Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [55]
What’s more, he now knew the Doctor and his party were close at hand.
He wondered what they were up to with their campfire. Roasting weenies and marshmallows? He’d find out soon enough. Moving away from the jeep he found the ground grading downwards again and he walked carefully. He didn’t dare switch on his flashlight, and a broken leg would be a hell of a lot more serious than a broken axle. Eventually the downward slope corrected itself, rising upwards again towards the shadows of a patch of pines, which seemed to throb and shift with the yellow light of the fire at their centre. Butcher moved up the slope through the cluster of trees, moving with exquisite care so as not to snap a twig, his mouth open wide so even his 97
breathing was silent. He made only the faintest stirring whisper in the bed of pine needles that clothed the slope.
Butcher saw that the fire had been built inside a cave on the brow of the hillside. He’d been lucky. If the angle had been slightly different the mouth of the cave would have screened the fire and he would never have spotted it.
He was only thirty or forty feet away now, moving slowly upwards through the dark trees. He could see the Doctor and Ace sitting beside the fire. Where the hell was Ray Morita? Inside the cave on a radio talking to Tokyo, quite possibly.
He moved stealthily closer, more cautious about sound than ever, and he had just taken out his pistol and was wondering how he should finally announce his presence, when he felt a hard, cold ring of metal delicately touch the back of his neck. Butcher knew immediately what the ring of metal was and he cursed himself savagely, wishing he could somehow turn back the clock and do everything differently.
From the trees in front of him, two men stepped out carrying rifles. They didn’t point them at Butcher. They didn’t need to. Their friend already had one pressed to the back of his neck. They took his pistol from him and then the men turned casually away and started up the slope towards the fire. Butcher didn’t need to be told to follow them. He started walking and the pressure of the gun barrel on his neck ceased, although he knew it was still there, hovering a few inches behind him. He felt a strange throbbing pressure on the flesh of his neck, which couldn’t be explained by any momentary contact with metal. It was the spot where he imagined that the bullet would hit him if he tried anything clever.
Butcher didn’t try anything clever. He walked up to the campfire, feeling its heat on his face and smelling the resinous smoke boiling off the burning pine branches. The face of the girl watched him as he came, looking serious and troubled in the fire light. The Doctor, however, was grinning. ‘Hello Major Butcher. I thought you might wish to join us.’
‘That’s why you had them build the fire. Right here where I could see it from miles away.’ Butcher was furious with himself. He’d walked into a trap.
Been lured into it.
‘That’s right. We couldn’t have you blundering around in these hills all night with nothing to go on. Why don’t you sit down?’ The Doctor patted a pile of blankets set on the ground near the fire. Butcher had nothing to lose, so he sat. As he did so he got a look at the man who’d had the gun on him. Like the two others he was an Indian, though this one was older and didn’t wear a hat.
‘Please meet Sun Runner, Scar and Black Eyes,’ said the Doctor, as if he was presiding at a tea party. ‘Sun Runner is the young fellow and Black Eyes is the gentleman who had the deer rifle at the back of your head. Scar’s name is 98
self-explanatory.’
‘Where’s Morita?’ said Butcher. His mouth was dry and his voice sounded strained. He didn’t want to clear his throat because then they’d know he was scared.
‘Cosmic Ray?’ said the Doctor. ‘He’s in the cave, having a lie-down.
‘Having a what?’ Butcher’s voice came out like a snarl. But at least it wasn’t trembling.
‘He’s crashed out,