Find Me (BBC Sherlock Fan Fiction)

Chapter 18

September

Sherlock pointed at the fleshy, long nosed, supercilious man in the consulting chair. 'You have five minutes,' he said. 'Go.' He checked his watch.

'Oh, for heaven's sake Sherlock, I'm not playing your silly games again. I'll say what I have to say and then you'll ask some pointless and inane questions and then you'll go and do what I want you to do anyway,' answered Mycroft.

'Don't bet on it.' Sherlock fumbled in his pocket for the already half empty packet of cigarettes, lit one and watched as John and Mycroft exchanged a glance.

'Tell us about the missing treaty then,' John requested, with clearly pre-planned precision.

It wasn't enough that John was worried about him, Sherlock decided, but he had to worry in chorus, since practically everyone they knew had started giving Sherlock sidelong looks and talking in serious voices. Sherlock couldn't have cared less about Mycroft's missing keys or whatever it was, right now he only cared about how many more hours would have to pass before he could go back to Irene's flat.

Mycroft settled himself comfortably in the uncomfortable chair. 'The current Foreign Secretary was entrusted with an important document, which was, unfortunately, rather above his pay grade. He kept this document in his official box in his office from where it disappeared around two months ago. At precisely the same time, the Foreign Secretary's new mistress also disappeared and I can only assume that two such mysterious disappearances in such a short space of time are connected. I would like you to find the document and the mistress, if you aren't too busy locating pet cats.'

John looked over at him encouragingly. 'I imagine it's very important we know what's in the document, isn't it Sherlock? Especially since it seems to be of national importance.'

Sherlock waved a hand. 'Tell me about the woman.'

Mycroft smiled his insipid, thin lipped smile. 'The document is a draft treaty describing exactly what support NATO and its allies in the West will provide the Ukrainian government in their fight against the Moscow over the Crimea. It sets out the movement of troops, air support, armament locations – everything the Russians need to plan a counter strike. But more to the point it gives them ammunition in their propaganda war. The Russian state is engaged in a campaign of solidifying its power base and unifying the opinion of its populous against the West. It is not too much to imagine that widespread publication of the missing treaty might trigger a strike by the Russian state, to which we would be forced to respond.'

John said, a little too quickly, 'It could be all out war?'

Mycroft inclined his head.

Sherlock looked from one to the other, wondering when they'd found the time to rehearse this. The gambit was obvious – they hoped to distract him from his current troubles by giving him a stick to fetch, but he wasn't quite that stupid. Mycroft's eyes glittered at him and he recalled that his brother was only ever concerned with the cover story.

'Tell me about the woman,' he repeated, increasingly sure that the missing treaty was only a blind, a camouflage for the real problem he was expected to solve.

John muttered, 'He's obsessed with The Woman.'

Sherlock heard the capitalisation in the complaint. He fixed his concentration on his brother.

'Slim, attractive. Intelligent, by all accounts.' Mycroft shrugged.

'Fair or dark?'

'Brunette, or so I'm told.'