "I have access to the kind of information that can make or break the world and I have yet to find anyone who knows a thing about you. No social security numbers, passport data, tax information, nothing. You live in the flat beneath my brothers and are for all intents and purposes a ghost. Now I am going to offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity. Tell me honestly, are you here on any business regarding myself, my brother or anything that could bring harm to England or the Queen?"
Tracey blinked and let her face become impassive again. She studied him and after several moments she spoke again.
"I told you that I would answer your questions to the best of my abilities and I have. I don't know if any of our extracurricular activities will involve you, Sherlock, or London in general, but they will if Sherlock insists on sneaking around my apartment and I will taser him again if he doesn't learn about personal space very soon."
"I should imprison you in the most hidden facility I have at my disposal." He murmured sipping his tea.
"But you won't because what pretenses could you possibly have to do that Mycroft?" She snapped, slowly narrowing her eyes at him. "I answered your silly little questions and you should be grateful I even got in the car and showed up here at all. I owe you nothing and neither does my companion, so let it go and focus on your present situation."
Tracey sat up straighter and grabbed for her bag. She looped the strap over her shoulder again prepared to get up and leave even if her plate wasn't empty. He looked up at her his eyes empty as a dolls and about as emotional. "I wouldn't need a pretense. As it stands I am disinclined to cause a potential international incident so I will let you leave with one warning. Do nothing that would make me regret leaving you and your friend to roam free." His voice was cold and the tone sent a chill through her.
"You Holmes boys are all the same... dramatic and full of yourselves." Tracey muttered, sliding open the Seshi screen doors, putting on her shoes and slamming the door shut behind her.
Leaving the nice cafe, she looked up at the sign and committed it to memory. She wanted to bring Artemis back here after a time and completely ignored the black car that brought her here and hailed herself a cab from the edge of the curb. Giving the cab driver her apartment's address, she glanced out the window as Mycroft emerged from the cafe and then shook her head. She had been riding in the cab for about twenty minutes and still didn't feel any better, she still fumed the entire ride. She checked the time on her phone and realized that she should have been back to the flat. The traffic was light and the cab was moving at a comfortable clip but they were no where near anything she recognized as being near Baker Street.
Tracey tapped on the glass divider that separated any passenger from the driver and tried to get the driver's attention.
"Excuse me, but this isn't the way back to Baker Street. Where are you taking me?"
The driver ignored her and took another turn. She wasn't sure where the driver was taking her but it seemed like they were headed into Londons Factory district.
'Damn it, not again.' Tracey thought to herself, remembering the last three times this had happened to her and the first thing she didn't do was panic.
Taking out her phone from her bag, she checked the signal and growling low in her throat because there wasn't a signal. She studied the window closely the realized there would be no kicking it out or even cracking it a little, it was all reinforced and this got her thinking. Why would this cab driver need to drive her around in a reinforced cab unless they didn't know something about her already.
'This is going to get interesting and the first chance I get, I'm cracking some skulls.' She thought to herself, looking around at her surroundings in case they would be important later. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me where we're going or who you're working for... are you?... Not even a little hint?"
The driver stayed silent but within a few minutes he had pulled the car into an underground loading dock at a factory that looked like it had seen better days. The driver got out of the car and left back the way he'd come leaving her locked in the vehicle. Not more than 90 seconds later the car filled with gas and Tracey could feel herself sliding away. She didn't lose consciousness but her ability to form a coherent thought fled and she found herself engulfed in hopeless giggles. The door opened and a tallish man with light brown hair hauled her out. "Put her with the other one." Another voice said to the side and the first man hauled her to a room down a short damp hallway and pushed her in before shutting the door.
She heard the door lock as she struggled to pick herself up only to be helped up. "Easy, easy, I've got you." A familiar voice said and she looked up the arms into John Watsons calm face.
Tracey's hazel eyes narrowed and she grasped Watson's arms, trying to get her balance back. She looked around at their encasement and couldn't see much because the lights were very dim.
"John do you... know why we're here?" She asked slowly, blinking and trying to clear her head and took deep breaths. "Where did they grab you from?"
He tilted her head back so he could see her pupils. "They grabbed me on my way home from my shift at the surgery." He led her over to a stiff cot and sat her down.
Easing herself onto the cot and then shifting until she was comfortable, Tracey pushed her hair back from her face and let out a tired sigh. She shook her head and clenched her fists until her knuckles popped. Flexing her fingers out again, she patted around her pants pockets and then her messenger bag at was surprised that whoever kidnapped her had left her with everything she had been carrying with her. She smirked and shook her head, that could cost them dearly if Artemis and or Sherlock didn't find them first.
