Author's Note: Sorry if the dialogue isn't authentic enough? I haven't actually talked to someone from Slovakia before. I don't know if they have specific speech patterns I should have written in. So... hope you enjoy this chapter. Reviews make me happy and motivated so please drop a line for me. I'd really appreciate it. :)
I needed information so I got it. It was necessary. - SH
Nothing necessitates killing a man this horribly. He had a kid, Sherlock! - JW
Well aware of that fact, John. As I am also aware that you've killed for me before. Some of them had kids too. Where was this concern back then? - SH
There is a difference and you know it! God, Sherlock. I thought... I thought you were better than this. - JW
Don't make people into heroes, John. Heroes don't exist and if by the off chance they do, I certainly wouldn't be one of them. - SH
Ha! Kidding ourselves, are we? Need I remind you of what happened about a month ago? Must be so nice to be able to just delete that memory because I definitely can't erase that picture of you falling, of you dead, bloody and lifeless. And, Jesus Christ, I already know you're alive and it still won't leave me alone. Must be nice being you then, eh? Must be so relaxing. - JW
... I'm sorry, John. Just go home. I told you not to follow me. This isn't something you want to be a part of. - SH
I'm not leaving you. More than anything, this... it's told me that I can't leave you alone. - JW
For God's sake, John. I am not a child. - SH
You're not Moriarty either. Don't forget that. This is not okay, Sherlock – JW
You didn't complain when I threw that American out of the window a few times. – SH
I don't remember you cutting off his fingers and putting a bullet through his head. I would have taken issue with that. I knew you weren't capable of that, Sherlock. I knew you wouldn't cross a line you couldn't return from. That's why I was fine leaving you alone with him while I tended to Mrs. Hudson. You could have killed him. I know you were angry enough to. The bastard had hurt Mrs. Hudson after all. But you didn't. You didn't then so what's changed? Why torture and kill this man so… gruesomely when he's done absolutely nothing to you? – JW
God, this is tiresome. I already told you, John. I told you before. This is me hunting them down. This is murder and there will be torture. He's killed people too, John. Countless of people. Good people who had their own wives or husbands and children. You would have killed him on the spot if you found him pointing a gun at me. – SH
I never tortured anyone though, Sherlock. I may have had bad days, but God no. You can't come back from that. – JW
Go home, John, and preach your morality elsewhere. This is not the place. –SH
Was he the first? – JW
Yes and there are many more of his agents out there. – SH
Well, you're not torturing any more people, Sherlock. I'm making sure of that. – JW
I'd like to see you try. – SH
Sherlock is being followed. John has told him this much. When he had left Milos, the man was alive. Not unharmed, of course, but Sherlock had done much less to him than he had to the American. He had given him the information just a few minutes into his questioning. Sherlock had been suspicious at how easy it all was. The luring. The baiting. The disarming. Syringes are very effective, Sherlock thinks, remembering how Irene had beat him once before. He managed to get him to the abandoned building, tied him up and waited for him to come to. When he got tired of waiting, he slapped him, and when that didn't work, he settled for a punch. Milos spat out a mouthful of blood and a name.
"Kay Hüber."
Sherlock had started at him for a minute, unsure of how to proceed.
Milos looked at him and smiled, throwing Sherlock even more off balance. "I'm assuming that's what you're here for. Names. Probably a list of Moriarty's people."
"How can you possibly know that?"
"You're Sherlock Holmes. It's obvious. Moriarty sent a memo to everyone a short while back."
"The last one to Sherlock is a sissy," Sherlock recalled.
"Yeah, he said that." Milos said, chuckling.
"You didn't go to London though. Why not?"
Milos opened his mouth to say something, but the words seemed to change form as they came up his throat. "How- well. Let's just say I don't really like my job all that much."
And then Sherlock knew, for certain, that Milos was every bit the family man as he had seemed. They were his sole motivation and his weakness. It's the usual story. Moriarty finds something or someone he wants and what he wants he gets. Any threat to his family and his hands are tied. Moriarty's unwilling soldier. Any failure on his part could result in horrors for his family. He gave Sherlock a name, the name of the person who had the long-standing order of killing him and his family when he fails to carry out his orders.
"Who are you supposed to kill this time?" Sherlock inquired. The answer was totally irrelevant to his next target, but he felt a twinge of curiosity.
"Just some politician. I should be on a plane in two hours. When that doesn't happen, Kay will come."
"If I told you Moriarty's dead, what would you do?"
"Leave."
"What about your orders?"
"I don't take orders from a dead man."
"You'd run."
"Yes."
"Right now, if I don't kill you, you'd go home, take your family and run?"
"Yes."
"You could just kill the politician and buy more time for your family. It seems the more practical mode of action, wouldn't you agree?"
"I could kill him. Get paid. Relax until my next job. That's the way it always has been. That's the hand I was dealt. But Moriarty's dead now, you say, and I don't have to keep doing this anymore. I fold. I'm shuffling the deck. I want to start over, far away from this."
Sherlock practiced a bit of mercy, and decided to leave him alive. He hadn't felt like a threat and Sherlock hadn't detected any lies.
"You should take your family and leave then. You have two hours. I'll deal with Kay Hüber. Don't know what you'd tell your wife though. Bound to have questions."
"Kay is ruthless. She's not like me. She lives for this. So be careful. And what makes you think my wife doesn't know?"
Sherlock had tried to hide his surprise but didn't know if he had succeeded. He made a move to release Milos from his binds, but Milos stretched out a foot to stop him.
"I'm still a trained assassin, you know. I could still kill you. What did I say about being careful? Just leave. I can get out of these ropes in no time. Just go."
Sherlock nodded and ignored that dig about his recklessness. First John, now Milos. He frowned as he walked out, taking the stairs two at a time. Milos had been alive.
Sherlock is being followed. Someone had killed Milos after he had left. He wonders if it had been Hüber carrying out her orders. Had she been trailing Milos all this time, just waiting for him to slip up so she can move in for the kill? Sherlock wonders if someone had been following him since the Fall and he had not noticed. Could it have been one of the three gunmen?
Sherlock feels a chill run through him. He thinks of Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson and John. They're in danger if any of Moriarty's men know Sherlock's alive.
Stop. You don't have any data. Don't assume anything.
If it had been Hüber, she would have killed his family too. If it wasn't her, if the person who had killed Milos started following him since St. Bart's, then he wouldn't know about the orders to kill his family. Sherlock needs data and so he visits Milos' house, making expertly sure that he's not being followed. There are police cars out front and Sherlock sees silhouettes from the living room. The wife had just been informed. They're alive. Odds are the latter hypothesis is true. He leaves quickly, just in case John decides to visit the family and offer his condolences, although Sherlock expects him to still be at the crime scene.
He worries about Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson, but he knows Mycroft would have so many surveillance teams trained on them because of their relation to Sherlock. They're safe. Mycroft would be able to see any sign of danger from miles away. But John. John's out here, looking for him, following him. He's not safe. Sherlock knows he has to keep him much closer, close enough on his trail so as to be further away from the man who is following him, but not close enough to interfere. He needs a plan. He whips his phone out of his pocket and sends a text.
I need your expertise. – SH
Let's have dinner. - IA