Author's note:
While this chapter might possibly hold up as a stand-alone story, it will make a lot more sense if you read the previous chapters first.
CHAPTER 3, MYCROFT
The Diogenes Club, of which I am a founding member, is unique among gentlemen's societies in London. While other clubs encourage socialization between individual members as well as informal groupings within the membership, the Diogenes Club adheres to a strict code of solitude and silence within the confines of the club. Within the walls of the establishment members may neither converse, nor acknowledge the very existence of each other. There is no common room as is the case with other clubs, only the Stranger's Room. Each member has access only to his own room. Upon arrival at the door, a member must wait to be acknowledged by the porter who will then escort him to his sanctuary, first assuring that he will encounter no other member en route. When he desires any of the club's amenities, he affixes a signal upon the door of his alcove to summon the porter. The same procedure is necessary when he desires to exit.
I was ensconced in my alcove at the Diogenes Club when the porter announced a visitor to see me in the Stranger's Room. The Diogenes Club discourages, but does not forbid the practice of outsiders calling upon members. I have personally bade the few of my colleagues who are aware of my membership to refrain from accosting me there, save in matters of utmost urgency, so I proceeded apace to discern what manner of crisis impelled someone to disturb me in my sanctuary. Arriving in the Stranger's Room and finding not one, but two visitors, I knew I had cause to be concerned. The visitors were a woman known to me as Violet, one of my frequent paramours, and my brother, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
Of all the people, bold or desperate enough to seek me out at the Diogenes Club, the appearance of these two caused me no lack of foreboding. Violet was an employee of one of London's most discreet parlors for the service of gentleman's needs. I had previously alerted her to be on the lookout for any client who might bear a particular tattoo and report to me immediately if any should appear. Knowing full well that any discovery she might make would most likely occur at a late hour, I had instructed her to use my brother to convey this information to me should I not be at my station at the Foreign Office.
"The appearance of the two of you together presages ill tidings, Miss Violet. I gather you have observed the tattoo of which I bade you keep alert. Brother Sherlock, to what extent have you been made privy to the salient facts surrounding this affair?"
"Greetings to you as well, Sir Mycroft. Indeed, it is as you surmise. I have disclosed to Mr. Holmes your instructions to me as well as the events preceding my observation. He has made a careful inspection of my lodgings and his questioning has elicited from me details I would not otherwise have considered important."
"Indeed," said my brother. "Dark forces are at work here. As you, I am sure, are well aware, that singular tattoo is the emblem of a sinister brotherhood of Eastern European origin. The presence of one of them in London suggests a blood debt with someone of consequence is to be paid. What knowledge does the Foreign Office possess about this group?"
"We know they are of Balkan origin, but they mirror that fractured peninsula, manifesting more as a loosely knit group of regional associations than a coherent whole. It is not unheard of for one faction to accept a commission to eliminate a member of another. In order to be tattooed and accepted as a comrade of the cult, a man must pledge his absolute loyalty to his local leader, known as a centurion. When the centurion commands, his orders are of priority to the comrade, superseding his duties to his livelihood, even his obligations to his wife and children. There is no exit from the cult, save by death. When the centurion decides to undertake a mission, he deploys a team comprising a leader, called a decurion, and two or more junior comrades, each of whom keep the others under constant surveillance. The decurion holds absolute power over his subordinates, and is authorized to summarily dispatch any who fall short of his standards of performance or who endanger the mission in any way. Indeed, it is expected that not all who are deployed upon a mission will return. Those who return from a successful mission share in the spoils and may be promoted to stations of increasing responsibility. The mystique and prestige of the organization are such that even royalty and sovereign governments have been known to engage them."