"What did they look like?" She asked, swatting away his hands and starting to rub her temples. "Don't fuss, did they gas you too?"
"I am a doctor, I'm supposed to fuss. Yes they gassed me too. I suspect it was to keep us from taking a swing at them." John replied firmly and gave her a faint reassuring smile. "Don't worry, it won't be long before Sherlock comes bounding in here all energy and cheer. It's what he's good at.
Tracey shook her head and got up from the cot.
"No way am I sitting on my ass and waiting for Sherlock to play his little mind games..." She growled, starting to run her hands over the walls carefully so as not the cut her skin, muttering under her breath. "No one is saving me anymore, I'm tired of this bullshit."
"There's no way out. I've been over this whole room. No grates, one very very small air vent and only one door." John said watching her stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Then I'll kick their asses." She replied, shaking her head and feeling her hand pass over the doorknob. "I'm going to go out on a limb that the gas will come through the air vents if they need to move us or if they need to dispose of us when our value to them is gone. But if we can take the bolts out of the hinges the we can open the door, of course this is assuming that they're not rusted in place."
She ran her fingers over the hinges and looked at them for a while, trying to see if they would have any luck messing with them at all or if they should just kick the kidnappers' ass.
As it turned out the pins for the hinges were on the other side of the very locked door. John sat down on the cot and watched her a faint smile on his face, he waited for her to face him again before he spoke. "I wonder which one they're after. Sherlock or Artemis. Or maybe both since they have both of us. Now might be a good time to tell me what you and Artemis have landed yourself in."
Tracey could only sigh and shake her head at John and his statement.
"I would even know where to begin to tell you John, Artemis and I just got back. Funny how a day or so later I get jumped for talking to Sherlock and now Mycroft." Tracey retorted, crossing her arms under her chest. "Kind of makes me think that Mycroft may have set up this little kidnapping to scare me on purpose... I wouldn't put it passed him since he threatened to lock me away in "his most hidden facility" and look at where we are now..."
She swept an arm to indicate their little dungeon cell and sighed. Tracey shook her head and then looked up at the vent and stared at it for a long time, judging it's width and then looking at her own body mass. She was contemplating on seeing if she could fit, but if she couldn't then it would be a good idea to stuff a blanket if the vent actually did release gas to kick them out or kill them.
"This isn't Mycrofts style." John replied. "He may be a dramatic git but his dramatics are more refined.
He let the silence stretch out a little longer before he spoke again. "You're handling this far better than most civilians would."
Tracey dropped her gaze from the vent and then looked at John again, a small smile on her lips and resting her hands on her hips.
"Let's just say this isn't my first time getting kidnapped and this isn't my first hostile environment." She answered, letting out a frustrated breath. "You served in Afghanistan, well I lived in Israel for three years and that was a little dangerous, especially after September 2001. That wasn't the best time for Americans, especially those living there and my family and I did get evacuated and sent back to the U.S."
He nodded. "Fair enough I suppose. Look we're gonna be here a while, let's at least try to make it less unpleasant. Tell me about your business."
Tracey made a noise that sounded like a laugh and then nodded. She sat down on the cot beside John and conversed with him.
"Believe it or not, despite Artemis's brutally honest personality and straightforward attitude, she'll tell you that I bullied her into starting our business together. Artemis and I met at a Halloween party that I really hadn't planned on attending if it wasn't for another friend of mine who was going to be there later. The host and hostess and I weren't exactly chummy so I kept to myself until Artemis and I were introduced and started talking about the things we liked to do. Crafting and sewing clothes and costumes were a great starting conversation and then I started to produce a few pieces myself and with Artemis's help we started to sell them at our local conventions around in Tennessee. We had many successes and it just grew from there."
"I'd say it was successful, you two did well enough to go international." John commented.
Tracey was about to reply when they heard a faint hissing noise from near the door. Tracey felt her head going fuzzy and John already had a vacant look on his face. "John?... Wha... John!" She called out as loud as she could, feeling her head beginning to swim. "Damn... it."
She looked over to the door where she heard the gas coming from and swore that she didn't hear it before now. Gripping John's arm, Tracey felt herself getting weaker and she slumped against him, coughing several times.
"Ba-Bastards..." She growled, glaring at the door. "I will... kill you."
