Chapter Ten

Kate was sitting in an arm chair, slowly sipping her drink, leafing through one of the many books she had taken down from Mycroft's shelves. The rest were stacked up on a small table in front of her, along with her laptop. She'd had to look up some of these books, bloody Mycroft and his amazing obscure books! Feeling very contented and pleased that so far, it appeared Mycroft was actually interested in her and had asked her to stay, she reached forward putting her glass down, selecting a new book to look through.

All of a sudden Kates skin prickled and Goosebumps spread over her. She didn't feel safe, something was wrong. There shouldn't be anybody else in here but her. Anthea had gone with Mycroft. A sick feeling spread over her, heart pounding, she casually placed the book down and reached for her glass…

As soon as her hand had closed around it she whipped round and stood up sharply, glass raised as a weapon, to see someone dressed all in black wearing a balaclava only a few metres away and 3 more entering from the door way behind. She flung the glass straight at the closest one's head, it hit true, smashed, and dropped him momentarily to the floor, she backed away knocking things over after her, trying to block their way, but 2 of them made straight for her. The first one went to grab her, she ducked and shot out a fierce jab in his stomach which winded him, but the other one dived on her and they fell to the floor. Kate was struggling, desperately trying to break free, kicking out, No,no,no! He threw his arm around her neck and twisted her round so she was on her front, feeling his knees dig in her back pressing her down she realised he was trying to tie her up, No, no, no!, if they tie me up that's it!

One of them shouted, 'Get her bound for god's sake!'

Well I'm not going without a damn good fight, bastards! Using all the strength she could muster Kate violently thrashed from side to side, he wasn't ready for it and lost his grip on one of her arms, she used it to push herself up and deliver a nasty elbow to his face, where there was a satisfying crunch followed by groaning.

She got up and ran, heading for a doorway at the far left of the room, run! She'd just got through the door when she heard an almighty bang and felt a searing hot pain go through her shoulder. They'd shot her. She fell to the floor and within less than a second two of them were on her, they flipped her on her back, and holding her down bound her hands. They tried to drag her out of the room by her legs but despite her wound, which was now bleeding profusely, she kicked and struggled, her legs flying out in desperation so they couldn't bind them. One of them had had enough though, he pulled back and punched her in the face knocking her out slightly, he picked up one of her legs and began to drag her through the living room, back to where she had been sitting, leaving a trail of blood across the floor.

Kate was lying there on the floor, she had woken up but kept completely still, trying to hear what they were doing, trying to think of a way out. Although with a sinking heart she knew either they would kill her there or take her away.

One of them stood out as the one in charge, he had what appeared to be a large shot gun slung over his back and was directing the rest to search the other rooms. They came back in,

"Clear Sir."

"Damn it, where is he?!"

"Let's just abort sir, we have half of what we came for."

"NO. We complete. Get her up."

One of the men pulled Kate up so she was sitting on her knees facing the one in charge. Her hands were tied at the front and while she had been out they had bound her ankles together.

The leader spoke, "Where is he?"

She tried her best to sound strong, she wasn't giving in to these bastards, "Who?"

"You know who." He hit her across the face.

She spat out some blood, "I don't know."

"Why isn't he here?"

She straightened herself up and looked him in the eyes, which were the only things visible, the rest of his face was covered like the rest, "I don't know." His eyes narrowed.

"Will he be back?"

She spat on his feet in defiance. He swung the shot gun round and hit her in the head with the butt of the gun, the force of which sent her flying, blood smeared across her face and she was out cold on the floor.

"Get her patched up and in the van, I don't want her dead before we get back."

"Yes sir." Two of them reached out and began to pull her away.

"Have you checked her laptop yet?"

"We couldn't get in sir."

"No worries, we'll be able to hack it." "Right, Plan B, you, pull all the security footage for this room from the past hour, we will give Mr Holmes something to watch when he gets back." "Move into positions and wait my command."

Mycroft returned home quicker than he had expected, he had only been an hour and half. He was still unsure of how to proceed with Kate, but knew he wanted to know more. This was a completely new situation for him, he, Mycroft Holmes, the Iceman actually interested in someone! And the red hot embarrassment still flared up within him whenever he thought of last night and wondered how, if at all he was going to brooch the subject.

As he entered the large living room he instantly knew something was wrong, he could feel it. There was only one small lamp on in the far corner so he couldn't really see anything. He placed his umbrella and brief case down on the side board and slowly started walking into the room. His hand reached in his pocket to find his phone and he managed to press one of the buttons on the side of the device. This was a 'panic' button, sending a signal out to his security team. They would know something was wrong and be able to see his location from the GPS on his phone.

As he approached the armchairs and table where Kate had been sat he stopped, he could see the mess created by the struggle, and he looked down to see a large smeared trail of blood on the floor. He froze, his stomach dropped, 'What had they done to her? Was she dead?' 'How the hell had anyone got in here?' His house was one of the most high security places in Britain.

Suddenly someone spoke from the darkness, "Sit down Mr Holmes, cooperate and you won't get hurt."

Mycroft had been in many hostile situations and knew when to fight and when to cooperate. He was completely on his own, for now, and there would be at least three of them, probably armed. So he gracefully moved over to his armchair and sank down, one arm on each rest, fingers drumming lightly.

Four figures moved out of the shadows, all with guns pointed at him, one walked over and handed Mycroft a phone, with a large screen. "Press play."

Mycroft did and it was what looked like security footage from this room. He had a sinking feeling as he realised what he was about to watch. He managed to watch it all without moving a muscle on his face, but his insides were going mad, wincing and cringing as he saw her hit, bleeding and shot, 'Bastards!' He was impressed that even in the face of these intruders she held her ground and gave nothing away, and he had had no idea she could fight. It was horrible to watch but at least he knew they hadn't killed her.

"She put up quite a fight didn't she? Unfortunately for her, she wasn't at all cooperative. I particularly liked the bit where I sent her flying, looks great on film but quite a lot of blood though."

Mycroft's anger flared up in him, but he knew how the minds of people worked and that the only reason they had shown this to him was to make him angry, vulnerable. They were assuming Kate was his weakness, but he had to show them that she wasn't, otherwise they would keep using that to their advantage. The Iceman switched off any emotion, appearing calm and indifferent.

"Well, that was entertaining. So, what exactly was the point of that?"

The leader stepped forward, "To get to you." He raised his gun and brought it down hard across Mycroft's face, knocking him out. He turned to the others, "Check his pockets and tie him up, we have 2 minutes."