Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [21]
He crossed to the window for the hundredth time and stared out into the drizzle. It was getting dark now; shops were shutting up; people were making their way home, nervously waiting for the sound of sirens. The Doctor frowned. Ace and McBride must have found something out, or they would have been back by now. He didn't like sending them off on their own but, if he was right, then they were far safer than he was.
Ace had never been to Belsize Park. Posh area. She didn't know anyone who lived there. The houses lined the sides of wide avenues in elegant, terraced rows; broad steps cascaded from large front doors, through black wroughtiron railings to the street. Storey upon storey, tall windows atop taller windows gazed down upon the shabby detective and the bomberjacketclad tomboy.
It was giving Ace the creeps.
The streets seemed eerily still. Her footsteps seemed to echo unnaturally off the pavement. The sound of people, of traffic, of London life, seemed distant. Where was everybody? No cars. Did many people have cars in 1940?
Ace couldn't remember. There was no one at all in the streets. No dogs, no cats... no birds were singing. Ace stopped and tugged at McBride's sleeve.
'Should be up here somewhere, on the left... What?' He sounded irritable.
'Have you noticed anything?'
'No. Now, come on.'
'Some detective. listen.'
'Can't hear anything. Now come on.'
'Wait.' Ace leaned over the railings and peered through the huge front window of first one house, then another.
Another. It seemed incredible.
Every room she looked into was properly arranged curtains, furniture, here and there a piece of ornamental porcelain posed behind glass but completely empty of people. There was no one in any of these houses.
'It's like the Marie Celeste.'
'That was a ship, kid. This is a street. You should check out your history.' A plant a huge fern luxuriated in one window. It was the only sign of life Ace could see. It was still alive. The people must have only recently left.
'Cody, why would a whole area of London suddenly be deserted? '
'There's no air raid.'
'Dunno, kid. Could mean a lot of bomb damage.
Structural stuff. Gas main gone, maybe. Had to move everybody out. Or it could mean an unexploded bomb. Why d'you ask?'
An unexploded bomb. A recently dropped unexploded bomb. Very dangerous. Very, very unstable.'
'Cody...' Unconsciously Ace let her voice fall to a hoarse whisper. 'I think there's an unexploded bomb around here.'
The detective stopped dead in his tracks. 'Holy Mother?'
'Keep calm. There's nothing we can do but hope for the best. And keep our voices down.'
'Maybe we should ask in one of these houses.'
Ace let out a sigh. 'Do you ever actually manage to solve any of your cases?'
'Look!' McBride was gesturing down a side road slightly narrower, the houses still huge but a bit shabbier. Midway down the street an old man stood on a front step the door open behind him, scattering bread to the nonexistent birds.
'That must be him.' McBride set off at a run. 'Hi there!' he shouted at the top of his voice.
'I'm afraid you must have thought met dreadfully foolish out there.' The old man had ushered them in, taking the soaking umbrella from Ace and placing it in an elephant'sfoot umbrella stand by the door.
He must have been in his midseventies, thin and slightly stooped, fraillooking, with the characteristic transparency of age. The old man smiled a warm, sad, watery smile. He blinked his warm, sad, watery eyes. There was something strange and slow about the way he blinked.
In some ways he reminded Ace of the Doctor.
'A silly old man's notion. I thought perhaps if I put out bread the birds might return. The bombs fell three days ago.
The street you just walked up is a facade, on one side at least. The back of the entire row has been blown to pieces.
Beyond those immaculate front rooms