Doctor Who_ Loving The Alien Part 14

Works in the reptile house. He got me the job. I'd like you to meet him.

'What about girlfriends?' asked Ace, fis.h.i.+ng.

He shrugged again and blushed.

They'd strolled across Regent's Park in the dark and into the zoo. His room was amazing a stone bunker underneath the primate house, simply furnished with a single mattress, a rug and a lamp, a trunk in the corner and a picture of a silver Porsche on the wall. Apart from that the room was bare. The window was set high, a dark slit against the ceiling.

Jimmy had been a perfect gentleman that night. He'd kissed her hand and gone to sleep on the rug, insisting that she take the mattress.

When, briefly, she awoke around dawn he was next to her fully clothed curled up and fast asleep. The smells and sounds of the wakening zoo wafted in on the suns.h.i.+ne, and Ace drifted back to sleep and dreamed of riding bareback through the Serengeti with Jimmy.

She'd woken later to find a pot of coffee and a note - he'd got the afternoon off. She wandered about the zoo all morning in a sort of daze, hoping for glimpses of Jimmy. The morning was bright and wonderful, and unbearably long.

75.The Doctor's cell was not uncomfortable it had hitherto been a bedroom but he couldn't relax with the two guards stationed in there with him. There were another two outside the door, and one on the balcony outside the window. They obviously considered him important.

He'd had one visitor an American major called Bill Collins who'd asked if he had everything he needed.

'Not really, you've locked me up,' the Doctor replied. 'And your General Crawhammer is planning to have me dissected.'

Major Collins had looked uneasy.

'Why isn't there a British officer in charge?'

'We run the show now,' he had replied. 'Are you a Soviet augment?'

'I don't even know what a Soviet augment is,' the Doctor had replied. But I can only surmise... you're meddling in something very dangerous. Not that that's anything new, of course...'

The major had gone, a.s.suring the Doctor that Crawhammer wouldn't actually wield the knife. An hour later the guards received an order and escorted him downstairs, to the cellar.

There a team of men in white gowns and surgical masks had taken over, while the guards stood behind them with their guns aimed at him.

In silence, and ignoring his howls of protest, they had weighed him, taken his pulse, temperature and blood pressure, taken a blood sample, X-rayed him thoroughly and listened incessantly to the beating of his two hearts.

Now he lay strapped to an operating table, wearing a hospital gown and feeling woozy from a needle someone had stuck in him. The room was empty.

The doors swung. Major Collins.

'I never thought he'd do it.'

'You must stop him! This isn't just about me! We're all in terrible danger!'

'The general's got clearance from the top and your government's not complaining. They're on a war footing no one gives a d.a.m.n about the little stuff now.'

'I do,' said the Doctor. 'Particularly when I'm the little stuff in question. I'm not a Soviet spy, you know.'

Collins looked uncomfortable.

'You're an unauthorised presence in a top security military base on the brink of a war.'

'All right,' said the Doctor. 'If you can't do anything else, at least get a message to a man in London for me. His name is Cody McBride.

Tell him I failed, and tell him to take refuge with Ace in the TARDIS.

76.Will you remember this? And also, if you will, tell Miss Rita Hawks.

She's a journalist. An American.'

'You know Rita? I know Rita.'

The doors swung again and Crawhammer entered.

'Major Collins, ain't you got anywhere to be?'

'Yes, sir!' Collins shouted in instant response.

'Then be there.'

'Yes, sir!'

And he marched from the room.

Crawhammer rubbed his hands together. Behind him the brotherhood of the white masks was filing silently back in.

'So, Mr Augment...'

'You can't do this...' the Doctor hissed. 'It's against every international law and protocol.

'So sue me. Mr Augmentski, we're gonna find out exactly what they done to you. We already know they changed your blood... But you know what puzzles us... No artificial components. We knew you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had an augmentation programme going, but this... whew!'

'You're insane...'

'War's a whole nest o' hornets, boy.'

'We're not at war yet.'

'Oh, we will be. You Reds screwed with us once too often. When you downed that s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p you screwed with me! You know, back home where I come from we lynch Commies... But hey, that's Alabama fer ya. Yup, I'm a G.o.d-fearin' son o' the South, and we don't take no bullsheeet from no one.'

