Hello again. I hope you are enjoying these chapters and hey, if no one ever sees this, as it seems all of you have disappeared, (come out come out wherever you are) at least I am doing this for me. I wanted to finish this before I started my novel. Enjoy- Mels
A small fishing boat was out on the ocean, two men braving the foggy weather. A radio broadcast came through to them as their boat through the rough waters. A young man was at the side of the ship, vomiting into the waves.
"And now the shipping forecast, issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime Coastguard Agency at 05:05. Thames, Dover ...," The broadcast read out as a young man, wearing a yellow oilskin coat and matching hat, opened the door to the wheelhouse and stumbled inside wiping his mouth and breathing heavily. An older man looked round to him as he entered.
"Go on, son, get it up," The older man told him, smiling cheerfully at him. "Better out than in."
"Is it always like this?" The younger man asked as the fog made it impossible to see out of the wheelhouse.
"Nah," The older man told him off handedly.
"Thank God," The younger man said in relief.
"Usually it's much worse!" The older man told him with a grin.
"Might go and work in a bank!" The younger said plaintively at that. Still breathing heavily, he looked up at the sound of rotors. "Is that an 'elicopter?"
"Nah, not in this weather," The older man answered him as the radio broadcast continued.
"... Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea, Shannon, Malin, Sherrinford. Sherrinford. Sherrinford," The radio broadcast said, repeating the last word.
"You hear that?" The younger man asked the older man looked round to him as the broadcast repeated the name Sherrinford. "I never 'eard that one before," He said as the radio continued its normal shipping forecast. "Sherrinford?"
"Forget you ever 'eard it," The older mand told him, turning to look at him.
"What?" The younger man asked in confusion.
"Sometimes when we're out in these waters, we get that message. Just forget about it," The older man told him.
"Yeah, but we've never ...," The younger man began to say, but the older man raised a warning finger to him.
"Just ...," He said, and he raised a hand and mimed zipping his lips shut, then pointed warningly at the young man.
He started to turn back to the wheel when there was suddenly a loud thump on the roof of the wheelhouse, followed by a couple of less loud thumps. The men looked up, then the older man went to the door and headed outside, stepping a few paces away from the wheelhouse and then turning to look up. The younger man came out beside him. Sherlock was standing on the roof of the wheelhouse holding onto the ship's antennae with one hand, his coat whipping dramatically around him in the wind.
"Who the 'ell are you?" The older man asked him.
"My name's Sherlock Holmes," Sherlock told him, looking down at them.
"The detective!" The younger man exclaimed.
"The pirate," Sherlock told them with a smirk and there was a chuckle from behind the two men. They turned around quickly and Lexi was standing behind them, a sword in hand and a pirate hat on her head.
"On your knees, gentlemen!" Lexi ordered them with a smirk on her face.
"How did you get there?!" The older man asked in shock.
"I'm Lexi bloody Holmes," Lexi told them, and John stepped into view on the other side of the antennae next to Sherlock and he pointed a pistol at the men below.
"I suggest you listen to her," John told them both and the younger man raised his hands, his mouth wide in fear, and Sherlock dramatically leapt off the roof towards them.
"A bit dramatic?" Lexi asked her husband as John jumped down as well and joined them.
"I thought it was just enough," Sherlock told her, and she rolled her eyes and kissed his jawbone. "So, you are sure this plan will work?" Sherlock asked her as he and John forced the two men to strip off their clothes and tied them up with a length of rope.
"Finally found one that fits," John remarked, and Lexi snorted, raising an eyebrow at her husband.
"Do you doubt me?" She asked her husband and Sherlock shook his head.
"Of course not," He told her, and he leaned over and kissed her forehead.
"Joanna, Mary, and I will make our way in and infiltrate he guards. You boys will be able to get in whilst in disguise. I will shut down certain systems to make it easier for you three to move about and Joanna and Mary will start looking at what we are dealing with when it comes to security," Lexi told Sherlock and John, going over the plan once more.
"And how exactly do you know all about this?" John asked her curiously and Lexi raised a brow at him in a "Seriously?" look.
"Mycroft forgot who he hired all those years ago. I might have helped him, but I also left a few back doors open. Between an AGRA agent, Joanie, and me, you are now dealing with the three women most likely to break into a secure facility and break out if necessary. We know what we are doing," Lexi assured the arm doctor and John and Sherlock shared a look as Lexi grinned manically. "So gentlemen, …here is what is going to happen to you," Lexi said, addressing the two fisherman before she headed into the wheel house.
