Doctor Who_ Deep Blue - Mark Morris [84]
‘We - they - want the Doctor,’ Tegan said suddenly.
‘What?’
Her eyes were wide as if she’d been struck by a sudden realisation. ‘It’s their overriding imperative. They know all about him from looking into the minds of his friends. They know everything he’s done from the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton and anyone else from UNIT who’s had contact with him.’ She looked momentarily afraid to go on. ‘Soon they’ll find him through me. I’ll lead them to him. I won’t be able to help it.’
‘We’d better move quickly then, hadn’t we?’ Mike replied decisively. ‘Get him into hiding.’
‘Maybe you should just leave me behind,’ Tegan said.
Mike shook his head. ‘No chance. You’re coming with us.
I’m not leaving you out here to fend for yourself.’
‘Promise me one thing then,’ she said.
‘What?’
‘If I get... uncontrollable... promise me you’ll shoot me.’
Mike said nothing for a moment, then he smiled stiffly and squeezed her hand. ‘I promise I’ll do whatever I have to.’ He put the truck into gear and rolled down into the car park.
There was an ambulance parked askew by the main doors.
It was only when they got closer that they saw the driver’s side window had been smashed and that the top half of a fat man in a paramedic’s uniform was hanging out of it, arms dangling and hands outstretched as if trying to reclaim the blood that had run down the side of the vehicle in rivulets and pooled on the tarmac below.
‘Cancer,’ Tegan said bluntly.
‘Pardon?’
‘He was killed because he was no use. He had cancer of the colon. We can sense it by -’ She stopped abruptly, suddenly aware of what she was saying. Looking at Mike fearfully she wailed, ‘I don’t want to know these things! I don’t want them in my head!’
Mike raised his hands to calm her. ‘Just keep fighting it, Tegan. It’s all you can do.’ He gave her a moment to calm down, then continued, ‘I’m going to have to go in there. Do you feel able to cope with sitting behind the wheel again?’
She scratched at a point just below her collarbone, then made herself stop. A small shudder passed through her before she nodded. ‘Yes, I’ll be fine.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m sure.’
‘Ok. I’ll only be a few minutes. I just want to see how the land lies before we take the Doctor in.’ He paused for a moment. ‘You know what to do -’
‘I’ll drive away if I see anything suspicious.’
‘Good. Oh, and honk your horn too if you can. At least it’ll let me know there’s something going on.’
He got out of the truck and Tegan moved across to take his place behind the wheel. He walked up to the hospital’s main double doors, gun poised. The sun was hurling reflections of itself back at him from the glass panels, masking what lay beyond them until he shoved them open and entered Reception. There was a semi-circular desk to his left, rows of chairs back-to-back, as if someone had set them up for a game of Musical Chairs, to his right. There were bodies on the floor - Mike counted seven of them - all of them lying in pools of blood. Despite the terrible violence that had taken place here, the building was silent now. Either the Xaranti had moved on, or they were lying in wait somewhere.
Going by what Tegan had said, could the hybrids really be that cunning, that restrained? Perhaps if they knew he had the Doctor with him they could be. Perhaps they were receiving orders from on high that were overriding their natural tendencies. He stood for a moment, undecided, though in truth his options were simple. Either he could get back in the truck and drive yet further afield, which meant the loss of more precious time and more ground to cover by returning if the Doctor woke up and could somehow set matters straight; or he could risk bringing the Doctor in here and try to find someone who could treat his wounds or have a go at doing so himself.
‘No contest,’ Mike murmured, and crossed to the body of an elderly man who had been bludgeoned to death with a desk lamp. The man had been sitting in a wheelchair, which