Mary's Nineteenth Century

In the afternoon, Sherlock returned to the hotel.I glanced at my pocket watch, it was 15:48.

If all goes well, at this point in time, his beloved brother and Mr. Minton should have stolen the information about this sacrificial activity from the wizard Sage.

'Knock knock—'

He knocked on the door of Mycroft's room, but there was no response for 2 minutes.

Just when Sherlock thought there was no one in the house, the guest room door was opened. "Brother, are you feeling sick to your stomach?"

Why do you ask this question?

Because Sherlock noticed that the corners of Mycroft's clothes were wet, his expression was indescribable, and the 2 minutes of answering the door must have been in the bathroom.

"Thank you for your concern."

Mycroft avoided talking about what happened in the bath.

The scene he saw in the mirror and the line written on the back were inevitably engraved in his mind, almost devouring his sanity.

At the moment, Mycroft said sternly, "Let's go and find Mr. Minton, today we can come up with the final roundup plan."

"this is a good news."

Sherlock felt that his brother's state was a little abnormal, and he was a little depressed emotionally.

Sure enough, it's diarrhea, right?Otherwise, why would he not have the pleasure of being about to successfully capture a criminal organization, but instead have a straight face.

Downstairs, Mary didn't rest after returning to the hotel, but silently wrote out the contents of Saatchi's folder.When there was a knock on the door, she put down the pen and just finished writing all the known information.

"Come in, you're here just in time. I've sorted out the written materials."

Mary spoke solemnly, as if she hadn't put a line on Mycroft's back and set a fire in his heart at all.

Mycroft also maintained a businesslike attitude, "Thank you."

One is more outstanding than the other.

How outstanding is it?It was because Sherlock only paid attention to the content of the written materials, and failed to discover the hidden undercurrent between the other two in the first place.

"It's all patterns, no specific text description?"

Sherlock found that a stack of information was full of circles and drawings, but there were no specific names of those who participated in the sacrifice.

Mary expressed regret, "Yes, Saatchi did not record the identity background of the members, and symbols were used on the layout map to indicate the number of participants."

The layout is very clear, and the terrain shows that it is an underground cave in Moonlight Cave.

There are five different marks, S represents a total of three sacrificial wizards, △ represents a total of 13 people who mainly absorb the energy of skeletons, and X is a total of eight bodyguards and thugs on the periphery.

There are 48 ○ in the center of the underground cave, symbolizing the number of skulls.

"Only this mark is different."

Mycroft pointed to the center of a circle of ○, a figure of "∞", which seemed to be an infinity symbol, and it only appeared once.

What does "∞" stand for?

All three thought of disturbing possibilities.

The membership fee of the Erjiutou Association is [-] pounds per person. Such a high price means that most of the members are middle-income and above income groups.

Although there have been crimes such as killing Morton and seizing the corpse, and the grave guard digging up the bones, etc., it does not mean that all members of the association know about it.

According to Mary and Mycroft's personal unannounced visit experience, ordinary members cannot touch the skulls of important people, only core members are eligible.

The 13 people represented by △ on the layout map are most likely the core members of the Erjiu Touhui, and they single-handedly planned the midsummer night sacrificial activities.

The members of the core layer are not short of money, what do they want to get from the skull?

"Gifford's list of urgently needed supplies included the skull of the child's remains."

Mycroft then linked to the infinity symbol, "Money can buy many things, but there are always some things beyond its power."

Mary: "Youth, once that thing is gone, it will never look back."

Eternal youth and immortality are both unattainable legends.

Even if money can buy cutting-edge medical services in this era, it is still far from eternal delusion.

Since science can't reach the ideal shore, it turns to the occult.

Sherlock stared at the "∞" symbol, and compared it with the "○" representing the skull.

"∞ is two ○. I have a bold hypothesis, will it represent a pregnant woman? Pregnant women, the mother has one head, and the fetus has another head."

There are children's heads in the list, and the meaning of birth is more directly pregnant women and babies.

