And another instalment. See, I decided that during exams, I'm going to have no time to update, so I'm making up for it in advance. Everyone smile now!

CHAPTER 30

Outside the Sofitel Hotel

Melbourne

Victoria

Australia

The sun was just rising by the time they arrived at hotel and John was unconscious, positioned so that he was resting against Moriarty, the man looking all too content with his current position. He waited for a moment as the driver got out and opened the door to let him out, 'The Sofitel Hotel, Sir," he said, holding the door opened and Moriarty got out of the car,

"Bring him inside," he said, nodding towards John and the driver nodded.

Moriarty went ahead and into the lobby of the grand, relatively new hotel. He walked to the front desk,

"Hi," he said, to one of the women sitting there,

"Hi," she glanced up at him, 'what can I get you, sir?" he looked down at her name tag,

"Phoebe, I need to talk to the owner," he said and dark eyes widened in surprise,

"The owner?" she asked,

"Yeah, It's about a room for me," he glanced behind to see the driver carrying the limp John in with him, 'and my companion," She raised her eyebrows,

"He had far too much to drink last night, and passed out. I had great difficulty getting him home," she nodded, "now, about he rooms,"

"We have plenty of rooms-" he cut her off before she could finish,

"No, you don't understand. My name is James, James Moriarty," she looked at him blankly and his patience wore thin,

"Call him," he said and she jumped, reaching for the phone. She dialled the number. As soon as it rang, she said,

"Mr. Howell, sir?"

"Yes?"

"I have a James Moriarty here to see you, he says it's something about a room," Moriarty watched with satisfaction as the girl paled as Howell obviously threatened her, "Yes-yes sir," she said and put the phone down,

"Go right up to the penthouse," she handed him a key, "Give this to the man in the lift,"

"Thank you," Moriarty took the key and walked to the elevator, his driver following behind.

The lift rose swiftly and the door opened smoothly to reveal the penthouse door. "Thankyou," Moriarty said as to the porter and turned around. Knocking once, he walked into the apartment to see Howell fixing his tie,

"James," he said, walking forwards,

"Stuart!" Moriarty extended his hand towards him and shook hands, while Howell lead him into the adjacent room, where there were plush furnishings.

"Please have a seat," They both sat down while the driver remained standing. Howell looked up,

"You've brought me something?" Howell asked,

"More like someone," Moriarty said, and gestured for the driver to put John down.

Gently, he laid him on the floor and Moriarty waved him out,

"You can go back downstairs," Howell said, nodding to the door, "there's plenty of food and drink in the restaurant on level one," The driver nodded once and left, never saying a word.

"It's so hard to find good drivers these days," Moriarty said and Howell nodded,

"I know, I've been through several in the last six months,"

"They always blab to the police," Moriarty said, "them and their damn consciences," Howell laughed as yet another door opened and a waiter carrying a tray walked in. They waited for him to set the tray down and leave before Howell addressed the matter of the unconscious man on the floor.

"Who's he?" Howell asked,

"He's a British agent, here to spy on you," Howell almost chocked on his drink,

"What?"

"You heard me," Moriarty took a sip of the brandy and sighed in delight, "delicious, always did have a fine choice, Stuart,"

"Never mind that," the tycoon snapped, 'how did you find out?'

"You asked me to," Moriarty said, waiting for the penny to drop. It was another second until it did,

"Pierre Mannu?" Howell gasped and Moriarty nodded, picking up a strawberry and biting into it as Howell absorbed this information,

"But…that's not possible," he said and Moriarty laughed,

"Anything's possible,"

"All his street credit checked out,"

'He's probably working with MI6," Moriarty said, "You're information was completely correct, just sourced from the wrong people,"

"Goddamn," Howell put the glass down and drew his gun, but Moriarty placed a placating hand on its barrel,

'Wait," he said,

"For what? The man's a traitor,"

"I will buy him off you," said Moriarty, "Twenty million, in gold, by the end of this week," Moriarty's eyes were shining and Howell cocked his head,

'You'll buy him? What for?" He lowered the gun, as Moriarty chuckled darkly,

"He's an old acquaintance. I owe him a little something," Howell smiled,

"Ah. I see," he nodded, "well, this puts a definite damper on my London infiltration plans,"

