Sentiment || Sherlock Holmes

The Six Thatchers Part 2

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed as Mary made her way through the dark to an old deconsecrated church. Moss climbed up the walls and the stone looked like it could crumble at any minute. Mary shone her flashlight across a side door labeled 'No Entrance.' She pushed it open and went inside.

She saw the flickering light of candles ahead and walked into a small room at the back.

"I am an idiot." Came Sherlock's voice. "I know nothing."

"Well, I've been telling you that for ages." Mary said. "That was quite a text you sent me. What's going on?"

"We were so convinced it was Moriarty, we didn't see what was right in front of us." Eve said.

"Expected a pearl." Sherlock held out the A.G.R.A. drive.

"Oh my God." Mary breathed. "That's a..."

"Yes, it's an AGRA memory stick. Like you gave John, except this one belongs to someone else." Sherlock said.

"Who?" Evelyn asked.

"I don't know." Mary said. "We all had one, but the others were...well, haven't you even looked at it yet?"

"We skimmed it." Eve said.

"But we'd prefer to hear it from you." Sherlock added.

"Why?"

"Because we'll know the truth when we hear it." Sherlock said.

Mary scoffed, walking a few paces away before resigning herself and coming back.

"There were four of us. Agents." She said.

"Not just agents." Sherlock said.

"Polite term." Mary said. "Alex, Gabriel, me and Ajay. There was absolute trust between us. The memory sticks guaranteed it. We all had one. Each containing aliases, our background, everything. We could never be betrayed because we had everything we needed to destroy the  other."

"Who was your employer?" Evelyn asked.

"Anyone who paid well." Mary said. "Oh, we were at the top of our game for years, and then it all ended. There was a coup in Georgia. The British Embassy in Tbilisi was taken over, lots of hostages, we got the call to go in, get them out, there was a change of plan, a last-minute adjustment."

"Who from?" Sherlock asked.

"I don't know. Just another voice on the phone. And a codeword. Ammo." Mary said.

"Ammo?"

"Like ammunition." Mary said. "We went in, but then something went wrong. Something went really wrong. That was six years ago. Feels like forever. I was the only one that made it out."

"No." Sherlock said.

"What?"

"We met someone, a man, tonight." Eve said, grabbing Sherlock's laptop and plugging in the memory stick.

"The same someone who's looking for the sixth Thatcher." Sherlock said, pulling up a picture.

"Oh my God. That's Ajay. That's him." Mary exclaimed. "What, he's alive?"

"Yeah, very much so." Sherlock agreed.

"I don't believe it. This is amazing. I thought I was the only one, I thought I was the only one who got out. Where is he? I need to see him now!" Mary said.

"Before you gave it to John, did you keep your memory stick safe?" Sherlock asked, stopping Mary from rushing out the door.

"Yeah, of course. It was our insurance." Mary said. "Above all, they mustn't fall into enemy hands."