Doctor Who_ Combat Rock - Mick Lewis [77]
So, with a final despairing glance back over her shoulder, Santi did as Jamie suggested, and high-tailed it into the shrubbery. The bird swung its head to discover what had happened to its other victim, and Jamie seized his chance and punched the beast firmly in its right eye.
The wingless bird let out a squawk from hell; all its black feathers stood on end over its entire body. Jamie threw himself into the bushes in the direction Santi had taken while the creature was still shrilling in fury.
The screen held a close-up of Clown’s painted face.
Sabit frowned, and thumbed his remote for a close-up.
‘Crazy...’ he breathed aloud.
Was he supposed to laugh? Was there supposed to be an underpinning of irony in the Dog’s cartoonish get-up that was for the President’s benefit alone? He panned the tiny remote camera across the rest of the mercenaries, pausing for another close up, this time of Pan.
Yes... he thought, nodding his head slowly. You...
This was a man he could work with. More than any of the rest of the Dogs, Pan understood the purity of his vocation.
There was no room in this man’s mind for self-doubt or irony.
This man lived simply for the pleasure of killing, and the money that function provided him with. Sabit could be sure he would have further tasks for him. He had been wrong about the other one. No journal, no reports, nothing. That was what the Clown Man had given him after returning from his solo mission to Agat: nothing. The missionary was dead, the Dog told him. But could he even believe that? Could he believe anything a man in a jester’s cap said to him?
After this particular mission was terminated, he would show the Clown a joke or two.
Who would be laughing then?
But Pan... Yes, he was one very bad man.
Sabit could use more like him.
The rest could die for all he cared. He corrected himself as he scanned the faces of the other five Dogs as they sat in their hotel recreation room in Jayapul. No. They would die because he cared. He cared about stability. Authority. Sanity and order.
As long as he was responsible for it, and as long as it followed his philosophy.
He remembered his mother’s dying words, as brought to him by her doctor.
You were never any good, my son. And I grieve for you, because you never will be. And a whole world shall mourn my birthing of you.
Hilarious material. If only he could use it in his offworld publicity drives.
He looked at Pan again, drinking whisky in a chair alone while the others played cards. He looked lost in a world of his own.
I wonder what you’re thinking? Sabit zoomed the hidden camera, looking for the biggest close-up the technology would allow. Soon only Pan’s eyes filled the mini-screen on Sabit’s chair. It was a mistake. You could tell a lot from a man’s eyes.
Pan’s eyes were empty.
And suddenly Sabit felt afraid.
This man was cold. Colder even than himself. There was no love in those eyes. At least Sabit had faithfully loved one person throughout his life – himself. Pan’s eyes were the window to the soul of one who couldn’t even allow himself that weakness. This was one window nobody should ever look in.
Maybe he had underestimated the danger of this man. He would not hesitate to kill anyone, even the man who had paid him. It was not beyond such a monster to seek out those who employed him, just for perverse kicks. No, he was surely being paranoid. What benefit would killing the source of his money bring the Dog? What would be the point of that?
Pan looked up then, right into the camera, and Sabit knew he had seen it. Pan knew Sabit was watching him.
And he also knew Pan would kill him
Just because he would enjoy it.
Just because he could.
Who was the crazy man?
Clown could see in their eyes that they thought it was him.
They barely spoke to him now, dealt him cards without looking directly at him as if frightened his madness might be contagious; they could catch the circus insanity just by swapping glances.
No. He’d reached the further shore, waded through all the red madness and at the far bank he’d actually found clarity. He was