Doctor Who_ Loving The Alien Part 30

The ants only had to punch their way through a thin layer of stone. It would take them a very long time to get through the walls, or even those heavy doors. No it's the windows I'm worried about.'

He closed their exit window and wedged it with a stone.

'Where are they coming from, Doc?'

'Another reality, Cody. A slightly larger one, it would seem.'

'Is it some kinda invasion?'

'No,' said the Doctor. 'It's just bad luck. This cottage is the bridge.

The dimension walls are thin here. They've been worn away, like an old blanket. Holes are appearing.'

'And?'

'And it would appear that at the spot that corresponds to this in whatever reality is on the other side of the hole, there is an ant's nest.'

'An ant's nest. Shame we haven't got a giant kettle.'

'Watch out!'

Behind McBride a pane of gla.s.s shattered and a pair of black tentacles emerged. Legs sought for a purchase and a sectional black 145 body bit and b.u.t.ted its way through the pane. McBride scrabbled for his gun, pushed it up against the black sh.e.l.l and pumped two rounds into it. There was a splattering of viscera, a shriek, and the thing tumbled back into the room.

More were advancing. McBride fired off another round.

'I ain't got bullets for all o' them, Doc, he called. 'You better think of something.

Footsteps hammered on the tarmac, approaching the battered blue police-box. Hands scrabbled at its faded doors, clawing for a purchase.

The door groaned and shuddered, but didn't give.

A pause. Heavy, ragged breathing.

Then a key was slid into the lock.

The door opened easily onto a pool of darkness. An arm swung inside, groping around, finally closing on the black bakelite telephone.

The hand s.n.a.t.c.hed it from its trestle.

'Tango One Two to Charlie Oscar...'

'Charlie Oscar receiving.'

'Five six eight Stevens here. I'm in Kennington. Fentiman Road.

Requesting a.s.sistance. I think this is one for the army...'

'Nearly there...'

McBride pressed his face against the tiny, newly broken window and reached as far as he could into the room.

Behind him the Doctor revved the engine of the vanis.h.i.+ng policeman's motorbike and stared hard at the door as if willing it to open.

'Nearly...'

He was working blind and trying not to think of the two-inch mandibles snapping and probing just a foot below his arm. He felt the rasping brush of a swaying antenna, its hairs like thorns and his hand closed on the door-latch.

'Got it!'

He unlatched the door and stepped back.

'You'll have to force it open,' said the Doctor from his saddle. He revved the engine again.

He had a funny look in his eyes. McBride was afraid he might actually ride the thing into the seething ma.s.s.

McBride pushed against the door, fighting the resistance of the ants.

They paused, disorientated by the daylight.

'Ace would have loved this,' said the Doctor in a voice that mingled sadness and anger, then, with surprising elegance, he swung himself from the bike's saddle, gunned the gas and let it fly forward, through the door and into the cottage.

146.

''Ere! What you doin'?'

The police constable was pounding, breathless, towards them.

'Now please, Cody,' said the Doctor.

McBride aimed his pistol at the bike's gas tank and fired. The force of the blast slammed the door on them.

'Whew,' said McBride. 'What now?'

'We wait,' the Doctor muttered, scowling. 'Make sure none of them get out.'

'What... you... done to my bike?'

The policeman was struggling for air. He staggered to the window and peered inside at the burning wreck.

'We kinda had no choice,' said McBride.

'I had to go and phone for back-up,' the constable said in a small voice. 'The radio was out on my bike. I was gonna get it repaired tomorrow...'

The cottage caught quickly wooden furniture, wooden staircase and then the thatch at the top.

The ants there must have been thousands by now were burning too, fighting, flailing, with nowhere to run. The thick walls held the ants and the flames and, though the windows blew out, the doors were holding.

McBride fired into the head of an ant that had reached the burning window-ledge. It jerked back into the flames. He'd used up all his bullets.

'Er, lads...!'

McBride sprinted around to the back of the house, where there were fewer and smaller windows.

