***Recap***
(Later, elsewhere in the museum, fingers reach through the gaps in a large grating at the bottom of a wall and carefully push the grating outwards. Moments after that, a shadow moves across the dimly lit display room, and a hand reaches into the glass case to take out one of the not-shiny teapots. The shadow moves away again. Not long afterward, Soo Lin is in an almost-dark restoration room, pouring tea into the teapot on the desk in front of her. She picks up the lid and carefully strokes it around the rim as, behind her, a very recognizable curly-headed silhouette appears on the other side of a window in the door. Unaware of this, she picks up the teapot and pours some of the liquid into a pair of cups. Pouring more of the tea into the tray on which the cups are standing, she swills the teapot around to cover the outside with the drips. A figure steps up beside her.)
Sherlock: Fancy a biscuit with that?
(Before he finishes the sentence she gasps in fright and turns towards him, the teapot dropping from her terrified fingers. Nikki vamps over just in time and catches the teapot before it hits the floor. The mates look up at her.)
Sherlock: Centuries old. Don't wanna break that.
(Nikki slowly straightens up and hands the teapot back to her. As she takes it, Sherlock reaches out and flicks a switch on the desk, turning on the lights underneath the surface. He smiles slightly at her.)
SHERLOCK: Hello.
***Now***
(John has now arrived and he and Soo Lin sit on stools on opposite sides of the table. Sherlock stands at the end of the table.)
Soo Lin: You saw the cipher. Then you know he is coming for me.
Nikki: You've been clever to avoid him so far.
Soo Lin: I had to finish ... to finish this work. It's only a matter of time. I know he will find me.
Sherlock: Who is he? Have you met him before?
Soo Lin (nodding): When I was a girl, living back in China. I recognize his ... 'signature.'
Sherlock: The cipher.
Soo Lin: Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu.
John: Zhi Zhu?
Nikki: The Spider.
(Putting her right foot up on her opposite knee, Soo Lin unlaces her shoe and takes it off. On the underside of her heel is a black tattoo of a lotus flower inside a circle.)
Soo Lin: You know this mark?
Sherlock: Yes. It's the mark of a Tong.
John: Hmm?
Sherlock: Ancient crime syndicate based in China.
(John nods his understanding and turns back to Soo Lin.)
Soo Lin: Every foot soldier bears the mark; everyone who hauls for them.
John: "Hauls"?
(She looks up at him. His eyes widen.)
John: Y-you mean you were a smuggler?
(She lowers her gaze and puts her shoe back on.)
Soo Lin: I was fifteen. My parents were dead. I had no livelihood; no way of surviving day to day except to work for the bosses.
Nikki: Who are they?
Soo Lin: They are called the Black Lotus. By the time I was sixteen, I was taking thousands of pounds worth of drugs across the border into Hong Kong. But I managed to leave that life behind me. I came to England.
(She smiles a little. Nikki smiles sadly at the girl, she knew how it could be in some countries.)
Soo Lin: They gave me a job here. Everything was good; a new life.
Sherlock: Then he came looking for you.
Soo Lin: Yes.
(Upset, she swallows before continuing tearfully.)
Soo Lin: I had hoped after five years maybe they would have forgotten me, but they never really let you leave. A small community like ours - they are never very far away.
(She wipes tears from her face.)
Soo Lin: He came to my flat. He asked me to help him to track down something that was stolen.
John: And you've no idea what it was?
Soo Lin: I refused to help.
John (leaning forward): So you knew him well when you were living back in China?
(She nods.)
Soo Lin: Oh yes.
(She looks up at Sherlock.)
Soo Lin: He's my brother.
(Elsewhere, the hands of what is presumably a woman wearing black nail varnish open a box and fold back the tissue paper covering the contents. The box contains sheets of black paper. The hands take out the top sheet and lay it on the table.)
Soo Lin: Two orphans. We had no choice. We could work for the Black Lotus, or starve on the streets like beggars.
(The hands have folded the sheet of paper a few times, pressing down to set the folds, and now open the sheet out flat again. They fold one of the corners up, then turn the paper around to start folding up the opposite corner.)
Soo Lin: My brother has become their puppet, in the power of the one they call Shan - the Black Lotus general.
(The hands continue folding the paper.)
Soo Lin: I turned my brother away. He said I had betrayed him. The next day I came to work and the cipher was waiting.
(The hands have nearly completed their work and the paper is now folded into an intricate shape.)
(In the museum, Sherlock lays the photographs on the table.)
Sherlock: Can you decipher these?
(Soo Lin leans forward and points to the mark beside Sir William's portrait.)
Soo Lin: These are numbers.
Nikki: Yes, we know.
Soo Lin (pointing to another photograph): Here: the line across the man's eyes - it's the Chinese number one.
Sherlock (pointing to the first photo): And this one is fifteen. But what's the code?
Soo Lin: All the smugglers know it. It's based on a book ...
(Just then almost all the lights go out. Soo Lin looks up in dread. Sherlock straightens up and looks around sharply. Nikki allows her face to change to its hybrid form on the lookout for the threat.)
Soo Lin (softly, her face full of terror): He's here. Zhi Zhu. He has found me.
(And the two mates take off, racing across the room. John calls to him softly but urgently.)
John: Sh-Sherlock. Sherlock, Nikki, wait!
(The two charges out of the room. John turns to Soo Lin and grabs her hand.)
John: Come here.
(He pulls her across the room towards another room, or possibly a cupboard - it's not clear which.)
John: Get in. Get in!
