Welcome to Baker Street

98. No laughing matter

"Wait, what? How are we supposed to figure out what his crazy plans are in such a short time?" John shouts, turning towards the other monitor. "We are only shown a close-up of Greg tied to a chair. We don't know how big that room is, whether he is alone or there are armed men pointing guns at him. We don't even have a clue where in the world he is. As far as we know, he might be trapped in a room under an erupting volcano in the Philippines. There are a hundred different ways in which Lestrade could be threatened."

Sherlock shakes his head and gives him a stern look.

"No. You heard what Moriarty said; he is standing close. And if he wants to fly under the radar of the MI6 and not have his little show intercepted by their technology, he must be using closed-circuit cameras. It means Greg is in a room somewhere inside the National Theatre, so we can rule out a few overdramatic options."

There is no time to freak out about non-existent risks. Jim added a sense of urgency to play with their heads and emotions. And that is precisely what Sherlock is determined not to let him do.

He turns towards his friends. "This reminds me: Moriarty warned us. He wanted us to pay attention to his words. Anything he mentioned could be a clue. What did he say about Greg?"

"It's hard to keep track of all the nonsense coming out of his mouth, honestly," John groans. "But he said that his role in the police is for your entertainment and recreational purposes," he quotes.

"Those expressions could also be used to talk about a drug overdose. Maybe Greg was injected with some narcotic substances," Giulia ventures.

Sherlock ponders that option for an instant. "Valid point. It would also explain Lestrade's blissful expression in such a life-threatening situation. He looks far more relaxed than any sensible human being would be in his conditions."

Giulia lifts a brow at him and mentally comments, Apart from you. She glances at his impressive aplomb. How can he remain so calm in such a dire situation? Is his poker face only a bluff to keep morale high for them?

Sherlock walks to the table and takes the piece of paper in his hand.

"Let's start with this clue." He points at the first couple of signs: II. "I don't recognise any suitable acronym other than International Institute, Incident Investigation, and Illegal Immigrant. None of them makes any sense in this context, though."

John snatches the paper from his hand and shows off his pragmatism.

"What if those aren't letters at all? II could stand for the Roman numeral 2. We need to compose a code, after all."

Holmes gives his friend an impressed look and spins one roll on the wall, analysing the characters engraved in the wood. "That's a plausible solution."

John keeps following his train of thought. "By the same reasoning, XXX might be 30 in Roman numerals. But what are the numbers 2 and 30 supposed to symbolise? It cannot even be a date; there's no February 30th."

"We can't expect to apply one deciphering scheme to all the signs—it'd be too easy. I think the Roman numbers could only work for the II, while the three X and the O must have a different meaning," Sherlock says.

"Maybe it's meant to be some kind of love message," Giulia suggests.

Both men furrow a brow at her, and she explains it further.

"Looking closely at the format of the piece of paper with the three lines and the rectangle on the right side, I'd say it bears some resemblance to the back of a postcard with the space for the address and the stamp. In this case, three X and one O could stand for kisses and a hug. It's a common abbreviation in personal messages."