It had been a long night in Baker Street with no sleep for Sherlock and very little for Lestrade. He'd dozed a little while Sherlock sat silently but it was almost impossible to get any proper rest while waiting for the next update.
Sherlock had got Mycroft to check the IP address of the second email even though he was certain it would have come from the same Internet cafe. In the back of his mind he knew the cafe had something to do with this but at the moment he had no idea what. He'd never been to that cafe until yesterday and he didn't recognise anyone there. So what was it he couldn't place?
Mrs Hudson brought up some tea and toast for the two men and both she and Lestrade were doing their best to make sure Sherlock ate something. "You've got to eat Sherlock, keep your strength up." Mrs Hudson told him.
"You don't understand. Digestion just slows me down. I'll eat when it's over. I need to find John."
Sherlock had barely got the sentence out when his phone beeped to signify the receipt of a text. Lestrade looked up, the colour draining from his face. Sherlock grabbed his phone, as soon as he saw John's name on the screen he knew this was it and he went straight over to his laptop. Lestrade stood on shaky legs and went and stood with Sherlock. Mrs Hudson followed. Lestrade turned and placed his hands on the landlady's shoulders "You really don't need to see this." he told her. Mrs Hudson looked at him, a scared look in her eyes but refused to move.
As Sherlock pressed play and Mrs Hudson caught her first glimpse of the battered doctor she gasped. How could someone do that to another human being she wondered. As they watched the man loosen John's restraints and John break his arm free Sherlock shouted to his friend even though he knew it was no use. "No! John don't!" Sherlock flinched at the pain that followed and as Mrs Hudson heard his screams, tears began to roll down her cheeks. Her tears became sobs however, when she saw what happened next. When she saw, this awful man, condemn her friend to death.
Lestrade stood frozen to the spot for a moment before regaining his composure and wrapping his arms around the heartbroken landlady and trying to comfort her. Sherlock had listened to what the man had said but there was one bit that was playing on his mind. One sentence that wasn't natural and Sherlock knew it meant something more. "Well this has been an exciting operation but now it's time for me to leave. You really should have taught your friend here to be more careful when it comes to personal safety." It kept playing over and over in his mind.
He had all the clues the man had said. He needed to think. He needed to concentrate but all he could hear was Mrs Hudson sobbing. "Take her downstairs" he yelled at Lestrade "I can't concentrate with all that damned crying going on." Lestrade glared at him like John always did and Sherlock knew he was being unkind but right now that didn't matter, all that mattered was finding John before it was too late.
Lestrade led Mrs Hudson from the room as Sherlock stood fingers on his temples thinking, concentrating hard on all the things he knew mattered. The Internet cafe, Mycroft, brother and that unnatural sentence. What did it mean? All these things were whirling around inside Sherlock's head until finally something fell into place. It wasn't the cafe itself that mattered it was the name. DAV15. Davis. So what did that name have to do with Mycroft? Suddenly it all became clear. Davis was the man who had stolen the untraceable poison. He was killed by Mycroft's men and the project was called Operation Safety. That was the clue in the sentence. This was it he realised and all of a sudden he knew exactly where to find his friend.
Sherlock was just grabbing his coat as Lestrade came back up the stairs. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"I know." Sherlock told him "I know where John is. Quick we need to get to him."
"Right." Lesatrade was running down the stairs with Sherlock right behind him. They both headed out of 221B and over to Lestrade's car. "Where am I going?"
"Old abandoned industrial building in Brentford. Dock Road."
As Lestrade took off down Baker Street with sirens blaring Sherlock was on the phone to his brother. When Mycroft answered Sherlock didn't give him time to speak. "Mycroft, Operation Safety, you do still have the antidote don't you?"
"Sherlock do be more discreet. These things are of national importance you..."
"I don't care about your national importance. John has been injected with some of your missing poison and I need the antidote now."
"Where is he and I'll have it delivered?" Mycroft told him. He decided it was better to worry about who knew what after John Watson was safe. He knew Sherlock would never forgive him if anything happened to his friend.
"The old warehouse in Brentford where Davis was killed. You remember?"
"How could I forget. I'll have someone bring it to you." With that Mycroft hung up and made the necessary calls to get what Sherlock needed.
As Lestrade tore through the streets of London he asked "So what's all this about?"
"An old case of Mycroft's" Sherlock told him "There was some poison stolen from a laboratory owned by the government. I tracked it down for him and when they went in after it the thief was killed. After the man's death his brother insisted that he had only stolen the poison because he was being threatened but there was no evidence to support that claim. Mycroft never said but I had my suspicions that not all of the poison had been recovered. It would seem I was right."
"So how deadly is this stuff?"
"Without the antidote, there's no hope." Sherlock sighed. He had to believe they would be in time to save John. There couldn't be another outcome. There just couldn't.
