Leem chewed on his thumbnail nervously, paced and watched as Sherlock Holmes painstakingly surveyed the storage room at the back of the lecture hall. The detective kept muttering to himself and moving from place to place to view things from different angles. Every so often, he would close his eyes, mouth something, shake his head and then continue his inspection.

"This scene makes it look as if Dr. Adams was set upon," Sherlock hunched over and swiped at the carpet. "Yeees . . . it certainly appears that way."

He rubbed his finger and thumb together as he squinted his eyes in thought.

"Yet, you suspect otherwise?" Mycroft added from where he leaned against the room's only doorway.

Sherlock wrinkled his nose and huffed. "Shut up, Mycroft, you're putting me off."

"Excuse me?" His brother straightened his spine and stared down at him over his nose. "I'm putting you off?"

Sherlock rose quickly.

"Yes," he scanned him and then flicked his gaze to Anthea who flanked his left. "Perhaps it's the remnants of lipstick on your lips, erm, Dior Nude Blush? Not really your colour. Then again, maybe that faint scent of Gaultier Classique you've donned ah, . . . acquired? . . . is the culprit."

Fil, just behind Leem, snorted and stifled a laugh. Mycroft's lips parted in surprise. Then he seemed to gather himself and shake his head haughtily.

"Careful what you imply, brother mine," he hissed.

Sherlock stepped closer to Mycroft with a steely gaze. "Would you rather I be more blunt?"

If the hair was any longer on Leem's head, he would pull fistfuls of it from his scalp. "Please, Mr. Holmes, boss, what is going on? Has Kat-, I mean, Dr. Adams been kidnapped or what?"

It had taken Sherlock an hour to arrive at Cambridge to assess the small room from which Kat seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Leem thought he was going to come apart at the seams. His fingers vibrated. He was sweating. The floor beneath his feet felt as if it were quicksand trying to suck him down. All he wanted to do was move, go somewhere or do something, anything to relieve this anxiety that had his stomach churning.

Sherlock adjusted his coat. "No, Leem. Katherine left this room under her own volition. Her phone as well as one of the cards from her wallet are both missing. Kidnappers would hardly bother to fish through her belongings for those two items. No, she has gone off somewhere on her own. Perhaps she wanted us to think it was involuntary but then again, I'm not entirely convinced about that possibility either. She had to have known I might come to this conclusion. Hmm . . . "

The detective spun on his heel and began pacing again. His nostrils flared.

"She's clever, Katherine," he mumbled. "She took just one card with her but it wasn't a bank card or credit card. Neither was it a driver's license or any other major piece of ID. Yet, the smooth patina in the slot the card held indicates she used it a lot. What was that card? What am I missing?"

"But, I don' get that," Fil interjected. "She didn't have any reason ta run off . . . um, well, not really, I don't think. She was hell bent on tellin' Mycroft somethin' important. Although . . ."

Mycroft sniffed. "What? Although what?"

Fil rubbed his lips together and crinkled his nose. "She asked if you could be trusted."

The older Holmes' chin retracted. His eyes went large. "Me? She wanted to know if I could be trusted?"

Fil nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Sherlock stopped in his tracks. "What did you tell her? I want to know exactly what you said."

Leem watched his brother turn a bit pink.

"I told her Mycroft loves England. Um, ahem, and that there's only thing he loves more," he looked guiltily at Anthea. "A-Also that he was like an Uncle to me and Leem 'cause he rescued us from the streets and we owed him a lot. Something like that anyhow."

Mycroft blinked several times and frowned in confusion. His head twitched as he appeared to try to wrap his head around the revelation.

Sherlock smirked. "That's very . . . sentimental of you, Fil."

Mycroft rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Oh, do shut up, Sherlock," he muttered. "So, Dr. Adams was satisfied by your testimonial, then?"

Fil nodded vigorously. "Yup, like I said. She had something important to tell you and she was keen on getting out of here, that was until she saw Leem and Anthea in the hall, erm, talking. We returned to the theatre to wait since we figured if she was here, so were you."

