literature

Panthera Pardus Chapter 14

Deviation Actions

Polgara87's avatar
By
Published:
647 Views

Literature Text

Panthera Pardus
Chapter 14: Bread Crumbs


Sherlock crouched low in the old mill, running his fingers along the grains of winter wheat scattered on the stone floor. While it was true that ninety-five percent of the United Kingdom grew winter wheat, there was only one specific place in Northern Ireland that had the right soil for the mineral and chemical make up of this wheat. Sherlock knew that this was the right place. It had only been a day since the failed rescue in Dublin, but Moriarty had already moved on from this place. A shaking black-gloved hand squeezed a small handful of grain tightly as its owner tried to calm himself.

The consulting detective took a deep breath and let it out slowly, releasing the grain as he did so. John had been here. He could smell it. In fact, it had only been a matter of hours since they had left, if the tire tracks and paw prints in the dirt were anything to go by. Sherlock had studied the paw prints earlier. One set had belonged to a Siberian tiger, a shapeshifter most likely. The other had belonged to a wolf. Sherlock hadn't been sure at first about the wolf, but he was nearly positive now that it too was a shifter. The shoe prints left in the dirt had belonged to a man of medium stature, with impeccable taste in clothing. The detective could tell as much because the brand of the shoe (Testoni), was imprinted in the dirt as well. Sherlock strongly suspected that the prints belonged to the notorious James Moriarty. However there was no sign of John's tracks.

John had definitely been here. Sherlock had been able to smell him when he'd entered the old farmhouse. It had been quite difficult to control himself when he'd discovered the place where John had been tied to a bed. Medical equipment had also been discovered which had John's DNA and blood all over the tubing and needles. This was a bigger cause for worry. Sherlock had no idea what Moriarty had done to John, but he'd sent the lot of it back to London where Mycroft's people would inspect it. Sherlock wanted to be the one to do so, but there was precious little time, and the consulting detective suspected that it wouldn't help in where they had taken John now.

Standing, the dark haired man made his way back out to the tire tracks that had been marked off by now. Mycroft's team of men where taking pictures and casts of the prints. Sherlock closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax, letting the sounds around him drift by. Carefully he visualized all of the clues they'd found so far, and tried to process what Moriarty's next move would be.

It was obvious that the consulting criminal had brought John here for some kind of medical procedure, meaning that John was most definitely still alive. Given that John was able to be moved now, Sherlock would think that Moriarty would move him out of the country next. Which didn't bode well for a happy ending. Now the question was, where would Moriarty go? Ireland, while being the man's native land, was too close. He must know that Sherlock would find him there. So it was out. The same with the United Kingdom, it was too close. Moriarty had contacts in most of Europe and Asia. However there had to be some kind of logic to where he would go next.

Sherlock growled as he tried to think. He didn't have enough information to determine Moriarty's next move. He could only make educated guesses, and that wasn't good enough! "I need more information," he said out loud.

A passing member of Mycroft's team paused for a second at the outburst. "We're working on it sir. We have satellite images coming in on the computer in the van that will show what happened here."

Sherlock stared at the man for a few seconds before marching over to the van, ignoring the shouts of protest as he walked across the tire tracks. As he approached, a ginger haired man with spectacles stumbled out of the back of the black van. "'Ello!" He waved at Sherlock, seemingly oblivious to the man's dark mood. "What can I do for ya?"

"The satellite images. I need to see them immediately."

"O 'course! They're jus' comin' in now," he said as he climbed back into the van and tapped at the keyboard of a laptop. "'Ere we are," he spun the computer around on his knees so Sherlock could see the progression of pictures.

A dark van pulled up to the house at approximately fourteen hundred hours. Ten minutes later, a man led a wolf and a tiger out of the house and into the van. The wolf looked to be cowering. There was no John though. Sherlock squinted at the screen studying the images carefully to see if there was something he'd missed. "Is there imagery of when they arrived here?" he asked, not looking away from the computer.

"Too much cloud cover," the ginger man shook his head. "Bit of a storm went through when they gots 'ere."

