Apparently, Soo Lin worked at the museum were they were directed to the Chinese antiquities area and began interviewing the man who had left the note on the doorstep. "When was the last time you saw her?" Sherlock asked as he paced among the exhibits, his voice back to normal while Tyler paused as she looked inside one of the display cases to see a couple of ancient looking teapots, one that seemed to be shining more than the others. Interesting.

"Three days ago," the man, Andy told them as he watched from a short distance away with John and Clara, "Um, here at the museum. This morning, they told me she had resigned, just like that. Just left her work unfinished."

"Can you please tell us, what was the last thing she did?" Tyler asked as Sherlock paused by the same display that she had, eyeing the teapots, "On her final afternoon?"

"I'll show you," Andy nodded, leading them away from the main area of the museum and into what seemed to be the storage area down in the basement with all of the lights turned off. He flickered the lights on and led them inside the room lined with large shelves with locks on them, "She does this demonstration for the tourists," he explained to them, "A tea ceremony. So she would have packed up her things and just put them in here."

Andy began unlocking one of the shelves that already seemed to be partly opened as Clara glanced around the room, her eyes widening as they fell on a white statue of a woman a short distance away, half hidden in the shadows but she was still able to make out the spray-painted graffiti. Specifically, the Chinese's numbers.

"Tyler. Boys," Clara grabbed both Tyler and John's arms, nodding over the statue.

Both men, including Andy, and Tyler looked over to where she was nodding to, John's eyes widening in horror as he spotted the symbols as he felt his heat sink, realizing that they might be too late to save Soo Lin.

After seeing the Chinese symbols, Sherlock, Tyler, Clara, and John quickly hurried out of the museum after Sherlock had taken a couple of pictures on his phone of the statue.

"We have to find Soo Lin Yao," Sherlock said as they hurried down the steps, looking around. Since entering the museum earlier, night had fallen which only made their search for Soo Lin even more important, after all, if she wasn't already dead, like Sherlock and Tyler suspected that she wasn't, than they were running out of time.

"If she's still alive," John sighed.

"Tyler!" The four paused and looked over to see Raz running over to them, stopping as he reached them.

"Oh, look who it is," John frowned at Raz as Clara hid her smile at the look on his face.

Raz ignored John's remarked, turning to Tyler, "Found something you'll like," he told her, smiling before turning and leading them away from the museum steps, Sherlock, Tyler, Clara, and at a hesitated rate, John, following after him.

Raze lead them down the street and across Hungerford Bridge, leading them over to the south side of the river while John rambled on behind them, "Tuesday morning," he said to Raz, "All you've gotta do is turn up and say the bag was yours."

"He's not going to do that," Tyler rolled her eyes.

"Thanks for your confidence," John said dryly, making Tyler laugh.

Sherlock threw them a look over his shoulder, feeling an odd ting of... something he couldn't quite place when he heard John make Tyler laugh, even if that hadn't been intended. What was that feeling? Why couldn't he of all people tell what it was? And why was he having any feelings about someone making Tyler laugh in the first place? It didn't make sense, but now that he thought about it, it wasn't the first time that he had felt this way. When his brother had been talking to her after the taxi driver case, he had felt it, and when she had first greeted Sebastian. What was going on?

It didn't take them too long before Raz led them to an underground skate park were a couple of people were mucking around on skateboards or riding bikes, doing different tricks to impresses the people watching them off to the side. One teenage girl shouting to her friend, "Dude, that was rad!"

Clara eyed the walls and even parts of the concrete ceiling above their heads that was covered in tags and graffiti, some of which was pretty good.

"If you want to hide a tree then a forest is the best place to do it, wouldn't you say?" Sherlock commented, looking around at the walls as they made their way down a set of steps, them to covered in graffiti, "People would just walk straight past, not knowing, unable to decipher the massage."

"Clever," Clara nodded, looking quite impressed.

Raz continued walking until he stopped, "There," he pointed over to a heavily graffitied wall just ahead of them, "Spotted it earlier today." They looked closer at the wall and could only just make out a yellow symbol covered over by a large lightning bolt that appeared to have been freshly painted.

