Doctor Who_ All-Consuming Fire - Andy Lane [0]
Andy Lane
To: Chris Amies, Tina Anghelatos, Ian Atkins, Molly Brown, Mr Fandango, Craig Hinton, Liz Holliday, Ben Jeapes, Rebecca Levene, Andrew Martin, Jim Mortimore, Amanda Murray, Mike Nicholson, David Owen, Justin Richards, Gus Smith, Helen Stirling, Charles Stross and James Wallis. If you don't like it, you know who to blame.
First published in Great Britain in 1994 by Doctor Who Books an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd 332 Ladbroke Grove London W10 5AH
Copyright (c) Andy Lane 1994
'Doctor Who' series copyright (c) British Broadcasting Corporation 1994
ISBN 0 426 20415 8
Cover illustration by Jeff Cummins
Internal illustrations by Mike Nicholson
Typeset by Intype, London Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd,
Reading, Berks
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
'May I marry Holmes?'
Cable of enquiry from dramatist/actor William Gillette to Arthur Conan Doyle during writing of Gillette's Sherlock Holmes play.
'You may marry or murder or do what you like with him.'
Doyle's reply.
Prologue
March 1843 - Jabalhabad, India
'Boy! I say, boy! Two more burra pegs, chelo!'
The man in the British Army uniform waved an imperious hand as the turbaned servant glided silently from the veranda.
The old man in the cane chair beside him cackled gently. 'Most kind of you, hmm?' he said, and glanced over to where his granddaughter was attempting to capture the distant mountains in watercolour. The setting sun was behind the bungalow, casting a deep shadow over the patchy doob grass but catching the snowy peaks in a net of scarlet and purple.
She glanced up and caught his gaze.
'Grandfather?'
'Nothing, child.'
The soldier batted at a cloud of insects with his pith helmet. The motion caused a fresh rash of sweat to break out across his forehead. He mopped half-heartedly at it.
'Deuced if I know how you cope in this heat,' he muttered.
'Oh, I've been in hotter places than this, my boy,' said the old man.
'There's nowhere on Earth hotter than India during the dry season. If there was, I'd have been posted to it.'
'Perhaps you're right,' the old man agreed. He looked over towards a group of three people - a man and two women - who were sitting and taking tea upon the lawn in the shade of a large parasol. There was something familiar about the man, but he couldn't quite place him.
The servant appeared from the shadows of the bungalow with two double whiskies on a tray. The ice had already melted. A mosquito was struggling weakly in the old man's glass.
'Now, where was I?' the soldier asked, frowning slightly.
'You were telling me about a rather strange temple up in the hills.'
'So I was,' the soldier replied, faintly surprised. 'A rum tale, and no mistake.
Let's see what you make of it, what?'
The old man said nothing, but glanced again at the trio happily chatting near his granddaughter. The women were young, but the man . . .
He managed to catch the man's eye. A look passed between them, and the old man shivered.
'Are you all right?' the soldier asked.
'Hmm? I think somebody just walked over my graves.'
'If you're feeling a bit under the weather, you'd better see the medic.
Corporal Forbes is rife around here.'
'Corporal Forbes?' the old man asked.
'Cholera Morbus. Cholera, you know.'
'I wouldn't worry about that,' the old man said. 'Please, go on.'
'Right-ho. As I said earlier, the palace was a sight to be seen...'
'So this is where it all started?' Bernice said politely.
'Indeed,' the Doctor replied, and took a sip of tea. 'And we've seen where it ends. If I hadn't listened to Siger's tale on that veranda.. .'
'Yeah, we know,' Ace said dismissively. She fiddled