The Ambitious Orphan by Amelia Price

into trouble. The younger Holmes had less regard for
danger and a higher opinion of Amelia's talents. Without keeping a
close eye on her, it could cause problems.
    To put his mind at
rest, Mycroft decided to keep the CCTV footage of the
soon-to-be-hers hotel room up on the side of his screen. For now,
he would watch her himself.
    With that done, he
returned his attention to Nesterov's commander, Krylov. The first
report from an agent currently undercover in Russia had come
through.
    Finally, he could
get back to the work he loved most. Information gathering from
behind a desk. From this one room he'd solved many political,
economic, and logistical problems. On top of that, over the years
he'd solved countless mysteries of one kind or another and tracked
down countless spies, terrorists and other assorted fugitives. This
sort of work was what he did best.
     

Chapter 10
    With a yawn,
Amelia finished getting dressed. She'd put on her final, more
practical outfit that she'd brought with her. Until she knew what
Myron planned to do about Nesterov's commander she didn't want to
be wearing long dresses or restrictive jumpers.
    Although she'd
known it might take a while for the name to be confirmed, it had
been well over a day since she'd retrieved the information from
Nesterov, and still Myron had told her nothing.
    To while away the
time, she'd read through the few emails she'd had on her new status
as an agent, as well as the attached manuals, information sheets
and general rules and codes of conduct. There were a lot of them to
learn, but most of them seemed to be based upon being polite,
sensible and keeping important secrets. Nothing illogical.
    After she'd done
that, she had taken a look at the coded letter she'd found in
Myron's French copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. So far, she
wasn't sure where to begin. Without a starting point, she was
unsure what even one letter would translate to, and she had nothing
to go on, except for the possibility of the first and last lines
being commonly used words.
    After a few hours
of looking at that, she'd given up and nursed the headache it had
given her. It seemed some codes were still beyond her ability to
solve
    This morning,
knowing that Myron had tried to keep her out of danger before by
leaving her behind, Amelia had decided to go back to his house and
find out what stage the investigation was at. Now she'd eaten,
dressed and made herself presentable to the elder Holmes brother,
she walked down to the hotel reception.
    Before she could
walk out the front door she noticed the familiar face of the
younger Holmes.
    “Sebastian,” she
said, smiling in greeting.
    “Hello, Amelia. I
was just trying to get the receptionist to tell me if you were
here. Seems you're not booked in under your name.”
    “No, your brother
had me registered in under Dalton.”
    “Well that's not
particularly hard to work out.” Sebastian frowned.
    “It stumped you,
didn't it?” she asked while chuckling. This made him grin, and soon
he was walking her outside.
    For the first time
in several days the sun shone, and Amelia eagerly turned her face
to bask in it for a few seconds.
    “I came to see if
there had been any progress finding Nesterov's employer.”
    “If there has
been, I've not been told yet. I was about to go and find out.
You're welcome to join me.”
    “I'd love to.”
Sebastian held the taxi door open for her and followed her
inside.
    “I'm also quite
keen to find out what your brother has done about this dreadful war
business. He said he'd do what he could,” she said once they were
on their way to Myron's.
    “You know, a lot
of women would be flattered that a man was willing to start a war
for them.”
    Amelia raised her
eyebrows so Sebastian elaborated.
    “There are many
old wars that were started over a woman's beauty. Cleopatra herself
had six wars started because of hers. And you're far more
attractive than she ever was.”
    “How do you
know?”
    “Genetics and the
nature of