Elephant's Memory (Sherlock BBC)

The Blind Banker part 7: Tunnel

Sherlock tapped his fingers anxiously on his leg, clearly freaking out internally. Clara's eyes were all over the place; her hyper-vigilance would have been suspicious to Sherlock had he been looking at her.

"Do you have your gun ready?" He asked quietly, so that the cabbie wouldn't hear him. She nodded, knowing that her clip was full. The car pulled over, and Sherlock got out in a hurry. Clara tossed a fifty pound note to the cabbie without looking, and got out after him.

The entrance to the tunnel was dark, and Sherlock quickly shuffled them into the shadows so that they wouldn't be seen, and they began to inch down the walls of the tunnel.

"What's the plan?" Clara asked in a whisper.

"Forget the gun. Your weapon is semi-automatic; the bullet could ricochet."

"Right." He glanced around the corner.

"Listen." she did, and a shiver ran down her spine.

"-He took it, brought it back to London and you, Mr Holmes, have been searching." It was the voice of the ring master.

"Please. Please, listen to me. I'm not Sherlock Holmes. You have to believe me. I haven't found, well, whatever it is you're looking for!"

"I need a volunteer from the audience!" Clara clapped a hand over her mouth.

"No, please! Please!"

"Thank you, lady. Yes, you'll do very nicely."

"You just had to let her stay." Sherlock spat through his teeth.

"That is not the problem right now." Clara heard Sarah screaming and crying, but it was muffled, like she was gagged.

"Ladies and gentlemen. From the distant moonlit shores of NW1, we present for your pleasure, Sherlock Holmes' pretty companion in a death-defying act." Clara wanted to scream and holler at Shan for her cruelty. Sarah was innocent. She had nothing to do with this.

"Please!"

"You've seen the act before. How dull for you. You know how it ends. I wish we could have gotten your other companion, she would have fetched a pretty penny in the east..." Clara's blood ran cold.

"Plan, Sherlock."

"You go for John. I'll get Sarah out of the way."

"Right."

"I'm not Sherlock Holmes!" John shouted, his voice frantic. don't believe you.

"You should, you know." Sherlock said, suddenly darting out of the shadows. "Sherlock Holmes is nothing at all like him." Clara heard Sherlock's feet running back towards her, and he nodded at her. She carefully crept around the other side, now barefoot to avoid being seen. In the dark, she heard the click of a gun and feet headed towards Sherlock. Henchmen, probably. "How would you describe me, John? Resourceful? Dynamic? Enigmat-ick?"

"Late! Very late!" He shouted out to Sherlock. Clara waited just out of sight; Sherlock had to take out the firelight or she would be seen.

"That's a semi-automatic. If you fire it, the bullet will travel at over a thousand metres per second."

"Well?" The ring master asked.

"Well ..." Sherlock swung a two by four at the henchman. "Clara, if you would! Think back to your maths days!" Clara did, and quickly analyzed the tunnel walls.

"Oh! Jolly good. The radius curvature of these walls is nearly four metres! If you miss, the bullet will ricochet! Could hit anyone. Might even bounce off the tunnel and hit you!"