"Sorry," said Moriarty,

"Don't apologise," said Howell, picking his glass up again, forcing himself to calm down, "twenty million is quite enough compensation. I will spare his life,"

"I should think so," said Moriarty, looking over at John, his chest rising and falling gently. They were silent for a minute when Howell looked over to Moriarty,

"Don't get me wrong," he said, tilting his glass from side to side, watching its contents move briefly, 'it's just, I don't trust you,"

"That's fair enough," Moriarty replied, raising his glass as if in toast,

"I'll keep him until the end of the week,"

"Where? I want him in perfect condition," Moriarty stared at Howell and the man laughed,

'I'll be keeping him here. Five star food, and the building itself acts as a prison because you can't use the lift without a card and there's no other exit. He'll be in perfect condition," Moriarty considered for a second,

"Alright. That'll be fine."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a file, "This will give you all the information you need about him. Makes quite the interesting read. The psychopath stood up, "Well, I have other matters to deal with while I'm here, so, I really must get going," Howell smiled and got to his feet as well,

'I have no doubt," he showed Moriarty to the door, "I hope all you other business matters go well,"

"Thankyou," Moriarty walked outside and Howell followed,

'Drop by for a tea, alright?"

'No problem," Moriarty shook Howell's hand as the lift arrived,

"See you soon,"

"Yes," Moriarty stepped into the lift and Howell watched as the door closed. He turned around and walked back into the apartment and spent a minute appraising the man on his couch. His golden locks seemed to shine in the early morning light that was just seeping into the apartment through the panoramic windows and the sun-kissed skin seemed a little paler than perhaps it should be. Must be the drugs in his system.

"Aren't you the interesting little bugger?" he asked, walking towards the other couch that faced the windows. He sat down and pulled the papers out of the file.

"Dr. John Watson, retired army doctor, now under the employ of Francis Stone, SIS, UK," Howell felt a surge of hatred.

Stone. That arsehole. As if he didn't cause him enough losses every year. Deciding that for the good of his blood pressure, he should probably take a break, Howell walked into his bedroom and glanced once at Sophie, asleep on the bed before walking into the shower and closing the door gently, deciding that if John woke up before he was done, there was nowhere for him to go.

St Kilda Police HQ

Melbourne

Victoria

Australia

Lestrade sipped the terrible coffee and stared, bored, at the Chief.

He had gone as red as a tomato when they told him they had followed a lead to Traralgon and found Sherlock, held by their old enemy Moriarty. The man almost had an aneurysm when he heard the name.

He then proceeded to yell at them while dialling for Stone because apparently, he had been bombarded with calls from the UK embassy asking where their agents were. He had stayed up all night, trying to get in contact, and turned up nothing every time.

Mitch and James had been sent away to be yelled at by theirboss an hour ago.

Lestrade sighed and moved, exchanging a glance with Sally as they listened to the Chief rant and rant about how careless this was, especially because they had lost their other agent – John. Lestrade's stomach clenched every time he thought about it because if anything happened to John, because they were not more careful –

"DI LESTRADE!" Lestrade snapped back to attention as Stone's voice echoed through the speakers and he looked to the Chief who was staring at the phone like it was a time bomb.

"Yes, boss?" he said and, on the other end, Stone snorted at use of the term 'boss',

"When was the last time you saw Sherlock?" he asked,

"I told you, it was two nights ago, when he stormed out of the apartment," Lestrade said,

"Yes, and then you heard him scream?" Lestrade winced as the memory flashed through his mind,

"Yes, we all did," Sally answered for him, "we ran around the front of the house and broke down the door…and then…nothing. We remember nothing after that."

"Except a blue light," Lestrade added and Sally nodded,

"Blue light?" The incredulous tone in Stone's voice radiated through the speakers

"Yeah, I can't remember from what, though," Sally replied and Stone sighed,

"Now you're seeing UFO's," he muttered and Sally frowned,

"No, we're not,"

'It doesn't matter," the Chief stepped in, "what matters is that two British agents are missing, and both of them are connected to James Moriarty. We are in trouble,"

'Thankyou for pointing out the obvious," Lestrade muttered and received a glare in return,

"We can forget Howell," Stone's voice said, over the intercom, "What we need to think about right now is Moriarty. He's the main threat,"

"Too right," the Chief said, "I'll have my people send out a BOLO,"

"Right," Stone said, "Lestrade, Donovan, I want both of you to return to the hotel and be my base. Chief, I want everything reported to these to agents. Your team takes its orders from mine," The chief didn't even bother with the customary dubious glance that should have been aimed at the agents.

