Disclaimer: all characters belong to their rightful owners.

ElectricAnya, thank you for following! =)

Still looking for a beta, or just someone to point out my errors.

This chapter is short, but it's getting better later ;) I've never been in London (and I'm regretting it, need to fix it soon), so I avoided any details about the city, hope it's not too weird that way.

Reviews would be lovely!

Thanks for reading!

Chapter 6. Looking for a spy

So that's how they ended in a crowded street in the middle of London. After taking a brief moment to set up a strategy, they all left in different directions. While Sherlock was creeping around the place, John went looking for a place which could be a convenient meeting spot for a small group of spy-freaks. Sometimes he would turn around and try to catch sight of Rita's reddish hair, but she'd stay invisible in the city's twilight. There was a street performer not so far away, playing guitar and singing love songs, and people passed by, and he still sang.

After roaming around for half an hour, Watson gave himself a break, since his shoulder had started hurting, an omen of a heavy rain. The guitarist was still out there, leaning against a shop window. He even had a little audience. Surprised, John realized that Rita was one of those listeners. He made his way to her through the crowd. She smiled gently at the doctor but said nothing. After a long and somewhat embarrassing silence, John spoke:

"Did you find something?"

"I found a great musician" she answered casually.

"Erm… We're not supposed to look for this, aren't we?"

"Not really. Sorry, I got trapped by the song. Did you manage to hit upon something?"

"No, nothing at all…"

"Let's go then! We have to be scolded by Sherlock."

Watson followed her through the crowd to the agreed place. He was pondering about Rita's strange personality: she was passing from dreamy contemplation to childish impudence, keeping on surprising people around her by a quick wit; but even if her intellect was nearly as great as Sherlock's, she wasn't a show-off, always staying discreet and speaking out her mind only when she was asked for it. Well, that was it only when Holmes wasn't around. His presence seemed to be a special trigger, since the calm and mature Rita became mischievous, talkative and greedy for attention whenever the Consultant Detective was there. She would try to contradict or to complete his statements. John speculated on the reasons for this drastic behavior change: perhaps, she was just irritated or jealous of Sherlock, but it didn't sound like her… Despite being eccentric, this girl had a kind heart, he was rather sure of it. So maybe she wanted to be acknowledged by Sherlock. That's not impossible… Unwillingly, John felt a hint of jealousy towards his friend.

They arrived in front of a small café. Rita seemed to cheer up a little.

"By the way, John, I really like your blog! Are you going to write about this case?"

"Well, yes, I guess so." He was obviously flattered.

"Go easy on me, ok?" She said with a charming smile.

They chatted about cases published on the blog for a moment. After a while, Rita looked around and stated nonchalantly: "Sherlock is late."

"Yeah, right…" John began to worry. It would be so like Holmes to chase someone without warning anyone, or to be too absorbed by the new lead and stop caring about time, or even to just get into some serious trouble.

This is when she took out an ornate pocket watch. It was made of bronze and had a long chain used to be worn around the neck. It was surprising to see this kind of accessory nowadays, with everyone having smartphones, electronic watches and all. She routinely opened the device: "He should have been here ten minutes ago…"

"Where did you get this?!"