One week later... John Watson felt tremendously guilty. He and Sherlock waited in a dusty office-to-let that The Engineer had set up as their next meet, and Mycroft had joined them, regardless of the warning she sent.
"Do relax John, I'll be in the other room, and I've left the black helicopters at home," Mycroft said. "Pip, pip."
He disappeared into the next room.
"She's late," Sherlock comment.
"You know how last week I was at Saint Bart's?" John began. "Lestrade came to see me."
"That's odd."
"It's not. People visit friends in the hospital, Sherlock."
"Then why are you telling me?" Sherlock asked indignantly.
"Because I told him that you were alive."
"You what?"
"I told Lestrade about why you jumped and that you were still alive," John repeated.
"Why on earth would you do that?" Sherlock demanded.
"Because he needs to know!"
"Are we interrupting?" The Engineer asked as she appeared with Hacksaw.
"Avery Marie Roux," Sherlock said.
She smiled. "Avery Roux? Do you honestly think that's my name?"
"After what you put us through to obtain the un-redacted Pileus file, who else would you be?" John asked. "It was you that nicked the file from our flat, wasn't it?"
"Of course, but I've put people on to hundreds of cases that needed justice. That doesn't mean they've anything to do with me. Sherlock Holmes focuses on interesting, perplexing scenarios. As soon as I get boring, I get left behind; thus keeping him engaged is vital to keeping him on task. So maybe I am Avery Marie Roux, or maybe she's just another woman whose identity was convenient for me to steal so I could get what I want."
"What you want?" John repeated, rapidly becoming angry as well as confused. "If not your real name, if not the man who murdered your family, then what could you possibly be after?"
"Doctor Henri Schlessinger," Mycroft said as he joined them from the other room. "I'm assuming you kept her, which is why we can't seem to find her. And don't worry, I assured Sherlock that no government agency will attempt to detain you. For now. Though we might want Doctor Schlessinger for our own inquiries at some point."
The Engineer smiled. She spoke directly to John, as if she couldn't hear Mycroft. She replied, "What else could I be after? The international assassin who killed my parents. And all her secrets, too, of course. I want to dismantle her entire world and let her watch as her empire crumbles."
Sherlock smiled wickedly. "So you're not Avery Roux, you're Shannon Cassidy? It could almost be true, except for the Ghost Caller."
She stopped. Her face remained passive, but something about her reaction made John think she was surprised... shocked, even. Hacksaw picked up on the strange behavior as well.
Suddenly, a recording began to play. It took John a minute to realize that Sherlock had the sound file on his phone.
"Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?"
"A bad man has me locked up in his house. He wants to hurt me," a young girl whispered.
"Do you know who the bad man is?"
"No, no. He hurt me and took me and put me somewhere dark. Please, please, please don't leave me here. Please."
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Gabriella."
"All right, Gabriella. We've identified your location from the phone line, and I've dispatched units. I know you're scared, but just stay on the line with me, okay?"
"Please don't. You can't leave us here!"
"Us? Are there others there with you?"
"Yes. We're all crammed into this tiny space, and it's cold and dark."
"Help is on the way. Can you tell me how many others are with you? Do you know their names?"
"Four."
"Four? You and four others?"
"I'm so cold."
"I know... help is on the way."
"I'm scared. Really, really scared," the little girl said. Her once-whisper was now much louder, and her anxiety was palpable.
Sherlock stopped the recording, but anyone could see that The Engineer was shaken from the moment it started. She recognized it.
"What I find interesting about this, the so-called Ghost Caller recording, is that the voice is identical to that found on another nine-one-one call from weeks prior," Sherlock said, relishing his words. "Perhaps it'd be best if we heard that one as well."
"Help! My friend was taken. She was taken! By a man in a black hoodie and a red car. She kicked and screamed, but he took her anyway!"
"Please calm down. Can you tell me your name and your friend's name?"
"Her name is Gabriella. Please, she needs help!"
The Engineer became very still, as if frozen with fear or rage, John couldn't tell which.
Sherlock began to pace as he spoke. "Both of these calls came in in 1991, approximately six weeks apart. Two weeks after the abduction call, The Baker murdered the Cassidys. Four weeks after that, Zenon Gibbs was taken in for the murder of five young girls, one of which identified as Gabriella Marie Kelso, who supposedly called nine-one-one. I say supposedly because the first responders found her body. She had been dead for two weeks. Thus, Ghost-Caller, catching her killer from beyond the grave. Except it wasn't a ghost, was it? It was you."
"Very astute. I see the merits of your name have been well-earned," she replied.
"I don't get it," John finally spoke up. "How is the Ghost Caller Case connected to the Cassidys being murdered by The Baker? It doesn't make sense."
