MYCROFT: You may consider him under my protection.

SHERLOCK: I consider you under his thumb.

MYCROFT: If you go against Magnussen, then you will find yourself going against me.

JOHN: You have a girlfriend?

SHERLOCK: Yes, I have. Now, Magnussen. Magnussen is like a shark – it’s the only way I can describe him. Have you ever been to the shark tank at the London Aquarium, John – stood up close to the glass? Those floating flat faces, those dead eyes ... That’s what he is. I’ve dealt with murderers, psychopaths, terrorists, serial killers. None of them can turn my stomach like Charles Augustus Magnussen.

JOHN: Yes, you have.

SHERLOCK: Sorry, what?

JOHN: You have a girlfriend.

SHERLOCK: You know Magnussen as a newspaper owner, but he’s so much more than that. He uses his power and wealth to gain information. The more he acquires, the greater his wealth and power. I’m not exaggerating when I say that he knows the critical pressure point on every person of note or influence in the whole of the Western world and probably beyond. He is the Napoleon of blackmail ... and he has created an unassailable architecture of forbidden knowledge. Its name ... is Appledore.

JOHN: Dinner.

SHERLOCK: Sorry, what, dinner?

SHERLOCK: I can vouch for this man. He’s a doctor. If you know who I am, then you know who he is ... don’t you, Mr Magnussen? I understood we were meeting at your office.

MAGNUSSEN: This is my office. Well, it is now… No, no. I-I was reading. There’s rather a lot. “Redbeard.” Sorry. S-sorry. You were probably talking?

JOHN: Did you just get engaged to break into an office?

SHERLOCK: Yeah. Stroke of luck, meeting her at your wedding. You can take some of the credit.

JOHN: Je-Jesus! Sherlock, she loves you.

SHERLOCK: Yes. Like I said – human error.

SHERLOCK: Hello, Redbeard. Here, boy. Come on! Come to me. It’s okay. It’s all right.

YOUNG SHERLOCK: Come on! It’s me! It’s me, come on!

SHERLOCK: Come on!

YOUNG SHERLOCK: Good boy! Clever boy!

SHERLOCK: Hello, Redbeard. They’re putting me down too, now. It’s no fun, is it? Redbeard.

MOLLY: Without the shock, you’re going to feel the pain. There’s a hole ripped through you. Massive internal bleeding. You have to control the pain.

SHERLOCK: Control! Control! Control. You. You never felt pain, did you? Why did you never feel pain?

JIM: You always feel it, Sherlock. But you don’t have to fear it! Pain. Heartbreak. Loss. Death. It’s all good. It’s all good.

JOHN’s VOICE: Sherlock?

JOHN: Okay – so where are the vaults, then?

MAGNUSSEN: Vaults? What vaults? There are no vaults beneath this building. They’re all in here. The Appledore vaults are my Mind Palace. You know about Mind Palaces, don’t you, Sherlock? How to store information so you never forget it – by picturing it. I just sit here, I close my eyes ... and down I go to my vaults.

JOHN: I don’t understand.

MAGNUSSEN: You should have that on a T-shirt.

JOHN: You just remember it all?

MAGNUSSEN: It’s all about knowledge. Everything is. Knowing is owning.

JOHN: Sherlock, what do we do?

MAGNUSSEN: Nothing! There’s nothing to be done! Oh, I’m not a villain. I have no evil plan. I’m a businessman, acquiring assets. You happen to be one of them! Sorry. No chance for you to be a hero this time, Mr Holmes.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1236