An ant was squeezing itself through a s.p.a.ce hardly bigger than itself.

With a grunt, Constable Stevens swung his truncheon into the creature's head. It landed with a crunch, but the ant kept coming.

Stevens was. .h.i.tting it repeatedly now, McBride suspected working off his anger about the bike.

The Doctor had remained silent throughout, staring into the flames, whose light danced accusingly in his sad eyes. McBride sensed he was thinking about Ace.

He'd tried to strike up a conversation.

'Funny, I used to pour gasoline on ants when I was a kid back home.

Miracle I didn't burn the block down. It just feels... a bit weird. I mean, I know they're just ants, but when they're that big it kinda feels like they're... you know... proper animals. Like... dogs or cats or something.'

'I've destroyed planets,' the Doctor whispered, still staring deep into the macabre bonfire.

147.

The light was starting to fade, and the flaming cottage to glow against the dark. Somehow McBride was reminded of a film he'd seen.

A Viking funeral. A flaming s.h.i.+p sailing over the horizon, bearing away a fallen hero.

More fitting than that shabby affair in East London in the rain. He sensed the Doctor was thinking something similar.

McBride swallowed and sniffed.

'See ya, kid,' he whispered.

'There's nothing coming out of there, believe you me!'

Stevens was scurrying around the blackened and billowing cottage towards them.

'You should have seen the things go up!'

He looked at his watch.

'Fire brigade should have been here by now,' he said. 'What'll we tell 'em? I mean, we can't exactly ask 'em not to fight the fire...'

There was a sound of approaching vehicles.

Not fire-engines, trucks. Army trucks. Two of them, and an American staff car.

Soldiers jumped from the trucks and raised their weapons. Others fanned out around them.

'n.o.body move!' an officer shouted. 'Raise your hands!'

'Make up your mind,' muttered McBride.

The Doctor didn't move. He didn't even seem to hear. Slowly McBride lifted his hands over his head.

'It's all right, sir,' Stevens piped up. 'The situation's been brought under control.'

'Shut up!' the soldier barked.

The door of the staff car opened and a figure emerged. McBride recognised him Hark, the smoothie surgeon who was so keen on cutting up his friends.

'Any of these, sir?'

Dr Hark smiled and pointed at the Doctor.

'Him.'

Immediately three soldiers closed around the Doctor. His arms were forced behind his back and locked in handcuffs. He struggled, but didn't say a word. Even when they produced a cloth bag, put it over his head and tightened it at the neck, he didn't make a sound.

McBride sprang forward, fists tightening, only to receive, out of nowhere, a blow that sent him reeling. A rifle-b.u.t.t to the side of the head. Lights flashed, he staggered and fell, his head swam. Through the haze he could see the Doctor being led away to the staff car. He looked like a man trussed up for the gallows.

148.

Chapter Sixteen.

For most of the journey the Doctor said nothing, nor did his captor sitting next to him, nor the two soldiers sitting in the front. Eventually his captor broke the silence.

'I'm sorry we had to be so rough with you. It's just... Doctor, isn't it?' His disembodied voice sounded m.u.f.fled inside the Doctor's sweaty, dark hood. He didn't reply 'But we had to stop you running. You're very important to us.'

The voice paused. Though blind, the Doctor could feel the weight of his captor's gaze.

'You're a miracle. You are, quite literally, beyond my wildest dreams. I do hope you won't try to escape again. I look forward to talking to you far more than I look forward to the... surgical procedures I must carry out.'

'Just cut me open,' the Doctor said at last. 'I doubt I would have anything to say to you, and I know you have nothing to say to me.'

'Nearly there, sir,' said a voice from the front.

The staff car slowed.

'St Thomas's Hospital,' said the Doctor. 'You wasted your time with the hood.'

'Remarkable.'

'Not if you concentrate. Besides, I had a sneaking suspicion you were bringing me here. This is where all the top secret research is done, isn't it?'