Baker Street Charterers

"If I asked you to stop ... Cleveland, would you respond?"

In the dark and hidden basement, Nora was standing face to face with him, half of her face was hidden in the shadow of the candlelight, and she couldn't see clearly.But Cleveland watched her face without blinking, as if he could peer into her heart through the darkness.

For so many years of knowing each other, Nora has always been lively and cheerful, but her firmness and pride in her bones are not inferior to any man. At least, he has never heard her speak to him in such a tone similar to a request.

But he looked at her in silence, his face haggard, tired and calm.

"You won't promise me, will you?" Nora didn't look surprised.Although this old friend is mostly quiet, eccentric and withdrawn, he is exactly like them in one thing—stubborn to the point of headache.He often stays up all day and night for a corpse he is interested in, and is happy for half a month to find an excellent medical rare book...Once he decides on something, almost no one can change his idea.

Nora sighed softly, shook her head, finally stopped trying to persuade him, and just asked softly, "I just want to know...why, Cleveland?...why?"

"Don't you like corpses... more than living people?"

Then why do you experiment with living people so recklessly?

Cleveland raised his eyes. Days of staying up late and intense work made him extremely thin and pale. Standing in the dark shadows, he looked like a silent ghost. She had never seen him look so haggard.

Her gaze moved to the laboratory table behind him. The young man in a deep coma was covered with all kinds of strange test tubes, and his face was faintly blue under the light of the fire, looking like a scene from a horror movie.

Nora closed her eyes and inhaled lightly.

When everything is in front of his eyes, when he has no repentance for what he did... what else is there to say?

"Sorry……"

Cleveland murmured, "I'm sorry...Nora...I'm sorry."

"You don't need to say sorry to me." Nora replied her blankly, "Apologize to those innocent people who died under your hands, and may you still be able to look at their faces every night when they appear in your nightmares." Face said this sentence."

Cleveland was shocked, and he lowered his head, silent.

"What are you going to do now, Nora?" His voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible, "Will you... for those people, do something to me?"

Nora was silent for a while.

"I will, I will, Cleveland," she replied, "I've lost you from the moment you played for Moriarty."

"Moriarty?" He froze for a moment, "...who?"

Nora paused.

……

It had been almost ten days since Nora had left Baker Street - Watson dutifully recorded this data on the wall of 221b Baker Street.

At this time, in order to prevent Moriarty from doing some despicable actions again, Mrs. Hudson has been sent back to her hometown to spend her old age. Except for the daily care of Mary who is about to give birth, Watson seems to have returned to the good old days when the three of them walked together. ——Tolerate Sherlock Holmes' complaints about some articles that "summarize all the stupid remarks of human beings (original words)", search for what they need in various data maps, and...comfort friends who are often inexplicably distracted at work .

"Where will she go..." Watson looked at the notch on the wall and sighed full of worry, "God bless! Even if she is resourceful, she is still a lady!"

Holmes, who was looking down at the map and making marks that Watson couldn't understand, paused for a moment. He didn't raise his head, but said calmly, "We shouldn't underestimate her, doctor—sometimes, women have scarier things than us. will, and strength, if they are determined to accomplish a thing successfully."

"You never said such things before." Watson suddenly smiled, but the smile soon faded, and the doctor's expression became melancholy again, "Oh my friend, you can feel this feeling Right? It's like having a tight string in your brain, you can't predict when it will break, and you can't sleep because of it all day and night-"

"Really." Holmes still did not look up, and said calmly, "Confident people never have such troubles."

Watson was not fooled this time, "Really, my friend. Where does your confidence come from? The person Nora is facing now is not Sherlock Holmes, but Moriarty and most of his remaining party organizations! "

Holmes smiled silently, as if he was amused by Watson's appearance, and there was no sign of worry on his face. He just shook his pipe, took a puff leisurely, and told him in a drawn-out, lazy tone, " Don't be nervous, old friend, you should relax - I know where she is, you just need to use your brain rusted from too lazy and easy marriage to know the answer, as simple as every crossword puzzle. "

Watson, "If you are making fun of my IQ, you have to say that you succeed every time."

