Look out for the <>

I pulled my phone out from my pocket to act like I was busy as I sat on the Tube to ovoid people who were looking for a conversation to start. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to some stranger beside me on public transit. 

The plan today was to meet up at the man that Zane told me about in one of his many points of interests. Zane told me about a coffee shop he went to every other day at noon and his favorite clothes shop. With Zane's help I will be easily able to catch him. 

As I worked on this, Sherlock was on his way to get the killer of the guard. As Sherlock and I worked together, we would get this case solved and in the records by this evening.

"You now have arrived a Kings Cross station," a Lady's posh voice said over the intercom.

Knowing that this was my stop, I stood up from my seat as I stuffed my phone in a pocket to my favorite pair of black jeans. I walked to the doors and grabbed a metal railing as I waited for the doors to open to let me out.

"Rori," I heard a voice say from behind me.

I had never heard this voice before but I knew that this must be the man that Zane told me about. He said that he had eyes every where, I guess he was right. I didn't look back at the voice but instead I snapped saying, "what do you want?"

"I heard you were looking for me," he said into my ear as I felt the metal cylinder brush my side and I knew it was a gun. As much as I should be scared, I wasn't. He came to me, in a public place, with cameras all over, this made my job so much easier. I knew that in order to be a ghost he needed to stay hidden, so he wouldn't do anything crazy like pull the trigger of the gun. I didn't move and I made sure to not tense up either. 

"Why don't we take this outside," I said coolly as the doors opened.

"Take one step out that door and your dead." 

I frowned, he couldn't be willing to fire that gun in here. That is unless he was desperate. "Then do you just want me to ride this with everyone on?" I was sure he wouldn't do anything with these people in the car.

"No," he said then snapped his fingers. I watched as everyone on the train get off, so it just left him and me in the train car only.

I raised my eyebrows, wondering how he pulled that stunt off. "Wow, that's special," I said sarcastically and I turned slowly to face who was talking to me. I found myself looking at a man about 27 years old with blonde hair that was styled to the side and dim blue eyes. He was tall with a custom fit suit. He looked successful and I knew he was.

"Nice to finally meet you, Rollin."

He smiled at me pleasantly. "It's always a pleasure to meet you, Rori. I have heard loads about the great Rori Anderson. I never thought I would get a chance to meet but here we are." 

There was something not right with this. Zane told me he hated attention, that he was a ghost. Why was he here? There was something that I was not understanding. This painting must have been more valuable when I thought. This is why Zane wanted me to get him. He wanted to make his move on the painting. "Now why are you coming to me? Shouldn't you be running the other way?" 

He shook his head at me. "No. I came here to warn you that you are in over your head. This case is not just about you and me. This is about billions of dollars in art from Russians and Germans from World War Two."

I chuckled. He was lying about this. I would have heard about such a treasure. "That's a great story, where did you get it? Mother goose?" 

He frowned, not happy with my response. "I'm not making this up. This job is worth more than any job you have ever taken. And I'm only going to say this once, try to get in my way again and I will kill you," he said as he jabbed the gun into my side again to prove a point.

"As long as you keep breaking the rules, I'm going to have to keep going after you." I grabbed a hold of his gun and twisted it out of his hand. It fell to the ground and got knocked under a seat. I pulled out my knife and pointed it at Rollin. "Now Mr. Rollin, you misjudged me. If you thought you could just threaten my friends and have me do nothing about it, you are wrong." I walked up closer to him and started to corner him into a wall. "No one bosses me around."

I pushed him against the wall. "You must be stupid if you thought I wouldn't walk on this Tube without a plan in case I did run into trouble. You may try to think a head but what you don't know is that I am always ahead. I will always be around and always at the top of my game. Even though I work for Scotland Yard, I still am white collar and that will never change." I pistol whipped him with the blunt end of my knife then hand cuffed one of his hands to a leg of a chair.

He tugged on the chain. "You're making a terrible mistake." 

I have heard that phrase all to may times. "Oh I'm sure I am," I said sarcastically as I pulled out my phone and texted Lestrade and Sherlock.

"You don't know what you're putting your fingers into. This pie is bigger than all of us."

I looked at him to see if he was telling the truth. He believed what he was saying was true. But if this was all true, why didn't I heard about it? No, this had to be a fairy tale because I would know if it existed. It sounded too good to be true. "Oh yeah. You know what? I honestly, think you're crazy," I said as I gave a small laugh. He had to be. 

"But yet I can see in your eyes that you aren't sure if you can disregard what I'm saying."

I frowned as the train stopped but the doors didn't open. "That's smart, locked the doors didn't you?" I turned to him.

He had an amused look to his face. "I'm going to give you once more chance, let me go or get killed." He sat on the ground; hand cuffed to the chair. He looked like this lease threatening person in the world.

I pretended to be scared then said in a cocky manner, "if you're going to kill me I would like to see you try." The train picked up again and went speeding to its next stop. 

The train squeaked as it stopped at it's next stop and waiting to get onto the train was four big men.

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"Now they are waiting for me to get off here. If you don't let me go in the next five seconds they will kill you," he said, in a cocky manner this time.

I looked at them then at him, assessing if I could take them on by myself. I couldn't let him go but I didn't stand a chance against four men. I just had to make it to the next stop then I would get backup. "I rather not. I've faced death before," I said calmly like I dealt with this on a daily basis.

He raised his eyebrows at me. "But you're afraid of it, yes? I can see it in your eyes."

He was right. I was afraid. I couldn't fight all four men on my own. This fight was going to be messy and I would suffer. The train started to pick up again but as it did this, there was a sound of shattering glass then the sound of a whizzing bullets. I started to panic. He wasn't joking about the death part. I dropped to the ground and looked around for the gun. I needed it. Even if I didn't like them, right now I had no choice. I grabbed it and got up to look around. No one was here except us.