The door opened and a pair of muscular men stepped in and to either side of the door. A tall lanky figure dressed in an expensive suit that seemed so out of place in this dank dark room. "Aren't you two getting chummy?" The voice held a faint sing song tone to it. "Dr. John Watson and Ms Tracey Denio. You Ms Tracey are so very hard to find, I had to pilfer through the land lady's records to find anything about you. So demeaning to have to get my hands grubby."
Tracey looked up at the tall man and started laughing low in her throat, her eyes rolling up until they met his and then the laughter grew and she became more verbal.
"Aw poor baby, you had to get your hands dirty for little ol' me? Poor baby boy, that's life." She spat, glaring hard at him now. "What much drama for a little kidnapping, hardly seems worth your time to bother with me or my companion... so what do you want Moriarty? Do you want to get chummy too because I hate to break it to you... I don't want any new friends."
He got a dangerous gleam in his eye and his lips curved up. "Oh we'll get very chummy. You see I promised Sherlock a long time ago that if he kept meddling I would burn the Heart out of him. And now my sources say your friend," He voice made a cruel irony out of the word friend. "Is digging into my affairs as well. So I'll rip two hearts out for the price of one."
"Well you know Sherly, has to know everything about everyone and all their business." Tracey laughed, shaking her head at him. "Guess that's one of the reasons why I tasered his ass, but that was mostly for my pleasure... Anyway, it couldn't be helped since unfortunately we're living in the same apartment building. It's not like my companion and I chose this outcome."
"You tased Sherlock Holmes?" Moriarty laughed high and delighted. "Oh I would have paid a lot to see that. Not that it changes anything. I'm going to lead your girlfriend on a lovely chase and Sherlock will follow her like a hound after bacon."
"Not her girlfriend." John slurred.
Moriarty sneered at him. "Don't speak John, you lower the intelligence of the whole room."
Tracey laughed a little and shook her head at an inside joke that she wouldn't share and then shrugged.
"Sorry John, I'm not laughing at you, just something else." She said, patting his arm and then letting her arm go limp. "Suit yourself and have fun, this should get interesting... oh, I guess I couldn't trouble you for some water?"
Moriarty shook his head. "Not yet. Boys…"
The two muscular men moved forward, one grabbed Tracey and the other pinned John down while Moriarty moved forward and used a small pair of scissors to clip off a lock of their hair then used the points of the scissors to cut a line across Tracey's cheek and dipped the lock of hair in the blood. He did the same to John and left the room. The muscle men let them go and left the room before either of them could react. The door closed and the lock slid home with a sharp snap leaving Tracey and John to recover from the gas in the dim light.
"Bastard!" Tracey screeched, wiping her fingers across her cheek and flinched in pain. "I will kill you!"
She promised herself that for sure. Looking at John, she touched his cheek tenderly and made him look at her. Tracey thanked her lucky stars that they had left her bag and dug around in it for a few minutes withdrew a small pouch. She pulled out a few gauze pads and a band-aid for him to use before she gingerly touched her own cheek and tended to it.
"John, are you okay?"
He seemed to come around when she touched his cheek and coughed a little. "Hmm? Yes, yes, I'm sorry. I've always been a bit sensitive to drugs… Sorry." He took the gauze and pressed it to his cheek.
"So I see John... now we need to get it together and eventually they'll bring us water and we can rehydrate ourselves." Tracey said, closing her eyes against the pounding headache that she was starting to feel and breathed slowly. "Perhaps when they bring us the water I'll taser them and then we'll make a break for it... of course this is assuming that they don't gas us again just to give us the water."
She didn't like waiting like this and knew that Artemis and probably Sherlock would be getting their hair and blood at any time within the next hour and she'd be damned if she just sat there and waited for them to show up.
"Do you have any thoughts about how we're going to get out of here?"
"Not a one." John said quietly rubbing his forehead tiredly. "For now lets try to rest. We've been gassed twice within two hours and the adrenaline and stress are exhausting us. We need to be rested when the opportunity presents itself."
Tracey knew that he was right, but she was reluctant to fall asleep or rest at all.
"I don't want to miss the opportunity to jump them when they bring us water John, it could be our only chance to get out." She muttered, shaking her head. "I promised them a lot of pain."
"I'll keep watch. I'll wake you as soon as I head the key in the lock I swear." John said quietly.
She studied him for a moment and then nodded.
"Okay." She whispered, giving his arm a light squeeze. "I'm going to have a hold of my taser while I'm resting so if they do get close I'll get them... Thank you John."