Page 106 - SHERLOCK transcripts

105

SHAN: Not blank bullets now.
[They weren’t blank bullets before, lady; that gun was empty.]
JOHN (breathily): Okay.
SHAN: If we wanted to kill you, Mr Holmes, we would have done it by now. We just wanted to
make you inquisitive.
(She looks at him sternly.)
SHAN: Do you have it?
JOHN: Do I have what?
SHAN: The treasure.
JOHN: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
SHAN (turning away): I would prefer to make certain.
(She looks at her men, one of whom now pulls the cover off the large object to reveal the
crossbow which was used at the circus. An arrow is already loaded in it. John stares at it and
sighs deeply. Shan turns back to him.)
SHAN: Everything in the West has its price; and the price for her life ...
(John turns and stares at Sarah.)
SHAN: ... information.
(The two men walk over and pick up Sarah’s chair. She cries out repeatedly through her gag as
they carry her towards the crossbow.)
JOHN (anguished, under his breath): Sorry. I’m sorry.
(The men set down the chair on the other side of the crossbow, leaving Sarah facing the arrow
tip and directly in line with it. She stares at it, crying and tugging in vain at the ropes tying her
to the chair. Shan glares down at John.)
SHAN: Where’s the hairpin?
JOHN (tugging at his own bonds in spite of the pistol aimed at him): What?
SHAN: The Empress pin valued at nine million sterling. We already had a buyer in the West;
and then one of our people was greedy. He took it, brought it back to London and you, Mr
Holmes, have been searching.
JOHN: Please. Please, listen to me. I’m not ... I’m not Sherlock Holmes. You have to believe
me. I haven’t found whatever it is you’re looking for.
SHAN (loudly): I need a volunteer from the audience!
JOHN (desperately): No, please. Please.
SHAN (walking towards Sarah): Ah, thank you, lady. Yes, you’ll do very nicely.
(Sarah wails through her gag, tugging desperately at her ropes. Shan smiles, takes out a knife
and reaches up to a nearby sandbag suspended over a pulley hanging from the ceiling. She
stabs the knife into the bag and sand begins to pour out. Sarah continues to wail as John sighs
out an appalled breath and stares up at the bag in horror.)

Sherlock is in the back of a taxi, looking around anxiously as the cab progresses through the
streets.

Shan smiles and looks around at her audience.
SHAN: Ladies and gentlemen. From the distant moonlit shores of NW1, we present for your
pleasure Sherlock Holmes’ pretty companion in a death-defying act.
JOHN: Please!
(Shan has walked over to Sarah and now places a black origami lotus flower on her lap.)
SHAN: You’ve seen the act before. How dull for you. You know how it ends.
JOHN (frantically): I’m not Sherlock Holmes!
SHAN: I don’t believe you.
SHERLOCK (offscreen): You should, you know.
(Shan spins around as a familiar silhouette appears at the far end of the tunnel.)
SHERLOCK: Sherlock Holmes is nothing at all like him.
(Shan raises her pistol, cocks it [again] and aims it towards him. He immediately dodges to the
side of the tunnel, disappearing into the shadows. One of Shan’s thugs starts to hurry towards
the end of the tunnel.)
SHERLOCK’s VOICE (from the darkness, as John sighs out a half-relieved, half-exasperated
breath): How would you describe me, John? Resourceful? Dynamic? Enigmatic?
[He clicks the k-sound at the end of that last word. Your transcriber wibbles happily.]
JOHN (tetchily): Late?
SHERLOCK’s VOICE (from the darkness): That’s a semi-automatic. If you fire it, the bullet will
travel at over a thousand metres per second.

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)