(Sherlock races across a large open foyer with a staircase at each end and a balcony surrounding the floor above. He stops in the middle of the foyer and looks around. From his right, a figure runs across the balcony and fires a pistol at him. Sherlock turns and runs in the opposite direction, flinging himself to the floor and sliding along it to take shelter behind a statue on a low plinth. The figure fires a couple more times as Sherlock scrambles behind the plinth. Nikki, on the other hand, appeared in front of the attacker grabbing him by the throat. However, before she could subdue the attacker, another man wrapped his arms around Nikki's neck and swiftly breaks it in one swift movement. Nikki releases the attacker as her lifeless body falls to the floor, unknown to Sherlock or John. In the restoration room, John looks up at the sound of gunfire, then turns to Soo Lin.)
John: I have to go and help them. Bolt the door after me.
(He hurries off. Soo Lin's face fills with dread. John makes his way cautiously out into the foyer, then ducks and runs for cover as more gunshots ring out. The figure runs back across the balcony and disappears from view. Sherlock comes out from behind the plinth and hares across the foyer and up the stairs. John peers out from behind a column at the other end of the foyer as Sherlock reaches the top of the stairs and tears around the corner. He pelts into another display room and the gunman runs out of cover behind him and fires toward him again. Sherlock ducks behind a display cabinet displaying some ancient skulls as the figure fires again.)
Sherlock (calling out): Careful!
(The gunman fires again.)
Sherlock (calling out): Some of those skulls are over two hundred thousand years old! Have a bit of respect!
(He pauses for a couple of seconds, breathing heavily. There are no more gunshots.)
Sherlock: Thank you(!)
(There's no more sound from the gunman. After a moment Sherlock frowns, then carefully peers through the glass of the case. From where the detective was standing behind the display case he could see a figure lying on the ground, and with a closer inspection, Sherlock noticed that Nikki was the person lying on the floor. Running over to his mate, Sherlock gently picks her up in his arms and patiently waits for her to wake up. Not more than five minutes later, Nikki's eyes snap open and startles on her mates. Sherlock smiles at his mate, thankful that nothing really could kill the hybrid.)
(In the restoration room, Soo Lin looks up anxiously. Soo Lin takes a shaky breath and slowly begins to crawl out of her hiding place. On the desk, paperwork is fluttering in a slight breeze. Soo Lin crawls to the edge of the table and peers over the top of it before slowly standing up. Behind her, a Chinese man a little older than her silently walks up and stops just behind her, staring at her intently. As if sensing him, she turns slowly around and then gazes at him with affection when she recognizes him. She softly greets him by name.)
Soo Lin: 亮 [Liang.]
(She hesitates for a moment.)
Soo Lin: 大哥 [Big brother.]
(She reaches out and cups his face with her hand.)
Soo Lin: 请你 [Please ...]
(As John continues to search for his friend, a single gunshot rings out in the distance. He turns towards the sound, his face filling with appalled horror when he realizes where the shot has come from.)
John: Oh my God.
(He races back to the stairs and runs down them, across the foyer, and back to the restoration room. Entering the room, he slows down and looks around cautiously for any sign of the gunman. Carefully making his way across the room, he stops and then groans in despair and guilt at the sight which greets him. Soo Lin lies dead on the table, her outstretched arm revealing a black origami lotus flower in her upturned hand.)
(NEW SCOTLAND YARD. John, Nikki, and Sherlock are standing a short distance away from Dimmock who has his back to them and is rummaging through paperwork on a desk as if trying to ignore them.)
John: How many murders is it gonna take before you start believing that this maniac's out there?
(Dimmock turns and walks in between them, heading for another desk. John turns round and follows him.)
John: A young girl was gunned down tonight. That's three victims in three days. You're supposed to be finding him.
(Sherlock walks across in front of John to get closer to Dimmock. John steps back and walks a few paces away in exasperation.)
Sherlock: Brian Lukis and Eddie Van Coon were working for a gang of international smugglers - a gang called the Black Lotus operating here in London right under your nose.
(He has leaned closer to Dimmock to emphasize his last point. Dimmock finally looks round to him.)
Dimmock: Can you prove that?
(Sherlock straightens up thoughtfully.)
(ST BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL. In the canteen, mortician Molly Hooper is looking at the choices in the self-service display.)
Sherlock: What are you thinking: pork or pasta?
(She turns in surprise at his voice beside her.)
Molly: Oh, it's you!
Sherlock: This place is never going to trouble Egon Ronay, is it?
(He smiles at her, then nods to the display. Nikki continues to glare at the brunette woman flirting with her mate.)
Sherlock: I'd stick with the pasta. Don't wanna be doing roast pork - not if you're slicing up cadavers.
(Again he smiles at her. She grins nervously.)
Molly: What are you having?
Sherlock: Don't eat when I'm working. Digesting slows me down.
Molly: So you're working here tonight?
Sherlock: Need to examine some bodies.
Molly: "Some"?
Sherlock: Eddie Van Coon and Brian Lukis.
Molly (looking at the clipboard she's holding): They're on my list.
(Sherlock turns puppy-dog eyes on her.)
Sherlock: Could you wheel them out again for me?
Molly (apologetically): Well ... the paperwork's already gone through.
(Nikki couldn't take it any longer. Moving towards Molly, Nikki pushed Sherlock out of the way, grabbing hold of the brunette's shoulders and looking into her eyes.)
Nikki: Now you will roll out Van Coon's and Lukis' bodies for us. You will not say a word to anyone about this. (leaning next to Molly's ear whispering) And you will stop flirting with Sherlock.
(Nikki smiles at Molly before releasing her and went to stand next to her mate who smiles at her. She returns it, looking both flattered and flustered, then turns away to the display, smiling nervously. Sherlock looks at his mate stunned, he knew that Nikki didn't like the fact that Molly flirted with him but since he had Nikki, Sherlock never paid attention to the brunette.)