Doctor Who_ Alien Bodies - Lawrence Miles [105]
But it was too late, of course. Homunculette launched himself at Justine, leaping over the table at the Cousin’s neck. Justine was ready for the attack. She raised her hands, and grasped Homunculette’s wrists, throwing him to the ground by the side of the table. Homunculette managed to drag her down with him, though. Manjuele leapt forward, fists clenched.
It was the spark that lit the flame. Suddenly, everybody’s grudges against everybody else seemed vindicated.
E-Kobalt lurched forward, towards the Doctor. Presumably, the Kroton didn’t realise the damping fields were off, so it was attacking with brute force instead of using its built-in weaponry. The table shattered as E-Kobalt ploughed through it. Glass fragments exploded across the room. The Doctor covered his face with his sleeve.
Nearby, Manjuele started kicking at Homunculette’s head, but his blows were connecting with his Cousin as much as they were with the Time Lord. Colonel Kortez threw himself into the fray, whatever peace-keeping instincts he still had in his head obviously telling him to get involved somewhere. The Doctor fell back as E-Kobalt advanced, but bumped into Mr Qixotl, and tripped over. Backwards.
E-Kobalt toppled sideways, knocked off its feet by Trask. The dead man was beating his fists against the creature’s crystalline shell, his knuckles popping open with every blow. The Doctor had no idea why Trask was attacking the Kroton, but he was screaming something like ‘he’s mine, he’s mine.’
The Doctor rolled onto his front. He was lying on top of Qixotl, and Qixotl looked terrified.
‘Get me out of here!’ Qixotl howled. ‘Whatever you want, I’ll do it! Just get me out!’
And there was something in that expression of utter horror the Doctor recognised. Something he’d seen on another face, a long time ago.
Finally, all the pieces slipped into place.
‘It’s you,’ the Doctor said.
Qixotl’s face twisted itself into a mask of pure agony. ‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’
‘It’s you,’ the Doctor repeated. He grabbed the little man’s collar, and felt the fabric rip as he hauled Qixotl to his feet.
‘I said I’m sorry! What more do you want?’ Qixotl tried to struggle free, but the Doctor kept hold of his lapels.
‘Sorry?’ the Doctor shouted. ‘Is that all you can say? The last time I met you, you tried to sell me off to the Antiridean organ-eaters. Piecemeal! And two regenerations before that, you tried to turn me over to an Embodiment of Pure and Irredeemable Evil. I trusted you, and you betrayed me. It’s you. I can’t believe I didn’t recognise you before.’
Qixotl kept struggling. ‘I had to change my face, didn’t I? After what you did to me the last time –’
The Doctor punched him in the head. Qixotl collapsed.
Homunculette was screaming. Manjuele was shouting something about the Spirits. The Doctor heard the sound of his own double-heartbeat pounding in his ears, and tasted blood on his tongue. Qixotl lay sprawled out in front of him, his face rigid. The man was helpless. Totally helpless.
The Doctor grasped Qixotl’s throat between his hands. He hadn’t done this sort of thing in a long, long time, and it was much easier than he’d expected.
‘You betrayed me,’ the Doctor sneered. ‘You betrayed me when I was alive, and you’re doing it again now I’m dead.’
‘Doc–’ Qixotl began, but the Doctor squeezed his windpipe, and he shut up.
‘No more,’ the Doctor told him. ‘It ends here, Qixotl.’
Qixotl tried to gasp for mercy, the nerves throbbing and twisting in his neck. The Doctor smiled. Too many times, he’d let people like Qixotl go free, only to see them come back and haunt him. Not this time. In his sixth body, he’d started to see the logic in sheer cold-blooded murder, and now he’d complete his research into the subject. After all, there was a kind of justice to it. Qixotl was cashing in on the Doctor’s death, so there was no reason why the Doctor shouldn’t kill Qixotl...
He stopped squeezing.
‘What in the world am I doing?’ he asked.
Qixotl stared up at him, but didn’t speak. He probably couldn’t.
The Doctor looked around the hall. Justine lay on