"Implications of kidnappings in America: Young female child abductions from middle class neighborhoods yield strong media coverage. Certainly this one qualifies. As this occurred prior to the establishment of the Amber Alert System and the incident was reported by a peer, the likely outcome would be media focus on the girl who witnessed the abduction and the families involved," Sherlock said. "Which is perfectly fine unless the child in question was supposed to be killed in a family massacre. In that case, the media may draw attention to her survival, which then leads to retaliation."
"That's ridiculous," John said. "Assuming this woman was Avery Roux, she was three when her family died, and no one knew that she survived. Do you really think someone recognized her from a photo in a newspaper from another country? This was back when the internet was barely out of its crib."
"Obviously, someone knew she survived and was looking for her," Sherlock replied. "I'm guessing they knew that they had the wrong people when they murdered the Roux family, so they allowed the youngest to survive to goad the real target into action."
"The real target being the asset codenamed Driftwood," Mycroft added. He spoke to The Engineer, "But you know him as The Architect."
"I had a birthmark," The Engineer replied, avoiding eye contact with Mycroft. "Eyebrow. Distinctive. I had it removed for apparent reasons."
"No doubt The Architect had you remove it after the Cassidys were murdered," Sherlock said.
"Does that mean... was that your first case?" John asked The Engineer. "The abduction and murder of your childhood friend?"
"Right after the murder of my adoptive parents. The Architect - if that's what you call him - he thought it best that I focus on something I could fix. Couldn't bring my parents back, so I decided to find my missing friend. Couldn't bring her back, either, but I get that man arrest, have his victims identified. But I couldn't go to the police. Not again. So he coached me on how to do it so the killer would be caught, and no one would care about whoever called for help."
"A false witness leading investigators to evidence vital in a conviction," Sherlock summarized. "Isn't that your signature?"
She smiled. "Serial offenders have signatures. I have a highly affective move I can use when I'm feeling uninspired. I'm sure you can relate, Sherlock."
"You solved a kidnapping and murder when you were ten?" John asked, still shocked.
"Obviously," Sherlock said. "You may be able to conceal yourself by assuming identities and years of continuous asset training, but even you had a childhood and history. You must've known someone would figure it out eventually, especially when you drew me into all this."
"Looks like you finally got one over one me," she replied.
Sherlock smiled.
"But if we're done wandering around the horror land that is my childhood, I believe we have a deal to conclude," she said.
Hacksaw pulled four USBs out of his pocket and quickly handed them off to Sherlock.
"All four USBs from James Moriarty," The Engineer said.
BANG-BANG!
Sherlock stumbled sideways and dropped the USBs. He had been hit in the shoulder by a bullet.
"What the hell?" John said as Mycroft went to his brother.
Hacksaw produced a Glock and pointed it straight at John. He was only a few feet away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
John flinched, and his heart raced. But he felt fine. He looked down and saw that he was completely uninjured. Hacksaw must be a terrible shot. And the Glock was at his feet.
He looked around and saw why. Hacksaw was on the ground, bleeding freely from a neck wound. But John hadn't heard another shot.
As if to answer his question, The Engineer launched something from her slingshot that went right over his shoulder. John took cover.
"What the hell just happened?" he yelled.
"Blanks, John!" Sherlock replied. "Hacksaw didn't know he only had blanks!"
Before John could process anything, he caught sight of Sebastian Moran running straight for them. He reached for his gun, but it wasn't there. He must've lost it when he took cover.
Sherlock and Moran collided.
BANG!
Sherlock fired the Glock across Moran's face, and he was close enough to leave a contact burn. Moran blundered, covering his face. When he regained his footing, his eyes were oddly blank.
"You wanker! You dick!" Moran roared. "YOU BLINDED ME! First you took my wife, then you blinded me!"
He began searching for his enemies, throwing around his weight. Even blind, John Watson didn't want to go up against a pissed of Royal Marine. So he snuck around him, grabbing Moran around the neck from behind.
As it transpired, this was a terrible idea. John wasn't nearly tall enough to pull off the rear chokehold, and soon Moran was throwing him around while John desperately tried to maintain his hold.
CRACK! Sherlock cracked the Glock against Moran's left knee. The large man buckled but kept fighting.
Then he made an odd, bubbling kind of sound, somewhere between a cry of surprise and a whine. Then he fell forward, taking John with him. Blood spurted everywhere.
"What just happened?" John demanded from Sherlock.
"Hit him and severed the axillary artery," The Engineer said. "The only kills hot I could get without risking your life. What's wrong with you, jumping on a man that size with a chokehold?"
John didn't reply. He was too busy bandaging the wound, applying a pressurized bandage. If she was right, that she hit the axillary artery, Moran would likely die in under a minute, but he had to try.
"Does the quiet mean that it's over?" Mycroft asked as he came back into the room. "I've put in a call for medical care for all of you."
"Not him," The Engineer said, indicating Hacksaw. "Let him die."
Sherlock swooped in and grabbed the USBs, all of which had been damaged during the fray.
