At Mary's words, Charlotte's brow furrowed involuntarily.
"Hold on — who did you say? Mycroft? Mycroft Holmes? He's been covering for Moriarty?"
"Yes." Mary gave a nod, then turned to look at Charlotte with a distinctly odd expression.
"Didn't you already know that?"
"How would I know something I apparently don't know?"
A silence fell over the room.
Mary and Charlotte stared at each other for a long moment, before both, by unspoken agreement, turned to look at Russell.
"You explain it, Watson," Charlotte said.
"Ah... this might take a little unpacking," Russell said, scratching the back of his head. "Mary and I both assumed you already knew."
"I rather wish I did," Charlotte replied, with a cold snort. "The Cabinet Secretary of the British Government allegedly covering for London's most celebrated Phantom Thief — and what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"Well... it's a bit of a long story."
"That's fine. We have plenty of time." Charlotte glanced up at the clock. "Unless you think it'll take longer than two hours to get through."
"It won't come to that — anyway, it all traces back to the Ethan Roy affair."
Russell cleared his throat, then began.
"Before we get into it, I need to bring you up to speed on a few things," he said. "The last time Mycroft came to Baker Street to see you, Charlotte."
"Yes." Charlotte gave a slight nod. That much she knew.
"And then?"
"Then the three of us talked with Mycroft for a bit, yes? After that, the following day, when I was talking with Mary, it came up in passing." Russell glanced over at Mary as he spoke. "After hearing about it, Mary had some theories about what Mycroft was up to."
"What theories?" Charlotte pressed.
"Mycroft's behaviour was too strange," Russell said. "Ethan Roy's downfall — by any measure, Mycroft was the single greatest beneficiary. At a moment like that, he should have moved immediately to purge Roy's allies and consolidate his own position. Not waste his time chasing after a thief who could vanish at will."
"So," Charlotte said, following the thread, "you think he was distancing himself?"
Russell nodded.
"His eagerness to distance himself from Moriarty was precisely what suggested some kind of hidden connection between the two. That was our first theory, mine and Mary's."
"Absurd."
Charlotte dismissed it without hesitation.
"Mycroft may be insufferable, but he's not stupid enough for that. Using such a clumsy method to distance himself — especially right in front of me — that isn't how he operates. Is he genuinely so contemptuous of my intelligence?"
"Exactly. That was our second doubt as well." Russell passed the baton back to Mary.
The latter caught it immediately and took over.
"Russell and I both felt that a man of Mr. Mycroft's acumen shouldn't be capable of such an elementary blunder." Mary's voice rang out clearly in the quiet classroom — bright and precise.
She rose from her seat, walked to the clean blackboard at the front of the room, picked up a piece of chalk, and assumed the manner of someone delivering a lecture to two particularly attentive students.
"And so we arrived at our second hypothesis — the one we believe is the most plausible.
"Mycroft's behaviour that day was not an attempt to distance himself from Moriarty. It was an attempt to send you a message, Charlotte.
"He was communicating with you in a roundabout way — in a language only the two of you, as siblings, would recognise."
Charlotte said nothing. She listened in silence, gesturing for her to continue.
"He deliberately used that bureaucratic rhetoric you find so grating. He deliberately pinned that oversized label of [Interference with Political Affairs] on Moriarty — the Moriarty you find so irritating.
"The purpose was to trigger your natural contrariness. To make you feel a visceral distaste for the case — and thereby abandon the pursuit altogether."
Mary wrote the names [Moriarty] and [Mycroft] on the blackboard, and drew a line connecting them.
"It was a wager with no losing side," she continued.
"If the hint worked — if you lost interest in Moriarty — then his goal was achieved. He'd protected the piece he valued most.
"But if you didn't take the hint — or if your natural contrariness actually drew you closer to Moriarty, and you eventually caught him — that wouldn't be a loss for Mycroft either."
Mary turned back to face them, pressing the chalk firmly against the blackboard with a decisive tap.
"He could simply and legitimately attribute every one of Moriarty's crimes — including the attack on Lloyds Bank — to [endangering national political security].
"By that point, he would not only gain a wave of political capital in the name of the greater good, but he would also cleanly and completely sever any tie between himself and Moriarty.
"You see — whether you took the bait or refused it, he wins either way."
The girl set down the chalk and dusted the powder from her hands, then looked at Charlotte with a faint smile.
"A perfect, ironclad open conspiracy — now that is a script befitting his style, isn't it?"
The classroom fell utterly silent.
Charlotte leaned back against her chair, fingers laced together over her lap, gaze resting on the analysis-filled blackboard for a long, unhurried moment.
At last, she spoke — slowly, and with a rare note of genuine approval in her voice.
"Interesting reasoning."
She paused, then looked over at Russell.
"It seems you weren't only sleeping after all."
"Naturally. I did pay my tuition fees." Russell gave a shrug — and quietly breathed a long sigh of relief.
"That said, I still think the hypothesis doesn't hold up," Charlotte said, shaking her head.
"I don't know whether Mycroft has been keeping some shadow asset behind my back — but from what I know of him, that simply isn't something he would do."
"Why not?" Mary asked.
"If he wanted to suppress a political rival, he generally wouldn't resort to... such extreme measures," Charlotte said.
"He would let Ethan Roy gradually lose his voice — let him be hollowed out from within, step by step. That gives him far greater control than a sudden fall from power.
"An empty shell of a man, versus one with flesh and blood — which is harder to deal with?" Charlotte posed the question.
Russell and Mary fell into silence.
It was Mary who spoke again first.
"Actually, there's quite a simple way to test all of this."
"Which is?"
"Call Mycroft."
"And ask him point-blank whether he's covering for Moriarty?"
"Of course not — go back to your original idea," Mary said with a smile. "Weren't you planning to make trouble for Moriarty anyway?
"Tell Mycroft about his plan to go to Buckingham Palace. Then watch how Mycroft reacts — and what happens at the Palace afterwards. That'll tell you everything you need to know."
She paused, then added:
"And as it happens — I know exactly where on campus you can make a phone call."
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