Here's chapter 52! I have finally planned the entire story, exactly what happens and when, so I hope the next chapter will come sooner! Especially as I am somehow really motivated right now. Wuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
By the way, for those who didn't quite get what the sign Kiara sprayed meant - basically it is a warning for other criminal. It will be explained in detail later on in the story :D
Thanks to my lovely reviewers, and especially to shezzatective on tumblr for being a great person to discuss ideas with :)
Mycroft obviously does his job very convincingly, as I watch them through the security cameras in the Yard. Sherlock showed me how to hack myself into them, it's not a hard job and I could have done so myself easily, but he slips past the security easily. When I ask him how he did that so quickly he just smirks, telling me he "had a bit of practice". I decide not to ask again, even though I can imagine pretty well what he means. How must Dr Watson have felt, finding Sherlock sitting at a laptop with full access to the databank of New Scotland Yard? The way he seemed to me the times we met he had quite high moral standards.
Lestrade only grits his teeth and nods in a resigned manner, the woman next to him looks slightly scared, but even more angry and affronted. I can't help but laugh out loud when I realise that it was her who arrested me.
In the next two weeks we search for Moran, trying to find his exact location, but he keeps slipping out of our reach – just when we think we know where he is, we get another lead saying something else. It's mind-numbing and exhausting, and many evenings are spent by me practising in the basement, trying to stay fit, but mostly to keep the boredom and frustration at bay. We are so close to finishing this, and even though I have no idea what to do once it's all over, I want Moran dead – and I know Sherlock feels the same, though he has different reasons.
I check the network-app every few days, looking for data we can use, but sometimes I just don't want to look through it, don't want that feeling of hope being crushed once again. Which is exactly why I find the video-file a day too late.
It takes a moment to realise what I am seeing, then I gasp.
"Shit! Sherlock, look!" We are in Mycroft's study, so he just jumps up and goes behind the chair I am sitting in to look at the screen. I'm actually scared when his eyes widen for a moment and then narrow, his face turning stony.
"Mycroft, how is this possible?" He snaps, gesturing at my phone, and Mycroft, who was just getting up to look at the phone as well, frowns.
"What's going on?" he asks, sounding confused, as I continue staring at the screen in horror, watching the video that luckily plays without sound.
"John's been kidnapped, that's what's going on!" Sherlock hisses, and I can feel the anger radiating from him – towards his brother.
"Sherlock, this is not My's fault, I don't know how this could have happened. Remember the last time you blamed My for letting Dr Watson being kidnapped?" Sherlock momentarily pauses at this, remembering the scene in the basement with Anthea all too well, and I use that break to continue.
"I don't know whether this video is real, even though it looks like it. My, check through security cameras from the last two days. The video was saved yesterday, so my guess is that that is when he was kidnapped. Sherlock, I'm going to load the video from here onto my computer, so you can watch it in higher quality to try and find out where Dr Watson is being held, if this isn't a fake. Okay?"
My clear instructions seem to pull him out of his haze, and he nods, as does Mycroft, and we start.
When the video is on the laptop, the audio works as well. In any other case it wouldn't have disturbed me as much. Yes, it sounds horrible, but what was actually being done to Dr Watson wasn't all that terrible. The fact that Sherlock iss shaking with anger and that he winces every time his friend is hit, is what makes it so bad.
I try to look at the video objectively, to try and see what they are planning to do with it.
Dr Watson is tied to a chair in the middle of the room, looking slightly dazy. I'm not sure whether it is because he just woke up at the beginning of the video, or because his nose his bleeding and his eye is swelling closed from the hits he receives. The attacker's face is not really visible, as he has his back to the camera, but it's obvious that Dr Watson doesn't recognize him.
I'm pulled from this set of mind when Sherlock growls when a particularily bad hit knocks his best friend unconscious, and I feel like doing so as well.
"Found anything?" I fear what they might answer, hoping that it's just a fake, but Mycroft sighs and nods.
"Yesterday, I guess chloroform, taken off a side-street. Surprised him, didn't stop him from fighting." A small, proud smirk flits over Sherlock's smile, so quick that I'm not sure I haven't imagined it, then it forms a mask of determination.
"I know where he is, they took him to a block of houses with very specific watermarks in the cellars – I'm sure I even know which house it is, I have been in there before. I'm not sure John remembers that though, or he doesn't connect that case with his current location. Anyway, we need to go, can you call in ambulances and your agents?"
He looks ready to whirl out of the room, but Mycroft stops him.
"We can't go in there, especially not you." Sherlock anrrows his eyes and opens his mouth to complain, but I get Mycroft's train of thought.
"If you go in there, Sherlock, a lot of bad and very few good things could happen. Would you be able to leave him just there, not talk to him at all, not show him you're alive, keep distant? He knows you, knows how you fight and act. Do you want to risk all our work, the safety of us and your friends, just for this?"
"What am I supposed to do? Leave him there, wait until they are bored and kill him?" He shouts, and it's scary how furious he is.
"No, you should plan carefully and then let my agents get him out." Mycroft jumps in, trying to make his brother see logic.
"Your agents are incapable idiots, they would be killed, as would John, before they entered the room!"
"Do you think I am incapable as well?" The two brothers look at me, momentarily stunned, and I bite my lip.
"Dr Watson will hopefully not recognize me instanly. If I am discovered, I'm not endangering so many people, I'll just be brought to Moran. I can work with the agents to get him out."
"Kiara, you do realise that Moran will probably kill you as soon as he sees you?" Mycroft asks, and I am oddly touched by the rare show of worry.
"Not instantly. He'll want to know how much I know, what I did, who I worked with, I'll have a few days. And your agents will be there as well."
Surprisingly it's Sherlock who comes to my aid this time.
"It could work. Some disguise, so John won't know who she is, and then..."
Mycroft breathes in and out harshly, then nods.
"What do you need?"