"Sophia?"I hear a voice call out from far away and it echoes through the ominous darkness. I think I've heard the voice before, but my mind is so clouded with a throbbing pain that I can't concentrate on anything. I don't know who or where I am and I attempt to open my eyes to go and investigate. Perhaps this is what it feels like to be dead, I think to myself as my eyes close again. Perhaps the body I inhabited before was an awful person and so I'm in hell - trapped forever in a situation of absolute craziness. I don't remember what happened, but I identify the source of the pain to be in my back as the constant throbbing begins to soften as I get used to it. A small slither of light burns my thick eyelids for a moment before it dissapears again, just as quickly as it arrived. For the first time since I gained consencness, I feel alone, as if somebody or something left me through that strip of light. I hear a struggle nearby and goosebumps form on my arms as I hear the same, familiar voice, calling out for help. Motivated, my eyes open easily and I find that I'm lying on the floor of somebodys bathroom, and my the clouds dissapear from my brain. I was drugged into a state of wooziness to distaract me from the next murder. My dad. Stumbling to my feet, I fling open the door, my head still spinning from the after effects of the drug. I blink away the sudden light which peneteates my delicate retenas and leap upon the attacker from behind as dads eyes begin to close. I kick his popleatil fossa and he falls to the ground, but he grabs my hand and pulls me down with him. Still weak, I'm unable to save myself from a hard landing as the assailent regains his stance. Dads struggles get weaker and I'm unable to do anything because of the drug. I squint away the stars and attempt at making a deduction about him to try and work out how to stop him. This is a young man with obvious levels of athletic training. His size suggests a more graceful type of sport, so he's an acrobat, one used to working with ropes by the look of his hands. This is the one who left the messages and who killed Van Coon and Lukis.

To my suprise, as dad drops his hands from the scarf wrapped around his neck restricting his breating, the attacker too realeses his grip on the piece of silk. Downstairs, the doorbell rings, but I realise it must only be John, angrily ringing the doorbell for us to let him in. Hearing the sound and realising that backup is not far away, the assailent shoves something into dads coat pocket as his eyes begin to close and runs off. Dad begins to choak and cough, so I help him tug off the scarf and to roll him over into a position that will get more oxygen into his lungs. Dad gets onto his hands and knees, still breathing raspily as the attacker disappears through the beaded curtains into the kitchen and through the window once more. I help him sit up on his heels as he rummages through his pockets and pulls out a small, black, origami flower, similar to the ones wefoundin the two apartments. Dad looksatit fora second before he stumbles to his feet once more.

"Sophie," he croaks, "are you okay? Can you walk?" Inod weaklythen stand up myself.

"Yea, I'm fine," I reasure him, my voice almost giving up on me. "He drugged me as a distraction to get to you. I'm sorry, I couldn't think straight for a minute or two. I don't know howyou can stand those things." He shrugs carelessly, but then grips me by the shoulders and looks me sternly in the eyes.

"Go to Molly for a test, tell her what happened, and make sure you get it out of your system." I nod, showing that I understand, but my head is spinning. "I'll get you a cab, but then I'll have to leave you." I smile reasuringly and nod.

"No, it's fine," I say as we head for the stairs. "I'll catch up with you later." Dad opens the door downstairs to reveal an exasperated John, who glares at us in annoyance.

"The, uh, milk's gone off and the washing's starting to smell," dad says, missing out our attack to protect John. "Somebody left here in a hurry three days ago."

"Somebody?" John questions and dad nods, his voice still rough.

"Soo Lin Yao. We have to find her."

"We think there's a connection between her and the killer," I tell him as dad bends down. "If we can find her before he does, then we have a chance of learning some more about what Van Coon and Lukis was smuggling."

"But how, exactly?" Dad picks somethingoff of the ground, addressed to the young female.

SOO LIN

Please ring me

tell me you're

OK

Andy

I continue to watch as dad unfoldsthe envelope and I nudge in beside him to see what the text printed in the bottom right hand corner. How convenient.

NATIONAL

ANTIQUITIES

MUSEUM

"Maybe we could start with this," dad suggests, as he walks out, holding the door open for me to follow.

"You've gone all croaky,"John tells dad as we walk down the road, looking for a taxi for me."Are you getting a cold?"

"I'm fine," dad replies, coughing. A taxi comes down the road and dad holds out his hand to hail it. John steps forward, as if to get in, but dad pushes him back. "No, this one's for Sophie. She just needs to go somewhere," he says blankly, "for school." I nod, smiling convincingly to John.

"You sure she's alright on her own?" Dad and I both give him a look and he spins away in exasperation. "Oh, I forgot, Sherlockthe second!" Dad looks me in the eyes as I spin around, now seated in the cab.

"Meet me in the Museum when you're done, I might need you." I nod briefly before dad hands the cabbie the money and the address, then sends me off.

I stand in one of the labs, awaiting my test results, tentatively sipping a hot cup of coffee, ignoring the burning feeling as it scolds my mouth. My head isstillpounding with the effects the drug had on me, but I can focus now, and I can feel my strength coming back to me slowly. The doors behind me open, and I spin around, putting down my mug as Molly comes in, holding a sheet of official looking paper.

"How's it looking?" I ask her as she draws closer, her face unreadable.

"Could be better," she admits. "The drug you were injected with wasn't addictive and it's a common medicine given outto patients. In small doses, it's harmless, but as you discovered, very dangerous if not carefully measured." I nod, allowing the information to sink in.

