From mrspencil: a mistaken identity

"Holmes? Holmes?!"

Watson's concerned features swam into focus somewhere above me and, as I regained my awareness, the relieved sigh he breathed mimicked my own feelings entirely.

"Thank God." He eased me up slowly from the floor. "I was convinced Hendriks would have shot you."

I shook my head, and instantly regretted the movement, as my vision swam again.

"Would have attracted too much attention." I swallowed down the sudden surge of nausea and, with Watson's help, managed to stand. I leaned on him heavily, ignoring his grumbles that he should have looked at my ankle as soon as it was injured. "Watson, Hendriks was lying. The ship is sinking."

"I know." He wrapped an arm around my waist and we set off at a shuffling, ungainly gait. "Van Es explained everything."

"Van Es?"

"I'll explain on the way," he promised as we left the brig which, now I looked around, was in quite a state of disarray.

"What has happened here?!"

"An encounter with some of your captors," he said with a dry chuckle. "But I shall get to that in a moment. I caught up with van Es, but he had no idea who I was. This, coupled with the fact that he didn't have my revolver, struck me as peculiar, so I decided to listen to what he had to say.

"Your brother's information was right, Holmes, to an extent. He is a Dutch spy, but he wasn't in London to gain information about the British government. He was placed with an offshoot of a Dutch criminal syndicate, and it was they who wanted him to gather information regarding import tax evasion for their bosses. However, this particular offshoot of men - led by Hendriks - decided instead to use this information for their own ends; to start their own smuggling business."

"Lace." Suddenly the meaning of that word they had repeated - kant - came to me. "They were smuggling lace."

Watson nodded. "Van Es argued against their plan, as he needed them to go back to the main syndicate so he could continue gathering information. Hendriks grew suspicious, discovered who he really was, and tried to kill him. A group of them chased him down to the engines, where the Captain was carrying out his daily walk-around."

"They mistook him for van Es," I realised. "They never intended to shoot the Captain at all."

"Indeed. And whilst van Es hid in the crawlspace nearby, he overheard their plans. With the Captain injured there would be an investigation, their smuggled goods would be discovered in the hold, and the game would be up. But if they sunk the ship they could escape with the lifeboats and the lace, the larger syndicate would assume they had perished, and van Es would be killed along with everyone else."

By this point, we had emerged from the bowels of the ship and were nearly above deck. A man approached us, and I tensed, my recent encounter with Hendriks having left me wary. As the man drew closer, however, I recognised the engineer Dekker.

"Aha! You've found him!" He came and replaced Watson at my side. This was just as well, as Watson's own leg was no doubt feeling the strain of our combined weight.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr Holmes," Dekker said as the three of us emerged out onto the deck. Groups of passengers and crewmen were packing themselves in tight onto lifeboats which were then lowered down into the sea. I looked out and saw several distant, bobbing dots which must have been those lifeboats that had already been loaded. "I do so enjoy reading your adventures."

Perhaps I should have had more patience, but the last thing I wished to deal with on top of everything else was a fervent admirer of Watson's romanticised drivel.

"You haven't finished your explanation," I addressed Watson over Dekker's head. "What happened after van Es told you all this? Where are the criminals now?"

"Well, we got most of them." Dekker was apparently unaffected by my brusque manner. "I already had my suspicions about the boiler, because there was a similar malfunction on The Stratwarden a few years back that sunk the ship. When I tried to explain it to Hendriks he didn't want to know, but there were some other crewmen who felt the same. Then I came across Doctor Watson with Mr van Es and they told me everything. So whilst Mr van Es got the passengers assembled, me and my men set to rounding up the criminals, while Doctor Watson went to find you."

At last I was permitted to sit, and did so somewhat shakily. Dekker handed me Watson's cane.

"Found this near the boilers. Thought it might come in handy!"

"It's not mine," I grunted, waving it away impatiently, but Watson pushed it into my hand.

"You need it more than I do. Now, let me see your foot."

"You said you got 'most of them'?" I asked through gritted teeth as Watson eased off my shoe, hissing at the swollen ankle beneath. "What about the rest?"

"Well, Mr van Es told us there were ten of them- oh, one moment." Dekker broke off swiftly to issue an order in Dutch to a passing steward regarding the passenger numbers on lifeboats. "Me and my men gathered five, and Doctor Watson had a tussle with two of them at the brig-"

"Two?" I interrupted, looking to Watson in some surprise. "You took on two of them?"

"I had the element of surprise," he answered with an impish smirk. He had finished stabilising my ankle and moved on now on to look at my head. "This looks nasty, Holmes..."

I ignored that and directed my questions back to Dekker. "What of the other three?"

"Escaped," he answered grimly. "The 16th lifeboat is missing."

