Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [101]
Not towards the door, but to the window. Ace aimed the gun at him but the Doctor shouted, ‘No, Ace. Let him go.’ Lee reached the window.
And jumped.
Straight down. Two stories.
Butcher and the others, except for the motionless Silk, all rushed to the windows and peered out. Imperial Lee was lying there at the foot of an oak tree, his body still, his head twisted at an impossible angle. ‘He killed himself,’
said Butcher.
‘That was the plan all along,’ said the Doctor. He turned to Butcher, his eyes bright and intense. ‘You witnessed it Major. You saw it all.’
‘I’m not sure what the hell I saw.’
The Doctor smiled crookedly. ‘But now you have your missing body. The last piece of the puzzle. You can report to your superiors that the case is well 176
and truly closed. The last of the spy ring has been brought to justice, thanks to you. It will only redound to your greater glory.’
‘What about you?’ said Butcher. ‘Why don’t you report to your superiors?
Why don’t you take the credit?’
‘Well, of course I could, being a top British intelligence operative.’ The Doctor winked at Ace. ‘But I’m willing to let you have all the kudos. On one condition.’
Butcher said nothing. He just stared suspiciously at the small man. The Doctor shrugged and said, ‘I want you to let Lady Silk go.’
‘Impossible.’
‘I don’t mean set her free to be a fugitive from justice. I mean, clear her name.’
‘No chance.’
‘On the contrary, I think there is every chance. You have the true leader of the spy ring now.’ The Doctor nodded at the broken body lying below the window. ‘You can make the case for Silk just being an innocent dupe who was in his power and terrorised by him. After all, it’s the truth.’
‘Is it?’ Butcher turned and looked at the frozen woman standing across the room. Her eyes met his. She seemed to be taking in everything, understanding what was happening but helpless to take any action.
‘Show him, Ray,’ said the Doctor. Ray took a sheet of paper from the stack in his lap and carried it over to where Silk was standing. He peered at her helplessly for a moment.
‘She’s paralysed, man,’ he bleated.
‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ said Ace. She went to Ray and took the paper from his hand and carefully tucked it between Silk’s frozen fingers. As soon as Ace let go of it, the woman twitched and came to life again. But she was no longer holding the piece of paper.
And she was wearing the raincoat again. ‘Please don’t send me back there,’
she said. ‘Please let me stay here. I don’t care if you put me in jail. Don’t send me back there again.’ The Doctor went to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
He looked at Butcher.
‘Of course you can stay here,’ he said. ‘And if Major Butcher acts on what he’s seen tonight, what he knows to be true, then you won’t have to go to jail.
In time you’ll even be able to resume your singing career, as if none of this ever happened.’
Lady Silk began to cry, folding herself against the Doctor like a broken blossom. Ace rolled her eyes. ‘Here we go,’ she said. Butcher looked at her.
‘I don’t understand,’ he said.
‘What else is new?’ said Ace.
177
‘That umbrella-gun the Doctor had – he could have used that at any time.’
Butcher stared at Ace. ‘Why didn’t he just shoot Imperial Lee as soon as he turned up?’ She just shrugged and didn’t reply. Instead she looked at the Doctor. Butcher looked at him, too. The Doctor gently disengaged himself from Lady Silk and turned to them.
‘There would have been very little point shooting Lee as soon as he turned up, since I specifically asked Ray to perform the calculations that enabled Lee to turn up.’
‘You brought him here?’ said Butcher.
‘I needed to put paid to the threat that Imperial Lee represented to this world. To do that I needed Lee to fail and I needed Lady Silk –’ he nodded at the woman who stood close to him drying her tears ‘– not her, but the other Lady Silk, to witness his humiliating failure. And then return to her home world where she spread news of the debacle to any other members of their kamikaze