Heather Snow: Sorry if the jumps confused you. They were done deliberately as to confuse the reader somewhat and to make get more tension. Sorry if I didn´t succeed. But after this chapter the story will make more sense, I believe. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 5

Earlier...

Sherlock Holmes had been close to loosing his countenance when he had been led out of the room after Norman´s announcement. Not only was that bastard alive and had infiltrated the MI6, no he even managed plant evidence against Sherlock in a murder. Not to mention the murder of an agent which the MI6 didn´t take too nicely to. That and he was worried about what the bastard had been doing with Donovan, something was going on there as well.

But as of right now he was being led out by agents, who had guns and worse, poisoned needles for when he would try to flee, which meant he couldn´t help the others who were still the in the same room with the lunatic.

„Gentlemen, my men and me will handle Mr. Holmes now. The murder has been in our division anyway." a voice chirped and Sherlock nearly smiled but knew better not to.

Anthea. Of course.

„But Mr. Simpson said..." the man on his right started but didn´t get far.

„Mr. Simpson has cleared that already, look." She showed her blackberry to the agent where he could look at said email and so Sherlock found himself being escorted by Anthea and Miller and George, two of Mycroft's men.

Just as they entered a free office on the third floor, the men went away and so he was alone with Anthea.

„Anthea, I need your phone. The man in the room downstairs is not Mr. Norman. His name is Sebastian Moran and he was the right hand of Moriarty."

He didn´t need to tell more, only a second later he was holding the phone, after having called Donovan´s number.

A click at the other end of the line showed that someone had answered the call and Sherlock didn´t

waste any second.

„Sally."

„What the..."

„No, don´t say my name. Just listen. The man in the room with you is not Mr. Norman. His name is Sebastian Moran."

A deep intake of breath told him that Sally remembered the name from Sherlock`s stories.

„Calm down. I need to know what he wanted with you. He clearly talked to you outside and you didn´t like it, I could tell when you came back in."

He could hear Sally walking away from the conversation in the room.

Then: „No, I think there was a rumor that it was a hate crime. The sister was said to hate her brother." Sally answered, voice admiringly steady and annoyed, as if she was dealing with an idiot of the Yard.

So Sebastian still thought Sally hated Sherlock? Interesting.

„Good. Then you play this role. And tell them you haven´t seen me the night of the murder. Make sure you, John, Lestrade and Anderson get out of here as soon as possible."

„But..."

„No but. You get out. My brother and I can take care of ourselves. The MI6 as well. Make sure you all get away from Moran. Anthea will get a safe house for you."

With that he ended the call, leaving Sally no room for protest. He already hated having her, John and the others only in the same room with Moran. Who knew what that bastard was planning.

Even though Sally and Anderson might be secure if Moran still believed they hated Sherlock, but best not to play with that.

He looked at Anthea, who had heard all of the conversation. The woman simply nodded.

„Already arranged. George and Miller are on their way to pick up Mrs. Hudson and Harry as we speak. Just a precaution."

Sherlock simply nodded.

#

From the outside Sally might have appeared calm, but inside of her, her temper, her feelings, everything of her was raging. All her instincts seemed to scream at her not to leave her friend behind.

She could see the same in John, who seemed to sense as well that something was deeply wrong and felt for him. But Sherlock was right, he and Lestrade needed to be away from Norman, as they sure as well were in danger from him as well.

Her safety was another thing. As long as Norman believed that she had no sympathies for Sherlock, she would be safe. She was sure of it.

Seeing as Anthea was expecting them at the elevator Moran was leading them to, and remembering Sherlock`s words about the safe house, she knew she had to act now.

So she did the only thing she could think of: She stalled.

„Oh, damn, I believe I left my mobile in the room. How about you guys go ahead already? I´ll meet you at the Yard."

Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and walked back. It took only seconds until she had Anthea at her side, her hand on her shoulder, effectively stopping her. „Excuse me Miss, but I´m afraid that´s not possible. You can´t walk around here alone. Just wait until we assign someone to help you looking for your phone."

It was just when Mr. Norman appeared at her side, declaring that of course he „would gladly take some of his time to get her phone back" - just as Sally had expected really- that she felt Anthea slip something into her jaket.

Good, apparently Anthea had suspected she would do this. Sally silently thanked the heavens for the woman´s psychological training, even though it was scary that the woman often seemed to know her better than herself.

But that was not surprising as she worked with Mycroft, she supposed.

Nevertheless she still could tell that Anthea disapproved of her action right now. Yet she hadn´t really stopped Sally, which probably attested to the fact that she knew Sally wouldn´t give up and come to the safe house willingly.

Carefully she reached into her jacket while walking back to the room Sherlock was still in and found Anthea had given her some kind of … pen?

Further investigation showed that it was what she suspected: an epipen-like device, as they were often used by the guards of the MI6, as Anthea had told her for security reasons the first time she had visited Mycroft. They were designed to knock people out mostly, but apparently there were also some which killed instantly. Sally didn´t dare waste a thought about what Anthea had given her exactly. She would use that weapon, no matter the consequences.

Sherlock`s life probably depended on it.

The guy she hated the most right now, Mr. Norman or better Sebastian Moran, walked right alongside her as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Sally was glad that he seemed to not have noticed Anthea´s gift and would have loved to use it instantly but she knew better than that, given all the agents which were watching them.

To them Mr. Norman was still one of them. An agent, more important one which had accompanied one of the higher ups. If she attacked him on the spot without exposing him first with proof that he wasn´t one of them, she would only be one thing: a threat.

And threats were eliminated – especially at the place where she was right now.

It didn´t take long until they were back in the room in which they had left Sherlock and four MI6 men about 10 minutes ago. While Mr. Norman gallantly opened the door for her, pretending to be a true gentleman, Sally reached into her pocket and put her phone on speaker. Having called back the number Sherlock had called her from a few hours ago, she knew that Mycroft and Anthea would be listening in.

Hopefully she could make Moran make expose himself.

And hopefully Mycroft would make sure that some higher ups were listening in as well.

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