"They have been in here," Tyler nodded, smiling slightly as he turned to Raz, "And that's the exact same paint?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

Sherlock turned to John and the girls, "If we're going to decipher that code," he gestured at the wall, "We're going to need to look for more evidence."

"Looks like we're going to split up, then," Clara said, looking in-between Tyler and the boys.

"Yes," Sherlock nodded, "John, Clara, you search the underpass, Tyler and I will take the railway," and before Clara or John could argue, he had turned on his heel and run off, grabbing Tyler's arm to make sure she followed.

"Sometimes I really don't understand that man," Clara shook her head, looking at John.

"I know the feeling," John nodded his agreement, shaking his head before they too set off in the direction of the underpass, both keeping an eye out for any signs of yellow paint as they made their way through the underpass. Eventually, when the underpass proved to have nothing of any use to their case, they made their way outside and along the rail track.

As luck would have it, John happened to have a flashlight on him which proved to be very handy because it lit splashes of yellow paint up for them to be able to see on the sleepers of the track. Clara and John exchanged hopeful looks as they followed the splashes, coming to a brick wall just off to the side of the track. John raised the torch higher, lighting the wall up to reveal it to be covered in yellow Chinese symbols.

"Woah," Clara gasped, staring up at the wall, John looking shocked.

"I know," he nodded, still looking stunned before he shook himself and starting going through his pockets, "I'd better call Sherlock..."

After half a dozen attempts at trying to call Sherlock and Tyler on both their phones, Clara and John gave up and decided to try and track them down themselves, which turned out to be easier then they had first thought as they found them still by the rail tracks, looking at the side of a parked rail freight container.

"Answer your phone!" John called to them as he and Clara ran up to them, both slightly breathless, "We've been calling you! We've found it!"

Sherlock raised his eyebrows at them before he and Tyler quickly followed after them as they turned and began leading them back toward the wall, but when they reached it, they found that it was blank. The yellow symbols had vanished and replaced with a plain, black wall.

"It's been painted over," Clara blinked, stepping closer the wall and using the tip of her finger to touch the wall, pulling it back to look at the black paint now covering the tip while Sherlock used his own touch to look around the area, "how annoying."

"I don't understand," John frowned; shaking his head as he stared at the wall, "It- it was here..." he stumbled back from the wall, still shaking his head, "Ten minutes ago. I saw it. We saw it," he gesture to himself and Clara, "A whole load of graffiti!"

Sherlock slipped his torch back inside his pocket, "Someone doesn't want me to see it," he said before suddenly reaching out and grabbing Clara's arm, putting both his hands on her head.

"What the hell, Sherlock?" she gasped, trying to jump away, "Get off..."

"Shh!" Sherlock hushed, still holding the side of her head as John stared at him and Tyler tried to hold back a laugh, trying to work out what he was doing while Clara continued to struggle, "Clara, concentrate. I need you to concentrate. Close your eyes."

"You're insane," Clara scoffed, staring at him as he moved his hands away from her face and onto her arms, "What are you doing, Sherlock?" she exclaimed as they began spinning around on the spot, Sherlock staring into her eyes, "Sherlock Holmes!"

"I need you to maximize your visual memory," he replied, his eyes boring into hers intently, "Try to picture what you saw. Can you picture it?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"Can you remember it?"

"Absolutely."

"Can you remember the pattern?"

"Definitely."

"How much can you remember?" Sherlock asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Stop worrying, Sherlock," Clara sighed, starting to feel a little sick from the spinning.

"Clara, the average human memory on visual matters is only 62 percent accurate," he said, still narrowing his eyes.

"Good thing I have a Mobile then," She smirked at him, holding up her blackberry, managing to break free of his grip on her arms and rubbed her arms as she shot him an annoyed look.

Sherlock blinked, looking slightly embarrassed as he took the phone and examined the photo while Clara turned away from him to share an exasperated look with Tyler, shaking her head.

