Here's the third chapter. It's a bit of a cliffhanger. Enjoy!
"Step out of the closet, Ms. Calder." Says a husky voice with a thick Russian accent.
"What do you want with me?" You reply into the phone. Sherlock's eyes widen.
"You have some information that we want, and you aren't supposed to know. Please step out of the closet so I can kill you."
"And if I don't?"
"Mr. Holmes and Mr. Watson will die, as well as you. You can save their lives by sacrificing your own." The line goes dead.
You already know what to do. Sherlock tries to hold you back, but you open the door, exposing just yourself to a man holding a very large gun.
"Want me to make you pretty like Matt and Allison?" the Russian man smirks.
"Why do you want me dead?" You ask with a mask of confidence.
"You have too much knowledge." The tall blond man rubs a smudge off his handgun.
"Knowledge of WHAT?" you yell at him. All of the sudden, you head a gunshot. Blood spatters in your face, and the Russian terrorist drops dead before you. Sherlock grabs your hand and leads you down the hall, John in tow with a gun in his hand. He takes the Russian's gun and catches up to you.
"Thank you, John." You kiss his cheek.
"Hey. It was my idea!" Sherlock scowls.
"Thank you, Sherlock." You stand up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Despite his paleness, his skin is very warm, and soft. You lean back to your heels when you realize you've kissed his cheek long enough. Sherlock's cheeks are bright red, and you feel yours are the same. "You're still an arrogant git." You tease. Sherlock's face turns even redder.
"He wasn't the only terrorist, there is more. One on every exit, too." John says to break you and Sherlock out of the tension.
"And they all think I know something I don't." You sigh.
"Is there anything that Allison told you that could possibly be this thing they're looking for?" Sherlock asks you, his face no longer red.
"If there is, I don't know." You sigh. "Fifteen minutes until I die. I thought I'd be a little more scared, dying."
"I'm used to it." Sherlock says. You realize he's still holding onto your hand.
"I don't see how you could. It's not very fun at all." You say. Then you start to laugh. "I never thought I'd say it, 'Dying isn't fun.' And now I'm laughing about it!" you crack up. Sherlock covers your mouth with his gloved hand.
"Don't attract attention to yourself, it will only end badly."
"Mrphm." You say in agreement, muffled by Sherlock's glove. He removes it.
"All the other MP's are in huge trouble as you're alive. We have to get to Lestrade before you–" Sherlock stops talking. But you know what he means. You are going to die in fifteen minutes, and as long as you are alive everyone else will die.
You cellular rings again.
"Hello?" you ask.
"Give me the information and you might live." Another Russian voice says on the other line, but this time it's a woman's voice.
"I don't have any information." You say back.
"Are you sure? What do you think, Tabitha, does she have the information we need?" the Russian woman says, and you hear crying in the background. Tabitha. They have Tabitha. Your heart drops into your stomach, and the taste of bile rises in your throat.
"Leave Tabitha alone. I don't have the information."
"We know you have the information. You have five minutes to meet me in the ground floor of the atrium or Tabitha dies." The line clicks dead.
"Sherlock, tell me everything about this project that Allison worked on."
He pulls out his phone, and hands it to you. You read through all the information, while John runs back to Jane's office to warn Lestrade about what is to come. You read as you climb down the 3 large flights of stairs.
"Sophie!" Sherlock tries to grab your hand.
"What?"
"For somebody who doesn't want to die, you sure are ready to risk your life for others'."
"You did." You say, remembering only fifteen minutes ago when he threw himself in front of you in case the sniper was still shooting.
"It's my job."
"You are a detective, not a bodygruard." You reply. Sherlock is speechless, but you shake yourself out of his grip and continue down the stairs.
"You don't even know what they want from you!" He says. You keep going, scrolling through the documents on Sherlock's phone. Something catches your eye. It's a note that Allison had typed in.
2012/2/16 5:02pm– I have the code to Sophie today. She doesn't get it, but she has it. It's incredibly dangerous of me to bring her into this, but I must. She is the only person smart enough to figure it out of necessary. All she has to do is remember our inside joke.
"Inside joke? We have so many!" you kneel down on the landing so you can close your eyes and think. Inside jokes…okay, so there's the banana man, "angry puppy," e=MP squared, "burbon on my number line"
"Burbon on my number line!" you shout, eyes wide open. Sherlock looks at you strangely.
"Burbon on my number line?" He raises an eyebrow at you.
"Allison was really drunk at this party, and started singing 'burbon on my number line' over and over, just those words."
"So?"
"'Burbon' on a number line! Every letter has a corresponding number. The word 'burbon' on a number line is 2-22-10-2-14!" you exclaim, at a whisper level.
"That must be some sort of code for nuclear arms." He takes his phone back from you to call Mycroft. You check your wallet. One minute until Tabitha dies. You stand up.
Sherlock stands up too. He pulls out the gun John took from the Russian and gives it to you.
"Take care of yourself. I'll be right here." Gingerly, you take the gun. His hand touches yours as you exchange the gun. Knowing that you won't make it out of this alive, you stand up on your tiptoes and press your mouth to his. After a second, you pull away and run down the stairs, leaving a stunned Sherlock behind you.
Flying down the stairs, gun hidden in your coat pocket. You reach the ground floor of the atrium, and you see Tabitha on the ground, red laser dots all over her. Your cellular rings.
"I'm here."
"I know." The Russian woman says over the phone. "Tell me the code or you and Tabitha will die."
You fondle the gun in your pocket. 2-22-10-2-14. The numbers run over and over in your head. Sherlock's voice is in your head, telling you that he's right there. You look around, but you can't see him on the stairwell.
Sucking in a deep breath, you are about to say the code. The doors all around you burst open, dozens of police officers and soldiers in full combat uniforms rush in. The red laser dots disappear from Tabitha, and you run to her. The soldiers run up the stairs, and you look around the edges of the atrium for Sherlock. You realize that the other line on the cellular has gone dead.
You feel great relief that it's finally over. For a split second, you see a red dot on the floor next to you. A sharp pain shoots through your back to your chest, and you can't breathe. Your vision goes black until–
To be continued