"Will you take the case?"
"What case? Pay her. Now. And in full. As Ms. Adler remarks in her masthead, "know when you are beaten.""
-A Scandal in Belgravia
He sat alone in a large sofa in a sumptuously embellished room, completely naked aside from a sheet. He knew that Mycroft and some other, however unknown, official were on their way. So was John. And everything was going exactly according to plan. He lost himself in his swirling thoughts until he heard a familiar voice talking close to his left ear.
"Are you wearing any pants?"
"No." He answered automatically.
"Ok." He carefully avoided John's gaze, convinced that he would burst into laughter if he did. Suddenly, the tension between the two of them broke as they mutually started giggling uproariously.
"I'm seriously fighting an impulse to steal an ashtray. What are we doing here, Sherlock? Seriously what?"
"I don't know." He lied smoothly, trying to keep his voice as amused and natural as possible. He did a mental note, remembering to steal the ashtray when no one looked.
"Here to see the queen?" Sherlock couldn't resist teasing Mycroft as he pompously entered the room wearing the same expression as a person who just had eaten feces.
"Oh, apparently yes." They were both in their stitches and Mycroft sighed tiredly.
"Just for once, could you two behave like grown-ups?"
After a considerable amount of minutes had Sherlock most unwillingly got dressed and sat opposite the unknown official in question, who apparently was called Harry for the moment. Sherlock didn't know his real name, and he honestly couldn't care less. He felt his muscles automatically tense as Mycroft explained the issue with her or mentioned her name, though Sherlock actually wasn't listening at all. He thought about his issue, or complication, with her. She had the phone with the information they were planning to sell to the Americans, or whatever nation who was prepared to pay their price. And he didn't trust her in the slightest. He knew that as long as she had the material on her camera-phone, he wasn't safe or granted a place in the sun. He had to steal her phone. That was the only possible solution. But he knew that she would never let it go freely. She had, however, a password that unlocked her camera-phone and gave the person who did unlock it free access to all documents, pictures and data. The relevant question was, would he be able to hurt her to get access to the information? Physically, no. Mentally, however, probably unintentionally. Unfortunately, he loved her too much to break her and complete the mission on his own. Those were the unquestionable rules, and the game was certainly on. Sherlock hadn't bothered to actually take in what Mycroft had told him during the latest five minutes, but suddenly his voice sounded tremendously vocal. He passed Sherlock three quite familiar photographs.
"What do you know about this woman?"
AN: Next scene will be at Irene's house and I've already written a few more chapters. Sorry for the long wait, it will not happen again. REVIEW!