The Invisible Amateur (8 page)

“Can you describe
the stick?” Amelia asked before Sherlock could speak.

“Yeah, it was
silver, with 64 gigabytes on one side. Has a clear cap and a cream
string to attach it to something. About this big.”

From where he was
sitting Mycroft couldn't see the dimensions, but both Sherlock and
Amelia watched as the boy held out his fingers to show them the
size.

“How long ago did
you sell them this?”

“Only a few days
ago. They expressed an interest in it a couple of months before
Christmas, but they only paid and picked it up when I threatened to
sell it elsewhere about two days ago.”

“And your sister
and you haven't mentioned a word of it to anyone else?” Amelia
asked.

The boy shook his
head.

“Right then, one
last thing. I want you to write down your name and address for me,”
Amelia passed over her notebook and a pen. “And don't give me
anything fake. It won't take us long to verify it, and if you've
not supplied the correct information we will have to take matters
further.”

After scribbling
furiously, the boy passed the details back to Amelia and looked
hopefully at Sherlock. Mycroft glanced away as they let the kid
walk out. The enquiry would need to go further, but it could wait.
Right now, he had to make sure the information was only held by the
terrorists and hadn't been passed to Mr Delra. That meant taking a
trip to the address Sherlock had found for him.

Not waiting for
Amelia or Sherlock to follow, Mycroft got up and headed for the
car, leaving the almost untouched drink and making Daniels jog to
keep up. He knew Amelia wouldn't allow herself to be ordered back
to the hotel, so he intended to leave her behind.

As he got into his
car, his brother followed in behind and slammed the car door shut.
Daniels pulled off before Amelia could do more than walk around the
corner.

“Myron!” he heard
her yell in his ear. He yanked the earpiece out before she could
make any more of a fuss and tucked it into the car's ashtray.

Sherlock laughed
and sat back next to him.

“She is going to
be mad at you for weeks.”

“She's safer being
left behind,” Mycroft replied.

“I agree, and
would have done the same thing. She's still angry.”

“It's you she'll
be angry at. I'm just paying for her hotel. You're the one teaching
her.” Mycroft looked out the window. His brother would know this
wasn't true and get the hint.

“You worked out I
know you have an arrangement with Amelia.”

“Not any longer, I
don't.”

“Yes. You do.” He
raised his eyebrows at his younger brother. “I know it's safe to
assume you made it a condition that she didn't tell anyone. She
didn't tell me. I worked it out and then used my knowledge of our
own little agreement to keep her safe to get her to slip up and
admit she had a separate deal with you.”

“So she still said
something.” Mycroft sneered.

“Only because I
made it clear I already knew. She'd never have betrayed you
otherwise. I thought that would be obvious after she let you notice
her slipping the card into your pocket.”

“I assure you she
didn't let me notice something I wouldn't have.” Mycroft lifted his
chin a little higher. “However, to the task at hand. I want you to
stay out of the way on this one. We need to find that information
before anything else.”

Fury ran through
Amelia as she stomped her feet on the side of the road. Myron and
Sebastian had abandoned her in the middle of the night. She knew
the logic that had led to the decision, but it didn't lessen her
anger. Both of them would expect her to go back to the hotel and
wait for one of them to let her know their mission was a
success.

As a taxi came up
the road towards her, she knew she wasn't going to listen to them.
The fear that Myron had instilled in her less than a week earlier
about memorising an address had paid off. She could still remember
the location Sebastian had found for him. Whether they wanted her
to or not, she could follow them there and help. Knowing the London
traffic, she'd only be a couple of minutes behind them.

After giving the
driver the address, she urged him to get there as swiftly as the
traffic would allow. She had enough cash to pay him double if he
managed it.

The whole way over
to the address she kept an eye out for Myron's car and where they
were going. As of an hour ago, she was on duty helping the Holmes
boys. She couldn't make a mistake, and that meant taking in and
remembering the massive amounts of information they regularly
processed.

Only when the taxi
pulled up a couple of streets away, as she'd asked the driver to
do, did she wonder if she'd done the right thing. For some reason
these terrorists were after her, and she had travelled right to
them. The first tendrils of fear crept up into her mid-section as
she stepped out onto the pavement. She needed to stay in the
shadows and find Myron or Sebastian before anyone noticed her.

Not long after
walking in the right direction she spotted the familiar black car,
and Daniels stepped out of a shadow to confront her.

“Miss Jones, you
shouldn't be here. Go back to the hotel,” Daniels said as he pulled
her into the dark alleyway.

“I'm not going to
sit and wait for this to be over while the two people I like most
are wading into danger on my behalf. Myron has been training me for
combat and Sebastian for the sneaky stuff. I know I can help them,”
she replied, as much to convince her own mind as Daniels.

“Myron is going to
be angry.”

“He might, but I'm
safer with them. Which way did Sebastian go?” At this question of
hers, Daniels grinned. He understood her logic. Sebastian would let
her help if she wanted to, whereas Myron would probably try and
send her back to the hotel still.

“He went around
the back. Go down there until you reach the next road. You'll find
a back gate ajar and Sebastian preparing to jump a fence. You'll
have to hurry.”

She patted his arm
to thank him for the information and jogged off down the alley,
pleased she'd worn trousers that day rather than a skirt, and extra
pleased the knives Myron gave her were tucked up against her
back.

As Daniels had
described, she noticed the gate to a back garden was left open by a
small fraction, so she snuck through it and hurried down the little
alleyway beside the house, keeping her footfalls light to hide any
noise. She paused at the end of the house to see if she could spot
Sebastian, but the trees around the edge of the garden blocked out
too much light. The shadows at the end could have hidden an army of
grown men.