Later that night, back at 221B Baker Street, both Tyler and Sherlock had pinned each photograph they had to the wall above the mantel and stood in front of it, examining it closely with the English translation of the numbers written on them.

"Always in pairs, John," Sherlock commented, startling John who had been slowly falling asleep behind them at the dining table, his head propped up on his hand. Clara was sitting in John's chair, her legs tossed over the side as she inspected the original photo on her phone.

"Hmm," he hummed back, blinking awake as he turned his head to look back at them, squinting from the bright light.

"Sherlock was just saying how the numbers all come in pairs," Clara informed him, moving her head side to side, trying to crack her neck from keeping it in the same position for the past 30 minutes. It was only luck that she was used to staying up all night because of Tyler; otherwise she would have collapsed in a heap on the floor, similar to what John was doing at the table.

"God, I need to sleep," John groaned, looking around the flat with a blank look as he tried waking himself up more.

"Why paint them so near the tracks?" Sherlock wondered out loud, Tyler rubbed her neck, nodding along with his words.

"No idea," John muttered, stretching.

"Thousands of people pass by there every day," Tyler said slowly, thinking it over carefully as she stared at the pictures in front of her.

John propped his head back on his hand again, his eyes drifting closed, "Just twenty minutes..." he mumbled.

"Of course," Sherlock's eyes widened as he realized something, Clara gave him a curious look, "Of course!" he exclaimed, staring back at the photographs in a new light, "He wants information. He's trying to communicate with his people in the underworld," Tyler gasped as she realized what he had worked out, "Whatever was stolen..."

"He wants it back," she finished, slowly smiling as she leaned closer to the photos, not noticing that Sherlock was watching her curiously, fascinated by the way her mind seemed to work so similar to his, "Somewhere in all of this must be the code."

"Exactly," Sherlock nodded, smiling slightly as he reached up and grabbed three pictures from the wall and turning toward the door, "But we can't crack this without Soo Lin Yao."

"Oh, good," John sighed, tiredly pulling himself out of his chair and following after Tyler and Sherlock. Clara tossed him a smile, laughing softly as she grabbed his arm and pulled him along as she hurried after the other two.

The sun had risen by the time they arrived at the museum were they had organized another meeting with Andy in the same room as they had first met in the day before, "Two men who traveled back from China were murdered," Sherlock told Andy, "And their killer left them a message in the Hangzhou numerals.:

"Andy, we know you care about Soo Lin Yao, but she's in danger," Clara said gently to him as John cross his arms, "That cipher, it was the same pattern as the others that we've seen."

"He means to kill her as well," John added, nodding.

"Look, I've tried everywhere," Andy sighed, looking stressed and worried, "Friends, colleagues, I don't know where she's gone. I mean, she could be a thousand miles away."

John nodded, turning to look at Tyler and Sherlock, only to find them staring at the teapots that sat in there display case a short distance away, "What are you looking at?" he asked them.

"Tell us more about those teapots," Tyler said to Andy, making her way over to the display with Sherlock.

"The pots were her obsession," Andy told them, "They need urgent work. If they dry out, then the clay can start to crumble. Apparently you have to just keep making tea in them."

"The thing is," Tyler said slowly, looking from the teapots and back to the men, "Yesterday, there was only one of those pots that were shining."

"Now there are two," Sherlock finished, sharing a meaningful look with Tyler.

Later that night, after the four spent the day wandering around the museum, trying to find more evidence that could help with the investigation; they found themselves standing in one of the dark corridors until they heard the sound of running water inside the restoration room.

Sherlock carefully opened the door and stepped inside, quickly spotting Soo Lin Yao sitting by a table as she prepared to make tea, using the same pots from earlier. He approached her from behind, making sure not to make a sound before he was standing behind her, "Fancy a biscuit with that?" he asked her, the young woman jumped, accidentally dropping the teapot as she did, but luckily, Sherlock managed to catch it before it hit the ground, "Centuries old," he remarked, looking up at her, "Don't want to break that," he carefully handed the pot back to her, standing and turning the lights on, giving her a small smile, "Hello."

