Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [54]
98
In silence, Reo unfastened his shirt down half way and, with a slight wince, slipped a finger under one of the legs of the Y-thing, sliding it between the device and his skin. Trix heard a faint, wet, sucking noise as it peeled away from his body. Already, she had her own clothing unfastened – the thing would just about fit, although its lower leg might feel a bit uncomfortable between her breasts. Not, she thought ruefully, that she had much of a cleavage. Well, not yet! She’d always had a rather half-hearted relationship with her own body – she didn’t hate it, but often found it irritating. It was just too dull, too flat, too mousey – like her hair. Ideal for what she did, perhaps, but sometimes she longed for a bit more up top, slimmer hips – not to mention her nose. But with Reo’s device, she’d be able to give herself a bit of a makeover: nothing drastic, nothing flashy. Even if it was only for a while.
He held out the device to her, his hand shaking a little: was he wondering whether he’d ever get it back? Trix suddenly realised that she’d been planning on a long-term future with this thing, despite her promise to him. Maybe he could get another one? Where had he got it from?
She took it from his fingers before he could change his mind: it was warm (hardly surprising since it had been inside his shirt) and a little bit creepy, like a three-legged starfish. It was only as she cupped it in her hand and pressed it to her own skin that she noticed that Reo was swaying oddly, like someone about to faint. He staggered back against the shop doorway, his eyes rolled up in their sockets, and he collapsed.
THANK YOU said a voice deep inside her own head, as Trix tried to move to catch Reo before he fell – and realised that she was completely paralysed.
THIS WILL BE MUCH EASIER.
99
Chapter 12
‘Space yacht? Intelligent rocks?’
It felt like someone had taken her and pushed her unceremoniously into one tiny corner of her own head. She remembered what Fitz had told her about his time in Russia, with that madman Garudin riding around in his body. This must have been how he felt, a passenger with someone else at the controls.
She could still see and hear (and smell) but with an odd leadenness to it all
– as though she were looking through sunglasses and had earmuffs on. Her vision flickered, brighter, then dimmer, a couple of times – and then stabilised.
But now it was brighter, brighter than she could have imagined. Like she’d always had a night-vision ability, and only now had she discovered how to turn it on. The dark alley around her bloomed into brilliant, silvery luminousness.
Although she couldn’t actually move her eyes, she could still see Reo’s tiny body, slumped in the doorway, see textures in his coat that she hadn’t seen before, beads of sweat on his upper lip, the mark on his chest where the Y-thing had sat.
What’s happened? she thought. Who are you? What’s happened to me?
I HAVE CONTROL OF YOUR NERVOUS AND MUSCULAR SYSTEMS the voice said, deep and clear but curiously androgynous. IT IS A NECESSARY FIRST STEP.
SOON I WILL HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF YOUR CARDIOVASCULAR AND EN-DOCRINE SYSTEMS.
But why? Why not Just let me help you? Who are you?
BECAUSE YOU won’t HELP ME. ALREADY YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO HINDER
MY SUBVERSION OF YOUR BODY. IT IS POINTLESS. YOU ARE A DISTRACTION, NOTHING MORE. NOW THAT YOU ARE CARRYING ME, THIS IS MY BODY. YOU
WILL BE ALLOWED TO OBSERVE FOR A WHILE LONGER.
Why? What do you want? What are you? Trix felt the panic rising in her, a stifling claustrophobia, oddly at a distance, muted.
I AM A MAKER.
A Maker? Of what? I don’t understand? You’re the device – the device I got from Reo? You were just using him? Hitching a ride on him?
NO, TRIX. I am REO. THE BOY JOSHUA WAS SIMPLY MY CARRIER.
That’s horrible – you’re talking about him like he was a bicycle or something.
What did he think about it, or didn’t he have a say? Was he just a passenger in 101
his own body like I am now?
HE WAS