Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [82]
‘Yes, I’d certainly say that,’ said the man in a soft voice.
‘Folks,’ said Lady Silk, ‘meet Imperial Lee.’
‘If I may say so,’ said the Doctor, ‘that’s a ludicrous sobriquet.’
‘Not as bad as Stanley Wainwright, which is what he’s called back home,’
said Silk, and the man shot her a look of annoyance.
‘I’ve left all that behind, Silk,’ said the man softly. ‘Like the boys here,’
he nodded at the trio of men, who remained standing a respectful distance behind him. ‘We’re all proud imperial Japanese warriors and we have adopted new names for our new roles.’
‘You don’t sound Japanese,’ said Ace.
‘Japanese-American, like me,’ said Silk. ‘If you want to be pedantic.’
‘No longer American,’ said Imperial Lee. ‘We have been reborn as sacred kamikaze soldiers for the cause.’
‘Kamikaze,’ whispered Ace to the Doctor. ‘I don’t like the sound of that.’
‘And what exactly is your cause?’ said the Doctor. He asked the question as if genuinely interested, as if he could take a detached view of what was going on around him. To Ace he seemed maddeningly calm.
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‘To bring the Japanese Empire to its proper and natural state of supremacy.
To replace ignominious defeat with glorious victory.’ Imperial Lee issued these pronouncements in a casual, conversational voice, as though they were familiar and reasonable facts that any sensible person should already be acquainted with. ‘Above all, to eradicate the bloody stain of the atrocity perpetrated by America with its atomic bombs on the sacred islands.’
‘So you’re trying to sabotage the atom bomb project at Los Alamos,’ said Ace. ‘That’s why you brought Ray here. To stop them building the bomb.’
‘Oh no,’ said Lady Silk, lighting a cigarette. ‘The scope of our ambitions are considerably wider than that. You tell her, Lee.’
Imperial Lee took off his hat and studied it as he spoke. He seemed modest, diffident. ‘We don’t want to stop them building the bomb. We want them to build the bomb and successfully detonate it.’ He suddenly looked up from his hat, straight into Ace’s eyes, and she was jolted by the fanatical ferocity of that gaze. ‘But we want to alter the outcome using Cosmic Ray over there.’
Ray turned away, as if trying to shelter himself from Lee’s words. ‘With the help of his equations we are going to alter the fabric of reality and amplify the effect of the bomb. Once it detonates, the explosion won’t stop. In fact it will propagate itself.’
‘Propagate itself?’ said Ace. She looked at the Doctor. ‘Like Teller’s chain reaction? They’re going to blow up the Earth?’
Imperial Lee shook his head. ‘Not just the Earth. But this entire universe.’
‘Uh oh,’ said Ace.
‘You realise you are insane,’ said the Doctor.
‘You think so?’ said Lady Silk. ‘I think he’s kind of cute.’ She blew a cloud of smoke.
‘Even supposing you could do such a thing,’ said the Doctor, ‘in the process you will wipe out the Japanese people who live in this dimension.’
‘Like ourselves, they shall be kamikazes,’ said Imperial Lee. ‘It is an honour.
Sacred commandos sacrificing themselves for the cause.’
‘I see,’ said the Doctor. ‘And what cause is that exactly?’
‘I told you,’ said Lee patiently. ‘The victory of the Japanese Empire.’
The Doctor tilted his head thoughtfully to one side as though he was standing in an art gallery, trying to make out a complex and baffling abstract painting. ‘I’m confused,’ he said.
‘We’re going to create a ripple effect,’ said Lady Silk.
‘I see. A ripple effect. Throughout the multiverse, you mean.’
‘That’s right,’ said Imperial Lee. ‘The energy liberated by the destruction of this universe will cause a wave of change to sweep the multiverse so that Japan will be swept to victory in every other dimension. It will alter history wherever it needs to be altered. In no scenario will the Empire be a beaten, 144
cowed underdog. She will be triumphant, supreme and serene and beautiful throughout every level of existence.’
‘It’s a bit ambitious,’ said Silk, picking