"Just wait, they'll be here," Rollin said calmly.

I got out my knife in one hand and the gun in another. I was ready. Suddenly the back door that connected the cabs together was forced open and three of the four men came in with guns. I imminently threw my knife at the first one. He dropped to the ground and another one came charging at me. I jumped into a row of seats to avoid him and aimed the gun and tried to fire but nothing happened.

"Did I fail to tell you that there are no bullets in that? It was all for show."

I thought that I was one step ahead of him, but in reality he was one step in front of me. 

The man that came charging at me the first time aimed his gun and fired but at the same time I threw my gun as hard as I could at him. As it distracted him, I ducted under some seats to stay out of sight. I then got up and ran up to the man and hit a pressure point on his neck then dead legged him but as I did this the other man grabbed me from behind with a tight grip. I started to wiggle and kick back but nothing worked to make him drop me. The man I dead legged punched me in the gut and I felt the air get knocked out of me. 

I had been caught and there was no escaping. Slowly I felt the train start to stop. I smiled lightly when I realized that I still had a chance. This was the stop that I was going to meet everyone. The men did not seem to care that the train was stopping because they all gathered around me and each threw punches at me.   

"Any last words Rori?" Rollin asked, now suddenly out of his hand cuffs. He pointed a gun at me with a smile on his face.

I looked down a barrel of a gun. Those doors better open up now or I'll be dead.

The train stopped completely and as I looked out the window from the corner of my eyes, I saw Sherlock, Lestrade, John, and a couple of Scotland Yard's best. I held back a smile knowing that Rori would live another day. "Yeah, do you have the time?" I asked, not caring about the answer but the distraction it gave.

He looked at his gold Rolex watch. "It's 3 in the afternoon."

"Ah, right on time." I said as some men opened the train's door and walked in. The Train car suddenly was full of commotion and noise as men came barging it. "Now if you would be so kind to put me down." I said calmly to the man that was holding me.

In silence he dropped me to the ground.

"By the power of the queen you have the right to remain quiet," Lestrade said as he handcuffed the men.

"Remember this exact time when the great Rori Anderson brought you down," I said to Rollin as I spat out the blood that was in my mouth. I then turned to Sherlock. "You couldn't have come at a better time." 

"Looked like you needed the help," Sherlock said as he looked around the train.

"No, are you kidding me? I just wanted to get their hopes up. I had everything the way I wanted it."  

John walk into the train car and his smiled dropped when he saw me. "Oh Rori, your stiches ripped." 

I looked over at my arm and saw that my white mid arm length sleeve was red around. "Well that's just nice. I did like this shirt." I said and pouted. I took a seat on the train, feeling weak in my legs. I let out a breath, "that was lively." 

"Rori, you did it again. Good job," Lestrade said as he walked up to us as well.

"Oh it's nothing." Honestly I did like all of this thrill of danger and fighting. It challenged me and pushed me beyond my limits. I felt alive. "And did you get the girl?" I asked as I looked up at Sherlock.

"Of course I did." 

"Nicely done. Well if you don't mind I'll be heading back to the flat." 

"Ok," He said as I got up from the chair and walked passed Lestrade with John and Sherlock on my heels.

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"No you didn't do that," John said and started laughing at the local pub we were at later that evening. As soon as John tended to my arm, he thought it would be good for us to go out to eat. I thought that it wasn't such a bad idea. After the past few days that have happened, I think we all needed time to relax.

"No, I did. I just asked him the time," I told him as I relived what had happened on the train.

"As your final words?" He shook his head in disbelief.

I shrugged at him. "Well, I saw you guys so I needed a distraction. You guys came at the right time, that was really fantastic. Good job Sherlock." I smiled at my partner with curly black hair that he seemed to never brush.

"That was nothing. Just a little math to figure it out when it would come," Sherlock said and took a gulp of beer.

"Well I don't know about you two, but this case was stressful." 

"Agreed." John said.

"I've been in worse." Sherlock shrugged.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes at him, knowing that he probably hadn't.

"How did you find Rollin so fast? He was like you, white collar I mean, and it even took me a couple days to find you." Sherlock said to me.

"Oh, you know me, I just asked around. People spill when there's motivation." I shrugged as I tried to be as vague as possible. The less questions he asked the better. I didn't want him to know I made a deal with Zane. 

There where couple minutes of silence as we just listened to what was going on around us. There was a good amount of people here tonight and they filled the room with chuckling and clanging of glasses. I finally broke the silence and said, "Rollin was a crazy man. He kept on talking about some huge treasure worth billions. That's why he stole the painting. I really think he was delusional."

"I think something like that would be one and a million if anything. Someone would have already found it by now." 

"You don't think there is something like that in the world?" Sherlock questioned me.

I looked at Sherlock with a frown. "Out of all my years of being white collar, I have never heard of something like that and trust me, I should have heard about it."

Sherlock just merely shrugged in silence then downed the rest of his golden drink. It sounded like he believed that there could really be such a thing. He was normally so logical, this sounded more like a fairy tale than anything.

"Well then, ready to go?" John asked us as he looked at the time from his phone.

"Yes." We both said at once and got up from our table and enter the cool night air of the bustling city of London. Ready for another case to come our way, the three of us, ready to take out London's worst.

I want to hear what you guys think about that. It has been loads of fun writing this so far and I just wanted to say thank you for all the comments and votes! It really kept the story going! It really made me smile to see the reactions of you readers!

I am taking a small break from writing because I'm going to Europe for a month and I'm not taking my laptop, so no writing for me. The way it looks I seem to write a new story a year so this next one will be my fourth! That's crazy! Well thank you so much for reading, voting, and commenting. You guys are truly amazing.

Tell next time my friends.

Darla H