Doctor Who_ Bad Therapy - Matthew Jones [102]
Julia looked at ‘Tilda’. Really looked her. At the lines on her face and her intense dark eyes. For a long moment the two women stood in silence, and then Doctor Julia Mannheim, MD PhD came to a decision. ‘All right. Let’s get your people out of here,’ she said, and unbuttoned her white lab coat and let it fall to the floor.
Still standing amongst her army of sleeping lovers, Tilda arched an eyebrow.
‘All of them?’
‘All of them.’
The tension in the room dissolved. Julia felt an enormous weight lift from her shoulders. Having made her decision her mind filled the logistics of the task ahead. How were they going to get the remaining dormant Toys out of the building undetected? Her train of thought was interrupted by a new voice.
A gravelled whisper so low that it could have scraped the floor of the deepest ocean.
‘No. I think not,’ the new voice said. ‘ I think that everyone will remain exactly where they are.’
174
Moriah’s huge frame blocked the doorway. He was accompanied by half a dozen blank-faced therapeutic mannequins, dressed in the uniforms of hospital orderlies. Julia was shocked to see that each of them carried a weapon, a kind of long, twin-headed spear.
Jesus Christ! Julia swore to herself, feeling a wave of anger rise up through her. What the hell had been going on here? What had Moriah been doing with the results of their work?
He glowered at Julia for a moment, before turning his attention to where Mikey stood holding Dennis in his arms. Moriah lifted his arm and pointed the gun in his hand at the boy.
175
Interlude
Home At Last
At exactly the moment Gilliam finally convinced herself that this journey was without end and that she was destined to fall through the metallic clouds of light for ever, the physical Universe began to tug at her body, pulling her through a multiplicity of dimensions for which she could find neither words nor concepts. She felt her body begin to slow or fall or slide, and glimpsed a tear forming in the fabric of one of the sheets of kaleidoscopic light that was rushing up to meet her.
With a little cry of alarm, she emerged into real time, sprawling on a hard, uneven surface, eyes watering and gasping for breath. The ground beneath her was cold and unyielding. Her hands and knees were stinging with pain.
She opened her eyes and discovered that she was lying on rough dark rock.
The wild, raging lights of the gateway had gone, replaced with a soft emerald glow emitted from a series of familiar green spheres around her.
She was in a huge dimly lit cavern, cathedral high and glistening with moisture. Was this where Moriah had fled all those years ago? A staircase had been cut into the rock, leading up into the shadowy roof of the cave. There must have been at least two hundred steps; there was no way she was going to be able to make the climb after her ordeal in the gateway.
Gilliam’s hands went to her waist. She was still wearing the null-gravity belt Ala’dan had given her. She adjusted the controls and felt gravity let go of its hold on her. Slowly, she drifted up into the shadows.
177
12
Hold On To Your Friends
Julia Mannheim wilted under Moriah’s gaze. She was ashamed with herself that she actually felt relieved when he turned away from her to point his gun at the boy. Why was she always so paralysed by his presence? It was as if his will filled the room, preventing her from taking any action against him at all.
The young coloured man, Mikey?, was yelling at Moriah, pleading with him not to fire. Even the Doctor looked indecisive, trying to edge forward, but fearful in case he provoked Moriah into using his weapon. ‘Oh my God,’
Julia whispered, as she realized that there was no one in a position to prevent Moriah from killing the boy. Ten minutes ago she would have conducted the operation to deactivate the Toy herself, and yet now the idea filled her with horror. A deep pit of despair opened somewhere inside her as she watched the blank-faced creatures Moriah had brought with him spread out through the room. They moved silently