Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [104]
‘Seventeen minutes,’ said Sabbath. ‘Answer me, or I bring them back.’
‘Why should I give you an answer when you’ve obviously got one all worked out? You tell me: did Sebastian Chiltern tell me anything else of interest?’
‘I think that you discovered that Sebastian isn’t the one who went into the machine and became fractured. I think he had a twin, and that twin was fractured into two selves, and those two selves are the thing that chased you on the moor and the man you just put on the train. And if that’s so,’ Sabbath grabbed the Doctor’s shoulder again before he could dodge away, ‘then it’s a definite possibility that killing Nathaniel Chiltern will kill the other one, just the way it worked with Octave. That’s the only reasonable explanation for why you so suddenly wanted to get him away from here – away from me.’
‘Good work,’ said the Doctor sourly. ‘You get the school prize.’
‘Did you think I wouldn’t work it out?’
‘Not at all. I hoped we’d be on our way before you even noticed they were gone.’
‘You’ve done it again,’ said Sabbath, almost in disbelief. ‘You’ve risked sacrificing billions to save one miserable life.’
‘You’re so certain,’ snapped the Doctor. ‘Certain that the death of Nathaniel will kill the other. Certain that will solve the problem –’
‘It will solve the problem.’
‘Oh really?’ The Doctor’s voice rose. ‘What if the damned machine is no longer with the third Chiltern? What if he’s hidden it, and you strike him dead?’
‘The immediate danger is past.’
‘Until someone else finds it!’ shouted the Doctor. He knocked Sabbath’s hand from his shoulder. ‘That thing is a time bomb, it’s temporal radioactive waste, it’s death! Preventing its use now, in this year, only delays the inevitable catastrophe. We have to get rid of it!’
The station manager, a portly little man in wire rims, crept timidly from the office. ‘Everything all right, gentlemen?’ he asked, more hopefully than sternly.
Sabbath and the Doctor both beamed at him. The station master didn’t really find this a reassuring sight. ‘Just dandy,’ said the Doctor.
‘ “Just dandy”,’ Sabbath repeated in disgust when the station manager had withdrawn. ‘When do they start saying that?’
‘Can’t remember.’ The Doctor rather ostentatiously smoothed his coat shoulder where Sabbath had gripped it. ‘Shall we go? People to see, things to blow up.’
* * *
Chapter Twenty-four
Sabbath and the Doctor sat at the foot of the waterfall. The Doctor had removed his shoes and socks and dipped his feet in the clear water. Sabbath remained shod. Shafts of light fell dramatically through the trees.
‘This area attracted a number of Victorian landscape painters,’ said the Doctor.
‘At the moment, natural beauty is not high on my list of concerns.’
They had searched for hours. First the house in Capel Gorast, which though decrepit was substantially intact and more resembled a small castle than a house. When this finally proved fruitless, Fitz and Anji went into Llanrwst and Sabbath, the Doctor and the Angel-Maker into Betws and made inquiries about any mysterious, misshapen strangers arriving by train or carriage. No such person had been spotted. At which point, they returned to the house and started investigating the grounds and surrounding forest.
The Doctor had come across the remains of the eponymous chapel, now fallen to ruin, the roof collapsed and the whole claimed by brambles and nettles. A piece of the chancel arch still stood, and he pulled away the growth at the top of one of the columns to see the capitol more clearly. A worn stone head grimaced at him, carved stone hawthorn branches issuing from its mouth and surrounding its face like a leafy halo.
‘And what is that, then?’
The Doctor jumped and glared at the Angel-Maker.
‘I wish you’d stop doing that.’
‘Sure and it’s a monster,’ she said, peering at the carving curiously, ‘and in a holy place!’ She stood on tiptoe to see better. ‘It must be that he’s in pain and the vines growing