Free Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets by Guy Adams, Kasey Lansdale, Glen Mehn Page A

don’t stand up too quickly. There now, how do you fancy coming with me and Lieutenant Holmes and saving the day?” Watson spoke soothingly to the two girls.
    “I’m an ensign, not a child. You don’t have to cajole me into doing my duty.” The taller, dark haired girl spoke up and John and the shorter girl looked taken aback.
    “She’s right, John,” observed Sherlock, taking a slim nicotine vaporiser out of his pocket and inhaling quickly. “You’re speaking to Star Force officers, not frightened horses.”
    “Lieutenant Holmes?!” The two girls spoke in near unison.
    “Clearly. And you are?”
    “I’m Jane,” said the shorter girl, breathlessly, “And this is Charlotte.”
    “She’s read all your books, everything they had in the academy library and more,” said Charlotte, with a wicked glint in her eye. “ Practical Deduction in the Field , An Elementary Introduction to Alien Psychology . Even your biography.” Jane, reddening, elbowed her in the ribs hurriedly, but was saved further embarrassment by a noise echoing from along the hallway.
    “Ssh!” Sherlock thought it sounded like footsteps. The sound of someone walking in heels?
    There was only one person he knew who went about on a starship in high heels.
    A woman walked into view. The woman.
    “Irene Adler. What are you doing here?” Sherlock asked. She looked as shocked to see him as he imagined he did to see her.
    The merest moment’s hesitation. A microexpression of guilt. Sherlock didn’t want to believe it. Since her arrival one month ago, he’d had just cause to add Ambassador Adler to the list of crew whose company he actually enjoyed, rather than tolerated. John was getting a little jealous.
    “Sherlock! John! I’m so glad to see you.”
    “How are you still awake?” asked John.
    “I had a small amount of antidote stashed in my quarters.” She smiled at Sherlock invitingly. “I always keep it handy for recreational use.”
    “Impossible, ma’am,” said Charlotte. “Our transporter beam would have shown us if you were carrying any narcotics when you and your luggage were brought aboard. Same for anyone else who tried to bring it in without a medical license.”
    “The nerve!” said Irene. “She’s lying, Sherlock.”
    “Ma’am, with all due respect, I work in the transporter room, and there’s been no record of any such substance in the past year.”
    Sherlock noticed Irene checking the exits.
    “What’s more,” continued Charlotte, “while we usually keep crew member’s genetic make-up private, for good reason, I would deduce that the unusual markers the transporter showed in your DNA reveal a Krangon background. Krangons being famously immune to the narcotic pollen farmed on their planet.”
    “Irene, a Krangon agent? But that’s absurd!” said John.
    Sherlock thought of the other craft that had been taken by Krangon pirates in the last year. None while Irene had been aboard the Journey .
    “Sir,” said Jane, turning to Sherlock. “In your biography you said that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth...”
    These girls were sharp. “Actually my dear, I must credit an ancestor of mine with that particular saying, but your point is a sound one. Irene, I’m placing you under arrest.”
    John was looking back and forth between Sherlock and Irene in puzzlement. He didn’t see Irene go for the fallen Krangon’s gun at her feet, until she was pointing it at him.
    “Let me go, Sherlock, or your boyfriend gets it right between the eyes.”
    J ANE STARED IN horror at the note in her hand. She was following the plan. She was following the plan to the letter.
    So if she was following the plan, how had it all gone so horribly wrong? She’d let Charlotte distract Eric with a clandestine meeting on the school roof. She’d come to Eric’s classroom, when she was sure it would be empty, and looked behind the filing cabinet, expecting to be reunited with