The Chase in the Underground
Beep
'Shit!' Sherlock thinks, but his assailant doesn't seem to have heard. The footsteps are just around the corner. Perhaps Sherlock has fooled him and he'll turn left now instead of right? But then he hears the second sets of footsteps. They are far off still, but two pursuers and two tunnels don't bode well. Are they armed?
"You've seen him?" Sherlock hears just around the corner.
There's an answer in the negative, and Sherlock presses himself even deeper into the alcove. He wishes he'd contacted John for this particular adventure. He'd have come if Sherlock had said that he needed him. Probably.
And then there's a train. Sherlock runs in the wake of it to the next juncture and amid the lingering noise to the next, but the noise fades too soon and he can still hear the men running. They have fallen behind, though, and one set of footsteps is quickly fading away, but Sherlock hides in another alcove just in case.
It takes him two more trains to lose his pursuers altogether and reach a station to take a tube home.
He fishes out his mobile.
Received:
All right. Let's have that talk. - John
Sherlock grips the handrail as he stands in the shaking tube car.
Fine. Everything's fine. Breathe. Just breathe.