Soo Lin stared at him, looking terrified before jumping once more when John and the girls entered the room, "Who are you?" she demanded, looking fearfully at them.

"We're here to help," Clara told her gently, moving forward, "I'm Clara and this is Tyler," she nodded to Tyler and then Sherlock, "That's Sherlock, and he's John," she nodded over to John.

"You saw the cipher," she said, looking at each one of them as John took a seat on opposite sides of the table, "Then you know he is coming for me."

"You've been clever to avoid him so far," Tyler said, looking at her from the end of the table.

"I had to finish- to finish this work," Soo Lin sighed, looking down at the pots in front of her, "It's only a matter of time. I know he will find me."

"Who is he?" Sherlock asked, frowning, "Have you met him before?"

"When I was a girl living back in China," she explained, nodding, "I recognized his 'signature'."

"The cipher," Tyler guessed.

"Only he would do this," Soo Lin continued, "Zhi Zhu."

"Zhi Zhu?" John and Clara asked.

"The spider," Sherlock answered.

Soo Lin reached down and began untying her shoe, taking it off and lifting her foot up for them to see a small, black tattoo of a lotus flower on her heel, "You know this mark?" she asked them.

"Yes," Sherlock replied as Tyler eyed the tattoo, having a feeling she had heard it before, "It's the mark of a Tong."

"Hmm?" John blinked, looking confused.

"Ancient crime syndicate, based in China," Tyler told them as she realized what it was - she had, had a run in with them before. John nodded before turning back to Soo Lin.

"Every foot soldier bears the mark," Soo Lin informed them, "Everyone who hauls for them."

"'Hauls?'" John frowned, but his eyes widened as she simply looked at him and he realized what she meant, "You mean you were a smuggler?"

"I was fifteen," she said after a moment, slipping her shoe back on, "My parents were dead. I had no livelihood, no way of surviving day to day, except to work for the bosses." Tyler shifted, this story becoming suddenly very familiar.

"Who were they?" Sherlock and Tyler asked before giving each other weird looks as they realized they had spoken at the same time, shaking their heads and turning back to Soo Lin.

"They are called the Black Lotus," Soo Lin told them, looking at them, "By the time I was sixteen, I was taking thousands of pounds worth of drugs across the border into Hong Kong. I managed to leave that life behind me, I came to England. They gave me a job here, everything was good. New life," she smiled faintly.

"Then he came looking for you," Sherlock frowned as Tyler reached across the table and patted her arm, feeling sorry for the girl after everything she had been through, only for her past to catch up with her just when her life was settled. She understood the feeling all too well.

"Yes, I had hoped that after five years, maybe they would have forgotten me," she nodded, looking worried, "But they never really let you leave. A small community like ours, they are never very far away," she paused, wiping her cheeks as Clara tried to give her a reassuring smile, "He came to my flat. He asked me to help him to track down something that was stolen."

"And you've no idea what it was?" Clara asked her.

"I refused to help," she shook her head.

Clara leaned forward, across the table, "So you knew him well when you were back in China?"

"Oh yes," she nodded, smiling softly, "He's my brother," Tyler's eyes widened as she stared at the woman across from her in a new light, "Two orphans. We had no choice. We could work for the Black Lotus, or starve on the streets like beggers. My brother has become their puppet; in the power of the one they call Shan, Black Lotus General. I turned my brother away. He said I had betrayed him. Next day I came to work and the cipher was waiting."

Sherlock pulled the photos from out of his pocket, flattening it on the table for Soo Lin to see, "Can you decipher these?" he asked her.

Soo Lin leaned closer to look at them, "These are numbers," she told them, pointing at the symbols.

"Yes, we know," Sherlock nodded.

She looked back to the photos, pointing to the one from the bank, "Here: the line across the man's eyes, it's a Chinse number one."

"And this one is fifteen," Sherlock said quickly, wanting to get answer, "But what's the code?"

"All the smugglers know it. It's based upon a book," suddenly all the lights turned off, leaving them in a completely dark room, "He's here," she breathed in horror, "Zhi Zhu. He has found me."

