Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [17]
Adric watched it winding its way towards them.
Presumably to camouflage it as it travelled through the Arctic wastes outside the city, the train was a mottled grey with white patches. The engine had a solid squared-off shape designed for functionality rather than aesthetic appeal. It wasn’t streamlined, but wasn’t fast enough that it needed to be. There were half a dozen carriages, featureless boxes in the same colour scheme as the engine. They didn’t have windows.
The train clattered towards them, almost sedately. Adric estimated that it was a kilometre or so away, travelling between sixty and seventy kilometres an hour. It was still about a minute away.
‘What’s it carrying?’ Adric asked.
‘Nuclear material?’ the Doctor said. ‘Military equipment? Something that can’t be transmatted, at any rate. It’s also’, he added thoughtfully, ‘something that the authorities don’t want people to see.’
Adric glanced up at the platform. The Adjudicator had reached the people at the other end, the woman and the rat-faced man. He asked them to move on.
The woman drew a lightweight pistol from the folds of her coat and shot him. The armoured figure was bathed in light, and Adric almost believed that he saw the man’s nervous system flashing through the armour as though he’d been pumped full of barium sulphate. The Adjudicator slumped, groaning as he fell, so he was unconscious rather than dead. The woman secreted the gun, and began scanning the area. The Doctor pulled Adric behind the camera pedestal, and clamped a hand over his mouth.
A conversation had started between the man and woman and both the Doctor and Adric leant forward, straining to hear over the ever-increasing noise from the train. All they could catch was a sense of urgency. Panic in the case of the man, efficient concern from the woman. At about the same time it dawned on both the Doctor and Adric that the two were heading towards them.
They couldn’t speak, so they resorted to gestures and mimes.
Adric held out his hands, palms upward and looked from side to side helplessly.
The Doctor shrugged.
Adric leant forward and silently mouthed a question.
The Doctor frowned.
Adric’s shoulders slumped. A moment later, he pointed a finger towards the pedestal, then tapped his bottom eyelid indicating his eye. Should we take a peek?
The Doctor shook his head quickly, then winced.
The woman’s footsteps had stopped.
The Doctor pressed himself against the base of the pedestal.
Adric did the same.
‘I’ll get the access panel open.’ Her voice was so close it startled Adric, but he managed to keep his lips squeezed together.
There was a mechanical whir. They must have opened up the pedestal to get to the workings inside.
‘Come on!’ she insisted. ‘The train is nearly here.’
‘I can’t find the override.’
The Doctor looked puzzled, but Adric knew what the man was looking for. He tugged the Doctor’s sleeve and held up the silver egg.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
‘I think I must have dropped it,’ the man concluded.
‘Without the override I can’t tell the computer to stop the train, we’ll have to abandon –’
‘No’ the woman said firmly. ‘This is our last chance to get’ in before the train reaches the pyramid’s defence perimeter. I’d much rather try and stop the train now than have to mount a frontal assault.’
‘You said that your friend had set up an escape route.’
‘Yes, but it’s a lot safer to stop the train here. We’ll have a lot more time to play with here, and a lot less armed guards.’
‘But without the override...’
‘Shut up, Gemboyle. Better still, make yourself useful and jam that transmat. That’ll buy us a little more time.’
The Doctor and Adric eased themselves out of the man’s path as he scurried towards the pagoda. He