Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [48]
‘So what brings you here, man?’
Butcher regarded him with contempt. ‘You were pretty quick to get away from the pond today.’
‘I was being shot at, man. And like I was telling these cats, I don’t like to be shot at. That’s not my scene. No Normandy landings for Cosmic Ray. No man. I serve my country in different ways. They also serve who stay at home 84
and that’s me, baby, that’s me. Providing a vital part of a vital project here on the home front.’
‘Is that so,’ said Butcher. ‘Is that what you’re doing here?’
‘Damn right. I didn’t sign up to get shot at.’
‘She wasn’t shooting at you,’ said Butcher. ‘She was shooting at me.’
‘No man, she was shooting at me,’ said Ray.
‘And me,’ said Ace.
‘She was shooting at all of us,’ said the Doctor, in the tone of one placating a group of small children. The others turned to look at him with uniform affronted stares. ‘I know a threat to our lives tends to personalise everything,’
said the Doctor. ‘But we must be realistic.’
‘If you’re being realistic, then Rosalita wasn’t shooting at him,’ said Butcher, looking at Ray. ‘In fact he went there to meet her. They were in collusion.’
‘Oh, hey, that’s just not true man,’ said Ray, brushing nervously at his goatee.
‘I was just there to meet with Private Dobbsy and score some cactus needles.
Speaking of which, that’s my cue baby.’ Ray went to the record player and proceeded to remove the needle from the arm and replace it with a new one.
Butcher stared at him, then turned to look at Ace and the Doctor. His eyes were cold. ‘You don’t fool me. None of you fool me. All of you are up to something.’
‘You’ve had a long day, Major,’ said the Doctor solicitously.
‘Don’t tell me what kind of a day I’ve had,’ snapped Butcher. ‘I’ve just come from Henbest.’
‘Oh really? How is the Professor?’
‘Working late. He said that you’d both been fully interviewed by him and had emerged with flying colours.’
‘Excellent,’ said the Doctor, smiling politely.
‘He said that neither of you could possibly be any kind of a security risk, and that you’re both very nice people.’
‘How kind of him.’
Butcher grinned wolfishly. ‘This is John Henbest we’re talking about here, remember.’
‘Perhaps he’s turned over a new leaf.’
‘He didn’t turn over a new anything. You got to him.’ He looked at the Doctor then at Ace, a slow, contemptuous glance. ‘I don’t know how you got to him, but you did.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Professor Henbest would say that you’re being incipiently paranoid.’
Butcher grinned again. ‘He already did. In exactly those words.’
‘Just a coincidence of terminology,’ said the Doctor. ‘The point I’m trying to make is that we’re not your enemies.’ Butcher snorted and turned away and 85
started towards the door. ‘That’s a good idea,’ said the Doctor. ‘Go home and sleep it off. It’s been a long day and you have killed a woman.’
Butcher stopped in his tracks. He had his back to them but Ace could see the tension in his shoulders. He turned back to them and said, ‘What did you say?’
‘Merely that you have every reason to be upset,’ said the Doctor. ‘Why don’t you sit down and talk to us. Ray could offer you a beer, couldn’t you Ray?’
‘Sure,’ said Ray uncertainly, his big frame bobbing towards the refrigerator without actually moving in that direction.
‘I’m not sitting here drinking beer with you,’ said Butcher.
‘But we never finished our discussion about your work, your writing,’ said the Doctor. Butcher came back into the room.
‘What about my writing?’
‘I told you how much I admired your first four books but I never mentioned your short stories. Small vivid classics like The Woman in the Night, Tarpaper, Fire Escape, The Head on the Coin.’
‘I wrote those years ago.’
‘Nonetheless, small classics one and all.’ Major Butcher ignored him. He turned and walked towards the door. The Doctor called after him, ‘And how could I ignore your other novel, the masterful Shadow Man?’ Butcher said nothing,