Without hesitating, both Sherlock and Clara raced out of the room and down the hallway, ignoring John as he shouted after them, "Sherlock, Clara! Wait!"

Tyler watched them go, wanting to go after them, but she shook her head, turning to Soo Lin, "Come on, you need to hide." She wasn't going to let what happened to her happen to this woman.

Sherlock and Clara ran as quickly as they could through the dark corridors, busting through a set of doors and back into the main foyer of the museum where there was a staircase at each end with a balcony that surrounded the floor above them, making it a perfect place for someone to get a clear shot of them. Sherlock and Clara both stopped in the middle of the room, looking everywhere around the room when someone fired a shot at them from behind, only just missing them.

Sherlock grabbed Clara's hand and they ran down the room, Sherlock throwing himself onto the floor and behind a large statue, dragging Clara with him, causing her to lose her balance and fall on top of him as more shots rang out. They both struggled with each other for a moment, managing to untangle themselves from each other as they peeked around the side of the statue to see the gunmen disappear around the corner of the balconey, until two more shots rang out.

Knowing that this could be the only chance they had, they both jumped up from behind the statue and ran back down the foyer and up the staircase leading to the upper floor, chasing after the gunmen. They ran into a room full of different display cases with different skulls, some human and others animals when shots suddenly rang out again, narrowly missing them. Sherlock grabbed Clara again and pulled her behind one of the cases.

"Careful!" Clara shouted breathlessly at the gunmen, "Some of those skulls are over two hundred thousand years old. Have a bit of respect!" Everything fell silent and only her's and Sherlock's breathing could be heard, "Thank you!"

The silence continued to stretch on, Sherlock and Clara exchanged looks before peeking around the glass case to see the room empty aside from them. They turned and began running back downstairs when two gunshots suddenly echoed throughout the museum, but they didn't stop, if anything, they ran faster until they reached the restoration room to find John already there, staring at the body of Soo Lin with her hand lying across the table with a origami lotus sitting in her open hand. Tyler sitting beside her with a hand on her own shoulder, that's when Clara noticed the blood between her fingers.

"Tyler," she knelt down to check the wound carefully. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tyler shrugged her off, it was barely a knick. "Sherlock give me your scarf."

Sherlock looked at her hesitantly and Clara turned incredulous eyes on him, "Sherlock!" She snapped and with a huff, Sherlock pulled off his scarf and handed it to the brunette. "Did you see his face?" She asked Tyler as she pulled off her coat to tie the blue scarf around her arm.

Tyler shook her head, "No, he got me from behind." She muttered, she'd been out of the game too long, she was losing her touch and that wasn't good.

~*~

"How many murders is it going to take before you start believing that this maniac's out there?" John demanded as he stood in front of Dimmock's desk back at Scotland Yard while he kept his back to them, rummaging around in his desk as if he was trying to tune them out.

Dimmock continued to ignore them, choosing to try and walk past them, but Tyler step to the side, blocking his path. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Clara warned him, but he didn't listen. He sighed and went to put his hands on her arms to forcibly move her but she grabbed his wrist quickly and twisted it around to press into his back, right between his shoulder blades as she shoved him back into the room. "I told you, she doesn't like to be touched." Clara shook her head.

He turned wide eyes on Tuler and she glared, "A young girl was murdered tonight. A young girl who was just trying to make a new life for herself!" She paused, taking a couple of breaths to calm herself down before continuing, "Now, three people are dead. It's your job to find him, so start finding them!" Dimmock stared at her, slightly opened mouthed from being shouted at as Sherlock stepped forward.

"Brian Lukis and Eddie Van Coon were working for a gang of international smugglers," Sherlock told him, "A gang called the Black Lotus operating here in London," he leaned closer to Dimmock, "Right under your nose."

Dimmock gave them a raised eyebrow look, "Can you prove that?"

~*~

Clara frowned slightly as she and Tyler stood behind Sherlock, watching as he eyed Molly Hooper while she appeared to be trying to decide between what she wanted to eat, standing in front of the self-serving area in the canteen, clutching a clipboard to her chest.

