Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [76]
Ace looked at the window. The sun hadn’t sunk entirely yet. It seemed to be only a few minutes after she’d gone upstairs with Albert. ‘How long have I been out?’
‘Almost twenty-four hours.’
‘Twenty-four hours?’
‘Yes it’s the night of the following day.’
‘So I guess we missed Duke Ellington,’ said Ace.
The Doctor smiled. ‘I’m afraid so.’
‘Pity. Why have they been keeping me unconscious?’
‘They obviously want us helpless while they decide what to do with us.
They’ve also been dosing me, though the chloroform hasn’t had the desired effect because of my somewhat different metabolism. I’ve been pretending to sleep and waiting for you to come round.’
Ace shook her head, trying to disperse the thick clouds that seemed to clog it. ‘Albert and Elina. They’re not the Storrows’ caretakers.’
‘No, they’re the Storrows themselves. We should have suspected something.
They were all too conveniently cooperative and eager to betray their employers. I should have suspected something.’ The Doctor smiled sadly. ‘I’m sorry I got you into this.’
‘It’s what I signed up for,’ said Ace. ‘So what do we do now?’
‘Actually, there are quite a number of courses of action open to us. I was merely waiting for you to wake up, because your assistance is required in all of them. Do you feel ready?’
Ace shook her head again. The room seemed to pulse and ebb around her before stabilising. ‘As I’ll ever be.’
‘Then I suggest we work our way across the room. It’s possible to move in these chairs if we’re patient, by rocking from side to side. We will work our way to that telescope and then, with your help, we will tip it over. This is the critical part. We must break it, break its lens, but without making too much noise. Between the two of us I believe we can manage that.’
‘And once we break it. . . ’ Ace forced herself to concentrate. ‘We can use the broken glass. To cut the ropes.’
‘Yes. I suggest we begin immediately. Like this. . . ’ The Doctor started wiggling in his chair, causing it to edge slowly towards the raised section of the floor where the telescope stood.
Ace said, ‘That raised bit of the floor. . . ’
‘May cause us some difficulties, yes. But nothing insurmountable, I believe.
With your help I should be able to tip my chair and rock upwards onto it.’
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Ace forced a smile. ‘OK, let’s rock upwards.’ She began to wriggle back and forth in her chair. At first she moved in the wrong direction, but soon she got the hang of it. She and the Doctor started to move towards the telescope, painstakingly scuffing their chairs across the floor as though competing in some kind of bizarre party game.
They’d gone about eighteen inches when there was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairwell in the centre of the room. Ace and the Doctor froze.
A large shadow lumbered up the stairs, followed by the man casting it. The first they saw of him was his red beret rising through the hole in the floor.
‘Ray!’
Cosmic Ray Morita came up the stairs into the room. He was carrying the square yellow record bag Ace had first seen at the Oppenheimers’ party. His face had a mournful expression. He looked at Ace and the Doctor. ‘Oh man,’
he said. ‘I’m so sorry this happened, guys.’
‘Ray,’ said Ace. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Had to come to LA baby, to hear the Duke play. It meant going AWOL from the Hill but it was worth it. I can straighten things out when I get back. I had to hear Duke Ellington, live in concert. It was my last chance.’
‘But what are you doing here,’ said Ace.
‘Yes, Ray,’ said the Doctor coldly. ‘What are you doing here in the Chapel of the Red Apocalypse?’
Ray shook his head glumly. ‘I guess you know the answer to that. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here looking for me.’
‘As a matter of fact, we had no idea you’d he here,’ said the Doctor. ‘We didn’t even know you’d gone AWOL as you put it. As far as I knew my Mescalero friends had returned you to Los Alamos safe and sound.’
‘They did man, they did. Those Indian cats are all right. They don’t say a lot, but they’re