Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [55]
But where was he? The airlock lights turned green, and the Doctor pushed open the inner door, emerging into the cramped environment of the submarine. There was no one around, the crew presumably being elsewhere.
The Doctor pulled the man in white out of the airlock, laying him on the floor. He gripped the muzzle of the mans mask, his aching fingers working the release mechanism beneath the chin. The gasmask came off in one motion, revealing a very human face beneath. A bruised and scarred face, one with a slightly bovine expression, but human nonetheless. Not an Endpointer, or a mutant, or some kind of killing machine. Just a human being.
The Doctor found a bench built into the wall, presumably there for crewmembers to sit while they removed their environment suits. The Doctor blearily noticed three empty suits hanging from the wall opposite as he sat, feeling the aches run through him as the tension in his muscles dissipated. He looked at the man he had pursued all this way, across the city and below the ice, the man who now lay unconscious on the floor. The killer who had struck fear into one of the most fearless places the Doctor had ever known.
Just a man, after all.
Part Three
Beyond the Sea
Chapter Nine
Downward Spirals
The submarines descent is rapid, moving away from the city of Hope, where metal struts reach up from the sea bed. The sub is heading towards areas where the sea is deeper, a descent into dark valleys where the pressure would crush any life, places where no light has ever shone. It moves on an automated programme a small vehicle designed for a crew of ten, it now relies on the most basic of artificial intelligence protocols: follow the signal, avoid the obstacles. The sub weaves its way around the reefs of diamondlike coral, one of the few species to survive in Endpoints corrosive, poisonous waters. Below, on the sea bed, lie wrecks of spaceships and habitation areas, rafts and leviathans, all equally useless now, all lost to this brutal sea.
The submarine continues, through impenetrable darkness, following the signal, the signal that lights the way home.
Torches swept the Pier as militiamen and Silvers personal guard worked together in their manhunt, exploring the flimsy structure for signs of the Doctor, Fitz or the enemy they had been pursuing. Anji stood on the dockside, hovering near to Silver, aware that his looming presence would keep away anything lurking in the dark. It was her first trip outside the Silver Palace since the Doctor had made his deal with Silver, and it just reminded Anji why she hadnt wanted to see the rest of Hope again. Even the cramped living spaces of the Silver Palace were better than sprawling squalor like this.
The Doctors encounter with the killer they were seeking, which everyone had partially heard over the Doctor and Fitzs mics before they cut out, had put everyone into a state of frantic disturbance. Powlin was shaking down the tramplike figures of the Piers inhabitants, bawling at them and threatening to kick their dustbinfires into their leanto homes, destroying everything they had. Miraso was pacing up and down, directing the search over her mic. Anji had been so frantic that, even if there was nothing practical she could do to help the Doctor and Fitz, she had to be out here, ready for whatever happened.
Only Silver was unmoved, standing silently, waiting to make his next move. The only motion from him was the flapping of his greatcoat in the cold sea breeze.
Got one, said Miraso urgently, one finger to her earpiece. Four floors down, towards the west side of the Pier.
Silver nodded. Lets go. He strode ahead, leading the way to a nearby ladder, Anji and Miraso close behind. As they got further into the Pier Anji was surprised to see Silver start to jump around, like a child playing hopscotch. He was surprisingly agile on his feet. As a board creaked beneath her