Chapter 369 The Mysterious Time Loop

When Holmes lost consciousness, Irene Adler also took off all her cold outer shell in an instant.

She would carefully put a pillow under Holmes's head and unbutton his collar so that the man could breathe easily in his sleep; then she would wipe off the wine stains on his collar when he was drunk and cover him with a blanket.

The whole process was skillful and gentle, just like a wife who takes care of her husband attentively.

Unfortunately, Holmes was so drunk at that time that he was completely unaware of all this; or perhaps, only when Holmes was unaware would Irene Adler reveal her current appearance.

Only after taking care of the drunk man did Ms. Irene turn around to answer her employer's questions.

"When I was setting up the intelligence agency, or rather, when I was taking over Moriarty's legacy, I discovered an interesting fact; if we ignore the moral guilt that Moriarty felt for making illegal profits, his criminal empire has the most rigorous and efficient organizational system in the world."

Lin You looked surprised: "So you not only took over Moriarty's business, but also his criminal organization? No wonder Sherlock Holmes came to you."

"That's not acceptance, but... borrowing." Irene used a word that Lin You was very familiar with. "Do you know what borrowing means? I borrowed from his organizational system. Of course, I did accept some of the people who originally worked for Moriarty."

"Of course I know what borrowing means." I still remember my experience in the online literary circle in my previous life. Every writer in the circle is either a beneficiary of "borrowing" or a victim of "borrowing"; more often, they are both.

"There are many ways to learn from others, some are successful, some are unsuccessful." Lin You was like a senior "master of learning from others" at this moment, revising the experience of the past and speaking clearly, "Removing the dross and retaining the essence, that is a successful learning from others; if you do not distinguish between the good and the bad, and mix the mud and the sand together, then it is not learning from others, but going along with the flow."

"Are you worried about my own mentality, or those former subordinates of Moriarty?" Irene Adler walked away from Holmes and sat back at her desk. She had regained the demeanor of the legendary female thief.

"Who do you think I should worry about?" Lin You asked back.

"Not all of Moriarty's old subordinates were accepted; the core members among them were either captured and killed by law enforcement agencies or forced to flee and leave Europe. The remaining ones also went through the necessary screening before being accepted by us."

Lin You grasped the key question: "What is your standard for distinguishing between core members and non-core members?"

"There are two criteria. The first one is the most stringent, which is whether or not someone knows the specific details of Moriarty's conspiracy. Anyone who knows the details must be Moriarty's confidant and belongs to the core of the criminal empire. Once we identify such a person, we will immediately inform the law enforcement agencies of various countries. By the way, the Queen of England owes me more than one medal."

Irene grumbled, looking dissatisfied. When the British Parliament was gassed, Holmes and Watson were secretly rewarded; but she, the female thief who participated in the case throughout, was deliberately ignored because of her embarrassing identity of being half black and half white.

“What is the second criterion?”

"The second criterion is whether the relevant personnel know Moriarty's ultimate goal. He may not know the specific details of the conspiracy and the implementation process, but if he knows that Moriarty's ultimate goal is to provoke a war that affects the whole of Europe and profit from it, then this person will also be classified as a core member; unless there are special reasons, such people will not be accepted."

Lin You nodded, very satisfied with the answer.

Whether it is an intelligence agency or a conspiracy crime group, one thing they have in common is strict confidentiality measures; the lower the level of the internal personnel, the less they know. For example, in Moriarty's criminal group, many people at the lower level probably don't know who they are working for, and they don't even know Moriarty.

Not to mention secret organizations, even gangs in this era have to use tokens such as dragon head sticks to prove the identity of the leader.

"If that's the case, doesn't it mean that all we receive are a bunch of small errand runners? People who can't even make it in the Moriarty criminal group seem to have difficulty taking on our intelligence tasks." Lin You was quite hesitant.

Moriarty's opponents are the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of various countries. Although they are powerful, they are still just humans after all. But the first opponent that Lin You asked Irene to set up will face is God - at least the shadow of God left in the world.

As a mortal, you have to fight with the gods in a battle of wits and courage. Even with the support of the organization system and the help of some supernatural forces in the magic world, the task is still extremely difficult. Therefore, the quality requirements for the personnel who carry out the task are not low.

"That's why I say just 'borrowing', not receiving."

Irene Adler looked like a vixen when she laughed;
"When Moriarty created his criminal empire, he built an internal confidentiality system and information transmission channels to the extreme. I can make our new organization run just by copying them. And the people who are most familiar with how this system works are precisely the non-core members of the criminal empire. They don't know the whole picture, they are only familiar with the part they are responsible for, but I can replicate Moriarty's achievements by connecting them together."

Lin You laughed out loud without disguising himself: "Oh, then I should thank Professor Moriarty for helping us a lot and saving us a lot of time."

"So, in order to thank Moriarty for his 'selfless help', I have a suggestion," Irene Adler said shockingly, "our organization should continue to use its original identity and not reveal its true purpose. We can even continue to use Moriarty's name in secret."

"It's a good idea, but aren't you afraid that law enforcement agencies will come after you?"

"What are you afraid of? With him here, the law enforcement agencies will definitely know that our Moriarty is different from the Moriarty of the past." Irene pouted angrily at the drunk on the sofa, "Besides, I don't plan to disclose the name Moriarty to the public. People outside will only know that our leader is a professor, and the name Moriarty will only be a code name known to insiders."

Lin You asked with a smile: "Are you planning to use this method to lure out those hidden Moriarty's confidants and cronies? After all, the name Moriarty has a special meaning to them. Those who are asking around and paying special attention to this name must have problems."