Clara and Molly had been friend for years - she was one of the only people to actually get to know Tyler before judging her like everyone else and Clara respected that. She would let her and Tyler come along to the morgue and talk through their cases out loud, even if she never really contributed, saying it out loud helped them think better.

"What are you thinking?" Sherlock asked Molly, standing right beside her, "Pork or the pasta?"

Molly jumped, looking startled until she saw who it was, "Oh, it's you," she smiled nervously up at him before catching sight of Clara and Tyler and breaking into a friendly smile, "Tyler, Clara, what are you doing here? I haven't spoken to you in a while."

"We're working with Sherlock," Clara shrugged, "Sorry, I haven't had much time to call."

"Murder cases don't keep to a schedule." Tyler added.

Sherlock cleared his throat, giving the girls a look before fixing a pleasant smile to his face as he looked back at Molly, "This place is never going to trouble Egon Ronay, is it?" he smiled, making Molly cheeks tinge pink as she nervously smiled back, "I'd stick with the pasta. Don't want to be doing roast pork, not if you're slicing up cadavers."

"What are you having?" Molly asked him, looking shy.

"Don't eat when I'm working," he replied, "Digesting slows me down."

"Unlike most people who find that eating something can actually help to increase brain stimulation," Tyler cut in, giving Sherlock a look.

Molly looked in-between them, "So, you're working here tonight?" she asked.

"Need to examine some bodies," Sherlock said, still looking at Tyler.

"'Some?'" She questioned.

"Eddie Van Coon and Brain Lukis," he told her, looking away from Tyler and back to Molly.

Molly glanced down at her clipboard, "They're on my list," she frowned slightly.

Sherlock gasped, a very fake gasp, making Clara shoot him a glare as he pretended to look shocked, "Could you wheel them out again for me?" he asked her, giving her what Clara could only describe as a well-practiced puppy-dog eyes.

"Well... the paperwork's already gone through," she said apologetically, looking as if she was strangling to fight off the urge to agree.

Sherlock raised his eyebrows at her, looking closely at her as he frowned, pointing at her hair, "You've... changed your hair," he remarked, making it sound as if he had only just noticed as Tyler gave him a curious look, trying to work out what he was doing now.

"What?" Molly blinked, looking shy again.

"The style," he nodded, "It's usually parted in the middle."

"Yes, well..." she trailed off.

"Mmm, it's good," he continued, Clara narrowed her eyes at him, "It, um, suits you better this way." He flashed her a bright smile, making Molly's cheeks turn bright red as she smiled nervously again, turning and walking away. As soon as Molly had left, Sherlock dropped the smile and checked his watch.

"A word of advice, Sherlock Holmes," Clara glared at him, making him look up and give her a raised eyebrow look, "Never do that to my friends again. You and I both know that Molly has a crush on you, and what do you do, you go and flirt with her just so she can get her hopes up. There are other ways, Sherlock."

"Like what?" he frowned at her.

"Like getting me to ask her," she replied simply, "Molly and I are friends, show her a little bit of respect, treat her like a human being," and with that, she turned on her heel and marched after Molly, leaving Sherlock to stare after her.

"She does that," Tyler nodded, watching her friend leave, then looking up at Sherlock. She could remember all the times Clara went off on her for her cold attitude towards other people.

Later on, Dimmock, John, Tyler, and Sherlock all made their way into the morgue to see Molly had already laid out the two body bags with Brian Lukis and Eddie Van Coon inside, and was preparing to open one of the bags while Clara stood back, having been waiting for the boys and Tyler to arrive at the morgue for the past ten minutes.

"We're just interested in the feet," Sherlock told her, walking over to her.

Molly frowned and looked up at him, "The feet?" She asked, confused.

"Yes," he replied, making his way with Dimmock to the end of the table, "Do you mind if we have a look at them?"

She shrugged slightly, walking down to the end of the table and unzipping the bag at the end, revealing Lukis's feet to have the same tattoo as the one that Soo Lin had. Sherlock smirked smugly at Dimmock, "Now Van Coon," he turned to the second table with the second body bag on it. Molly unzipped the bag, revealing that yet again, Van Coon had the same tattoo on his foot, "Oh!" he pretended to be shocked, turning to Dimmock.

