Fate Without Time

Chapter 26

The next morning, me, Sherlock, John, and Lestrade were in his office at New Scotland Yard. Sherlock was standing by a window which looked into the main office, while John and I were sitting opposite Lestrade at his desk. "She lives in Cornwall. Two men broke in wearing masks, forced her to drive to the car park and decked her out in enough explosives to take down a house," Lestrade paused as he turned to Sherlock, who was walking towards the desk. "Told her to phone you. She had to read out from this pager," he said as he put the pager in question on the desk in front of John, who picked it up to look at it. "And if she deviated by one word, the sniper would set her off," said Sherlock. "Or if you hadn't solved the case," said John. "Oh. Elegant," Sherlock said to himself as he walked back to the window. "'Elegant'?" I repeated. "But what was the point? Why would anyone do this?" asked Lestrade. "Oh – I can't be the only person in the world that gets bored," said Sherlock. Just then, the pink phone beeped a message alert. John and I turned to Sherlock as he activated the phone. "You have one new message," the voice alert said. As Sherlock walked towards Lestrade's desk, the phone sounded the Greenwich pips again, but this time there were three short pips and one long one. "Four pips," said John. "First test passed, it would seem. Here's the second," said Sherlock as he showed us a new photograph. It was a close-up of a car with its driver's door open and the number plate clearly visible. As we got up to take a closer look, a phone rang outside in the main office. "It's abandoned, wouldn't you say?" I asked. "I'll see if it's been reported," said Lestrade. But as he picked up his desk phone, Sergeant Donovan came into the office holding another phone. "Freak, it's for you," she said as she handed the phone to me. "Shouldn't it be for Sherlock?" I asked. "Not this time. The caller said to give it to you," she said. I looked at Sherlock, who was surprisingly clueless about the whole situation. Then, I walked out into the general office and raised the phone up to my ear. "Hello?" I asked. "It's okay that you've gone to the police," said the voice of a frightened man. "Who is this? Is this you again?" I asked. "But don't rely on them. Clever Sherlock, guessing about Carl Powers. I never liked him. Carl laughed at me, so I stopped him laughing," said the man. "And you've stolen another voice, I presume," I said. "This is about you and me," he said. Then, I heard a bus nosily driving past them. "Who are you?" I paused as I heard more traffic. "What's that noise?" I asked. "The sounds of life, Alissandra," said the man. I froze. "But don't worry. I can soon fix that. You and Sherlock solved my last puzzle in nine hours. This time you have eight. Oh, and one more thing," said the man. "What? What is it?" I asked. "You and I are going to be seeing each other very, very soon. And don't tell Sherlock about this," said the man. Just then, I heard Lestrade coming towards the door. "We've found it," he said. Just then, the phone went dead. From that point on, I was really scared of this guy, whoever he was. Sherlock slowly walked towards me. "Alissa, are you alright?" he asked. I slowly turned to Sherlock. I couldn't tell him. "Yeah. I'm fine. We've got eight hours this time, though," I said. "Understood," said Sherlock.