The Autobiography of Mycroft Holmes

Chapter 28: Assistant Assassin

I grabbed the man's gun and proceeded to shoot around the heads of the other men, who ducked as sheetrock from the ceiling began to fall. This building was an absolute mess; I couldn't believe that anyone could have ever worked here. Lestrade got the other men out of the room as I walked up to Moriarty, who was lying on the floor. The barrel of my gun was pointed at his face.

"Is the experiment over, Moriarty? Who else is dead that I don't know about?"

"Tom," he said, before he passed out. I started to back away, but then I heard something that shocked me back into consciousness of reality.

"No, Jim!" the girl Moran shouted at her presumed boss. She thought he was dead. "Jim, no!" she had to tell again before I took notice.

"You killed him! You killed Moriarty!" Sabrina spoke loudly, painstakingly, from the floor next to Moriarty's body. "How could you, Mycroft?" she asked me. But my eyes were still on Moriarty's body.

My shoulder was jerked back, and Moran was shooting at my heart. I ducked, then hit her from behind with the barrel of my gun. I shot her in the bicep, but she still jumped up and grabbed at my neck. She was only grazed.

But she did not drop her gun in time to strangle me, so she missed my neck and got my face. I grabbed her gun and held both of my guns to her; her brain and heart my targets.

"Mycroft Holmes: Lawyer, Accountant, Diogenes Club Senior, and murderer? You would join in the ranks of my Jim and all the others like me that he's got? You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"Your Jim? Oh, God, Sabrina. It's a shame, really it is. You could have used your skills for so much more..." I said. That was all the reason I needed to shoot Sabrina Moran twice; once in the head and once in the chest.

I ran out of the room and hailed a cab to take me to the Diogenes Club. During the ride there, I received a call from Lestrade, telling me that she had secured the area and that other police units were coming. Neither of us mentioned that she had nearly shot me because she had been blackmailed as well. And I certainly didn't mention that I strongly wished she died in the warehouse.

When I arrived at the Diogenes Club, I ran past the doorman and into the Strangers' Room. Tom looked up at me from his book at me as if he now finally believed that I was insane.

"Mycroft! What are you doing here? And why do you look filthy?" he asked me.

"What do you mean? How are you alive?" I asked him, becoming infuriated. Whereas most friends would have embraced and shared sob stories in this situation, I was beginning to yell louder at Tom.

"Did anyone come in here all night?" I asked him, as he was alone.

"A few elderly gentlemen, but no one else."

I ran out the Stranger's Room door and up to the doorman. I pulled him into the Stranger's Room and began to question him.

From what I could gather, a man without a Diogenes membership had tried to enter, and the doorman stopped him. He did not become agitated, so there was no suspicion. I could not believe that was how Moriarty would attempt the final murders; walk in and make the kill was not something he was known to do. No, that was presumably far too simple for him. Maybe his plan had not gone according to plan, same as mine. These were his men that tried this, not Moriarty himself. They didn't know.

Making my way upstairs into the Seniors' Quarters, I looked into one of the rooms and saw the television on. None of the news channels, I saw as I flipped through them, were showing anything relating to the Moriarty case. I elected to wait and see if they showed anything.