Doctor Who_ Blue Box - Kate Orman [95]
Luis was infuriatingly calm and blank in his seat. She wanted to hit him. ‘If you see the Doctor,’ she growled,’lf you even sense him, I want you to drop him where he stands. Blow his brains out. Kill him. Any way you can. Do you understand?’
Luis just blinked slowly, but she knew her instruction had gone in. The Savant would be at least as determined to protect itself as she was.
The Doctor managed to keep ahead of her, driving wildly, weaving the dinosaur bulk of the campervan around the few cars on the road. Swan wanted to slam the accelerator to the floor, but something kept stopping her. It took her a few minutes to realise she didn’t dare risk Luis’s life: the urge to protect the Savant was too powerful. She swore and slapped the steering wheel. The Doctor had no such limitation, and he was getting away from them, even in that monstrosity.
The Parkway narrowed to two lanes, and then curved sharply. The Doctor turned hard left onto Macarthur Boulevard, without slowing down, almost side-swiping a VW
Bug. He stayed on the road, accelerating away, Swan furiously trying to drive faster and failing. The Travco rounded a corner and was suddenly gone from sight. He was winning this video game. Swan wove down the hairpin turns as fast as she dared.
She was aware they were heading back towards the water. But the Doctor had no plan that she could see: he was just frantically trying to put distance between them.
She rounded another sharp turn and slammed on the brakes. The Travco was stopped right across the road. There was a car backed up behind it, the driver already out and pulling open the Travco’s doors. There was nobody inside.
Where was he? Hiding amongst the trees? She looked around, frantically. But the trees were naked, standing like narrow arms with a thousand fingers, nothing but open space between them. He’d stand out like a crow on snow if he was there.
She had to find him and kill him, right now, right this minute. The question was, what range was safe? And how far could the Doctor’s device reach – less than fifty yards, but how much less?
‘Luis,’ she said, ‘that man in the green shirt standing beside the campervan. I want him to come here.’
Luis turned his attention to the man, who was pacing up and down beside the open door of the Travco. The man’s irritated walk didn’t change. He slapped his hand against the wall of the vehicle.
Then this had a very short range indeed. Swan let the car roll forwards until she was within shouting distance of the man. ‘Did you see the driver?’ she called out.
The man pointed down the road, past the Travco. ‘He took off like a rabbit out of a box,’ he said. ‘The law must be after him, that’s all I can say.’
Swan backed up, aimed her car at the trees, and roared around the Travco, her tyres spitting half-frozen mud. She shot past a guard in a little white tollbooth, leaving him gaping.
‘Up ahead,’ said Luis.
Swan nearly crashed into a tree. She swung the wheel and screeched to a halt in an empty parking lot.
‘What did you say?’
Luis’s voice was low and gravely, as though he hadn’t used it for years. ‘Up ahead,’ he murmured.
He could sense the Doctor. Not close enough to kill, or he would have done it instantly. Oh – perhaps Luis was sensing the Doctor’s lethal device. One piece of technology picking up vibrations from its kin.
They were in Great Falls Park, and they had run out of road. ‘Get out,’ she told Luis, shutting off the engine. She grabbed the shotgun out of the back seat. The parking lot was next to a visitor’s centre in an old tavern, and a canal that ran parallel to the Potomac River. ‘In the house? Luis, is he in the house?’
Luis shook his head. He pointed vaguely across the canal, towards the river.
Swan took Luis by the hand and led him over the wooden bridge to the towpath on the other side. Water roared through the lock beneath their feet. ‘He’s trying to lead us away from other people,’ she muttered. Their boots made a plasticky crunch on snow and red gravel. ‘Very