The "∞" symbol is deliberately used to distinguish it from "○", which not only means endless life, but also expresses the particularity of the central sacrificial object.

Herein lies the disturbing part.

Mary had to wonder why Gifford didn't list the bones of the pregnant women. Was the pregnant woman's body already found, or was it not a dead body but a living person that was needed this time?

"I remember that the skeleton exhibition mentioned the source of the power of the shrunken human head. The energy fluctuations generated during death will be concentrated in the skull. In other words, the cause of death has a lot to do with the strength of the skull."

A dire question lay ahead.

On Midsummer Night, will there be a murder in the Moonlight Cave?

"There have been no cases of abduction of pregnant women in London."

Mycroft is very clear that the so-called "no" just means that there is no known informant. The tomb robbery in the early days of the Baitou organization involved a wide range of areas, from Europe to America.

"So, we still need to visit that small building at night."

Sherlock did not give up the idea of ​​sneaking in for investigation, "Although judging from the stalking situation in the past two days, there are very few rooms with lights at night in the small building, and the possibility of imprisoning pregnant women is very low, but we still cannot let go of any of them." possibility."

This time, Mycroft made no objection.

The Skeleton Building is the office of the Erjiuhui in Southampton, but so far no core members have been seen coming or going.

It is most likely that on the night of the 22nd, a group of people met directly in the Moonlight Cave, but the preliminary investigation still needs to be done.

The number of operatives has changed from two to three.Eat dinner early today, recharge your batteries and rest early, and act in the early hours of tomorrow.

No matter whether something is discovered or not, in order to catch everything in one go, the rescue can only be postponed until the night of the 22nd.

Before acting, Mycroft also made a suggestion.

"The priests in the cave are the 13 people who are trying to gain the power of the skull the most. Although their identities are not known, most of them are famous people. For those people, I am afraid that it is difficult to bear one thing, and that will become their weakness."

Knowing the opponent's weakness can save time and effort to capture it in one fell swoop.

Sherlock thought and thought, but combined with the written information on the table, he couldn't figure it out. "My dear brother, what do you mean?"

Mary also looked at Mycroft blankly, never acknowledging that she had a vague guess in her heart.

"You pretend! Do you dare to pretend more realistically?"

Mycroft glanced lightly at the insider, Mr. Minton, and didn't look too much. He only stayed there for a second before talking about his analysis.

"People who participate in cave sacrifices have a high probability of not being able to wear body coverings. Just like being born naked, it is also possible to perform rituals in the most primitive state when absorbing the power of skeletons."

So what?

Mycroft suggested in a calm tone, "After burning the clothes first, will those people evacuate quickly and in an orderly manner?"

"hiss--"

Sherlock took a deep breath, the amount of information in this sentence is really a bit large.

His beloved elder brother, who has always shown himself to be a gentleman, would actually propose such a detrimental move.

Also, what the hell happened to Mycroft?Why are those who are so sure about participating in the sacrificial offerings eight or nine times out of ten need to be naked?

Sherlock looked left and right. How much did Mr. Minton know?

Previously, he was cast as the younger brother of wealthy businessman Tony.

Tony and doctor Brown came to Southampton to seek mysterious power to cure the disease, but as a family member, Tony's younger brother didn't know what disease Tony had.

Sherlock had to wonder, what kind of scene did the two play when they went to the basement to find the wizard Sage to steal information?

At this moment, Mary looked suddenly enlightened, as if she was too innocent to think of this strategy. "My God! This is such a good idea. It is easy to operate and hits the weakness of those big people."

In addition to marveling, Mary did not forget to praise. "Mr. Holmes, you are as resourceful as ever."

Mycroft wanted to taunt, was he complimenting him or playing dumb?Are you grateful for not hearing an adjective like scheming at this time?

However, the next moment he looked at Mr. Minton's eyes, those eyes were full of admiration and appreciation, as if he was the only one in his eyes.

The sarcasm stuck.

Mycroft felt that the writing area on his back was itching again, not only his back, but his heart.

