Doctor Who_ To The Slaughter Part 38

But it was almost irresistible.

Moaning to himself with every step, Roddle dragged himself along the al-leyway. There had to be others like him, terrified innocents, hiding away from the ever-mounting violence. He could join up with them perhaps. Strength in numbers.

They could fight back. Kill anyone who stood in their way.

The thought gave him strength, and he ran on through the bloodstained streets.

'Trix!' cried the Doctor, his head pounding as he tried to focus on the ever-s.h.i.+fting picture. 'Oh, dear, and you were doing so well. . . '

'Tricks?' Halcyon echoed. 'What do you mean? I'm not a performing animal!'

'Not now, Halcyon,' the Doctor snapped, his eyes tight shut, willing the pictures to sharpen. 'My suspicions have been confirmed now I must must find out more!' find out more!'

205.

Fitz struggled to free himself from Gaws's grip, but his limbs were still aching and cramped from hefting Sook all this way. He landed a good kick in Gaws's face, but it barely seemed to register. It was like the guy was too crazed to feel pain his front teeth had been smashed, and he'd been left looking like a peculiarly pathetic vampire. His murderous undead mates were rising up from the suds too, some of them laying into each other, but a good few sending nasty looks his way. They'd rip him apart then move on to Sook.

'Get yourself inside!' he yelled at her. 'Drone!' he shouted. 'Suds off!'

The hovering water-box spluttered to a stop. The whole hangar seemed knee-high in perfumed soapy water.

'Mildrid! Come on, quick!' He gasped, as Gaws twisted his ankle. 'Mildrid, for G.o.d's sake. . . '

Then she came whirling through the soapsuds like a dervish. Like a size 20 Cathy Gale she high-kicked and finger-jabbed her way through the rabid crowd, working her way towards Fitz. With sudden clarity he remembered the way she'd kicked the gun from his hand and found he had a new determination in his fight against Gaws. If he could only hold on until she got here. . .

At one point she slipped over and vanished from view beneath the bubbles.

He stared in horror. But hey, she worked a suds.h.i.+p she could handle it. Like a super-submarine she soon resurfaced, dispensing deadly blows to anyone within reach.

Almost anyone. As she reached Gaws, panting for breath, she raised a iron fist to strike then hesitated. 'What's happened to him?'

'What's happened to all of them!' gasped Fitz, still trying to break free.

'For such a weaselly man he's surprisingly strong, isn't he?' she reflected, a slight flutter in her eyelids.

'He's gone gaga, Mildrid!' he gasped. 'Sort him!'

As if awoken from a trance, she gave a short, sharp roar and brought her elbow down against Gaws's neck. His eyes rolled back and he slid slowly into the suds.

'He'll sleep for some time,' she said sadly.

'I'd say dreamland's the best place for him,' said Fitz, painfully collecting limbs and wits. 'Help me with Sook. We'll lock ourselves on board.'

'We must take Gaws with us!' she twittered.

'No way.'

'He'll be defenceless!'

'But clean and ever so fragrant.' Fitz was already tramping up the ramp.

He paused to salute the valiant drone, then scooped up Sook and carried her over the threshold.

206.

Trix looked down at the floor, trying to ignore the scary presence of the shadow creatures gathered around her. Unlike Falsh, who was courting them wildly.

'We can make a deal,' he said desperately. 'I set all this up! It's me you should be talking to!'

'You do not possess the weapon,' grated the ma.s.sive one.

'You tried to tell us it did not exist,' added the s.h.a.ggy one.

Trix waited for domehead to give his tuppence worth. 'You are a worm,' it said at length, 'cowardly and pathetic. A fitting subject for demonstration.'

'Hope you've all got a good book handy,' said Trix. Never let them see you Never let them see you hurting. hurting. 'Could be hours before we go gaga. Tell you what, let me go right now and I'll give you a good show of mindless violence. Better than that rubbish on TV.' 'Could be hours before we go gaga. Tell you what, let me go right now and I'll give you a good show of mindless violence. Better than that rubbish on TV.'

Tinya had turned on an imposing bank of bubblescreens, all tuned to news stations, all showing scenes of violence. Street brawls. Soldiers opening fire on innocent crowds. The wild animals, lying dead and exposed in a horrible heap.

'They keep showing the same bits,' Trix said loudly. 'There's, like, three things that have happened, and they keep showing them. I reckon this footage has been faked.'

The shadowy bidders were unmoved, but Tinya wasn't happy. 'We should gag her.'

'You would would say that, Tinya. You know I've barely started telling them about you.' say that, Tinya. You know I've barely started telling them about you.'

'Your pathetic attempts to intimidate me won't. . . '

In the unexpected silence, Trix wondered what kind of a look Klimt was giving Tinya the other side of the shadows.

May as well press home the advantage. 'You both know I don't work alone.

My a.s.sistant, the Doctor, helped me escort Falsh to Callisto.' No one took her up on this gambit, so she pressed on regardless. 'You want to know where he is? He's. . . ' No, not on his way here. Not outside. That wouldn't worry them unduly. . .

Inspiration struck.

'He's gone to blow up Leda,' she said.

'I told you we should gag her,' muttered Tinya.