"So..." he started.

"So either these two men just happened to visit the same Chinese tattoo parlor or we're telling the truth," Sherlock cut him off, still looking smug.

"What do you want?" Dimmock asked, sighing as he realized that he had been proven wrong.

"We would like every book from Lukis and Van Coon's apartment," Tyler answered, smiling slightly, "Thank you."

Dimmock stared at them, "Their books?" he asked, confused.

When they finally arrived back at Baker Street, Clara almost collapsed in the middling of the living room from hardly sleeping in the past 24 hours. She was so tired that on the taxi ride back, she had fallen asleep on John's shoulder, and now she felt too tired to even feel embarrassed about it.

"Not just a criminal organisation, it's a cult," Sherlock was saying as he shrugged his coat off, hanging it on the back of the door while John collapsed into his chair, looking even more tired than Clara, "Her brother was corrupted by one of its leaders."

"Soo Lin said the name," Clara reminded him.

"Yes, Shan," he nodded, thoughtfully, "General Shan."

"We're still no closer to finding him," John sighed.

"That's assuming that it is a man," Tyler pointed out, "And you're wrong, John, we have quite a bit more information than you think. We almost have all that we need to know."

"Tyler's right," Sherlock agreed, "Soo Lin gave us most of the missing pieces," he looked at John, waiting for his agreement, but when he didn't, he sighed and continued, "Why did he need to visit his sister? Why did he need her expertise?"

"She worked at the museum," John answered.

"Exactly," Sherlock nodded.

"An expert in antiquities," Tyler added, trying to give him a clue as to what Sherlock was trying to get him to see, "And not just any old antiquity, but Chinese antiquities."

"Mm, of course," John nodded slowly, realizing what they were saying, "I see."

"Valuable antiquities, John," Sherlock said, "Ancient Chinese relics purchased on the black market. China's home to a thousand treasures hidden after Mao's revolution."

"And the Black Lotus is selling them," Clara finished, leaning forward in her chair, watching Sherlock as he became thoughtful, looking as if he had a sudden idea as he grabbed John's laptop, ignoring the Doctor's protests.

Sherlock quickly googled 'Crispians's Auction,' looking for any recent auctions to do with Chinese artifacts while the girls and John leaned over his shoulders, looking at the screen, "Check for the dates..." he muttered to himself as he skimmed through the list before stopping when he reached one action that showed two Chinese Ming Vases, "Here," he pointed at the screen, "Arrived from China four days ago. Anonymous. Vendor doesn't give his name. Two undiscovered treasures from the East."

"One in Lukis's suitcase," Clara nodded, "And another in Van Coon's. Clever."

"Antiquities sold at auction," Sherlock said, typing into a new search bar, bring up a new list, "Look, here's another one. Arrived from China a month ago. Chinese ceramic statue, sold four hundred thousand."

"Uh, look, the month before that," John pointed at the screen after looking in Lukis' diary, "A Chinese painting, half a million."

"And from yet another anonymous source," Tyler frowned, looking at the list, "All of them are from an anonymous source. They're stealing them back from China and then feeding them back into Britain, one by one."

John went back to looking in Luki's diary, "Huh," he frowned, making the girls and Sherlock look at him as he consulted Van Coon's calendar, "And every single auction coincides with Lukis or Van Coon travelling to China."

"So what if one of them got greedy in China?" Sherlock looked at John and the girls, "What if one of them stole something?"

"That's why Zhi Zhu's come," Clara nodded.

Suddenly there was a knock on the still open door and they turned to see Mrs Hudson standing in the doorway, "Sorry," she smiled apologetically at them, "Are we collecting for charity, Sherlock?"

"What?" Sherlock frowned, looking confused.

"A young man's outside with crates of books," she told them, Sherlock's eyes seemed to light up and he quickly jumped out of his chair and run downstairs. A moment later, a group of police officers entered the flat, each one carrying a large crate filled with books with either the name Van Coon or Lukis written on the side.

