Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [17]
The bloody crystal figurine was sitting on Jason’s bedside table staring sightlessly at me when I returned to his room. I pulled on my combat trousers and was about to hurry back out of the room when I caught sight of the stain on the carpet by the open door.
Blood. Fresh. And there seemed an awful lot of it.
I fought down a wave of nausea, struggled into my boots, picked up the figurine and then set off at a dead run.
Extract ends
Bernice was hurrying towards them, looking ruffled in yesterday’s clothes. Tameka grinned inwardly: clearly, relations between Bernice and her ex-husband were no longer as estranged as they had been the day before. She shot Emile a look which said: Told you!
‘Bernice, listen, this is important,’ she started, wanting to say what she needed to before Bernice could interrupt and try to persuade her to stay. ‘It’s nothing personal, right, but I’ve decided to leave. I mean I’m just not cut out for this place and this mud is destroying my wardrobe. It’s OK. I mean I can just transfer my ticket and make my own way home . . . and . . . Bernice?’
‘Hello. Yes?’ Her tutor was completely distracted, looking around this dig, patting her hands anxiously on her combat trousers as if she were looking for something. ‘Absolutely. Whatever.’
Her gaze returned to Tameka and she smiled awkwardly. ‘Er, how long do you think it would take for you to tidy up and pack?’
Tameka had been expecting a little bit of resistance. ‘Sorry?’
‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to bring this trip to a premature end. I know that must be disappointing for you both, your first dig and everything, but . . . it’s just . . . well, the truth is . . .’
Bernice sighed, as if this was embarrassing to say. ‘I rather suspect that my husband has been kidnapped.’
Tameka was so annoyed that Bernice clearly hadn’t heard a word of what she’d said that she almost missed the content of her tutor’s remark. ‘Oh,’ Tameka managed finally, when the news had sunk in. Her earlier anger dissipated. ‘I’m . . . er . . . sorry,’ she finished, rather lamely. ‘Kidnapped?’
‘Yes. Don’t look so worried. It’s not as if it hasn’t happened before. Twice in fact, if memory serves.’
It would have been funny except that Bernice didn’t look amused. She looked like she was cracking up.
Bernice pulled a wrapped parcel from the bulging side pocket of her combat trousers. ‘I think it must have something to do with this.’ She unwrapped a piece of crystal which had been sculpted into a crude female humanoid shape.
Tameka was about to give voice to the millions of questions that were forming in her head, when Emile scurried over.
‘Hey, you guys,’ he whispered conspiratorially and pointing behind them. ‘We’ve got trouble.’
‘That, my dear boy, is the understatement of the decade,’ Bernice muttered, her attention focused on the small figurine. ‘Not only has my husband been kidnapped, but I rather suspect that whoever was after him was after this. Which, seeing as I am now the holder of the artefact, puts me in a rather delicate position.’
Tameka looked up. Two men were standing on the edge of the dig. They wore dark suits and overcoats, and were probably the only two people wearing ties in the surrounding five kilometres.
One of them was carefully wiping away some mud which had splattered up the side of his shiny black shoes, a pained expression on his face. The other was staring down at them, holding a war-rant card out in front of him.
‘Professor Bernice Kane-Summerfield?’ His voice was clipped and formal.
Bernice waved him away without bothering to look up. ‘You can drop the Kane bit, I did. Not now, eh? I’m a little busy.’
‘No, you’re not,’ he said with such calm authority that Bernice was forced to look up at him. ‘As of now you’re under arrest.’
‘I think you should know that this is the most humiliating experience of my life.’
‘Being arrested?’
‘No no no. Good heavens, I’ve been arrested hundreds of times. It’s being arrested in front of my students that I find particularly embarrassing.’ Bernice stopped pacing the small dimly lit room and settled