Leem cursed and wiped his hand over his brow. Sherlock narrowed his eyes in thought.

"Why did she come back here to the storage room?"

Fil inhaled deeply and let out a stunted breath. "She got a text. She told me she wanted to make a quick call in private. Fuckin' hell, if I thought for a second she was gonna take off on me, I wouldn't 'ave let her in here on her own."

Sherlock nodded slowly, then turned on his heel and then flitted off to continue poking at things. The small room fell silent for a minute.

Leem eventually cleared his throat. "So what do we do now? How do we find her?"

Mycroft pointed the tip of his umbrella at the bodyguards one by one. "You two do not need concern yourself with this case any longer. As of this moment, consider yourselves reassigned. I want you to leave immediately and report back to George Jeffries."

"Jeffries?" Fil moaned. "We're being demoted?"

Leem furrowed his brow. Mycroft stepped towards them with a glower.

"Yes, Dr. Adams is one of our best assets. She helped decrypt communications which led to thwarting of an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister. Her work also prevented a terror attack on the Underground. She was in the midst of tracing the source of one of the largest security breaches in history and you let her slip away under your very nose as if you were rookie agents."

"Mr. Holmes-"

"Don't get me started on you, Leem Coley," Mycroft said gruffly as he looked at him with constricted eyes. "I am most disappointed in your behavior towards our charge."

Leem pressed his lips together. He felt his face go cold as the blood seemed to flee his flesh. He didn't know what to say. He wanted to fold in on himself. There was a tightness to Mycroft's lips and stress in the set of his brow. That look reaffirmed his words. The shame hit him like a kick to his belly.

"Your nephews here saved her life Slovakia. Surely that's worth something," Anthea interrupted. "Not to mention, they are your best agents. They've more than earned forgiveness for their countless contributions."

Mycroft sighed as he rolled his eyes towards her. "I am aware of all that. However, today, I cannot call them my best agents."

Anthea softened her voice. "Mycroft-"

He nearly growled as she tried to press him. "I assure you, your continuing to speak on their behalf will only serve to aggravate me."

"Boss," Leem jumped in. "Boss, I have given my life to MI6-"

A sharp crack sounded as Sherlock clapped his hands together. "That's it!"

Everyone stopped and looked at him.

"Really, you can all shut up now. I've figured it out," he licked his lips quickly. "Dr. Adams is sacrificing herself. It's the only explanation. That text she received must have been a threat that involved one or all of us. Otherwise, she would have let us know about it. Likely, whoever sent it has convinced her to come to them. They probably coerced her into keeping it a secret but like I said, she's clever. Katherine is very clever. It's obvious why she took her phone. She would need to stay in contact with the person making the threat. However, she took a card from her wallet, just one. I'm convinced it's a message. We need to find out what that missing card is . . . the card is the key."

Mycroft hiked a brow. "The card is the key?"

Sherlock closed his eyes for a moment. Various parts of his face jerked as he seemed to scan his internal files.

Finally, his eyes flew open. "Yes! The card is the key!"

Mycroft groaned. "You said that already."

"And I'll say it again!" He spat. "The CARD is the key. It's a KEY card. As a staff member of Cambridge, she would have been issued an employee id card that doubled as a swipe key for electronic entry. That's why the slot with the missing card is so worn. She uses it all the time. It is also one of the reasons she took it, she wanted to warn us without giving herself away. If your mind wasn't preoccupied with other things, older brother, you could have deduced all this. You could have put two and two together. Dr. Adams hasn't run off."

Mycroft's mouth fell open as he dropped his chin. "Good God!"

Leem inhaled a quick breath as it dawned on him what Sherlock was getting at.

Sherlock nodded with a grim set to his lips. "Yes. Mycroft, I think you better rescind your order. Leem and Fil are needed right here to search for Dr. Adams. She's still on campus."