𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 || 𝐁𝐁𝐂 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤

34: Soo-Lin Yao

Third Person POV

National Antiquities Museum – Antiquities Room:

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson had managed to track down a lead; Soo-Lin Yao. They were currently questioning her co-worker, Andy. It was obvious even to John that he had a crush on Soo-Lin. They had followed him into the store room, where Andy showed them what she had last been doing – a tea ceremony for the tourists.

Sherlock noticed the statues wrapped in dust sheets as Andy pointed to the Chinese cabinet in the corner, the Zisha pots standing proudly within the glass case. One of the statues was untied, with Sherlock spotting the rope coiled on the floor and the dust cover having been removed.

Striding over the statue with a missing head, written on the body of the statue – in yellow paint... was the same Cipher they had seen previously.

"We have to get to Soo-Lin Yao..." Sherlock said, somewhat anxious that they may already be too late to meet her.

"If she's still alive! That cypher – it means he's planning to kill her next."

John and Sherlock both looked at each other, disturbed.

Just what the hell was going on?

***

The next morning, at 221B Baker Street:

Alex entered the living room, yawning, to find Sherlock and John pouring over printouts of the eighteen new symbols they had discovered last night. They now held pride of place, covering most of one of the walls.

"Why paint it next to the tracks?" Sherlock thought out loud, his mind going ninety miles an hour.

They had followed a lead by the railroads and found the cyphers spray painted on a wall. By the time John had fetched Sherlock over to see it, it had been painted over. Luckily he had managed to take a photograph beforehand. The same photographs were plastered on the walls.

"Thousands of people pass by there every day..."

Alex walked past him and poured herself a coffee and glanced over to where John lay, slumped down in his armchair. Clearly, they'd stayed up all night.

Feeling generous, Alex decided to give them a hint. After all, she was two steps ahead of them; she needed to get the missing goods before Sherlock and General Shan did.

Still, giving a little hint wouldn't hurt.

"Don't you think whoever put the cypher there wants information?" She took a slow sip of coffee. "They contacting all their people. Whatever was stolen, they want it back."

Sherlock's head snapped towards her, realising what she meant.

"And it's somewhere here in code. But we can't crack this without Soo Lin Yao." He looked up.

"She's the woman who-" he clarified realising Alex hadn't gone with them to the museum, but Alex cut him off.

"Yeah, the woman who works in antiquities at the museum."

"How did you-"

"That would be telling." She winked at him. He shook his head, turning back to the cypher.

"I guess we need to try to find her before they do."

"But where? She wasn't at her flat, and no one knows where she could have gone," John looked up at us, blurry-eyed from a lack of sleep.

"Oh. OH!" Sherlock jumped up suddenly, smiling. John furrowed his eyebrows in surprise.

"What? What is it?"

"We need to go back to the museum."

National Antiquities museum:

Alex, along with Sherlock and John, headed back to the museum.

"Oh, you guys are back. Have you managed to find Soo-Lin yet?" Andy asked anxiously, his eyes red-rimmed with worry.

While Sherlock and John spoke with him, Alex wandered off, looking at the exhibits. She had a penchant for history, and being surrounded by such rare artefacts was enough to make her blood thrum. Resisting the urge to swipe a few for herself, in particular some very pretty ancient coins, she wandered towards the Ancient China exhibition where Soo-Lin Yao had worked.

For someone who was as obsessed with her work as she was, Alex thought it was a little surprising for Soo-Lin Yao to have left so suddenly without any afterthought for who would take up the helm of her work.

Wondering through the exhibits, she imagined being an ordinary visitor to the museum; not an experiment, not an assassin, not a hacker. Just Alexandria Jean Novak.

As she was pondering, her eyes lingered on the Zisha pots in their glass case.

A sudden flash of colour within the display had caught her eye, causing her to pause.

A vibrant purple hyacinth lay among the delicate clay pots which had been so carefully tended by Soo-Lin.

"Andy!" she shouted; her eyes widening in shock. Andy came over, looking confused by her panicked tone.

"Who put that hyacinth in there?!" she demanded furiously, already looking around. Andy frowned, looking at the display.

"That's weird? It wasn't there this morning."

Alex felt cold sweat bead on her neck as she fixated on the hyacinth which lay innocently amongst the pots.

This can't be a coincidence.

Andy went to open the case and pick it up, but Alex smacked his hand out of the way.

"No! don't touch it!"

It was another hyacinth. Another message.

It had to be his work.