Doctor Who_ Combat Rock - Mick Lewis [93]
Santi shook her head. ‘How can Santi translate when she no understand you?’
‘What d’ye mean ye don’t understand me?’ he said with exasperation and indignation, fearing his beloved Scottish dialect was under attack again. ‘Don’t you start...’
‘You must more slowly.’
‘What? Oh, you mean speak more slowly? Oh, aye. Well, tell them...’
He was interrupted by a droning buzz from outside. He stuck his head out of one of the ragged holes in the thatched wall and there, drifting above the cleared space that housed both tree houses, was an Indoni cruiser. He yelled enthusiastically, waving his hands in the air, and would have continued to do so until he was hoarse had not the sharp tip of a bone knife suddenly pressed the back of his neck. He obliged by shutting up and sulkily withdrawing inside the but again.
The cannibal who had prodded him also sat down, having been waiting impatiently for his toke on a long bamboo ‘pipe’
of sorts which gave off a great deal of smoke, and caused some of the tribesmen to cough quite inordinately.
‘Well, are ye going to tell them or what?’ Jamie nagged Santi again. ‘Or do ye want me to end up as the main course for your wedding feast?’
‘Santi not marry cannibal!’ she said with disgust.
‘You sound like ye’re more worried about that than me being eaten. Remember, you’d have to have a slice of me, too.’
Santi didn’t look too pleased with that idea. ‘Santi like rice and vegetable more.’
He gave her a double take, just in case she was being serious, but still couldn’t tell. Then his face slowly creased into a thoughtful smile as a bright idea came to him. Even the Doctor would have approved of this one, he congratulated himself ‘Santi,’ he said eagerly. ‘That was an Indoni cruiser.
Tell yon cannibals that it belongs to those who would kill their gods.’ She looked at him blankly. ‘Go on!’ he insisted. ‘Tell the chief man. Lie: tell him the men wi’ furry hats are in it, and they are responsible fer making great holes in the mountains, and fer chopping down all the trees that house his people’s spirits. If he takes us to the lake where they live, we can help him rid his land of these sassenachs.’
Santi was still watching him with a blank expression.
‘Well, go on! What’s holding you up now?’
‘What is sasseenakker?’
Jamie sighed with genuine exasperation. He was pretty sure the cruiser was not being operated by OPG rebels, of course. They’d only acquired one and promptly managed to crash it soon after. What he didn’t know was whether the cannibals even cared about the mountains of their land being mined, or the trees being felled; but he felt it was a gambit he had to play. He was, admittedly, getting desperate. But then again, no self-respecting cannibal liked strangers in their territory did they? Particularly strangers who were invading their homelands and killing off their gods. Just so long as the cannibals were crazy enough to confuse the OPG with the Indoni it didn’t matter. So he looked at Santi with hope and expectation and urged her again to translate his request to the Indio chief.
Then he thought of something else, and a slow smile played across his face. “Then, of course, there’s you, Santi.’
She put her head on one side waiting for him to continue.
‘Well, how do I put this... you’ve been with too many men to make an eligible wife for any self-respecting chief. He wouldnae want spoiled goods now, would he?’
Santi’s hand cracked across his face.
‘Och, I’m just being practical, lass,’ Jamie said ruefully, putting his hands up in case of further attack. ‘We need to put