Eye Contact *ON HOLD*

Yellow Pages & A Black Lotus

The inside of the shop showed that it was mainly for tourists. Its merchandise consisted mainly of decorative ‘Lucky Cats’, which were statues of cats on their hind legs, one paw raised. Some of the cats had arms that moved back and forth, forward and backward, as if waving, and all the cats were in various sizes. Behind a small counter at the back end of the shop, a small Chinese woman stood and gave a small wave.

“Hello,” Maggie greeted the shopkeeper with a polite smile, looking at a small cat. 

As John and Sherlock looked at other items on display, the shopkeeper lifted a medium sized cat from the counter next to her.

“You want lucky cat?” she asked, holding the item out in John’s direction.

After he realised she was speaking to him, John shook his head. “No, thank you. No.”

Sherlock and Maggie’s heads turned to look at the man over their shoulder from opposite sides of the room. Sherlock gave the man a smirk, while Maggie’s smile was more one of slight pity.

“Ten pound,” the woman said, gesturing at him with the cat. “Ten pound!”

The man gave an awkward smile. “Ah, no…”

The woman wasn’t giving up. “I think your wife, she will like!” she said excitedly.

“No, but really, thank you,” the man said. The woman reluctantly dropped the item back on the counter as John turned to look at one of the other tables.

“Hey, Maggie,” he said. “Look at these.”

Thinking he had found something, she rushed over, only to find him pointing to a large set of small, ceramic cups that lacked handles. Small flowers were painted on them. She didn’t see anything that could be a clue, however.

“Pretty, right?” he asked her.

She smiled at him. “Yes, they are. Wouldn’t hold much tea at that size, though.”

The man chuckled. “No, they wouldn’t.”

“I like the cats though,” she said. “Always liked them. They bring luck to whoever owns them, did you know that?”

Sherlock turned away from the shelf of clay statues to look at them. “You don’t really believe all that, do you?” he asked, keeping his voice low. A statue was in his hand.

Maggie looked at him over her shoulder and shook her head lightly. “But it was always interesting to me,” she said quietly. “Are you considering a purchase?” She gestured to the statue he was holding.

The detective gave her a mock warning look at her joking tone. Neither of them had noticed, however, that John had picked up one of the cups, turning it over to check the price. His hand trembled slightly.

“Sherlock,” he said quietly.

Sherlock quickly replaced the statue on the shelving and came over to the other man to look over his shoulder at the cup. Maggie looked as well. 

“The label there,” the soldier said, looking up at the wall.

“Yes,” Sherlock said in a quiet voice. “I see it.

There, in the underside sticker, was a small Chinese symbol. A sort of eight looking figure, identical to one half of the graffiti they were researching.

“Exactly the same as the cipher,” Maggie whispered.

John cleared his throat a bit, carefully placing the cup back onto the display.

***

“It’s a number system?” Maggie was asking only a short time later, as they walked down the street from the shop.