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We were being kept in the basement because ere children and therefore supposedly collateral Milo had gone away--I’ed to weasel that fact out of his guileless little brother--and Hadrian saw his opportunity He would make a point to his older brother Lucien that he was capable of doing what, to Hadrian’sust After all, I was still alive

This is all idiocy, of course Lucien was doing a lovely job My mother poisoned? My father somehow still in fine fettle? A multitude of cameras in the family home, a live-in physician, and no evidence to be found? Was I or was I not puzzling through this at least once every seven minutes? Yes, of course I was If Lucien was interested in killingwitha hobby once it’s buried beneath an angel statue in an excruciatingly posh ceWatson Think of the endless e Think of the iterations! Exhibit one, in which I am framed for Watson’s murder Exhibit two, in which I do in fact kill Watson: for example, am put into an impossible situation where I must slit his throat or see a city explode Exhibit three, in which I do and Lucien explodes the city anyway Exhibits four through twenty-nine, the last of them so wretched I couldn’t even consider it

Watson leanedhis own legs, but his breath in my ear let me knoas still alive We’d reached Phillipa’s office I kneas hers because of the way in which the carpet orn--a wo by the pressure points, and I’d seen her wearing stilettos at our horrid lunch Just inside the door, her bodyguard checked the time I could hear the snap of his phone as he locked it

This one would be a bit more complicated

TWO AND A HALF MINUTES LATER, I’D PUT THE UNCONSCIOUS bodyguard through the , and I had his gun trained on Phillipa Moriarty

It wasn’t particularly good to see her again She lookedlook I most often associated with toddlers "What do you want?"

We had approximately thirty seconds more before her baby brother arrived with the cavalry The battering sound at the door had finally stopped There was no use worrying about August--as done was done, and anyway, I’d seen that he carried a knife in his boot

I hoisted Watson up; his legs were beginning to go, and with an effort, he"Where is it?" I asked Phillipa

"Where is what, exactly?"

With un "Twenty seconds Where is the auction being held, and at what tied Watson down, on this floor and the one below it, were filled with paintings Paintings with quite a lot of black paint, and sad-looking young Edwardians looking at glass scarabs and their hands and e facility, but she was pleased with her wares and proud of herself, her croels, these forged Hans Langenberg paintings, and what is a Moriarty if not soilds their abattoir?

(Watson, when you read this, I do hope you appreciatethis information until now)

Of course they would be sold to buyers through her private network; the question was only when

"January," she said "The twenty-seventh It’s a pity that you aren’t dead, Charlotte"