He tried his best to look away as calmly as possible, he couldn't look at Mr. Minton anymore, he might as well look at his worried brother.

"Sherlock, if you have no doubts, pass this idea on to the Scotland Yard round-up team."

Mycroft said, "Including us, the round-up team has a total of 28 people, and the number of Erjiu members who participated in the sacrifice is a total of 24 people. Even if there is still room for one-on-one arrests, this operation is basically safe. As long as Lei Detective Strader just needs to be relentless when it comes to shooting."

It's planning to set fire to the clothes, it's accurately counting the number of opponents, and it's setting up spots in advance to ambush them.

After a series of tricks, it is difficult for the worship organization to escape from Shengtian, and now it is trying not to let a fish slip through the net.

Sherlock was all in favor of setting fire to the clothes, and he wondered if such a suggestion had ever come from Mycroft.

However, it is impossible to ask clearly the source of inspiration for such a "magic plan".When his elder brother wants to avoid a certain problem, his patience is so deep that even Holmes is helpless.

It's not that I didn't think of side-talking.

Sherlock asked Mr. Minton curiously, trying to find out what happened in the basement.

Mr. Minton was very cooperative, and seemed to give everything away.

That's speculation from Saatchi's rhetorical performance, gaining the power in the skull to maintain the spirituality of the body.The so-called spirituality is probably the state of maintaining no clothes, which is the most natural state.

Despite Mr. Minton's sincerity and frankness, Sherlock always felt that something was wrong.

It's not that Mr. Minton has revealed any flaws, but if the matter is so simple, why does Mycroft keep it secret?

Soon, there was no time to explore the man's little secrets, and night visits to the small building started.

In the early hours of the morning for two consecutive days, the three of them sneaked in together to find the hostages who might be trapped, but they searched all three floors and the basement, but found no trace of the presumed pregnant woman.

We can only wait patiently for the arrival of late night on June 6.

Once you catch it, you will be able to determine whether the reasoning is correct, and whether the purpose of the sacrifice at the core of the worship organization is to stay young forever.

**

Midsummer night, full moon in the sky, dense forest on the ground.

It was nearly midnight, and the wind was blowing wildly, and it didn't just mess with people's hair.

In the New Forest, gunshots rang out frequently, and flames burst into the sky.

A series of yelling and cursing ensued, mixed with weeping, as if a gap had been opened at the door to another world, and a scene of demons fighting among themselves was staged within a few minutes.

Saqi, who was arrested on the spot, recalled afterwards that he didn't even know how the sacrificial ceremony that should have been carried out smoothly turned into a siege operation.

The chaos came too fast, and they were surrounded by surprise.

I don't know when those police detectives approached. The sixteen people who were in the underground cave and were about to start offering sacrifices only heard an exclamation from the ground, "It's on fire! The clothes are burning!"

Then came the sound of gunfire and fighting.

Then a group of people rushed into the underground cave, and the sacrifice was interrupted. The pregnant woman in the middle of the altar cried and was first awakened and then fainted from fright.

The three sacrificial wizards tried to resist, but they couldn't fight the guns with their walking sticks.

The 13 people at the core of Erjiuhui shouted fiercely, but they were all naked, so how could they fight back with bare hands?What's more, not only did he have no weapons, but he was naked and didn't even wear shoes, so he couldn't run away.

In just half an hour, human heads, skeletons and various animal corpses fell to the ground.

There is no mysterious atmosphere in which the priests obtain the power of the skull, but the embarrassing scene of a row of people squatting down with their heads in their hands.

Tonight is destined to be impossible to be peaceful.

Under the situation of extorting a confession by not telling the truth and not giving him clothes to wear, a middle-aged man was the first to confess his crime.

The murder of Moulton was caused by the wrong body.

Simon King, who was in charge of receiving the goods, originally thought that it would be better to buy the corpse from Moulton than to do less, but the two parties had a conflict over the price.

The Morton Lion opened his mouth wide.