An island in the distance loomed ahead, a large storm front close by it. Rain was pouring from the clouds and lightning flashed inside them. The rain hadn't yet reached the island, however. On the island was a castle-like structure and several guards, all dressed warmly against the weather and with blue beanie hats on their heads, patrolled the rooftops, carrying rifles.
On the lower level on the inside of the facility and on the stairs to either side more rifle-carrying guards, without the coats or hats and all wearing white shirts, stood in various places around the area. Yellow-jumpsuited auxiliary staff walked around, going about their daily business. Above the area was a small glass-walled room with many computer screens. Across the area outside, a natural-looking opening in the rock looked out towards the ocean. Inside the glass room however, a technician spoke into a radio.
"Golf Whiskey X-ray, this is a restricted area, repeat, restricted area. You are off course," The technician spoke into a radio and as he spoke, he reached across to a rotary fan on the desk beside him and switched it off. "Are you receiving?" He asked, but there was no immediate reply and he activated his radio again. "Golf Whiskey X-ray, you are off course. Are you receiving?" He asked and the radio from the other end activated.
"Yeah, receiving you. This is a distress call, repeat, distress call. We're in trouble here," A voice came through and a radar image on the screen in front of the technician showed a bright red dot close to the centre of the screen.
"Golf Whiskey X-ray, what is your situation?" The technician asked, but there was no response. "Golf Whiskey X-ray? Where are you now?" The technician demanded.
"We're headed for the rocks. We're going to hit," The man informed him and the technician sat back in his chair, then typed rapidly on a keypad on his desk. A message came up on his screen reading:
SYSTEM LOCKDOWN
RED 5 PROCESS INITIATED
A stream of numbers and letters scrolled underneath, and the technician moved his headset microphone closer to his mouth.
"Governor to the Control Room," The technician announced, and red warning lights started to flash around the facility, a siren beginning to blare, and an automated voice started making announcements from loudspeakers.
"Lockdown in progress. Lockdown in progress," The automated voice announced and all around the complex the external guards, ran along the corridors and headed outside. "Please proceed to designated Red stations. Please proceed to designated Red stations," The automated voice continued.
Two of the guards ran around a headland and saw the older and younger man from the fishing vessel sitting on the sand back to back. Rope was lashed around them, tying them together, and their wrists were bound. The older man looked towards the approaching men and rolled his eyes, sinking his head back. On a metal bridge above them, more guards ran into position and aimed their rifles down at the seamen. As more men ran onto the sand and aimed their rifles at the two of them, the younger man raised his bound hands in front of him.
"No, hold it! Wait, wait, wait, wait!" He cried and one of the guards on the bridge called out to those below him.
"Oi! In the sand!" The guard shouted and one of the guards on the beach looked up at him as he gestured beyond the bound sailors. "In the sand!" The guard shouted again, and the guards turned to look and there was a small inflatable boat which had been dragged up and left nearer to the water. In between the boat and the men, drawn in the sand in large letters were the words:
TELL MY
SISTER
I'M HERE
Inside the facility, the governor of the place hurried out of a lift and into the Control Room, a phone raised to his ear. Around him the auxiliary staff were rushing around the room while the siren continued to blare.
"I need to speak to Mycroft," The governor demand into the phone, while in London, Sir Edwin, sat in the back seat of a car.
"He's in hospital. There was an explosion," Sir Edwin informed him.
"Put me through to the hospital. Or better yet, his wife," The governor demanded.
"He's not conscious. He's severely injured. No-one is even confident he's going to pull through," Sir Edwin told him, lying obviously.
"What about his wife then?" The governor asked tetchily.
"She was injured as well. Neither of them is available," Sir Edwin told him, and the Governor was getting angrier by the minute.
"Where's his brother then? Where's Sherlock Holmes?" The Governor demanded as he trotted upstairs to the glass room.
"Missing. His wife Alexandria as well," Sir Edwin informed him.
"No, they're not. They're here. This has Alexandria written all over it," The governor said before he terminated the call and tucked his phone into the inside breast pocket of his jacket as he walked over to the technician, who pointed at live footage from the beach on one of the screens.
"Sir, we found two more from the boat," The technician informed him, and the governor looked at the screen. John, who was being filmed by a body camera attached to the jacket of one of the guards, was standing with his hands raised while guards aimed their rifles at him. Beside him, also with his hands raised, was an elderly man wearing oilskin overalls. He had a large white bushy beard and matching eyebrows and a woolly hat. The camera-wearing guard moved closer and the man spoke in an indignant south-west England accent.