"You knew," Sherlock said to The Engineer. "I saw the look on his face when he fired at John. He meant to kill him. He had no idea his gun had blanks. You knew he couldn't be trusted, so you changed his ammo. Tell me, why did you let him have the USBs? Or didn't it occur to you that a man willing to kill us would destroy the data we came to collect?"
"I didn't know," The Engineer replied. "I suspected, ever since Kendall called me about a chat she had with some detectives at Scotland Yard. They connected Hacksaw to the Wilder Shoppe because he hacked in to cover up the connection between the Leavitts and the bust and therefore James Moriarty. Idiot used his old code to do it."
"So what?" John asked. "Weren't you covering everything about the busts up?"
"Why bother?" she asked. "I wanted to get the USBs, who cares if some other person figures it out? And I didn't loop Hacksaw into the busts until after I got shot stealing the ones the Burnsiders were hiding. That was before I stole the one you lot pinched from the British Library, for your reference."
"No reference needed, I remember it quite vividly," Sherlock said with edge in his voice.
"But I couldn't be sure. Hacksaw hacked a lot of crap in his day, maybe someone hired him for a hack, it happens. But then Schlessinger had a tracker, and he asked me to follow this through, so I took his bullets. Covered my bases. You're welcome, by the way, for saving John's life and your life. Again."
"Yeah, sure, thanks," John said. "Has anyone seen my gun?"s
"If you suspected him, why did he have the USBs?" Sherlock demanded again.
"I didn't, obviously," The Engineer replied.
She took out a box with a hard case, possibly a waterproof Otter box, but John couldn't tell. She tossed it to Sherlock, who glared at her in disbelief.
"Go on, count your payment," she said.
Sherlock opened the box and checked the contents. "Good," he replied after a minute.
"I admit," The Engineer said. "This has all been quite amusing. And you did get one over one me, which is something most people don't survive, as exhibited by my old friend Hacksaw here. This has been a monumental day for me in a lot of ways. You know, I think I'm going to give you something that no one else has ever gotten from me."
"Don't bother," Sherlock replied. "You can't give me the truth, I've already taken it, Avery Roux."
"The truth? No, no, no Sherlock," she replied. "You are instrumental in getting me to the final person responsible for my family's death. Both of my families. And for that, Sherlock Holmes, I'm going to give you an opportunity."
Sherlock rolled his eyes. "You've reverse engineered my method, found people who have faked their own deaths, and infiltrated more than one criminal organization, not to mention the police. False flattery won't work on those of us who know your true body of work."
"You don't give yourself enough credit," she said.
"Says nobody, ever," John muttered.
"See, unlike Schlessinger, The Baker, I knew who and where the man was. But getting to him without dying in the process? Nearly impossible. For that, I'd need him in the room with his guard down and that never happens," she explained. "Except when he's helping his younger brother."
BANG!
John heard the shot and jolted, even though he knew that the gun hadn't been pointing at him. It felt like it took ages for him to see what happened.
Blood blossomed from the lower abdomen of Mycroft Holmes, who had managed to stay upright by grabbing the nearest wall. Sherlock raced over to his brother as Mycroft half-slid, half-fell to the ground.
He vaguely registered that The Engineer unloaded the rest of the ammo, wiped down the gun, and tossed it in John's general direction.
At least John knew where his weapon was now.
"My gift to you, Sherlock Holmes," The Engineer continued. "I'm giving you the chance to save your brother."
John heard her speak, but her words sounded muffled to him, as if she were trying to talk to them from a great distance. He wasn't sure when The Engineer vanished from the room, but in the next instant, she was gone.
"John!" Sherlock shouted. "John!"
"We've got to stop the bleeding," John replied. "Give me something to stop the bleeding."
Sherlock obliged. John's hands slipped in blood as he put pressure on with Sherlock's bright blue scarf. The entry wound was what he'd expect from his own weapon with nine-millimeter bullets. He checked for an exit wound. There wasn't one.
Mycroft needed surgery. Now.
"Sherlock," Mycroft whispered. "She's not wrong..."
"You never know when to shut up, do you?" Sherlock replied harshly. "When you've been shot and blood is bubbling out of your mouth, it's a good time to stop talking."
"He's going to be fine," John said. "But you need to call for help and get out of here. You're still dead. And someone needs to look at your shoulder. Get back to Molly, we've still got all those medical supplies back at the flat."
"She's not wrong," Mycroft repeated. "I got... the Architect... killed."
"John, I..." Sherlock began.
"Sherlock, GO NOW!"
Sherlock Holmes ran, leaving his bleeding brother in the care of Doctor John Watson.
Author's note: I hope you enjoyed Four Elizabeths which is the fourth and final episode in a fan fiction version of Sherlock Series 3: Unfinished Business, originally published on LJ and AO3 from August 2013 to June 2015.
The series contains the following episodes, all of which can be found on my profile page.
Episode One: The Silver Blaze Revival
Episode Two: The Indigo Stain
Episode Three: The Uncanny Valley
Episode Four: Four Elizabeths