Doctor Who_ Alien Bodies - Lawrence Miles [111]
‘And I hope you’re all thoroughly ashamed of yourselves,’ said the Doctor. It sounded like he was delivering the punchline to a very strange and complicated joke.
Cautiously, Kortez struggled free of the man-heap. Homunculette followed his example. Manjuele was the last one on his feet.
‘Everything’s changed,’ Cousin Justine observed, as she picked herself up and delicately dabbed some of the blood off her chin. ‘You can feel it. It’s...’
‘Less tense?’ suggested the Doctor. ‘Well, less tense than you might expect, bearing in mind who’s here.’
‘Whoah,’ said Qixotl. ‘Whaah. I mean, what...?’
‘We’ve all been taken for a ride,’ the Doctor explained. ‘The thoughts we’ve been having aren’t entirely our own. The Shift has been trying to sabotage the auction.’
‘Not true,’ said Trask. ‘You. You killed me.’
The Doctor spun around. ‘Really? How?’
‘You...’ began Trask, but he didn’t seem to know how to finish. ‘I. I remember. Water... no. There was...’
He lapsed into silence. The Doctor nodded. ‘Exactly. The memories have been adjusted by the Shift. Mr Qixotl?’
Qixotl squirmed backwards, in case the Doctor had any more murderous inclinations. ‘It’s not my fault,’ he whimpered.
The Doctor raised both eyebrows. ‘You knew who you were inviting. You should have researched your clients’ abilities more thoroughly.’ Behind the Doctor, the Kroton’s head was spinning faster than ever, but the thing didn’t speak. Qixotl wondered if it was having some kind of a fit.
‘Who, exactly, did Mr Qixotl invite?’ Justine asked.
For once, Homunculette grunted his approval. ‘Good question. Who was the Shift working for?’
‘A power quite familiar to you, Mr Homunculette,’ said the Doctor.
‘You mean...?’
The Doctor nodded. Qixotl watched Homunculette’s face. In the first five seconds alone, it cycled through sixteen distinct shades of purple. The Time Lord turned to Qixotl, fortunately too speechless to swear.
‘Sorry,’ squeaked Qixotl.
‘You invited them here?’ screamed Homunculette. ‘You actually wanted me to sit down at the table with... with...’
‘Yes, he did,’ the Doctor concluded, helpfully.
Qixotl felt his pulse trying to leap out of his wrist. ‘Now, listen, let’s not get excited. It’s like I told the Doctor here, business is, er, business. I can’t make moral judgements about my clients, y’know?’
Homunculette lunged. Qixotl curled up into a ball, and covered his face with his arms. Nobody actually hit him, though, so after a few moments he risked peering out from between his hands. The Doctor stood in front of him, restraining Homunculette with a single finger. ‘You’re still angry,’ the Doctor said. ‘Even with the Shift out of your system, you’re angry, and you’re upset. You have to fight it. This is what the Shift wants us to do.’
‘How d’we know s’not in his head now?’ asked Manjuele.
Homunculette glared at the Paradox cultist, but the Doctor shook his head. ‘The Shift works best when it’s dealing with subconscious thought processes. Now we’re consciously aware of what it can do to us, it shouldn’t be able to manipulate us so easily. That’s my guess, anyway.’ The Doctor looked around the hall. ‘Are we missing somebody?’
Qixotl looked around, too. The Doctor had a point. There was definitely something missing from the room. It was as if a major piece of furniture had vanished, something so large you didn’t immediately notice when it was gone.
‘The Kroton,’ said Cousin Justine.
That was it. E-Kobalt had vanished. He’d probably shambled off out of the room while Qixotl had been cowering from Homunculette; let’s be honest, thought Qixotl, it’s not easy to miss a lump of matter that big sneaking away, unless you’ve got other things on your mind. ‘He was acting funny just now,’ he told the others.