"He stole our boat! Him an' another fella, with guns! There was also this woman with a sword," The fisherman tried to explain to the guards.
"Where'd you find them?" The governor asked one of the guards.
"North side of the island, sir," The guard responded in a northern Irish accent. The governor peered at the shaky footage, then smiled.
"Holding cell, now," The governor ordered, and the Irish guard nodded.
"Right, sir," The Irish guard said, and John and the fisherman were ushered away as the automated announcement pitched in again.
"Lockdown in progress," The automated voice announced.
Not long afterwards, the alarms had all stopped and the facility was quiet once more. John and the fisherman sat side by side at a table in a small room. The governor walked to the mesh door in front of them and stopped. A guard outside the door deactivates the lock and the door opened. The governor walked inside and one of the beanie-hatted guards was standing inside the room beside the door, holding his rifle pointed down to the floor in front of him. The fisherman immediately started talking as soon as the governor entered the holding cell.
"This is a mistake. I'm the victim 'ere," He told the governor as he stood up and jerked a finger down to John. "This man stole my boat. 'e's a pirate."
"Yeah, I really am," John said, holding back a smirk.
"Please, sit down," The governor ordered the fisherman.
"I-I don't even know who 'e is!" The fisherman told the governor angrily and he sat back down.
"He's Doctor John Watson, formerly of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers," The governor informed the fishman before looking down at John. "What are you doing here?"
"It's a hospital. Any work?" John asked innocently.
"It's not a hospital," The governor told him and, still looking at the people opposite him, he held out a pass towards the guard. "I want eyes on Eurus Holmes and Caradoc MacKenna. Go straight to the Special Unit, deploy Green and Yellow Shift on my authority," He ordered the guard.
"Sir," The guard told him in a northern Irish accent with a nod and turning around, the guard raised the pass to a camera above the door. The door buzzed and unlocked, and the guard walked out. The governor sat down on a chair opposite the other two men then.
"I'm sparing your blushes because we're supposed to be on the same side; and frankly, this is embarrassing," The governor told John, getting down to business.
"Ooh, doing a cavity search?" John asked nonchalantly.
"The true art of disguise, according to your famous friend, is not being looked at," The governor said, turning to the fisherman. "But I am looking at you, aren't I, Mr, Holmes?" He asked as the fisherman looked across the table to him.
"Yes, you are," The fisherman answered in his south-west accent and the governor smiled.
"But that is sort of the point ...," John said as he looked across to the man beside him "... isn't it?" He finished and the fisherman stood up while John turned to the governor. "See, you should have been looking at the guy you just gave your pass to," John informed him while beside him, the 'fisherman' pulled off his hat with one hand, pulling off the white hair at the same time.
With his other hand he pulled off his false nose and moustache, leaving just the white beard in place. Sighing with relief, he lowered his hands to reveal the face of Mycroft Holmes. The governor's smile dropped as Mycroft grinned down at him through his grubby false teeth and raised his eyebrows at him. Elsewhere in the facility, the guard trotted through the deserted hallway and another guard met him in the middle. The second guard has a mustache and beard.
"Did it work?" The guard asked him in a lilting Irish accent, and they turned their head up, a bit of copper hair poking out from under their beanie. The other guard held up the governor's key card.
"Just as planned," The guard told Lexi, in Sherlock's voice.
"Be careful with Eurus, please," Lexi told her husband, closing some distance between them and speaking lowly.
"As long as you be careful with Caradoc," Sherlock told his wife and she bit her lip.
"I'm nervous about this plan. I know we agreed to do this alone, but I don't want you going to see her alone," Lexi admitted, looking down at her feet.
"Nor do I want you breathing the same air as your brother, but we don't know how Eurus will react to seeing you and we need to know how she managed to get out of here," Sherlock told her, turning her face up to his.
"I know," Lexi told him, before she reached up on tip toe and kissed him for a long moment. "Be safe," Lexi whispered to him, stepping away as another guard came around the corner.
"The governor ordered you to keep eyes on Caradoc MacKenna. You have your orders, now go," Sherlock told his wife in his northern Irish accent and back into her role, Lexi nodded before the two parted ways.
Sherlock trotted down some stairs and swiped the governor's card through a reader. The nearby doors opened, and he got into the lift which they had revealed. Turning to face the front the doors closed as Lexi trotted down a different flight of stairs and entered a second lift with a stolen key card which she had nicked off of the guard she had knocked out and stowed in a janitor's closet. Somewhere in the facility, Mary and Joanna were moving around in a similar fashion.