'He has! He's in s.p.a.ce. He's going to blow it to smithereens, it's the only way!'

Tinya yawned. 'They can't be destroyed.'

'And even if they could, Leda is currently guarded by a flotilla of military vessels, courtesy of Pentagon Central,' said Klimt smugly. 'Elegant, wouldn't 207 you say? The military think they're protecting a new life form but they're defending the very thing that will destroy them.'

'Makes no odds,' said Trix. 'The Doctor doesn't have to get anywhere near Leda. NewSystem was ready to blow every spare Jupiter moon to bits this morning complete disintegration. And they're still standing by.'

Falsh looked at her, smiling, impressed.

'The entire moon and the surrounding area will go up,' Trix said fiercely.

'"Annihilated in a controlled, anti-matter particulate reaction", wasn't that what you told us, Klimt?'

' You You told them this?' demanded the squat, nasty one with the fat pointy fingers. told them this?' demanded the squat, nasty one with the fat pointy fingers.

Klimt took a deep breath. 'Tinya did you warn them to stand down?'

'I don't have the authority to do that,' she said quietly.

'He's probably there by now,' Trix added. 'Keep watching those screens.

There'll be a few fireworks tonight after all.'

'Is this female speaking the truth?' hissed the squat one. 'Are your creatures threatened?'

'Of course they're not!' Klimt snapped. 'She's trying to trick you! Are you really such a halfwit as to '

The squat shadow rounded on him and reached out a hand. It went straight through Klimt, who started to sn.i.g.g.e.r.

'You are an insolent fool,' said the shadow.

'I'm not selling you my weapon!' Klimt spat in its make-believe face, like a petulant kid. 'So! You are dismissed from the auction.'

'Your auction is an ill-organised farce,' the creature said. 'But I will not be dismissed by you. I shall confer with the Grand Marshal.'

The silhouette vanished. Now Trix could see Klimt looked red-eyed and wild. His mouth kept moving even when no words were coming out.

'What about the rest of you?' he snarled. 'Do you doubt me? Do you doubt the veracity of my claims?'

'I think,' said Tinya quickly, 'that we should perhaps take some time out here.'

'The proceedings are irregular,' rumbled the box-monster. The other one nodded.

Tinya's smile was desperate as she crossed to a bank of controls. 'We shall contact you shortly.'

The other two shadows snapped off.

The Doctor tore off the visor, gasping for breath, his vision swimming. 'She's right. It's the only way. I should have thought of it myself, not let my preju-dices blind me.'

208.

'What are you talking about?' asked Halcyon. 'Please, Doctor '

'Cheer up! Your valiant efforts to vandalise the solar system may not be entirely wasted.' He activated the s.h.i.+p's computer. 'You can help me arrange the demolition of a moon.'

' What? What? ' '

'Leda,' said the Doctor. 'Big explosion. The end. I shouldn't think even a super-slug could survive total particulate dispersal, and I can't think of another remedy. Not in the time we have.'

'Time we have?' Halcyon looked blank.

'Odd business, time. Those rocks have endured for billions of years. To me, that makes them precious. Whereas human lives are over in a blink of an eye.'

He sighed. 'And that makes them more precious than anything else. Anything.

So, NewSystem's base of operations in Joves.p.a.ce, where is it?'

'In orbit around Sinope,' said Halcyon, baffled, 'clear of the disintegration zone.'

'Just a few hours' drive,' said the Doctor. 'You'll have to come with me, Halcyon.'

'Come with you?' he said worriedly. 'To Sinope?'

'I doubt NewSystem's people will listen to me. "'Tis not for mortals to command success" but the famous can have a fair go.'

Halcyon brightened a touch. 'That's a misquote of Joseph Addison.'

'I think you'll find Addison misquoted me. But first things first. . . ' The Doctor jammed the visor back on to his face, and yanked down a small band he guessed was a kind of microphone. He focused hard, his fingers throbbing in the faint paint smears in the bottom of the tray, his senses starting to spin.

'Start up the flight protocols, would you? I won't be long.' He gasped as the visions scudded back across his eyes in flecks and pieces. 'I can't can't be long.' be long.'

Now the bidders had gone, Trix felt an unnerving tension in the air. Klimt seemed to be losing the plot big time. Tinya was pale and silent.

And Falsh started chuckling to himself. 'Klimt, my friend what a performance. And you wondered why I never thought you had business ac.u.men.'

'Shut up!' Klimt screamed.

Tinya was looking distinctly shaken. 'Think she's telling the truth, Klimt?'

'Of course not! She's a lying b.i.t.c.h!'

'You'll see,' chimed Trix.

'You've botched everything, Klimt,' said Falsh, still cool and smiling. 'That big genius head of yours has been stuffed so full of pills that it '

'I'll shoot you, Falsh, unless you shut up now,' Tinya snapped, her eyes flicking fearfully between the two men.

'Where is the demolition company's base?' Klimt asked her.

209.

'Between Sinope and Callirrhoe.' She checked her wristpad, jabbing at the small bubble it blew out at her with shaking fingers. 'Prograde orbital inclina-tion 1.257 relative.'

'You're going there,' he declared.