Sherlock frowned. However one of the pictures caught his eye. He could see the wolf clearly and it seemed to be favoring it's left front leg. The consulting detective's eyebrows rose into his hairline as connections started forming. "No," he whispered. "It's not possible."

"What ain't possible?" the ginger asked.

"The medical supplies! Has it already been sent off?"

"Not yet," the ginger moved the laptop back to the small table in the back of the van and proceeded to point to a box of bagged equipment near the front. "All of it's up there. Was just gonna send it on it's way actually."

Sherlock jumped in the van and began pulling out equipment until he found the syringes. "Do you have lap equipment?" he asked frantically. If what he was thinking had taken place… but no, it wasn't possible to turn someone into a shapeshifter, was it?

"Got a bit of stuff in 'ere," the man pulled open a drawer to reveal some rudimentary lap equipment.

It would do. Sherlock pulled out what he needed and set to work. It would only take a few minutes to see if the blood in the syringe held shapeshifter genes. "What are ya lookin' for?" the man asked looking curiously at what Sherlock was doing.

"Checking the DNA. If I'm correct, it could change everything."

The man didn't say anything for a while and simply watched as Sherlock preformed his tests. The only sounds were the muffled words of Mycroft's men outside and the steady breathing of the two men in the back of the van. Once the test was done, Sherlock looked through the microscope at the sample and stopped breathing for a moment. The syringe held shapeshifter blood. The gene was right there. There was only one way to make sure though, if John had been changed.

He spun around and dug through the box again until he found the manacles that had held John to the bed.  There were bits of DNA on them that Sherlock would be able to test.  Once again, the test only took a few minutes and once the results were visible, Sherlock stopped breathing.  His mate was now a shapeshifter too.  Sherlock sat back in shock.  What would this do to their bond?  It still felt strong.  Sherlock still felt connected to John.

"Shapeshifter DNA?" the ginger man said quietly. "Didn' know that was possible, but you know what they say. Learn somthin' new every day." He sat back and smiled up at Sherlock.

"You know of shapeshifters?"

"'O 'course I do!" the man smiled wider. "Seein' as I'm one meself!"

Sherlock eyed him speculatively, until the man sighed and moved to close and lock the doors to the van. He proceeded to unselfconsciously remove his clothing. Once he was finished, he stood still and let himself relax. Red fur began to grow out from his entire body and he shrank down. Within seconds, a curious red panda stood on its hind legs staring up at an amazed Sherlock. The man changed back and redressed himself.

"Sorry, just realized I didn' introduce meself. Bit improper showing off like that without introductions." He held out his hand and smiled. "Name's Jerry, Jerry Reid."

Sherlock hesitantly shook the man's hand. "Sherlock Holmes."

"O 'course I know who you are! Mr. 'olmes' brother! Make a lovely pair of panthers, you do!"

"My brother knows of your ability?"

Jerry nodded. "'E's an equal opportunity employer," he grinned.

"Indeed," Sherlock's mouth quirked up in a small smile. "May I ask you a theoretical question, Jerry?"

The ginger haired man nodded.

"Theoretically, if a criminal mastermind was turning ordinary people into shapeshifters, where would he take them? For that matter, why would he be doing it at all?"

"Theoretically?"

Sherlock nodded.

"Hmm," Jerry tapped his chin, his thick black glasses sliding down his nose as he thought. "Well, if I were a criminal mastermind, I s'pose I'd be needin' some protection against the authorities and all that. Or maybe I'd be wantin' te sell 'em? Either way, they'd probably be needin' some trainin'. So I s'pose I'd take 'em somewhere isolated. Where there ain't a lot of people to muck things up."

"I'd concur," Sherlock nodded. "However that doesn't narrow down the search area. There are many vast places that are isolated on Earth."

"Yeah, I s'pose," Jerry nodded. "But, theoretically, I guess I'd check out the rest of the pictures that just came in from the satellite to see where the van went," he smirked.

