Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [0]
The fate of the world is at stake – in more ways than one. Someone, or something, is trying to alter the course of history at this most delicate point.
And destroy the human race. Posing as a nuclear scientist with Ace as his research assistant, the Doctor plays detective among the Manhattan Project scientists, while desperately trying to avoid falling under suspicion himself.
As the minutes tick away to the world’s first atom bomb blast, the Doctor and Ace find themselves up to their necks in spies, aliens of the flying saucer variety, and some very nasty saboteurs from another dimension. . .
A new adventure featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace, written by Andrew Cartmel, Script Editor for this era of the television programme.
ATOM BOMB BLUES
ANDREW CARTMEL
DOCTOR WHO:
ATOM BOMB BLUES
Published by BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd,
Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London W12 0TT
First published 2005
Copyright © Andrew Cartmel 2005
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Original series broadcast on BBC television
Format copyright © BBC 1963
‘Doctor Who’ and ‘TARDIS’ are trademarks
of the British Broadcasting Corporation
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
ISBN 0 563 48635 X
Commissioning editors: Shirley Patton and Stuart Cooper Editor and creative consultant: Justin Richards Project editor: Vicki Vrint
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover imaging by Black Sheep © BBC 2005
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc For more information about this and other BBC hooks, please visit our website at www.bbcshop.com
For Catherine Gang,
who redeemed America in my eyes.
Contents
Prologue: The Girl on the Sofa
1
1: Three Days Earlier
7
2: At the Party
19
3: Cactus Needles
33
4: Lady Silk
47
5: By the Pond
59
6: A Warm Night
73
7: Into the Desert
89
8: On Board the Craft
101
9: Breakfast with the Duke
113
10: Chapel of the Red Apocalypse
125
11: California Death Cult
139
12: The Well of Transition
151
13: The Devil
165
Epilogue: Trinity
179
About the Author
183
Prologue
The Girl on the Sofa
The girl lay on the yellow leather sofa. She wasn’t asleep, but she wasn’t awake either.
Two men sat watching her, Professor John Henbest and Major Rex Butcher.
John Henbest had an unruly shock of reddish hair shot through with the occasional strand of grey, giving a salt-and-pepper effect. He was somewhat young to have grey in his hair, having only just turned thirty, according to his dossier, which Butcher had read again this morning.
The Major was a burly man with black Brylcreemed hair that, like his narrow moustache, might have been painted on. His uniform was marked with streaks of mud and there were blades of grass dotted here and there on his clothes.
Henbest was the official psychiatrist up here on the Hill at Los Alamos.
Butcher was in charge of security.
The girl they were watching – lying there on the sofa, motionless – was young, pretty, with long, gleaming dark hair. Her eyes were shut and her head was lolling back on a white silk cushion decorated with blue fleurs-de-lys. The girl wasn’t moving but she was talking, in a low soft voice that seemed to drift like a subtle current of air between her still lips.
‘We met a few years ago. He just showed up at a place where I was working and I guess we hit it off. So when he left I went with him.’
‘Dirty rogue,’ chuckled Henbest, taking out a thin silver mechanical pencil, adjusting it and scribbling a note on a yellow note pad. ‘He sensed her vulnerability and swooped