Focusing on her
breathing and moving quietly, Amelia crept closer to the fence.
When she was almost there, a hand reached out and tugged her into
the shadows at the side. Panic almost made her scream before her
brain let her know the grip was familiar.

“Sometimes I think
you're far too clever for your own good,” Sebastian whispered in
her ear.

“Everything I
know, you or your elder brother taught me,” she whispered back. The
sound of a low chuckle came to her ears. It was true. She'd never
have been this bold if they hadn't taught her.

“We need to get
over the fence in exactly one minute.”

“You can go
first,” she said.

“Are you
sure?”

“Yes. I can copy
your movements if you go first.”

“All right.”
Sebastian moved forward to use the tree as a platform over the
fence and she came up behind, watching every foot and hand
placement in the dim light as he hauled himself up. He moved slowly
to minimise the movement of the branches, but it was a good thing
it was mid-winter and there were no leaves to rustle.

Amelia tried to
count out a minute in her head, but Sebastian moved before she got
there and she had no choice but to follow. Being second, she
couldn't move as slowly as he had done, but she didn't need to. Her
body was so much lighter the branches moved less for her and
allowed her an easy passage.

As she lowered
herself down the other side, Sebastian reached up to steady
her.

“Stay close,” he
whispered as they rushed across the back garden to the back door of
the house. As they got closer, a movement-sensitive light came on.
He grabbed her hand and sprinted to the house. Less than two
seconds later they stood with their backs pressed against the brick
wall to one side of the patio doors.

As the light went
out again, it revealed a thin strip of light from the patio window,
and she could see the outline of a person looking through a gap in
the curtains. Her pulse raced and her body shook as she tried to
stay calm.

After what seemed
like an age, the curtains flapped shut again and she exhaled. Not
daring to move in case she triggered the light again, she waited
for Sebastian to move.

Slower than she'd
thought possible, he slid his body across the wall towards the
kitchen door and away from the patio with the sensitive light,
leaving her closest to danger and not sure she could match his
slow, steady movement. She turned her head slightly, to keep an eye
on him, and realised she was going to need to follow.

She took a couple
of deep breaths and inched her body along the wall, feeling the
scrape of fabric against brick. A few seconds later the string on
the back of her corset caught on something, and she found herself
stuck, unable to move further. Sebastian wasn't paying her any
attention, so she had to try and get herself unsnagged without
help.

Just as she was
almost there, the string coming loose made her jolt. Instantly, the
light went on. She froze and pulled an apologetic face at Sebastian
when he turned to look at her.

From where she now
stood, she couldn't see the patch of grass the living room light
had shone out onto, so she could only keep still and hope no one
inside noticed the disturbance again.

Amelia tried to
count the seconds while they waited, and she hoped nothing bad
happened. Neither Holmes brother would forgive her if they were
discovered because of her. After a minute, darkness enveloped them
once more. This time she decided not to move. She would wait until
Sebastian was inside before risking setting off the light
again.

An agonising
amount of time later he was by the back door and reaching out with
one hand to find the lock and handle. At the same slow speed, he
then turned to face the back door and crouched in front of it.
Several more minutes after that, he had a lock pick in his hands
and was about to start work on the door.

The sound of a
loud crash sounded from inside the house, followed by loud voices
and running people.

“Crap,” Sebastian
said and gave up on being stealthy. He threw his body weight at the
door, but it didn't do more than give a few millimetres. After a
second impact into it, the door flew open and Sebastian rushed
inwards. Amelia followed.

It didn't take
long for someone to notice them, and an Asian-looking man came
through the kitchen door in time for Sebastian's fist to connect
with his nose. The unfortunate guy went flying backwards into
someone else.

Before Amelia
could get close enough to even consider helping, two Russians came
into the room from a separate door. Both had guns, and they were
pointed right at them. Sebastian put his hands in the air, and
Amelia didn't hesitate to copy him.

This had managed
to go horribly wrong in less than ten minutes. Myron was ushered
into the room only a few seconds later. Blood dripped from his
nose, and he gave Amelia an angry look when he saw her, but
otherwise remained his expressionless self.

The men around
them talked in languages she didn't understand, but some plan must
have been made because they were then ushered towards the front of
the house, through the living room, and then up the stairs. Two
Russians went first, then Myron and Amelia, before Sebastian came
up behind them all. It didn't surprise her that the two men were
already trying to protect her in the limited capacity left open to
them.

Once on the next
floor, Amelia noticed there were four doors off the landing, and
they were ushered through to one of the rooms at the back. She
tried to scan the others as they walked past the doors but she only
got a glimpse into one which showed a pile of beds arranged across
the floor.

The room they were
taken into had a similarly covered floor, and she noticed there
were enough sleeping places for nine men. So far they'd only seen
seven, five Russians and two North-Koreans.

The men pushed the
beds out of the way to one side and used twine to tie their hands
together in front of them. Amelia tried not to wince as it dug into
her wrists. Unlike the last time they'd captured her and Myron,
they weren't gentle with her. They'd learnt that she was also a
potential threat.

Once they were
bound, all three were encouraged to sit with gun-aided
gesticulations. All but two of the men then left. She let a sigh
escape her lips at finding herself in such a position. This time it
wouldn't be so easy to escape.

No one spoke, and
Amelia was left to wonder what had happened for them to get caught.
Myron appeared the worst off, of the three of them. His nose looked
swollen where it had been hit, and it still dripped blood for
several minutes after they had sat down.

It didn't take her
long to work out that Sebastian was annoyed with Myron. He sat with
his body turned slightly away from him, and his fists were clenched
into white-knuckled balls. Myron sat with his chin high, as he
often did when he was annoyed with something but unwilling to
explain, and didn't even glance at either of them. The atmosphere
of anger and silence grew worse with each long minute that
passed.