A/N: This chapter was REALLY short, so I included the epilogue in here.
The end of the line for this story! I's love it if you could review,
please. Some ideas for another story would be welcome, too! BTW,
everything in here is not my property. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 5
We made a quick stop at the police station, picked up Lestrade, and made our way to Terrene's Shoe Shop for whatever reason. Could the shooting be related to the firework?
Having reached our destination, we paid the driver of the hansom and went into a dark alley beside the shop. Shortly after, a short man in a trenchcoat approached. Holmes stepped out, and said something to him, before leading him over to the wall. Suddenly, the man shouted out, "You're not Davison's agent!" and made a run for it. We had no choice but to follow him over walls, under litter bins, and around buildings, all the time firing at each other.
We finally reached a high brick wall, where our pursuit ended. The man had one last trick up his sleeve, though. He found a crack in the wall just large enough for him to fit through. Sherlock, with his thin, gaunt body, was the only one able to follow. Lestrade and I could only wait.
After only a few seconds, though, Sherlock returned with the man, who seemed to be unconscious. "There you have him, Lestrade. Master Achlyos Merides."
A bewildered Lestrade replied, "Well, let's get him back to headquarters."
Epilogue
The man confessed to everything. As usual, Lestrade and I were dying to know just how Sherlock did it.
"It began with the death threats. This was no spur-of-the-moment deal, it was all preplanned. If you will look more carefully at the threats, you will notice that the number three is written in blue ink, not black. They had to have written the note beforehand, perhaps planning to use it at a different time, then written in the three with a different pen.
"Also, the Greek 'e' implies Greek ancestry. I deduced that our man was Greek quite easily.
"This is where it gets a bit complicated. If you were paying attention during the explosion, you'd have seen that it flashed green for a moment, then red. This implied a momentary presence of copper in the magnesium sulphide firework. That's what I was looking for in the crater: a small piece of copper. It did, however, impose a new query upon us.
"You must have heard the small explosions inside the living chamber, Watson. I was trying to recreate the green-and-red explosion. After four days, I deemed it impossible. I ruled out many possibilities until the only one left was that the copper was a foreign mass that triggered the explosion of the firework. A bullet? That was the only possible way. Just enough speed, just hot enough.
"But a copper bullet? Most bullets, as you know, are either aluminium, lead, or steel. Why copper? I figured that it had to be some government top-secret model of bullet.
"Sure enough, I conferred with Mycroft and he confessed to the existence of the copper ammunition. That is the purpose of the new factory, but for the sake of secrecy, I trust you won't tell anyone in the unfortunate case of a deja-vous.
"The shooting of Mr. Terrene was an unfortunate mishap. After examining the room, I found a bullet hole in the wall that lined up with his wound. Therefore, an outsider shot him accidentally. The bullet was, as I suspected, copper. This meant that either someone had broken into the high-security government offices, or it was someone on the inside. I know most of the workers in Mycroft's offices simply from my visits, so the only task was to figure out who it could have been. You see, eight of my acquaintances there are Greek.
"As you saw, the firework stands were made of bullet-proof metal about five feet high. I calculated that only someone on the third floor or above could have managed to send a bullet over that from such a distance. That was the purpose of the Irregulars: to find any possible agents within that area so I attempt to match someone on the list with one of the eight possibilities. It was a slim chance, but behold the powers of luck, I found Mr. Merides.
"We needed only apprehend him. I lured him to Terrene's, which was obviously the location of the secret meetings to sell the bullets. He took the bait, and we caught him."
"Excellent, Holmes!"
"Yes, however do you do it?"
I had just one question, though. "Who is Davison?"
"Ah, just an alias I made up. It worked!"
In the end, the three of us were awarded medals by Her Majesty. After that ceremony (with no fireworks, thank goodness), we returned to 221B Baker Street. Before we even had a chance to have a smoke, a woman knocked upon our door. A new case had begun!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EVIL IS AFOOT!!!!!
