Doctor Who_ Foreign Devils - Andrew Cartmel [50]
The Doctor regarded the approaching thing with calmness and equanimity. 'The embalmed cadaver of Roderick Upcott, I'd say.' 'Tosh!' spat Pemberton. 'It's some kind of trick.'
'Not at all,' said Carnacki, laughing. 'It is your ancestor, animated by an unholy spark of life. I knew it.'
'You're lying,' said Pemberton. 'You're . . . ' But he fell silent as the shambling figure drew close to them, its appearance unmistakable. Zoe didn't want to look, but she found she couldn't look away. It was Roderick Upcott, no mistake. Or what was left of him after the efforts of the undertakers, and the better part of a century underground. The animated cadaver was walking, or rather limping, towards them with a loose shambling gate that allowed it to slither forward through the snow. Zoe had at first thought there was something deformed about it, a hunchbacked appearance to its silhouette, but now as it drew closer she saw that clinging to Roderick's back was the equally embalmed and equally living cadaver of his pet monkey. Just legible on the pale skin of Roderick's chest was his livid dragon tattoo.
The Doctor watched this ghoulish apparition with scholarly fascination, then turned to Pemberton and remarked cheerfully, 'I suspected the curse had yet to complete itself. It seems that instead of the spirit of the poppy, your own ancestor is to be your executioner. The old destroying the new. It has a certain ironic justice, wouldn't you say? Just the sort of thing that might have appealed to the Imperial Astrologer when he planned to punish the foreign devils.'
Pemberton wasn't listening to the Doctor. He was staring at the approaching figure of Roderick, his eyes wide with terror. He gave an inarticulate, wordless cry as the shambling thing closed in on him. He aimed his rifle and fired, but of course that didn't do anything to the man who was already dead. It merely caused the monkey on his back to twitch and gesticulate in fury.
Pemberton operated the bolt on his rifle and fired again, with equal futility. He shifted the bolt once more, then seemed to realise that it was useless. He held the rifle up like a club, ready to defend himself from the inexorably approaching thing. He took a step back, then another step, then he backed right over the edge of the precipice. The cadaver of Roderick Upcott stopped and watched as Pemberton roared, windmilling his arms, sending the rifle flying, before finally losing his balance and falling backwards into the swirling cosmic fire of the void.
The others raced to the edge and looked down, but there was nothing they could do. Pemberton was a tiny doll, falling silently, first moving, then still. Then finally out of sight. Zoe looked up and saw the corpse of Roderick Upcott regarding them with its empty eye sockets. The mummified form of the Capuchin monkey clung to his shoulders and put its wizened face next to his, as if consulting with him, or
about to kiss his cheek. Zoe felt her stomach heave.
'Is it over?' said Jamie anxiously, looking at the Doctor, who pursed his lips thoughtfully. 'Well, Roderick has been brought back from the dead by the curse to witness the destruction of the dynasty he founded. And that would seem to be conclusive.'
'He doesn't show any signs of returning to his long sleep though, Doctor,' whispered Carnacki. Celandine gave a low moan. 'Look,' she said. 'The tattoo!' Zoe had already seen it. The tattoo on Roderick's chest had begun to deepen in colour, returning to the vivid shades she remembered from their encounter in Canton. As the rich colours of the tattoo reemerged Zoe thought a similar rebirth would spread over Roderick's cadaver, returning him to the state of a living man. But far from it. The jade green of the tattoo pigments spread over the dried skin of the cadaver, and even over the gnarled figure of the monkey that clung to his back, squirming as though in torment. Within a few seconds the