Sherlock - The Game Is On!

The Final Problem- Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Third POV

"Hello?"

Lights come on and show that Sherlock is in a small rectangular room with black walls and floor. Most of the room is taken up by a rather large wooden table. There are chairs either side and a lit lantern is on the floor.

Sherlock is sprawled face down on top of the table. Some time since he was rendered unconscious, someone has dressed him in his greatcoat.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

Groaning, Sherlock pushes himself up onto his arms, putting one hand to the side of his head.

It seems that the girl's voice is coming from an earpiece rather than from speakers in the room. "Yes. Yeah; No, I'm-I'm still here. I'm here." He stutters.

On the plane, the girl is sitting on the floor outside the open door of one of the toilets.

"You went away. You said you'd help me and you went away."

"Yes, I know. Well, I'm sorry about that. We-we-we must have got cut off. Um..." He looks around the room, then screws up his eyes and shakes his head hard, trying to clear his mind of the effects of the sedative. He starts to sit up. "How-how-how long was I away?"

"Hours. Hours and hours. Why don't grown ups tell the truth?" Sherlock, now lowers his hand from the earpiece. "No, I-I am telling the truth. You can trust me."

"Where did you go?" The little girl questions. Sherlock looks up. There is a large metal grille in the ceiling and the night sky can be seen above it. Although the sky is mostly cloudy, part of it is clear and shows a full moon.

"I'm not completely sure." He sits on the edge of the table and looks around at the walls, then slowly begins to stand. "Um, now, I tell you what. You-you've got to be really, really brave for me."

Leaning down to pick up a lantern, he keeps talking as he walks across to one of the walls: "Can you go to the front of the plane? Can you do that?"

"The front?"

"Yes." The light from the lantern shows that many pictures have been stuck to the walls. All of the nearby ones are large photographs of young Sherlock. Some of them have had part of the photo ripped off... Particularly the ones of Pinkpatch.

"That's right; The front." Sherlock directs. "You mean where the driver is?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Okay." The girl starts to get up from the floor. "I'm going." She starts to walk down the aisle, pausing and looking down at the unconscious flight attendant lying in her way.

Sherlock continues looking at the photos. Some of them are of Sherlock at older ages than his young pirate self and a few pictures are of other members of the Holmes family. "Are you there yet?"

It's not the girl who replies next but John, who jerks awake somewhere dark. The wall behind him is bare rock. "Yeah, I'm here." He stands up abruptly when he realises that he's sitting in water up to his waist. "John!"

"Yeah."

"Where are you?"

"I don't know. I've just woken up. Where are you?"

"I'm in another cell. I just spoke to the girl on the plane again. We've been out for hours."

"What, she's still up there?"

"Yes." His voice comes over John's earpiece. "The plane will keep flying until it runs out of fuel."

John looks around and raises his head to look upwards. "Is Mycroft with you?"