agency in seeking its goals and attempting to hide its concerns, but he said not entirely. The M stood for an malevolent entity that should have ceased to exist.” So I thought to myself, my brother had also recognized the pattern of business that I had from my informants and inferred the hand of Moriarty, whether active or emulated we do not know yet. His hesitation to articulate the name is because of the derision it might produce, a supposed paranoia that Watson suspected me of. “So, of all of the afore mentioned lines of inquiry,” I summarized, “Hundreds of government agents from a multitude of departments, including specifically your own, are continuing on various lines of inquiry. “Is there something specific my brother wanted me to look into?” “Actually yes, but I do not know how it pertains to anything else…” Jack hesitated. “Go ahead, speak out.” I returned.
The Curious Affair of the Dead Shrimp Dealer “Your brother specified that you might best be utilized by looking into the curious affair of the dead shrimp dealer. There was something about this that bothered your brother, but he didn’t see how to connect it with everything else we were discovering. He thought your unique ability to “rummage about” and turn up pertinent data could possibly enlighten him on why a simple dealer in fish would motivate the M Agency to dispatch a killer to terminate a victim that should not be able to give up any useful information. What did he know that cost him his life? That is what your brother would like to know.” “So, by your description the official police verdict is not homicide, but my brother not only classifies it as such, but links it to the M Agency?” I concluded. “I take it that the death was recent, and there is still the possibility for me to actually make discovery?” “In fact, the body was found early this morning, in his London home, the police do not yet classify it as homicide, they are inclined to label it death by misadventure for now, but the circumstances and death scene seemed suspicious to the arriving officer. We have requested nothing to be moved until you can investigate the premises.” “How were you notified of this particular death, why was it brought to your attention, or rather Mycroft’s since he apparently made the conclusion it was murder?” I questioned. “Mr. Holmes, I thought I could enlist your services to investigate this, and I hear the dog cart approaching your house that I hired to transport us to the train station. If you could please come with me and I will further inform you on this issue and the other developments as we head toward London. I need to retain these reports that I will go over with you, and could I please have the letter from your brother returned?” I threw together some breads, cheese and meats along with some ale, grabbed my train hat and traveling coat, some extra tobacco, left a short note for my housekeeper, and allowed myself to be escorted to the waiting cart. I recognized a local lad as the cart driver. We quickly climbed aboard. He yelled a quick “Psft, psft” as he shook the reins on the horse to command it to go. We rapidly trotted off down the road, kicking up a small cloud of rock dust. We didn’t converse as we rattled toward the station. I observed that Jack kept an eye out for anyone interested in our departure to London. We just caught the train as the cart deposited us at the station. There were few others that were looking to board the London bound train. With the characteristic warning whistle, the train blew a shrill cry that was followed by that beginning jolt as the locomotive lurched forward and jerked the coaches along behind. We occupied a compartment on the train that we kept for ourselves. As we ate our makeshift lunch Jack continued his brief in low tones, although the noise of the rails would cover a normal conversation. I quickly perused the reports and gleaned what I could of the summaries. It confirmed that there was an organization that had an undisclosed goal, but was using sufficient resources and agents that declared a major project was in the works. Our navy is Britain’s source of international power, and any perceived threat to it is thoroughly investigated. Our agents had not tied down all of the loose ends, but they all seemed to emanate from the M Agency on behalf of several rich international state interests. There didn’t seem to be any time constraint that could be detected, and the political situations on the Continent were not agitated nor aggrieved against Britain at this time, apart from the historic adversarial roles of Continental European rivals. We in fact were concluding an alliance with our historical enemy the French now formed in the French Third Republic. I questioned Jack about his next moves. He was reticent to address exactly what he and his agents would be doing, but he did inform me that he was in the process of infiltrating the M Agency in it’s French division. He had inklings that something was percolating that would need the skills of someone like him but with amoral character and mercenary needs. He had arranged to be approached by a known M Agency agent to be recruited for some undisclosed but likely sinister work. He would brief me on what he knew, but leave me as soon as we arrived in London, to return and continue with his own work.