"How long until it's out of my system?" I question, my fingers playing around with the handle on my cup.

"If you keep on drinking, then I estimate it'll be out in around five minutes. I'd recommend you leave just after, to make sure you're able to think for yourself outside." I nod once more before taking the mug up again and taking another sip.

"Thank you," I say, surprising myself at the spontaneity of my outburst. Molly alsolooks taken aback, not remembering the last time I used my manners towards her.

"Oh," she says, brushing away a stray hair from her eyes, "oh, it's fine." She places the results beside me, then exits, leaving me still puzzled over why I thanked her. I take out my phone and tap a small text to dad before I follow her out, my mug now empty.

I find dad and John standing with a geeky looking twenty year old male near the Chinese antiques and slip in beside John as dad paces around, looking at the different displays.

"When was the last time that you saw her?" dadasks him as the young male standsawkwardly in thecorner.

"Three days ago," he replies, "um, here at the museum." Dad stops for a moment to look at atall glass case containing some clay teapots. I join him and see that there is a difference between the shine on the teapots, and that most of them are dull, but one is shiny. "This morning they told me she'd resigned just like that." Dad movesalong to look at somemore traditional Chinese artworks,but I stay put, taking in the information inside the case. "Just left her work unfinished," the man finishes, and dad turns to face him.

"What was the last thing that she did on her final afternoon?" The man thinks for a moment but then remembers something, and begins to lead us down towards the basement archives.

"What do we know then?" I question dad quietly as we follow him. "That this guy Andy had a crush on Soo Lin..."

"He's been close to her ever since she joined," dad tells me. "More or less from the first time she walked through these doors, he's been following her around like a puppy."

"Not a possible murderer though, is he?"

"This man has clearly just left collage after studying History where he was rejected by several women," dad begins showing off and I roll my eyes and cough. "Certainly not an audacious criminal mastermind," he finishes as we arrive in the archive.

"She does this demonstration for the tourists – a-a tea ceremony," Andy explains as he switches the lights on and leads us in. "So she would have packed up her things and just put them in here." He stops us by an open stack and starts spinning the handle at the end to widen the gap. I quickly glance inside, but see nothing out of the ordinary, so I spin around, beginning to investigate what the young woman would have seen on the night of her dissapearance. It doesn't take me long before my eyes fall upon a large statue of a nude woman.

"Sherlock," I call quietly, and he spins around joining my side as we stare at her. The horizontal line - the number one, as we now know - is sprayed across the womans eyes, and the number fifteen in Hangzou is sprayed below it. My eye narrow as I realise the numbers have swapped, but brush over that thought as Andy and John join us.

"Sherlock, isn't that-?"

"Yes," I reply, answering for my dad as Andy looks puzzled.

"I don't understand," he says, walking around the statue. "Why have they painted over her?"

"Because this is a warning," dad tells Andy, and I look to him in surprise. "Andy, did Soo Lin ever talk about her family and her personal life to you?"

"No," he tells us in realisation. "She always declined any opportunity of going out and I always put it down to her social life. Are you saying, Mr Holmes, that Soo Lin is in danger?" Dad doesn't reply. That's exactly what he's implying. She's still alive, which is why the killer was at her flat. He's looking for her, and we have no idea where she is.

"We have to get to Soo Lin Yao," dad tells us as we leave the Museam a while later, after collecting some final data.

"If she's still alive," John says negitavely.

"Sherlock!" someone calls and we turn to see Raz running towards us.

"Oh, look who it is," John says, looking dissaprovingly at Raz.

"Found something you'll like," he tells me and dad before turning and leading us away. Dad and I follow immediately, whereas John stays behind us, following at a slower pace.

We walk for about ten minutes in silent determination of finding our next clue, and possibley getting closer to solving this case all together. John seems to still be fuming over us walking with the person that is getting him sent to court, and voices this problem as we cross the Hungerford bridge,heading towards the south of the Themes.

"Tuesday morning, all you've gotta do is turn up and say the bag was yours," he says.

"Forget about your court date," dad tells him as Raz smirks.

"Oh, really!" John says in amusmant. "I'm being sent to court for something that I have never done, nor do I have any intention of doing, yet the culprit of this entire problem is walking right in front of me!" The hairs on the back of my neck stand up again, sensing that someone is watching us again. John continues to protest but I blank him out until we reach the South Bank Skate Park, where he finally sileneces himself. Raz leads us across the under-croft as a boy around my age does some sort of special trick on his bike.

"Dude, that was rad!" I hear a girl call as I spin around, taking in the amount of grafiti on the walls.

"If you wanna hide a tree in the middle of a forest, this is the best place to do it, wouldn't you say?" dad questions, metaphorically."People would just walk straight past, not knowing, unable to decipher the message." Raz stops and points to an area on the heavily-graffitied walls.

"There," he says as another shout rings out from behind us. "I spotted it earlier." Hidden between all the other colours and types of paint, there are some other Chinese symbols, different to the ones that we've already found. They've already been partially obscurred by other artist tags and other pointless images.

"Theyhave been in here," dad mutters as I take a picture of the wall. "And that's the exact same paint?"

"Yeah," Raz confirms and dad turns to John.

"John, if we're going to decipher this code, we're gonna need to look for more evidence."

"We should split up, that way we'll cover more ground," I suggest and dad nods.

"We'll check the tracks, you hang about here with Raz for a bit and look for some more evidence. You blend in better down here." I nod, confirming I've understood. Once the boys have left, I'm left to to the wolf whistles of idiots.