Doctor Who_ All-Consuming Fire - Andy Lane [87]
'Aha!'
Surd's chest, like his scalp, was a mass of scars.
'The man is a walking suitcase!' Holmes observed, pulling at a flap to reveal another, larger leather-lined space in the position where I would have expected a lung to be. Either it had been shunted aside or removed entirely.
'I wonder how many poor souls underwent Maupertuis's surgery before one survived,' I mused.
Holmes turned a rueful gaze upon me.
'You do right to remind us that this is an abomination committed against our fellow man,' he sighed. 'I find it hard to believe that anybody could survive such massive trauma, let alone evade infection afterwards.'
'I have seen worse,' I replied. 'During field surgery in Afghanistan, I worked on men whose heads had been half-obliterated by cannon-fire, and I was still able to hold a conversation with them. Much of the brain is underutilized, and many of our organs are duplicates which we can do without - kidneys, for instance, and lungs and...' I hesitated, conscious of Bernice's rapt attention, '. . . er, other things. In fact, it is amazing how little of our bodies and our brains we actually use.'
Holmes just looked at me.
'Well, some of us,' I amended.
'What I find myself wondering about,' Bernice mused, 'is those powers of his.'
'You mean the spontaneous combustion?' I asked. 'What connection could there be?'
'It's been shown that damage to one part of the brain results in other parts -
possibly dormant parts - taking on the extra workload. Like if fire destroys your bedroom you might start sleeping in the attic.'
'Where has that been reported?' I asked.
'Well, maybe it hasn't yet. Anyway, it's also been shown that mental powers like telepathy and telekinesis and the like are related to unused areas of the human brain the attic and basement areas, if you like. So.. .'
I carried on the thought to its logical conclusion.
'. . . So if some part of Surd's brain was surgically removed, it might follow that other parts could come into operation!'
Whole vistas of medical and mental science began to open up before me. I was entranced.
'Telepathy, of course,' Holmes said, frowning. 'From the ,Greek for feeling at a distance. Telekinesis, therefore, would mean movement at a distance.
Most intriguing.'
Bernice's expression suddenly changed.
'What it is?' I asked.
'The Doctor always warned me about interfering in history. "Don't reveal more than they already know," he said. "Such gifts don't come cheap". And I think I've just done it. He won't be pleased.'
'I'm not,' said the Doctor from behind us. We whirled around. Bernice flushed a bright red.
'Good Lord,' exclaimed Roxton, who was standing beside the Doctor and peering at Surd's corpse. 'What a poacher that feller'd make!'
'You seem to have a remarkable facility for turning up when least expected, Doctor,' Holmes said.
'You don't seem pleased to see me,' the Doctor replied. His linen suit was stained with a pinkish fluid and his hair was covered in some sticky substance. He was a mess.
'What happened?' I inquired.
'Ask Bernice.'
Bernice frowned. 'I don't. . : she began, and then started to laugh. 'Oh no!
You can't be serious!'
'I'm always serious, even when I'm being trivial,' the Doctor snapped.
I just looked from one to the other. Eventually the Doctor saw fit to put me out of my misery.
'I was underneath the last rakshassa that you shot down. It knocked me out. When I woke up, everything was dark and sticky. I thought I'd gone to Time Lord hell. It was only when I heard your voices that I realized I was lying beneath its wing.'
'What's Time Lord hell like?' Bernice asked.
'Earth,' the Doctor replied.
There was no answer to that.
Holmes dragooned us all into a search of the cavern, but we found nothing of any import save odd scraps of clothing and a few personal possessions