Back in the holding cell, Mycroft had now removed all traces of his disguise and the outer clothing he was wearing, revealing that he had kept on his blue trousers, a white shirt and blue waistcoat. He stood in front of a large mirror on the side wall, smoothing down his hair.
"That's the trouble with uniforms and name badges. People stop looking at faces. You'd be better off with clown outfits," Mycroft told the governor and he turned around to him. "At least they'd be satirically relevant."
"Oh, you'll find the real Landers on the north shore, tied up with two others," John informed the governor with a smirk.
"Two others? Surely you would have needed more than that. Where is Alexandria?" The governor demanded, knowing that she was the one he was most concerned about.
"Mm. Well, it was trial and error," John told him, and he gestured to his own waist as he spoke. "We had to find the right waistband. As for the others, they hardly needed a disguise to get in. You forgot who Lexi is," John said, amused.
"This is insane! This is unnecessary!" The governor exclaimed, knowing that he was losing control of the situation.
"No; your security is compromised, and we don't know who to trust," Mycroft told the governor sternly.
"And that justifies dressing up?" The governor asked him in disbelief.
"Yes, it does!" Mycroft told him loudly and angrily and he turned to face the governor. "It justifies dressing up or any damned thing I say it does. Now, listen to me: for your own physical safety do not speak, do not indulge in any non-verbal signals suggestive of internal thought. If the safety of my sister is compromised; if the security of my sister is compromised; if the incarceration of my sister is compromised – in short, if I find any indication my sister has left this island at any time, I swear to you, you will not. That goes the same for Caradoc MacKenna. I have it on the authority of my sister in law that he attempted to murder her. Her word is more valuable than you own at any time," Mycroft told the governor angrily, glaring at the man, who was standing with his hands behind his back and not moving as instructed. Mycroft tilted his head towards John then.
"Say thank you to Doctor Watson," Mycroft ordered more calmly.
"Why?" The governor asked in confusion.
"He talked me out of Lady Bracknell. This could have been very different," Mycroft told the, and the cell door opened behind them.
"I would have loved to see that amante," Joanna said as she entered the room. She was wearing a sliming black dress and three-inch heels, her hair up in a bun, obviously just having removed her disguise as she held a rifle in her hands.
"Hello. Joanna Holmes," Joanna introduced herself to the governor who was astounded at seeing another person who had gotten into his secure facility unnoticed. "Your security is frankly laughable. If we managed to get in, how do you expect others can't come in or out of this facility? I want the files of every person working here, including your own and I want them yesterday," Joanna ordered, and the governor raised an eyebrow at her authoritative tone.
"And why would I do that?" The governor asked her sarcastically and Mycroft only smirked.
"Because I'm not opposed to hurting you if I have to," Joanna told the Governor with a grin and he gulped at the expression on her face. Joanna turned to her husband then "Amante…Lexi is on her way down to the Secure Unit."
"And may God have mercy on her," Mycroft said before he turned away and put his right hand to his ear. "Are you in?" He asked and, in the lift, Sherlock put his own right hand to his ear.
"Just arriving at the Secure Unit. Explain," Sherlock ordered as an automated voice announced that the door was opening. Sherlock turned to the doors opening behind him and walked along a long corridor, slouching and rocking his body from side to side as he disguised his normal stride.
"A prison within a prison. Eurus must be allowed the strict minimum of human interaction," Mycroft informed him over the earpiece.
"And yet you allowed my wife to come in contact with her," Sherlock quipped quietly.
"The situations were vastly different. Since you're determined to meet her, you're about to find out exactly why it must be that way. Don't let her see Lexi. After the last time, I'm not sure how such a reunion would go, and I don't care to find out," Mycroft informed his brother.
"Lexi and I agreed to do this alone, her with Caradoc and me with Eurus," Sherlock told his brother, having some second thoughts about the plan. What if Lexi couldn't do this by herself. No, she was strong. Stronger than even she knew.
"Be wary. Don't trust her, ever," Mycroft warned.
"Lexi has already informed me about what to look out for," Sherlock informed his brother and as he reached the far end of the corridor and stopped between two white-shirted guards. The sound of music being played on a violin was coming tinnily from a short distance away. The tune was that of the song that Eurus used to sing to him.
"Eyes on Eurus Holmes," Sherlock said in his fake northern Irish accent which Lexi had perfected with him. He unslung his rifle from his shoulder and handed it to one of the guards. "Governor's orders."