Holmes laughed out loud, "You know that your reaction just now is really disappointing, right? You must know that observing the repeated changes in your expression is one of the few entertainments I have recently."

Watson, "...I really admire Nora, she not only put up with you for five years, but also decided to endure the next 50 years—living such a hellish and terrible time with Sherlock Holmes."

Speaking of this name, Holmes paused slightly, and he was silent for a moment before speaking in a low voice, "Everyone has the right to make a choice, and I believe her choice is not wrong."

Watson, "Do you mean he chose you, or chose to leave you at this time? - Oh Sherlock, this method of self-comfort is really fresh."

Holmes shook his pipe again, as if considering the weight. Under the afternoon sun outside the window, his eyes turned a mysterious silver-gray, like some kind of hard gemstone.He stared solemnly at the quiet street outside, as if he was thinking, before speaking slowly after a moment.

"If we wish to abolish tyrants, what should we do first, Watson?"

The doctor was stunned for a moment, thought for a while, and said with some uncertainty, "Uh... Maybe it's the revolution?"

Holmes glanced at him. "There is nothing unexpected about your answer."

Watson, a little depressed, "...What about your insight?"

"If you wish to dethrone a tyrant, first see if the position he has built in the hearts of the people has been destroyed," Holmes told him. 'Subjects' use violence, he will only use it here cruelly and mercilessly—" He pointed to his head, "Go and do violence to them, because fear is always the most useful rule of submission."

Watson was puzzled, "What exactly do you mean—"

"It's impossible for us to defeat him in terms of money, power, and connections. It's all delusional." Holmes said in a low and quiet voice, "A person who easily controls the lifeblood of most of the nobles in London, a person who can walk into the study of the Prime Minister's Palace in his sleep An invisible assassin who took the lives of the most powerful people, an ambitious man who was forced to adopt a hands-off strategy that Mycroft could not face face to face... This is not a fairy tale, Watson, who wants to arrest him in the name of the law, except for five years After Mycroft, only God can do it."

Watson frowned and remained silent.Does Sherlock mean that they can only wait for a slow death?

"I need a chance..." Sherlock Holmes suddenly murmured, "Someone restricts his right and left arm, someone cuts off the capital of his ambition, someone disrupts his plan, and someone..."

Watson was racking his brains for what he meant—Holmes was saying that he needed someone to help him clear Moriarty of those around him, destroy the evidence that he threatened Londoners, break the chain of his perfect plan. , and the last man needs to—

"A chance," he whispered, "a chance he couldn't take anymore, made him angry, couldn't hold his breath and do it himself—"

"And then, I need to be close enough to him, face to face."

The doctor was taken aback, "What are you talking about, Sherlock? What do you mean?"

"Someone must be able to defeat him in an instant." Holmes smiled slightly. "We don't have enough time. Every minute and every second we waited is nothing more than making him more powerful... A fatal blow is a must. Our only viable chance."

"What will you do?" Watson asked.

"Like I said, an opportunity to be near him, I need to meet him, in person."

"He's very vigilant," Watson couldn't help hesitating. "He's been hiding for so many years and he hasn't been caught by Mycroft, us?..."

"That's what our mutual friend will do." Holmes' gray eyes were quiet. "Moriarty has loyal subordinates, but we have loyal friends and allies."

"Who?" Watson was puzzled—Sherlock Holmes actually has friends?It was nothing short of a tearful miracle.

"A waking lion, a cunning fat fox, a beautiful bird of paradise, and..."

He paused, a smile appeared in his eyes.

"...and a loyal, proud, yet very clever and cunning wolf."

Lions, foxes, birds, and wolves?

"Then what am I? A lion or a wolf?" Watson asked curiously.

Holmes glanced at him, and replied slowly, "Oh old friend, to put it mildly, you do not belong to any of the above."

"Then what can I do for you?" the loyal doctor asked enthusiastically.

"To keep Mary in labor," Holmes answered him earnestly, "and to lose your weight."

Watson, "..."