Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [92]
Butcher glanced at Lady Silk as she hastened shakily to her feet and he evidently came to the same conclusion. He resumed his inspection of the bodies on the basement floor.
Lady Silk stood there, trembling. She looked at Imperial Lee lying on the floor. He peered back at her.
‘Baby,’ said Silk. ‘Let’s do it.’
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She turned and ran across the basement. Not towards the stairs, but to the middle of the room, the centre of the red tiled circle. Towards the well. Lee scrambled to his feet and followed. ‘Stop them!’ shouted Ray. Silk reached the lip of the well and jumped down into it.
Butcher turned in time to take a shot at Lee as he jumped into the opening after Silk. He hurried across the room and moved cautiously to the edge of the well, his gun held in front of him. He said, ‘What the hell do they think they’re playing at?’
‘The Well of Transition,’ said the Doctor softly.
‘Oh, man,’ said Ray helplessly.
‘I fear we’re too late,’ said the Doctor, getting to his feet. He went and joined Butcher, who was standing looking down into the well. Ace followed him. Inside the well, about eight feet below floor level, Lady Silk was crouched over the motionless body of Imperial Lee. She looked up at Butcher and Ace and the Doctor staring down at her. Her eyes were blank with terror.
‘Please,’ she said. ‘Please help me. I don’t know what’s happening to me.
But they’ve been holding me prisoner.’
Butcher chuckled, though the sound came out more like a croak. ‘Don’t try that on me, sister. Or I’ll leave you down there with that stiff.’ He reached down and grabbed one of Lady Silk’s upstretched arms, pulling her up out of the well.
Once she was out, Silk just sat down on the floor and began to sob. Butcher ignored her. He opened the cylinder on his revolver, his hands showing just the faintest hint of tremor now that the action was over, and began reloading.
He removed the spent cartridge cases then went back to the well and dropped one of them onto the head of the prostrate Imperial Lee. The brass cartridge case bounced off the man’s head but he didn’t twitch. Butcher looked at Ace and the Doctor. ‘He’s a goner. I guess I hit him on the fly. Lucky shot.’
‘You didn’t hit him,’ said the Doctor. ‘I imagine he’s been dead for days.’ He jumped down into the well and knelt beside the man, his hand on the corpse’s shoulder. ‘Cold,’ he said. He looked up at Butcher and Ace. ‘Feel him if you don’t believe me.’
‘So he’s cold,’ said Butcher. ‘So what? He’s dead.’
‘He is very, very cold, Major. As if someone has been keeping him in a freezer.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I’m sure as hell not climbing down in there with you.’
The Doctor sighed wearily. ‘Then just use your eyes. This man is wearing a green suit, is he not?’
‘A green zoot suit, sure. Like those other hoods. These gaudy punks like their zoots.’
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‘A green suit,’ said the Doctor. ‘Imperial Lee was wearing a blue suit when he jumped into this well.’
Butcher felt a moment’s unease. Was the Doctor right? Hadn’t the punk been wearing a blue suit? Then he crushed his doubts, shrugging them off.
‘Hell, I can’t remember. Anyhow the light in here can play tricks.’
The Doctor reached up and Ace helped him climb out of the well. He kept talking as he climbed. ‘Then look at the woman, Major.’ Ace pulled him over the rim of the well and he caught his balance, crossing the floor to Lady Silk, who sat there with her shoulders jerking as she wept quietly. ‘Look at her,’
said the Doctor gently. ‘Her clothes are different, too.’
Ace realised that Lady Silk was wearing a deep blue jacket and matching blue skirt and blouse. Instead of slippers she was wearing high-heeled shoes.
The Doctor turned to Butcher and peered into the man’s face. ‘What do you think happened? That she changed clothes in the time between jumping into the well and you finding her there?’
‘He’s right,’ said Ace. ‘That’s not what she was wearing before.’
Butcher shook