"So, do you think this method is feasible?" Irene asked.

"Of course. You are the founder and the first commander, you have the final say, I just want the results." Lin You acted like a hands-off boss.

"Then let us congratulate Professor Moriarty. His name will go down in history and become an eternal legend in the criminal world." Irene raised her glass and gave a speech. Lin You heard a special meaning in it; "Why is it forever in history? Are you going to use this name forever and not change it?"

Irene smiled and asked, "Why change it? Every commander has a common title, just like every emperor of the Roman Empire was called 'Augustus'; this is the inheritance of the empire and will also be a new legend in the history of crime."

Lin You suppressed his turbulent thoughts and raised his glass calmly in response: "I didn't know you could be so poetic. But why do I feel like you're already thinking about retirement? Is it my illusion?"

“It may be too early to retire, but I can’t wait until I’m old and frail to live by stealing other people’s things, right?” Irene said with emotion, “I’ve already died once.”

"In all your ideas of retirement, do you have a place for Mr. Holmes?"

Lin You's sudden enthusiasm for gossip caught Ms. Irene off guard; she had to drink heavily to hide her embarrassment.

But the fire of gossip will only burn more and more fiercely, and will never take into account the feelings of the parties involved; the same is true for Earl Goff.

"Ha, it seems so. Does the scene you imagined include the two of you walking together in a stroller?"

"Enough of your jokes, Your Excellency. If you are in a hurry to verify your ridiculous guess, why don't you find a successor for me to take over my job first?" Irene Adler was quite angry and embarrassed.

"Oh, just kidding, purely kidding." Lin You quickly apologized with a smile, "But I must remind you in advance that the mission of this organization is likely to be a protracted war; not as long as the Hundred Years' War, but it will definitely be protracted."

"so what?"

"So, if necessary, you can train a successor for yourself now. Because I can't be sure whether the mission of this organization will have been successfully completed when the day comes when you are old and frail." Lin You changed his playful look and proposed to Irene solemnly.

In the worst scenario, the confrontation with the Norse gods in the time forbidden zone might last until 1940, which is the time point when they are out of the time forbidden zone. For the writer or the gods, half a century is nothing, but for mortals like Ms. Irene, that is most of their lives.

Unless they are willing to live a life worse than death under the curse of the Aztec gold coins.

"Are you going to let me choose the next 'commander'?" Irene Adler was surprised, not only because of the length of the mission, but also because of Lin You's indulgence of power.

"Is there any problem? You founded this organization. You are most familiar with it and know best what kind of commander it needs." Lin You knew the reason why Irene hesitated. "I still say that I don't care about the power of this organization at all, and I don't want to waste energy on things like institutional management. I only ask that it can complete the tasks I assign to it."

"Because I am familiar with this organization, I must correct your view, Your Excellency." Irene Adler's face was extremely solemn. "If you don't care about this organization, then when it completes its mission, you must destroy it completely and without leaving any room for it. Because once it gets out of control, it will become a monster and a demon. I don't want a certain 'Professor Moriarty' to really transform into another Moriarty in the future; it definitely has this potential."

"I will remember your words, Ms. Irene. Now, I will not disturb your and Holmes' world of two." Lin You left the office with a smile, and it was unknown whether he took Irene's advice to heart.

"A world for two?" Irene looked at the drunk sleeping on the sofa, her face full of depression. What the hell is this a world for two? It's better to call it a daily routine for an unlucky housewife!
Lin You did not look as relaxed as he appeared after leaving the office; after leaving the headquarters of the intelligence agency and walking into a deserted place, Earl Goff suddenly stopped and stared in a daze at the vague outline of the London city in the distance.

An intelligence agency hidden in the dark, with every leader named "Moriarty"!

When the writer discovered this, he was even more shocked than when he met the Van der Linde gang.

The encounters with Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur were just accidental, and did not even stir up the slightest wave in their story lines. But this intelligence agency was completely different; when Irene made her suggestion, it meant that the timeline had completed a closed loop in front of the writer.

Lin You recalled another Sherlock Holmes story from a distant time and space.

The mysterious, omnipresent criminal group in the story of "Elementary" is closely related to the Holmes family. Isn't their leader called "Moriarty" in every generation?

This fact comes not only from the adaptation of the TV series screenwriter, but also from what Quill recognized when it rewrote it; the story is already part of the big world.

When the timeline of the big world enters the 21st century, the descendants of the Holmes family who live in New York, USA and are addicted to drugs, will face this mysterious organization head-on, which will trigger a series of stories.

Now, Lin You suddenly discovered that the source of this mysterious criminal organization became Irene Adler; more precisely, it became him, the writer.

The two Sherlock Holmes stories, which originally had no direct connection, completed the closed loop of logic and time without being rewritten by a quill pen, and even without the writer noticing, and became inseparable - as long as Lin You did not deliberately destroy this change afterwards.

What worries the writer the most is that the entire process was completed by his hands; and he only realized it after the dust had settled.

"Supplementing details of my own interpretation? Not that simple!" Lin You pondered silently, looking for all possible traces of conspiracy and loopholes and traps. "Simply my own interpretation will not involve the author; not to mention that I appeared at this point in time to deal with the 'unknown' event and made relevant remarks and actions.

No matter how this change was caused, whether intentional or unintentional, it is inevitably related to the 'unknown'. Time... Time is indeed the most mysterious force in the world."

The writer thought about it and remembered another thing: "If we talk about the closed loop of time and logic, then there is actually a contradiction that has not been resolved on this timeline... Two Patrick Morgans."

(End of this chapter)