Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [115]
He ground to a halt. He tried to stop his eyes widening in fear, but wasn’t very successful. He sensed Tameka hesitate next to him but then she marched on, leaving him alone. Alone and breathless.
The flame-haired man shifted awkwardly. ‘I’m sorry, Iranda. I don’t know how Kitzinger managed it. She killed a Sunless on her own. Stabbed it through its heart.’
The woman shrugged, facing her companion but still resting her hand heavily on Emile’s shoulder, like a teacher who was finishing scolding one student before turning to bawl out the next. ‘Then it’s just as well I kept Summerfield alive, isn’t it?’
‘Who?’
‘The person I used to bring the visionary here. I didn’t want to risk another attempt myself after I snatched Jason. There were Trans-System police sniffing around.’
‘Is the visionary on the ship?’
The woman pulled a parcel from her heavy coat. ‘It’s right here.’
The man nodded, and pulled his mask down before heading inside. Emile watched him go. Bernice, Jason and Tameka reached the entrance and then disappeared inside.
The woman, Iranda, turned to him. ‘Now my little friend, what are you doing here, hmm?’
He was thinking up a reply that might convince her that might pass as an ordinary Sunless sort of thing to say – but what would? – when he realized that she wasn’t speaking their language to him. She wasn’t expecting a reply at all. The woman was just talking to herself, as he did sometimes when he thought that no one else was around. ‘Your people usually keep their children tucked away, too precious a commodity to be let out in the world. I wonder what makes you so different . . .’
He stared straight past her, trying unsuccessfully not to blink in the harsh wind. He was beginning to feel distinctly unwell. His legs were slowly turning to jelly.
The woman reached out a hand to touch his bruised cheek. Her expression was intense, a frown cut across her delicate brow. Her mercury eyes twinkled with interest and intelligence. ‘You look familiar and I’m not absolutely sure why.’ She was about to grab hold of his chin to get a better view of his face when there came a crash from behind her.
She turned to the Sunless who had slipped as it had tried to lift the cargo crate. There was the sound of broken glass tinkling from inside the large box. ‘There are delicate sensors in there! I need that equipment to measure the power we release.’
The Sunless just stared at her, clearly not understanding a word she was saying. She swore and turned back to Emile.
‘Here. Hold this,’ she muttered angrily and stuffed the package containing the female visionary into his hands before striding off towards the grey figures standing around the large crate.
Emile stared at the package in his hands, hardly believing his eyes. He had it! The thing they had come all this way for. In his hands! He looked around frantically, forgetting completely about pretending to be a Sunless. Now that he had it he had no idea what he should do with it. Bernice and everyone else had disappeared into the building.
He was running out of options and oxygen.
Emile started to move towards the crystal structure but his legs felt like someone had slipped away with his bones when he wasn’t looking. His vision began to blur.
‘Emile!’ A voice shouted. He looked up to see Scott swing his legs over the edge of the crate and jump down on to the ground. The Sunless and Iranda turned to stare at him. Iranda’s expression of disbelief was only exaggerated by the lack of a visible reaction in her companions.
Scott dodged around them and hurtled over to Emile. ‘Throw it to me!’ he cried.
Emile’s experience of ball sports was limited to a holographic volleyball ’puter game. And he hadn’t bothered with that for long because he preferred more fantastical stuff. He hadn’t had much practice at ball-throwing – well there wasn’t much call for it on an artificial