Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [91]
‘Try me,’ she crooned. ‘I’ll gut you like a fish.’
‘I don’t like her,’ said Lady Silk in a voice like a frightened little girl. ‘I don’t like this. Lee, do something!’
‘Don’t worry baby,’ said Lee. ‘We’ll think of something.’
‘Do it fast.’ Ace could feel the panicked vibration of Silk’s throat under the blade of her knife. ‘Do it now. I don’t like her. ’
Ace smiled and murmured, ‘It’s mutual.’
‘Do something,’ said Silk.
‘I’m thinking,’ said Lee.
‘Do something!’
‘I’m thinking!’
There was a sudden sound at the top of the stairs and everyone turned to see a white-robed figure descending into the basement. From the bulk of the figure it was obviously Elina Storrow. The woman had the hood of the robe up, covering her head, and she came down the stairs bent over at the waist, so her face was in shadow.
Albert Storrow looked up at her. ‘Careful, dear. We have a bit of a sticky situation here. Maybe you’d be better off staying upstairs.’ The woman ignored him and continued descending the steps. ‘Elina?’ said Storrow. ‘Are you all right, darling?’
The white-robed figure hurried into the basement, moving in an awkward, crouched run. ‘Darling?’ said Storrow anxiously. ‘Are you hurt?’
As the woman moved, something dropped from under her robe onto the white tiled floor. A cushion. The woman straightened up and Ace saw that it wasn’t a woman at all. It was Major Butcher. He raised one white-robed arm.
He had a gun in his hand and the gun went off, the noise painfully loud in the confines of the basement.
159
One of the men with a Tommy gun was thrown to the floor by the impact of the bullet. Everyone stared in shock, then everyone began to react at the same time.
Lady Silk tried to wrestle free of Ace, but Ace held her tight, one arm clamped to her throat. The Doctor stayed close behind Ace, matching her move for move, like a single unit.
Albert Storrow launched himself at the white-clad figure he’d believed was his wife. ‘Where’s Elina?’ he shrieked.
The second man with the Tommy gun raised it and began to fire at Butcher.
Storrow reached Butcher just in time to take the full impact of the blast.
He was flung to the floor and Butcher remained standing there, unscathed.
Butcher took aim and fired again. He hit the Tommy-gunner, who crumpled to his knees and twisted at the waist, still firing as he went down.
Bullets sprayed wildly around the basement. The sound was unbelievable.
‘Get down Ace!’ shouted the Doctor over the blast of gunfire. Chips of stone were flying everywhere, spraying off the walls. Ace threw herself to the floor with Lady Silk under her, the Doctor at her side. Silk made no attempt to get free. Instead she squirmed further under Ace’s body, so that Ace would take the impact of any stray rounds.
Across the room Imperial Lee also flung himself to the floor. Ray had already done so, as soon as the shooting started.
The only men left standing were Butcher and Lee’s third henchman. The young man hurled himself towards the dead man on the floor with the Tommy gun, grabbed the weapon and stood up with it, just in time to be scythed down by the wounded gunner, who was subsiding to the floor, a patch of blood on the lapel of his shiny suit.
The man lay still. The gun stopped firing. There was a moment of incredible silence in the basement.
Ace looked up. Lee’s three men were lying motionless, evidently dead, and so was Albert Storrow. Butcher moved around the basement, checking the bodies. There was blood on the tiles, splashed all over Ray’s scribbled equations. Ace felt sick.
Underneath her, Lady Silk suddenly erupted into