Chapter Fourteen

Mycroft didn't know how long Kate had been gone, but he felt like it was too long. Just as he started to fear the worst she appeared through the door. In fact she had only been gone about 6 minutes, but being the one left waiting, every minute felt like ten.

Kate had managed to find a small battered looking axe, "Right, shift your feet apart," she instructed. Mycroft thought that she looked quite comical stood there, in her battered check jacket and shirt, completely dishevelled and preparing to wield what appeared to be the smallest axe he had ever seen. He smirked, "It's quite…small."

"If I can bring it down with enough force it should break the chains. Look, have you a better idea?"

"Axe away." He spread his feet apart as wide as they would go.

Kate took a deep breath and brought the axe round and down with as much force as she could. As the axe made contact with the metal chain, she cried out, as it painfully jarred the wound on her shoulder. The chain clanked apart, it had broken through.

"Yes!"

"Are you alright?" he said, slightly alarmed at the pain it caused her.

"I'm fine. Right, just lean away…" She took a stance and aimed at the chains still restraining his arms.

"These will be much more difficult as there is nothing hard to hit against…"

"It doesn't matter Mycroft! We don't have time!" She hacked away at the chains, grimacing with each stroke. Her body was screaming, every wound felt like it was on fire. Finally she managed to get through. She dropped the axe and sat back panting.

Mycroft got up as quickly as he could and stretched out his long limbs, letting out a groan at the feeling of sheer relief, "That's much better, thank you." He picked up the axe, "Your turn," and got to work on her chains. After a few minutes they were both free and stood facing each other.

"I found this too," it was a crow bar, "this place seems to have been totally abandoned."

He eyed it with suspicion, "I'm not accustom to such a…primitive weapon," he weighed it in his hands as if testing it out, "But it will suffice. Considering the circumstances."

Kate nodded, she looked a bit tentative but her eyes were full of a hard resolve, "I'm quite confident that there is only four of them, well…now only three," she said looking down at the leader, unconscious on the floor, "My laptop is on a large table in the first half of the room. If we can get in and you cause a distraction, drawing them away, I can get on my laptop."

Mycroft nodded, as Kate continued, "I should be able to use the connections they set up, in trying to hack in, to pin point our location. Hopefully we can take them out, or at least hold them off until help arrives."

Mycroft had a sudden flutter of emotion as he listened to Kate. He felt uncomfortable, 'Oh,' this was…unusual, 'Must be the after effects of the drug,' he hurriedly thought, giving himself a mental shake. He picked up the crow bar, "Let's go."

They cautiously moved through the dark, dank passageways to the room where the men were. The door was slightly ajar and Kate peered around seeing that two of them were already on the far side of the room. They were sat down, drinking and looking through a mass of papers on the floor in front of them, while the other one was stood at Kate's laptop. Damn.

Mycroft peered through, and within that brief glance he had worked out his plan. With the rusty old crow bar one hand, and the small axe in the other he made his move.

He quickly moved from the door way to behind some old machinery, about four meters from the door. He took aim with axe and threw it straight at one of the men on the other side of the room. It stuck in his back and he fell to floor, crying out. Grabbing a gun, the man near Kate's laptop rushed over to the others. They couldn't tell where the axe had come from. Mycroft moved round silently, still in the shadows. 'God, he's good,' she thought as a shiver of admiration ran through her.

The other two men were confused and looking around wildly, cocking their guns ready. It was Kate's turn to make a move. She crawled towards the table where the laptop was and slowly stood up. Suddenly hearing a commotion, she saw Mycroft step out from the shadows, and rushing towards the men. She could see that he wouldn't be able to disarm both of them at the same time, grabbing one of the guns from the table, and praying it was already loaded, she flicked the safety off and aimed at the one furthest from Mycroft. She fired. The noise startled her, but her aim was good. He went down. Mycroft was too focused on the other one to be surprised.

Kate threw the gun down on the table and input her password as quickly as she could, furiously typing away on her laptop, trying to find their location. Almost got it… she hit enter, sending their location to Mycroft's security team and as an afterthought to Sherlock and Anthea's mobiles. A flash of relief washed over her, but she didn't have time to indulge. She turned her attention to the fight, trying to think of a way to help, but they were too close together for her to try and shoot again, she might hit Mycroft.

Suddenly she felt someone behind her, too late. It was the man from the cell, the leader. He grabbed Kate around the neck and hauled her about as she struggled to get free. She yelled out and tried to kick him but he only tightened his grip. Mycroft saw what was happening but could do nothing to help. He felt panic swell up inside him, 'I need to end this!' He dogged another blow, but the guy was fast and swung another, hitting Mycroft in the face and throwing him off. He spat out some blood and got his balance back when he heard Kate's agonising scream. She was writhing round in the man's grip, in agony, as he slowly pushed a knife further into Kate's bullet wound.

Mycroft tightened his grip on the crow bar and launched himself at the man, they collided and fell to the floor. He raised the crow bar and delivered a crushing blow to his head. He fell still. Mycroft shot up and rushed over to Kate.

"Don't come any closer!" he yelled. Mycroft stopped in his tracks.

"I'll fucking kill her, stay where you are!" he was desperate, seeing his team taken down and his mission ruined.

Mycroft stood perfectly still, "You don't want to do that."

"And why's that then?!" he pushed the knife in further. Kate had gone white.

"You will seriously regret it." Mycroft's voice sounded like cold hard steel.

"I'm not letting you leave, not without my fucking information."

"What makes you think you'll be leaving?" His voice steady and even, filled with threat.

"Tell me what I want know! NOW!" he twisted the knife causing Kate to scream out again.

Mycroft's skin prickled, he knew he wasn't going to let her go. He'd rather kill her than let her live.

"Fine. I'll tell you what you want to know. But let her go. Now."

"Just fucking tell me!" He viciously pulled the knife out from Kate's shoulder and raised it threateningly high.

Mycroft's mind was on fire. Anticipating his next move, he leap forward towards them. The leader, seemingly mind made up, started to bring his hand down.

Suddenly a spray of blood flew out from the leaders head. His arms fell loose at his side, dropping the knife on the floor. He fell down hard. Kate was stood stock still looking at Mycroft. She mouthed a "What the…"

But he wasn't looking at Kate. He was looking over at the shadows near the door way, brow furrowed, annoyed. "Better late than never."

Sherlock stepped out from the shadows, "I just saved your lives. A little bit of gratitude wouldn't go a miss, brother."

"That is clearly an exaggeration…"

Ignoring his brother Sherlock cut in, "So…" he said, turning to Kate with a smug look on his face, "this is the…,"

"The salmon?" She looked enquiringly at them.

They both stood still, momentarily lost for words. 'How the hell she did she know about that conversation?' thought Mycroft, feeling a flash of trepidation.

Kate had gone a shade whiter and was swaying slightly where she stood. Ignoring this she carried on, "Although if I have to be a fish, I'd much rather be a Pseudanthias Taeniatus, much more eye catching."

They both watched her warily, the blood loss and fatigue were taking their toll as she was clearly unstable on her feet and not quite with it. But seemingly determined, she turned to go, "Now if you don't mind, I think I may be bleeding to death, so can we go?"

She almost made it to the door before collapsing. "Interesting," Sherlock smirked and turned to face Mycroft, "I like her."

(Thanks for reading so far and again for all the feedback! Very much appreciated! I've really enjoyed writing this so far and it will definitely carry on for longer than fifteen chapters. I have written half of chapter fifteen, and there will be another fluff chapter soon!)