Sherlock returned a moment later, ordering people around to make sure that each crate was placed in the right place while John and the girls could only stand back and watch as the living room became even more cluttered with things until there was just enough room for them to be able to walk around in the middle of the room.

"You can't seriously expect us to sort through all of these books, Sherlock," Clara sighed as she stared around at the crates, looking as if she was about to have a small break down, "I mean, I've barely had a wink of sleep in the past 24 hours, none of us have."

"Shh, Clara," Sherlock hushed her, eyeing two police officers as they added another crate. He stopped when he felt eyes on his head and he slowly turned to see dark brown eyes eyeing him down. "I mean, please," he added as an after thought. Clara settled down into the chair, crossing her arms tightly across her chest.

"Now, the numbers are references." Tyler began to explain.

"To the books," John nodded.

"To specific pages and specific words on those pages," Sherlock said, looking around the room.

"Okay, then," Tyler continued, "So, fifteen and one would mean page 15, the first word."

"Exactly," Sherlock inclined his head in her direction.

"Okay, so what's the message?" Clara asked them.

"Depends on the book," he replied, "That's the cunning of the book code. Has to be one that they both owned."

"Okay, right," John sighed, looking around all the crates, looking as if he just wanted to crawl up onto the sofa and sleep until dawn, but sadly that didn't look like it was going to be an option, "Well, this shouldn't take too long, should it?"

Clara and John exchanged wary looks before grabbing a crate each and undoing the lids, looking down to find dozens upon dozens of books, all neatly stacked together. Clara resisted the urge to hit Sherlock for making them do this, choosing to reach inside the crate and grab a handful of books, carrying them over to the dining room table where she was shortly joined by John, both sitting down on either side of the table and began setting to work on sorting through them. Tyler grabbed her own handful, choosing instead to pace around the room, moving kept her awake and alert.

Shortly after they set to work, Dimmock walked into the room, holding up a evidence bag with the pictures from the museum in it, "We found these at the museum," he told them, "Is this your writing?" he turned to John and showed him the bag.

"Uh, we hoped Soo Lin could decipher it for us," John explained, taking the bag, "Ta."

"Anything I can do?" Dimmock turned to Sherlock, glancing at Tyler, "To assist you, I mean?"

Sherlock continued grabbing more books, not looking up, "Some silence now would be marvelous."

"Maybe a cuppa." Tyler added in, not looking up from the book she was flipping through.

"Sherlock, Tyler don't be rude," Clara frowned at him over a crate she was presently searching through.

"That includes you," Sherlock shot her a look before going back to sorting through the books in his own crate, making Clara glare at him.

Dimmock looked in-between Sherlock and Clara, looking unsure whether or not he should intervene, but decided against it as Clara went back to sorting through books. He cast another look around the room before turning and walking back down stairs, leaving the other three to get along with their work.

Sherlock picked up a book and noticed that there was another one, opening it up and finding the right page, "Cigarette," he sighed, looking slightly annoyed as he snapped the book closed and put both copies on top of the table, beside John and Clara. "Ah," he nodded, looking up and grabbing the copies, putting them off to the side, and going back to his own stack of books.

They continued sorting and stacking all night, not even pausing when the pile of books that had been collecting beside the table John was still sitting at had tipped over and sprawled across the floor. Sherlock had long since abandoned his blazer and left it hanging on top of one of the crates they had around been through, John had also taken his jumper off, Tyler had discarded her trench coat on the couch, and Clara's hair had at some point through the night fallen out of her braid, leaving it a wavy mess.

Outside, off into the distance, a clock tower rang and a moment later, John's alarm on his watch went off and he quickly checked it, sighing to himself tiredly when he saw the time, "I completely forgot," he groaned, rubbing his face with his hands, "I've gotta go to work."

"Lots of coffee," Tyler advised him as he stood and left the room.

"Good luck!" Clara called to him as she heard the front door open and close behind him, "Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm going to have a nap," and with that, she stood and hurried out of the room before either of them could call her back.