"16? There are only 16 lifeboats?" [1]

"Terrible, isn't it?" Watson chimed, now wiping dried blood from my forehead and wincing at what he saw. "If the voyage had sold all its tickets things would be rather hopeless. Even now it's a tight squeeze."

I watched again as another lifeboat, nearly overflowing with passengers, was lowered into the water. "Are we nearly there?"

Watson nodded. "The women and children went first, of course, and there have been a few men sent with them to steer. The poor Captain was on one of the first lifeboats too. We have advised everybody to head, as close as they can, back towards the British coast. Hopefully Mycroft will pick us all up as he finds us. I said we would go last, with Dekker, van Es and the remaining crewmen, so I could take a look at your ankle. And your head," he added as an afterthought, "although of course I didn't know about that at the time."

"My head is fine." He looked disbelieving, so I amended, "A little sore is all."

He looked unconvinced, but snapped his medical bag shut all the same. "Well there won't be time for stitches, but I've cleaned it up at least."

I was only just starting to realise that some of the odd tilting sensation that I was experiencing was due to the sinking of the ship, and not to my impaired sense of balance. One of the crewmen yelled over to us, and Dekker shouted something back before saying to us, "This is it then, the last lifeboat. If we get you on first, Mr Holmes?"

I frowned, and opened my mouth to argue, but Watson forestalled my refusal.

"It will make things easier for the rest of us, Holmes, if we don't have to worry about you tripping over your own broken foot."

"It's not broken," I rejoined, but with little heat. Watson looked about as tired as I did, still in the shirt that was stained with the captain's dried blood, and I had no wish to stir up a fuss for no reason. I accepted Dekker's hand and let him pull me onto my feet. With Watson's cane I limped to the lifeboat and another crewman helped me hop in. Someone had had the foresight to stuff the boat with blankets, and now twilight had set in the temperature was rapidly dropping. The ocean looked far more intimidating now the wind had picked up, but this was no time for nerves. The ship was sinking lower and lower whether we wished it to or not, and one way or another we would be thrust out to sea. I would much prefer it happen on my own terms.

"Mr Holmes?" I was jolted from my reflections by Mr van Es. He offered me a cigarette from his case, and lit it for me. "I am glad to meet you, sir. You know they taught me some of your techniques, when I was in training in The Netherlands?"

I smiled wearily and shook his hand. "I wish we might have met under better circumstances." I jerked my head towards the huddle of men standing a little way away - this huddle included Watson, Dekker and the other crewmen who would be coming on this final lifeboat. "What are they talking about?"

Van Es spoke impeccable English, with hardly a trace of an accent - useful, I imagined, for a man in his profession. "Before the boats were lowered by other men, but now of course we need to find a way to get everyone in. They are trying to figure out how is best. I believe Doctor Watson has suggested that he and I lower the boat, then use a rope ladder to follow on."

I eyed Watson, who was speaking animatedly to the assembled men. "Why the two of you? Surely a member of the crew would make more sense."

He shrugged. "It isn't a difficult job, Mr Holmes. They have a pulley system, easy to operate with no physical strain. Dekker and the two other engineers will need to use their skill to keep the lifeboat close to the main ship so the pulley operators can climb down, and the other men are all stewards, and all older. I don't know that they could keep a tight enough hold on the rope on the way down, especially in this wind."

Watson was adept at hiding his physical hurts, but I knew him well enough to see the stiff set to his left shoulder as he nodded along eagerly to whatever it was Dekker had just said. "You know he was wounded in Afghanistan? His shoulder-"

"I know, Mr Holmes." Van Es's stare was piercing and grey - not unlike mine, I considered to myself. "But he is a stubborn man. One of the reasons I volunteered my help was because without him, I wouldn't be here. I will keep him safe, Mr Holmes."

I pursed my lips, but nodded my assent. "Nothing has gone as planned on this trip."

Van Es made to respond, but then Dekker was calling out and assembling his men - it was time to get the other passengers aboard. So he stubbed out his cigarette, and went to help attach the lifeboat to its pulleys. Watson came over and dropped his medical bag into my lap.

"No one is allowed to take non-essentials, but seeing as I have already lost my revolver," he shrugged, with a wry smile. "Van Es and I are going to help lower the boat, Holmes, so do save me a blanket, won't you?"

I smiled back, though I fear it was more of a grimace as I tried in vain to banish the discomfiting sense that something was about to go terribly wrong. "Of course, Watson."

[1] Based off of the infamous Titanic, and the regulations which meant they had so very few lifeboats.

A/N: Final part to this (in theory) will be coming in response to my 19th Dec Prompt, so you have a little while to wait and see what's happened to the boys! Also, I have done very minimal research into steamships of the time because I was tired, so apologies if there are any glaring errors in there.