Later, Simon made an unannounced visit to the skeleton exhibition, and found that the number and tail number of those fake heads were 29. Isn't that a satire on the Erjiuhui?

Yes or no, Moulton's interpretation doesn't matter.When he dared to quote a high price to sell goods that did not belong to him, Simon's murderous intentions had already hidden.

The Midsummer Eve sacrifice is imminent, and the corpse brought by the United States looks like a tramp, but it is actually an indigenous priest.Such sources of corpses can be met but not sought after, so the only way to get rid of Moulton is getting in the way.

When an organization is used to acting with brutal means, it will gradually become unscrupulous.They traveled to many countries to steal the target's corpse, but because of their scattered and secretive actions, they were never caught.

Tonight is the most important sacrifice, so there are not many people here, they are all core members, and they don't even bring extra bodyguards.Thinking of the location is secret, but there have been no mistakes in the past two years.If you bring too many guards, there will be too many people and it will be easy to leak secrets.

It never occurred to her that the most important Midsummer's Eve festival was taken away by someone.

A group of people organized by Baitou were still puzzled until they were escorted out of the forest.

How did such a secret place and action come to light?Which link went wrong?Who is the traitor who betrayed them?

No one answered, only the night wind from Southampton whistling past.

The night is deep.

23:57, everything should go to sleep.

The revealer who was yelled and cursed by the worship organization is actually in the forest at the moment.

Mary and Mycroft dropped the disguise of Doctor Brown and wealthy businessman Tony, but they still didn't rush to the forefront of the arrest.

Considering that if anyone in the worship organization has good eyesight or rich associations and recognizes them, once the identity is found out, the role identity this time will be scrapped and cannot be reused.

So, stay behind and take control of the whole process.

The two waited until all 24 people in the Moonlight Cave were arrested, then they slowed down a little and walked towards the outside of the forest.

Forest, windy.The leaves rustled.

Walking through the layers of fallen leaves, wearing the blurred moonlight, the night of Midsummer's celebration in 1873 is coming to an end.

Midnight is approaching.

"Mr. Minton."

Mycroft broke the silence suddenly, "As long as I say something nice to make you happy about that line you wrote on my back, I will have the honor to do the same to you. As wise as you or You know, I'm not good at smooth talk."

"Oh, so what?"

Mary tilted her head, not thinking that Mycroft would voluntarily abstain.

"Even so, I think we still have to do something. After all, tonight is supposed to celebrate midsummer, but unfortunately there are really no good celebrations in the deep wild forest."

Mycroft paused at this point, "So I'm making a fool of myself, and I'll make it fun for you."

Mycroft clenched his fist with his right hand, slowly raised it above his head, and then suddenly spread his five fingers. ①

"You see, a firework can be set off with bare hands. Although it is not as gorgeous as the fireworks set off over the square, as long as you want, I can light it for you at any time, up to two at a time. If you are willing to join, we can at most Put four. Do you like it?"

Tick, tick.The pocket watch points to zero.

Maybe it was the Midsummer Night Moonlight to blame.

Mycroft quietly raised his right hand like this, focused on the people around him, waiting for the other party's response.

Mary had to say that this scene was kind of silly and childish.

Too stupid to be the work of Sherlock Holmes, so childish that it makes Mycroft extraordinarily charming and lovely.

She couldn't help laughing, and even more involuntarily stretched out a hand above her head, clenched her fist and opened it slowly. "My dear Mr. Holmes, whose fireworks do you think are more beautiful?"

"That's a good question."

Mycroft seemed to be in deep thought, "Perhaps, it would be more beautiful for us to put one together."

How to put it together?Hand in hand and raised together?

Under the moonlight, the hands of two people approached slowly.

"crunch-"

But I heard footsteps coming from the woods on one side, which was a bit familiar.

Sherlock turned back, and as he walked he found that Mycroft and Mr. Minton had disappeared.

In the midnight jungle, nothing will happen to the two of them, right?Huh?What happened to the two figures raising their hands in front of them?