Valiant {Book Two of the Incandescent Trilogy}

Chapter Ten: Violence Solves All Problems

"However, so long as one of us still stands by Sherlock's side, Moran can't do much. I've got more assets in high places than you can count, and you've always been remarkably good at convincing civilians to do anything you ask them to. You're not going to willingly turn against Sherlock, Moran knows this, but you will if there's sufficient motivation. That's where Mary comes into play. He gets to Mary, he gets to you, and thereby gets to Sherlock."

"That implies that he's going to do something to you." Sherlock's sharp eyes flicked to her.

"If he has Mary, and John by association, I'd like to think that the only other weakness I have is you, which wouldn't work." Amelia sounded confident in her words. "There are no personal files on me. I've made sure of it. He would have to get information on me by ear, and everyone who knows about my secrets are either in this room, or dead. Even if he found out anything, he doesn't have enough authority to smear my image. No offence, John, but it's like putting yourself against Mycroft. You're going to lose by default, just because of Mycroft's position in the government."

"No offence taken." John looked down at the table. "I don't want any harm to come to Mary, Sherlock."

"You've expressed that thought quite clearly."

"I'm serious."

"As am I." Sherlock sighed. "But we'll do our best." He turned to Amelia. "You're awfully quiet."

She frowned. "What are you talking about? I had a monologue, like, two minutes ago; and excuse me for being a little bit shocked about this situation, considering the fact that I've just found out that I'm not only going to be an aunt, but I also have someone trying to make sure you die horribly, slowly, and painfully, while screaming for mercy."

This time, it was Sherlock who frowned. "Was that last bit necessary?"

"Absolutely." she answered. "I think we need to get Mary to a safe house... I think we all need to get to a safe house. We need somewhere to think of a plan."

"She won't agree." John shook his head. "She won't agree to leaving work for so long, and then camping out in the middle of nowhere. We'd have to explain the situation to her, and then she'd want to fight with us."

"Then let her fight." Sherlock suggested.

"Definitely not." John said. "She's pregnant."

"From what it seems like, we can't take her because she's pregnant, we can't let her fight because she's pregnant, and we can't leave her because she's pregnant." He turned to Amelia. "Please tell me we're not going to have children."

"Easy there, Sher. We're not even married yet."

"Sherlock," interrupted John, "we need to do something."

"Yes," Amelia agreed, "we do. So, does anyone else have a plan? Because I sure as hell don't have one of my own."

Her question was met with silence.

She hid her face in her hands. "Fantastic. We're all going to die. Just how I wanted to spend my life—being hunted down by Sherlock's murderous twin brother. Absolutely perfect. I'm just jumping with joy."

"Your sarcasm is unwarranted, Amy.

"Unwarranted!" Amelia repeated, jumping to her feet and earning several confused looks from the other people in the dingy café. "Yes, 'cause there's nothing quite as normal as having someone try to kill you."

"It is quite normal in your line of work, if you think about it."

Amelia sat back down with a groan. "We're all going to die." she sang under her breath. "If I get killed by your stupid brother, I am going to haunt you until he kills you too, is that clear?"

Sherlock ignored her entirely. "What do you suggest we do, John?"

John blinked. "You're asking my opinion?"

"It's proven to be quite valuable on occasion."

Still in shock, John cleared his throat. "Right." he said. "I suppose we could... I mean..." He shook his head. "I've got nothing."

"Lovely." Amelia muttered. "We're all going to die, we're all going to die—"

"Will you please stop saying that?" Sherlock hissed. "I have no plans on dying anytime soon."

"I suppose you have to limit yourself, right? Can't fake your death twice within a five year period."

"Amelia."

"Sherlock." she mocked. "Right, anyway, what are we going to do?"

Sherlock stared over Amelia's shoulder for a moment. Then, he sighed, and looked her dead in the eyes. "I don't know." He shrugged. "I suppose we try to fight, and hope for the best."

Amelia furrowed her eyebrows. "That's a shit plan."

"You don't have a plan either."

"That's what you think."

"You admitted that you didn't have a plan!"

"My plan's a bit risky. I wanted to see if you two had anything else that could work." Amelia admitted, brushing her hair away. "God, I need to get my hair cut. Maybe I should get my nails done too."

"Will you just tell us your plan already?" snarled John. "And when did you get so conceited?"

"I'm just thinking. Sherlock goes silent while he thinks, you sputter, and I ramble." Amelia lifted a shoulder. "John, would you like to suggest anything?"

"It's your plan. Why would I contribute?"

Sherlock snorted. "Well, you're useless."

"You weren't much help running off for two years!"

"I have you know that Moriarty's network is disabled because I left you two for so long."

"No, it isn't." Amelia murmured. All eyes turned to her, so she took out her phone, sliding it across the table to Sherlock. "One of Jim's shell companies just made a trade with The Strand Accounting." She paused, frowning. "Sherlock, The Strand Accounting belongs to your sister. The network wasn't disabled." She met Sherlock's eyes. "It went underground."

A/n: Lots of plot twists in this chapter, and I must confess that I'm quite excited. Mary's pregnant, John's getting married, Charlie may or may not have betrayed them, and drama is going to go down. To those of you don't necessarily understand shell companies: they're companies often set up by other companies for the sake of acquiring various things, but because shell companies are, in fact, their own company, very few things can be traced back to the shell company's creator - making shell companies a very useful asset.