"No problem, Stone," he said and Lestrade was sure that the MI6 agent was nodding his head, sitting in his office, on another freezing day in England while they had he air conditioner on down under and didn't want to go outside for fear of melting.

"And Lestrade,"

'Sir?" the DI leant forwards

'You report back to me if you find anything interesting,"

'Yes sir," Lestrade said and the line went dead.

The chief put the phone back into its original position.

'It's going to look a little odd having that many people walk in and out of the hotel,"

'We'll use phones," said Sally,

"No, they can be intercepted," Lestrade said,

"Exactly," the Chief said, "You can operate out of here. My office. It will make everything easier. My organised crime unit is at your service and if you need any more police members, the entire Victorian Police force is yours, as is the tactical response unit" he got to his feet as they gaped at him,

"If you don't get your agents back, I'm as good as gone." He stared at them, "Get your agents back, get Moriarty and get out, you've caused more than enough trouble,"

With those as his final words, he walked out of the office and shut the door behind him. Lestrade looked at Sally,

"Get Mitch and James?" she asked and he nodded,

'Yep. We're going to need raid that place in Traralgon again. I doubt Moriarty will be there, but he might have left some evidence,"

"Yes boss,"

Traralgon

Regional Victoria

Victoria

Australia

Sherlock woke up to the room again to find several boxes of non-perishable items in the room, and about twenty litres of water. He also found that the south wall of his room was missing and it opened onto another room, with, what he was sure, was an ensuite. It was flooded wit sunlight as well.

For what felt like the hundredth time he sat up slowly and winced as he moved his arm, still stinging from the taser that Moriarty used to knock him out cold.

'Bastard," Sherlock muttered, rubbing his arm as he got to his feet. He looked around and found another suit – Westwood, he noted. The bastard did have impeccable taste – waiting for him with a note pinned on. Getting to his feet, he walked over and picked it up.

Sherlock,

Sorry to have to taser you like that. It's not my favourite way of dealing with people but you were getting a little too feisty.

While you were out, guess who came to visit?

Your pet, Johnny! He's looked so adorable with that gun pointed at me. It almost looked too big for him.

Butjokesaside,really,Iamsorryaboutthetaser.YouknowIhadJohnnynextdoortoyou,whileyouwereunconsciousandwhileyouwerepacing.He'sreallyso…angelicwhilehesleeps,isn'the?Butyouwouldknowallaboutthat.

I have him with me now, Sherlock, and your other little friends, Greg, Sally, and those two Aussies, Mitch and James, I believe, they've been taken away. So sad, really, to break the gang up. It would have been fun watching you work together. Like real police.

Don't worry yourself, Sherlock. I'm only going to make him scream – in pain. Stop thinking dirty – a little bit .Not too much. It gets boring after a little while.

He'll be dead before he knows what hit him.

Jim.

Sherlock stared at the note then crumpled it up into a ball, anger racing through his veins along with the blood. 'I'm only going to make his scream a little bit'; those words were running around his mind, echoing.

John, Sherlock thought, and it was like a clamp was suddenly on his heart. Squeezing painfully tight, making it hard to breathe, blurring his vision, giving him a pounding headache.

Turning around, he walked blindly, his every breath loud in his ears, his heart thudding in his chest.

He stopped in front of the crates and kicked, screaming in anger and kicking again, and again. The crate and food inside lying in pieces, Sherlock went to the bed and sat down, pulling his legs up to his chest and letting his head fall against the wall. His closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. To think.

He would find John and Moriarty and then he would tear Moriarty limb from limb. There wasn't going to be a piece left to put in prison.

Jim Moriarty took what Sherlock loved the most, what Sherlock needed, as much as he needed the air he breathed.

Jim Moriarty was as good as dead.

All done with the broody stuff.

Now...onto some action...maybe a little...wait no. I'll let you wait until next chapter. :D

*shivers* I hate Moriarty.

Az

xoxo