Back in the holding cell, Mycroft had now put on his suit jacket and had walked closer to the governor. Joanna smoothed down his suit jacket and Mycroft caught her hand in his and brought it to his lips and kissed her fingers. She smiled at him before stepping to his side.
"Answer yes or no. Has there ever been – against my express instructions – any attempt at a psychiatric evaluation of Eurus Holmes?" Mycroft asked the governor, now back to himself.
"Yes," The governor answered him.
"I presume the tapes are in our office?" Mycroft asked as he and Joanna walked towards the open door.
"Your office?" The governor asked in confusion.
"Cast your mind back. It used to be yours," Mycroft called back to him, leaving the cell with John following behind him and Joanna. "Mon amore," He added to Joanna, taking her hand in his own.
Lexi stood in the lift, her legs shaking slightly. Caradoc had always scared her, even more so than Moriarty. The last time she had seen him was when she four. She had never seen him directly when he came after her when she was seventeen, but even the knowledge of him being after her had terrified her. She inhaled and exhaled several times, grounding herself.
It was a lot different this time around. She wasn't a defenseless four-year-old and she was no longer still weak from surgery. She had been trained by Joanna and by Mary. She had defeated serial killers, mass murderers, assassins, Moriarty's web and the spider himself. If she could do all that and survive then Caradoc was nothing. He was the monster under her bed, but now she was a wife and a mother, and he was nothing more than just a bug to be squashed. The doors to the lift opened and she stepped out, a slight slouch to her body and limp in her step, hiding her natural stride, but she held her head up high.
She reached the far end of the corridor and stopped between two white-shirted guards. It was strangely silent, and she wasn't sure if she liked that or not.
"The governor's ordered me to keep eyes on Caradoc MacKenna," Lexi said in the south-west English accent she was using. She unslung her rifle from her shoulder and handed it to one of the guards. She might be unarmed, but she had her wits about her.
She stepped past the guards and entered the next room into a marked area on the floor a few feet in front of a door. The white lighting above her head began to oscillate back forth, as she was scanned. The lights above her head turned green and then white as another guard approached her. There was a second guard, monitoring a series of computer screens, but she ignored him.
"No one is allowed to provide MacKenna human contact," The white shirted guard informed Lexi and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Be that as it may, the governor gave me specific orders to keep eyes on him. Unless you are deaf, we are currently in lockdown. The governor is taking no risks," Lexi told the guard in a deepened voice and she showed him her stole key card.
"Alright then. Keep three feet away from the glass at all times and no talking to him," The guard ordered her.
"I'll give the orders, sir," Lexi told him, and the guard's jaw tightened but he remained silent as she stepped into the second lift.
She sighed as the doors slid closed and she straightened up to her full height before she began taking off her uniform. She shook her head as she took off her beanie, her long copper hair falling down her back as she dropped it behind her before she peeled off the fake mustache and beard. Underneath the uniform she had on a pair of dress slacks and one of Sherlock's button-down shirts on. She still hadn't lost all of the baby weight and she needed something slightly bigger in case she had to defend herself.
As she stepped out of the lift, she was left completely alone with her "brother." Several feet in front of the lift was a wide wall made up of three floor-to-ceiling glass panels. On each of the panels, about three feet from the floor, a notice had been stencilled onto the glass reading in white letters "MAINTAIN DISTANCE OF THREE FEET". On the other side of the glass was a large semi-circular room lined with bare grey panels. Soft white lighting came from the tops of the panels and a large circular panel of lights in the middle of the ceiling sent green light down into the room. Running down the middle of the room, about eight feet wide, was a rectangular strip of white flooring and the rest of the floor was grey, matching the walls. There was a bed at the far end of the room and to the left near the end was a seat and table fastened to the wall, but there was no other furniture.
Laying on the bed behind the wall of glass was Caradoc MacKenna. He didn't even look her way as she entered the room, the lift door closing behind her. It clicked close and Lexi smiled as the light flashed yellow two times near the key card controls, not noticing the light in the room turn from green to white. Mary had the door controls so they wouldn't be disturbed. She turned around, about to take of her beanie, but Caradoc was there, his whole body pressed against the glass and a manic grin on his face.
"Hello…little sister," Caradoc said, and Lexi raised an eyebrow and stepped up to the glass, even if a sign on it warned for everyone to keep three feet away.
"Hello…asshole," Lexi greeted him, and Caradoc threw back his head and laughed eerily, the noise echoing around his cell.