OK, wateva. Just had to get that out of my system. ;) What did you think? As I said, that was my first Fic, so review!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 5
We made a quick stop at the police station, picked up Lestrade, and made our way to Terrene's Shoe Shop for whatever reason. Could the shooting be related to the firework?
Having reached our destination, we paid the driver of the hansom and went into a dark alley beside the shop. Shortly after, a short man in a trenchcoat approached. Holmes stepped out, and said something to him, before leading him over to the wall. Suddenly, the man shouted out, "You're not Davison's agent!" and made a run for it. We had no choice but to follow him over walls, under litter bins, and around buildings, all the time firing at each other.
We finally reached a high brick wall, where our pursuit ended. The man had one last trick up his sleeve, though. He found a crack in the wall just large enough for him to fit through. Sherlock, with his thin, gaunt body, was the only one able to follow. Lestrade and I could only wait.
After only a few seconds, though, Sherlock returned with the man, who seemed to be unconscious. "There you have him, Lestrade. Master Achlyos Merides."
A bewildered Lestrade replied, "Well, let's get him back to headquarters."
Epilogue
The man confessed to everything. As usual, Lestrade and I were dying to know just how Sherlock did it.
"It began with the death threats. This was no spur-of-the-moment deal, it was all preplanned. If you will look more carefully at the threats, you will notice that the number three is written in blue ink, not black. They had to have written the note beforehand, perhaps planning to use it at a different time, then written in the three with a different pen.
"Also, the Greek 'e' implies Greek ancestry. I deduced that our man was Greek quite easily.
"This is where it gets a bit complicated. If you were paying attention during the explosion, you'd have seen that it flashed green for a moment, then red. This implied a momentary presence of copper in the magnesium sulphide firework. That's what I was looking for in the crater: a small piece of copper. It did, however, impose a new query upon us.
"You must have heard the small explosions inside the living chamber, Watson. I was trying to recreate the green-and-red explosion. After four days, I deemed it impossible. I ruled out many possibilities until the only one left was that the copper was a foreign mass that triggered the explosion of the firework. A bullet? That was the only possible way. Just enough speed, just hot enough.
"But a copper bullet? Most bullets, as you know, are either aluminium, lead, or steel. Why copper? I figured that it had to be some government top-secret model of bullet.
"Sure enough, I conferred with Mycroft and he confessed to the existence of the copper ammunition. That is the purpose of the new factory, but for the sake of secrecy, I trust you won't tell anyone in the unfortunate case of a deja-vous.
"The shooting of Mr. Terrene was an unfortunate mishap. After examining the room, I found a bullet hole in the wall that lined up with his wound. Therefore, an outsider shot him accidentally. The bullet was, as I suspected, copper. This meant that either someone had broken into the high-security government offices, or it was someone on the inside. I know most of the workers in Mycroft's offices simply from my visits, so the only task was to figure out who it could have been. You see, eight of my acquaintances there are Greek.
"As you saw, the firework stands were made of bullet-proof metal about five feet high. I calculated that only someone on the third floor or above could have managed to send a bullet over that from such a distance. That was the purpose of the Irregulars: to find any possible agents within that area so I attempt to match someone on the list with one of the eight possibilities. It was a slim chance, but behold the powers of luck, I found Mr. Merides.
"We needed only apprehend him. I lured him to Terrene's, which was obviously the location of the secret meetings to sell the bullets. He took the bait, and we caught him."
"Excellent, Holmes!"
"Yes, however do you do it?"
I had just one question, though. "Who is Davison?"
"Ah, just an alias I made up. It worked!"
In the end, the three of us were awarded medals by Her Majesty. After that ceremony (with no fireworks, thank goodness), we returned to 221B Baker Street. Before we even had a chance to have a smoke, a woman knocked upon our door. A new case had begun!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EVIL IS AFOOT!!!!!
OK, wateva. Just had to get that out of my system. ;) What did you think? As I said, that was my first Fic, so review!
