Doctor Who_ Blue Box - Kate Orman [93]
‘I’m a girl the same way you’re a blonde,’ I said. ‘Only on the outside. Inside I have an X and a Y chromosome, same as any guy. But something went wrong, so my body doesn’t respond to male hormones the way it should. My parents spent a cmall fortune on the tests, and then they wouldn’t accept the results. They had brought me up as a girl.’
‘You could have kept on being a girl,’ said Peri.
‘Yeah, but I’m not,’ I snapped. ‘Never was.’ Now I’d hurt her feelings. I blew out a long cloud of smoke. ‘What makes you a girl?’ I asked.
Peri had to think about that one. The question isn’t as simple as it sounds. ‘I can have babies,’ she said at last.
‘I can’t,’ I said. ‘No womb.’
‘Oh... I guess I see. You know, it’s funny. I’m sort of surrounded. The Doctor also –’ she stopped short, colour jumping into her cheeks. ‘Uh, never mind.’
‘It’s OK. You can tell me,’ I said. I am a very wicked fellow; we were still on the record, until she told me that we weren’t.
But Peri just shook her head, scrabbling around for a change of subject. ‘What about your girlfriends?’ she blurted.
‘What about ’em?’
‘Well, do they know?’
‘I’ve never had any complaints.’ She stared. I gave her my best dirty grin and took a long, slow drag on that ciggie.
‘Uh,’ said Peri.
‘Relax,’ I said. ‘You’re not my type.’
Two
The Doctor’s entire plan could have been scuppered by his inability to imitate a decent American accent. Perhaps that’s one reason he left Peri behind: from time to time he would tease her with an imitation of her voice, and she knew perfectly well what he sounded like.
When he called Swan, he spoke in his normal voice. She was returning to her car with her ill-gotten loot when she heard a phone ringing. It took her only a few moments to spot the one across the street. An empty payphone booth, ringing and ringing. It was practically calling her name.
She got in her car, carefully settling Luis into the passenger seat, and drove across the road to the other parking lot. The phone was still ringing when she reached the booth.
‘Well?’ she said.
‘Swan,’ said the Doctor. ‘I have a device which will shut Luis down the same way it shut down your idiot savant.
Indicate that you understand me.’
‘You son of a bitch,’ said Swan. ‘If you come anywhere near either of us, I’ll have Luis turn you into a frigging zombie. Do you understand me?’
‘I’m already near you,’ said the Doctor. ‘Nearer than you realise. I only need a moment to operate the device. And then this spree of yours will be at an end.’
‘You’ll kill him,’ said Swan. ‘The way you killed the
“idiot savant.” Are you a murderer?’
‘Listen very carefully,’ said the Doctor. ‘The Savant was programmed to reproduce itself. Its offspring would have known everything it had learnt. That program has been passed on to Luis.’
‘And you’re telling me this because... ?’
‘Luis will lay his eggs in the minds of other human beings,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s already begun. Every person you have manipulated now has a miniature copy of the Savant inside their skull, waiting to be activated. Every person who has come into contact with it in any way – there must be hundreds of people in the town of Ritchie alone. That’s why they become so distant and confused – a large part of their mental activity is taken up by it, even in a dormant state. Just as the Savant was able to adapt itself to the network, it has adapted itself to human brains. Indicate –’
‘– I understand, said Swan. ‘I understand you want to kill Luis. You know I can’t let you do that.’
‘Swan,’ hissed the Doctor, ‘this is no longer about your petty ambitions. It’s about the safety and sanity of the entire human race. Each of those affected people will spread the infection to others. Within a few weeks, every person in the world could be affected. Billions of ticking time bombs. Just waiting for the Eridani to arrive and take advantage of them. I have no choice but to shut this down.’
‘Screw you!’ Swan screamed like a teenager. – In the next moment her voice was back under control. ‘I won’t let you hurt him.’
‘I won’t have to hurt him