Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [44]
I’ve given you is immensely more sophisticated than the crude concoction you administered to Ace.’
‘That’s right,’ said Ace. ‘And you’re not going to like it one little bit.’
The strange aura was just discernible in the dim light of the room. As the Doctor stepped away from the desk lamp into a deeper patch of shadow the aura became more emphatic. It was a kind of swirling rainbow glow, like the rainbow slick you see on the surface of water contaminated with gasoline. It flowed around the Doctor’s outline, gathering into busy roiling waves on his shoulder and, particularly, on the crown of his head.
‘You drugged Ace so you could try and learn the truth about me,’ said the Doctor. The rainbow aura actually spiralled up from his head like steam rising to fade into the darkness, or like smoke from a chimney. The rainbow smoke kept rising, lifting from the Doctor’s head into the darkness of the ceiling.
‘You’re interested in the truth? Very well.’ The Doctor stopped pacing and turned to face Henbest. Henbest noticed with a rising sensation of alarm that the Doctor’s eyes had been replaced with two smouldering red coals that looked like they had just spilled from a roaring fire. ‘I’ll give you the truth.’
The glowing red coal eyes seemed to be staring into Henbest’s very soul. ‘I am a creature quite beyond your imagining, Henbest’s he said. The Doctor opened his mouth to reveal a vast number of extremely sharp teeth.
‘I am a time traveller, a being from another world who can roam at will through time and space. I am possessed of almost godlike powers.’
‘Tell him you can fly.’
‘Ace, please.’
‘Tell him you can fly. Tell him that we can both fly and that we fly around the universe fighting crime. And righting wrongs.’
The Doctor turned back to Henbest. The smouldering coals had gone and his eyes were back, and as far as Henbest could tell his mouth seemed to only possess the usual complement of teeth. But the rainbow aura flowing around the Doctor had intensified now, spilling upwards into the darkness in a steady stream. ‘You heard, Ace,’ he said. ‘We can do everything she said, and more.’
As the Doctor spoke, a number of small black things about the size of moths but shaped more like bats escaped from his lips and fluttered around the room before disappearing into the shadowed corners of the ceiling.
‘Tell him I’m dressed like the devil, complete with horns and a pitchfork and I’m prodding him with the pitchfork.’
‘Really, Ace.’
‘It was me that got injected with drugs against my will. Twice.’
‘Oh very well. Ace is garbed like the traditional image of the devil, presumably all in red –’
‘All in red, right. With horns and a pointy tail and hooves.’
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‘Yes, with the traditional horns and pointed tail and cleft hooves. And she is assailing you with a pitchfork as the flames of hell lick all around you.’ The Doctor glanced at Ace, ‘Should he be able to smell the sulphur and brimstone?’
‘You bet he should.’ They both paused to peer at Professor Henbest, the Doctor adjusting the desk lamp so that it shone into the man’s face. Sweat gleamed on Henbest’s forehead and, as they watched, several new beads of moisture gathered at his hairline and began the long crawl down his face.
‘Really, Ace, I’m not sure how effective this is. We don’t even know if the man’s a devout Catholic.’
‘All right. Tell him I’m a dolphin.’
‘A what?’
‘I’m a dolphin and he’s a tuna, or some other small game fish. And I’m on his tail and I’m about to eat him. But first I’m going to bat him around a bit in a painful, playful way with my other dolphin friends. We’re all swimming together in a school and. . . What’s the matter with him? Why’s he making that funny noise?’
The Doctor moved quickly to Henbest and examined him where he sat. ‘I think he’s drowning. Or at least, I think he thinks he’s drowning. In any case he seems to be drowning.’
‘But I said he was a tuna.’
‘Clearly he doesn