11. Chemical Warfare

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BASKERVILLE
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Stapleton leads Sherlock, John, and Elisabeth along a corridor and uses her card to swipe them into a large room which has Major Barrymore's office in the corner. As they go into the room, Sherlock points back to the door they just came through.

"John." Says Sherlock.

"Yeah, I'm on it." Replies John.

John turns back to keep an eye on the door while Stapleton goes over to sit down at a computer.

"Project HOUND. Must have read about it and stored it away. An experiment in a CIA facility in Liberty, Indiana." Says Sherlock

He stands behind Stapleton while she types her User ID onto the computer, then adds her password. A request to "Enter Search String" comes up and she looks up at Sherlock who dictates the letters.

"H, O, U, N, D."

She types in the letters and hits Enter. A message comes up saying "NO ACCESS. CIA Classified" and requesting an authorisation code.

"That's as far as my access goes, I'm afraid." Says Stapleton.

"Well, there must be an override and password." Says Elisabeth

"I imagine so, but that'd be Major Barrymore's."

Sherlock spins around and walks into Barrymore's office.

"Password, password, password." He says to himself.

Switching on the lights in the room he sits down at the desk.

"He sat here when he thought it up." He's now talking louder.

Folding his hands in front of his mouth, he slowly spins a full circle on the chair, looking around the office as he goes. Stapleton comes to the doorway.

"Describe him to me." Says Sherlock.

"You've seen him." Replies Stapleton.

"But describe him."

"Er, he's a bloody martinet, a throw-back, the sort of man they'd have sent into Suez."

"Good, excellent. Old-fashioned, traditionalist; not the sort that would use his children's names as a password."

He gestures towards the children's drawings pinned on the board above the desk.

"He loves his job; proud of it and this is work-related, so what's at eye level?"

He rapidly scans around everything in the room without altering the angle of his eyes.

"Books. Jane's Defence Weekly – bound copies. Hannibal; Wellington; Rommel; Churchill's 'History of the English-Speaking Peoples' – all four volumes."

He stands up and looks at a bronze bust on a shelf.

"Churchill – well, he's fond of Churchill."

He looks back to the bookcases again.

"Copy of 'The Downing Street Years'; one, two, three, four, five separate biographies of Thatcher."

He looks down to a framed photograph on the desk of a man in uniform standing with his teenage son.

"Mid 1980s at a guess. Father and son: Barrymore senior."

Looking at the uniform of the older man

"Medals: Distinguished Service Order."

He looks around to John who has come to the office door.

"That date? I'd say Falklands veteran." Says John.

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