Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [51]
He squeezed Anjis shoulder, leaning closer to her, his voice dropping almost to a whisper.
We could help each other.
This is bloody stupid, said Powlin, muttering into the mic taped inside his breather. He was based on one of Hopes higher buildings, where a signal could get through to any place in the city. If he gave the order, an assault team would get it without fail, following his word to the target area. Wherever that turned out to be. This is just asking for trouble.
Thats the bloody point, hissed Fitz on the other end of the line. He and the Doctor were staggering around various grotty alleyways and dark corners of the city, making themselves targets. The Doctor seemed insistent that with the killers timescale seemingly accelerated, a couple of vulnerable potential victims would be too tempting to miss out on. Powlin could see the logic, but there was still something about setting yourself up as a target that sat badly with his nature.
Youre just bitter you didnt think of this yourself, Powlin, said a deep voice down the line. Silver was on the roof of the Silver Palace, heading his own private group of armed men. If anything kicked off nearby, Silver would supposedly respond to Powlins request. In reality Silver was overseeing the entire operation. Powlin could almost feel Silvers cold, filtered breath on the back of his neck.
The rooftop was ice cold, and Powlin paced impatiently. A handful of his men were aiming sniper rifles around, just in case. The Doctor had planned the operation so that each team was at the centre of as many possible routes to as many possible flashpoints as was, well, possible. Virtually the entire perimeter of Hope was within five minutes of a fast response team. The only problem was that the Doctor refused to allow anyone except himself and Fitz to act as targets he wouldnt allow any other moving targets on the perimeter. Miraso had tried to argue that this just meant the killer would pick offreal drunks instead, and that it would be more effective to have several groups of targets. But the Doctor was adamant. Powlin was beginning to think the Doctor was looking forward to getting his hands on their killer.
Sometimes, Fitz wished the Doctor had less faith in him. When he had volunteered to accompany the Doctor in his ramble through the outskirts of Hope, showing displays of physical incompetence and vulnerability to tempt the murderer to come down and make a bid for their heads, Fitz had presumed the Doctor would refuse. Hed expected the Doctor to say it was too dangerous, that he shouldnt put himself at risk. Instead the Doctor had instantly agreed.
Youre the only other person capable of doing this, he had told Fitz. Youre the only person who I know can look after themselves in these circumstances.
While the Doctors faith in Fitzs ability to defend himself in the face of a knifewielding maniac serial killer was touching, it wasnt a faith Fitz shared. If they bumped into this guy, Fitz was a dead man. He just knew it. The best he could hope for was a noshow, that the operation was a complete disaster.
Wraaargh! bellowed the Doctor, dressed in rags, as he collapsed into a pile of rubbish. Fitz rolled his eyes at this ham acting.
Come here you, Fitz rambled, staggering over and offering the Doctor a hand. He hoped that, whatever was lurking in the dark, it saw through the Doctors bad acting and left them well alone.
Miraso had never seen Silver so interested in a project like this before. Previous criminal activities and disruptions of the natural order had been dealt with swiftly, with only brief intervention by the big man. Now he was up on the roof with her and the men, giving direct orders to Powlin and the others. It wasnt natural; it was a disruption of order in itself, this abandoning of Silvers detachment. Soon people would begin to think he was just a man and from then on, chaos.
It was the strangers, thought Miraso. Silver had begun to take too much of an interest in them,