'If you really fear G.o.d, ask yourself why you're condemning His creation to nuclear Armageddon.'

'Why, 'cos I know G.o.d's on our side,' Crawhammer beamed.

Rita had searched the house from top to bottom. She hadn't found much. A packet of 'self-seal envelopes' that she'd practically taken her tongue off experimenting with, strangely shaped electric sockets in the walls...

She hadn't found a way out. None of the windows were going to break.

Eventually she'd gone to the refrigerator and made herself a beef sandwich, then another. She was still hungry.

Then Emily returned, as she had presumably departed, through the kitchen door, slipping the key into her cardigan pocket.

'I'm so sorry to have kept you. I'm glad you helped yourself.'

'Little Old Lady, what the h.e.l.l's going on here?' shouted Rita.

77.'I don't know what you mean, dear.'

'The flowers...'

'Yes?'

'They're not real.'

'No. I'm allergic to the real thing.'

'And the newspaper... all that c.r.a.p about the late King and India still being in the Empire. Is this what you feed back into Russia?

Propaganda? Is this what the Russians think?'

'Propaganda? Oh, dear me no.' She might have been buying stamps, so light was the old woman's tone. 'A mere novelty, I'm afraid. A gift for my bachelor cousin. I'm afraid he does rather live in the past.

Doesn't really approve of a woman on the throne. I tease him...'

'What did you do with the girl?'

'Oh, yes, the girl. I told you, I barely glimpsed her. She's probably off with her young gentleman friend. They did rather seem to me to be stepping out together.'

'OK, I'm going,' said Rita. 'Open the door.'

'I'm afraid I can't do that,' she replied. 'No, you must stay here.'

'Look, I don't want to hit an old lady, but you've got me so spooked, I swear to G.o.d I will. Give me the key.'

'I'm sorry, dear. Would you like that tea now?'

'Right!'

Rita lunged forward, aiming for the pocket where she knew the old woman Her hands closed on air and she stumbled forward, hitting the wall.

The old woman had twisted, or sidestepped or something...

Rita charged again. This time Emily caught her by the upper arms, Stopping her dead. She was applying no painful pressure, but Rita Was held immobile. Smiling benignly Emily raised her off her feet. She kicked out, finding only air the old woman was now holding her With arms outstretched, horizontal. Rita doubted many men could do that for longer than a minute, but this old crone appeared not to feel it.

'Please don't struggle,' dear, she said. 'You'll hurt yourself.'

'OK!'

Rita was gently lowered to the floor.

'How d'you do that?'

'Oh, I'm quite spry for my age.'

Emily had turned around and was arranging the teacups. Rita picked up a wooden kitchen chair and swung it with all her strength into the back of the old woman's neck. The chair splintered. Emily turned slowly.

'That hurt, you know,' she said, then sighed. 'I can understand why 78 you're upset. When I was your age I used to want to come and go as I pleased too.'

She opened the cupboard under the old sink and took out a brush.

'Excuse me while I clean this up.'

There was the sound of a key in the front door.

'That will be my cousin now.' She grinned wickedly. 'I'll get him to do it.'

The kitchen door opened. Rita spun round. It was him Dumont-Smith.

'h.e.l.lo, dear,' the old woman said. 'Had a nice day?'

'So-so,' Dumont-Smith replied. 'It's time.'

Rita was aware of a flash of movement behind her, and a sharp pain in her neck.

Then everything plunged into dizzying blackness.

'Don't struggle, Mr Augment.'

General Eaglewhatsit's voice was indistinct now The Doctor's vision was a blur.

'I protest...' he slurred.

One of the white masks came up, wheeling a machine. In his hand was clutched a black rubber face-mask.

'He's nearly out.'

'Then start a-cuttin', doc!'

White Mask put a scalpel to rest on the Doctor's breastbone.

Through his haze it felt razor-cold.

'It's almost tempting to start before we put him out properly. Test his response to pain. Shame we gave him the pre-med, really.'

A distant door opened and a white blur approached the table. There was a whisper, then a cry from White Mask, who appeared to crumple to the floor.

'Gee, Hark...' the general grunted. 'Tough break...'

Sustained cries of anguish from White Mask receding into the distance. The door swung.