Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [98]
Rather they were prisoners being held at gunpoint like himself.
Ray gave the piece of paper to Imperial Lee. He took it and offered it to the girl. She was reluctant to accept it, but Lee pointed his gun at her and she reached out and took it. The moment her hand touched the paper her entire body jerked and her face suddenly came to life. She smiled and crushed the paper into a ball and threw it playfully across the room. Her eyes were bright with malice and mischief and she began to chuckle. It was hard to imagine a 171
more total contrast with the frail, beaten figure who had been standing there in the drenched raincoat.
In the raincoat. . .
Butcher suddenly realised that this girl wasn’t wearing a raincoat, or indeed the sober black two-piece suit that Silk had been dressed in for the photographs with the General. Instead she was in a black sweater and tight black trousers, with white tennis shoes on her feet. She saw Butcher staring at her and she chuckled again.
‘Major Butcher is impressed with my apparel.
It’s the blowing-up-the—
universe look, Major. It’s all the rage.’
‘How did you do that?’ said Butcher. ‘It’s some kind of illusion. Some kind of trick.’
‘No,’ said the Doctor wearily. ‘It’s just a case of two different women existing in two parallel universes. They just swapped places, that’s all.’
Imperial Lee went to Lady Silk and kissed her. ‘I’m so glad you could make it, babe. I thought you weren’t going to see the fireworks.’
‘I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,’ said Silk, and they both laughed.
‘How long have we got?’
Imperial Lee glanced at his watch. ‘Trinity is due for detonation.’
Butcher felt the bottom fall out of his world. ‘How does he know that? How does he know so much about it?’
‘It’s all in the history books, Major,’ said the Doctor. ‘You see, Imperial Lee comes from the future.’
‘And another dimension,’ said Ace.
‘Let’s not confuse the Major, shall we Ace?’
‘Due for detonation at five twenty-nine and forty-five seconds on Monday the sixteenth of July 1945,’ said Imperial Lee.
Butcher said, ‘But –’
The Doctor cut in immediately. ‘Don’t interrupt when the madman is making his big speech,’ he said.
Imperial Lee gave a hard bark of laughter. ‘I’ll show you who the madman is, when first this planet, then this solar system, then this galaxy, then this entire universe goes up in one vast explosion.’
‘There will be time to get clear, won’t there?’ said Lady Silk. ‘I mean, I want to watch the big fireworks start here, but then I want to get home again safe and sound and snug.’
‘I thought you were kamikaze commandos,’ said Ace.
‘That’s Lee’s big thing,’ said Silk. ‘He says he wants to stay and go up in the big bang.’
‘It will be an honour to sacrifice myself for the New Empire,’ said Lee.
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‘That’s right, sweetie,’ said Silk. ‘You do that. But personally I suspect that the apocalypse would ruin my complexion. So I’m ducking out as soon as the show starts.’
‘Me too,’ said Ray hastily. ‘And I’m taking my records with me, man. That was the deal, wasn’t it?’
Ace gave him a steady look of disgust, as though he was something unpleasant she’d found adhering to the underside of her shoe. ‘Your records? Is that all you care about?’
‘Don’t worry, Ray,’ said Silk. ‘You and I will go back together. Just make sure you have the necessary equations ready to open that portal.’
‘Speaking of equations,’ said Imperial Lee. ‘Take a look at the work he’s done ready for the blast. I want to make sure he isn’t going to double-cross us.’
Lady Silk went and perched on the arm of Ray’s chair, taking one page at a time from the pile in the big man’s lap and scrutinising each one with care.
Finally she said, ‘It all looks pretty kosher to me. Not quite complete, though.’
‘What the hell are they talking about?’ said Butcher.