Sherlock quirked an eyebrow and frowned a little, but eagerly moved with Jerry to the back of the van where the computer was chiming that a new message had arrived. With a few quick clicks, the red head had the pictures pulled up and laid out. It looked like the van had taken off west to a small private airport not more than a half an hour away. Sherlock got up to rush out of the van, but Jerry stopped him. "'Ang on," he clicked open a few more photos of the airport itself to see that a private plane had been pulled out of a hanger, and a tiger, wolf, and half a dozen men were loaded on.

"Right there," he pointed at the screen and Sherlock squinted to see the registration markings on the plane.

"Call it in and see where it went! I'll be headed towards the airport!" Sherlock said as he pushed open the back doors on the van and ran towards the land rover sitting nearby. A few of Mycroft's men shouted at him as he jumped in. Four of them managed to get in as well (well aware of what their boss would do if Sherlock was allowed to leave by himself) before the consulting detective took off down the road.
--------------------------------
John whimpered wearily as he was lifted from the plane by one of Moriarty's thugs and carried down the exit ramp. He'd been shocked again just before landing, because apparently Moriarty liked to see him twitch. However this resulted in John losing consciousness for a short period of time. Hence the thug…

Trying to take stock of his surroundings, John noticed that it was cold wherever they were. Very cold actually. And he could smell the ocean not too far away. Perhaps they were along the west coast of Russia, near St. Petersburg along the Baltic Sea? Or maybe they were in one of the Scandinavian countries? The plane ride hadn't been long enough for them to be in North America, but at the same time, it had been long enough that he didn't think they were in the United Kingdom or Ireland anymore. Maybe Finland?

John struggled against the uncomfortable hold the large bear of a man had on him, but there was no use. He was far too weak from dehydration and malnutrition. He honestly couldn't remember when he'd last eaten or drank. However thanks to his medical background, he knew that it had been long enough that hallucinations wouldn't be far off.

He was dropped in the back of another van; Seb climbed in with him before they closed and locked the doors. The van ride wasn't very long, definitely not long enough for John to gain some semblance of strength, which resulted in him being slung over the shoulder of a thug once again when they reached their destination a half an hour later. "Put him in there," Moriarty instructed.

John opened his eyes to see row upon row of kennels. These were not regular kennels like one might see at the pound, but rather heavy duty kennels with steel bars for supports. There were several kennels already occupied, by various creatures including a grizzly bear, a lion, a red fox, a black and silver wolf, a snow leopard, a wolverine, and a buckskin stallion.

The thug carrying John tossed him into a kennel next to the black and silver wolf then locked the gate securely. Moriarty crouched down on the other side of the door. The manic smile was back, and this time it made John shudder. "We're going to have lots of fun tomorrow," he said before straightening and leading the rest of the group away.

John groaned and curled up in a ball. His entire body ached and he would kill for a glass of water. A low whining met his sensitive ears, and John slowly turned his head to see the black and silver wolf looking at him with concern. Her ears were perked forward and her head was lower than her shoulders. Golden eyes locked with his. Are you okay? she seemed to be asking.

John shook his head, whimpering as he did so because it made his headache worse. The she-wolf whimpered in sympathy and lay on her belly, her head resting on her paws. There wasn't anything she could do to help him, so John closed his eyes and tried to sleep. Hopefully, he could drink something tomorrow… or later today? He wasn't quite sure on the time, but it mattered little. Moriarty would do what he was going to do whether John liked it or not. The former army doctor just had to remember not to give up. Sherlock was coming, and if he could get away before then, even better. But for now, sleep.
Hey everyone! So it's a bit later than I thought it was going to be with the update. However the wedding went well! I had fun being Maid of Honor. AND! My speech was better than the Best Man's! HA! WIN!

Okay, some updates. The whole wedding thing is over until late July when I have a bridal shower to go to. However I'm also doing another round of Camp Nanowrimo in July. My word goal is only 30,000 this time though, so I might be able to continue with this story. I want the next chapter to be up as soon as you guys do, trust me.

Chapter 13
Chapter 15
© 2013 - 2024 Polgara87
Comments1
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
KnyleBorealis's avatar
Go go go! And congrats on the wedding success. :-)