Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [85]
She was numb. She was beyond caring about memorials, about her own life or death. Her fear had gone. She felt calm, she felt cold. Above all, she felt anger. Cool, rational, implacable anger. She had no weapon, but she could improvise. The keys that were to have carved her memorial would serve another purpose. A bunch of keys clenched in the fist, prongs outward, made a particularly vicious knuckleduster. She would fight; she wouldn't let the Doctor down. She would fight the only way she knew how the way she had always fought. The next Nazi who came through the door, she would carve her memorial on his face.
Footsteps. She crouched to spring.
The door opened slowly. She was on her feet and surging across the cell.
She stopped.
'You...'
'I hope they didn't hurt you, my dear.'
George Limb shuffled into the cell.
'Get away from me. Hartmann told me all about you.'
'And what exactly did the good captain tell you?'
'That you're working for them. That you've been working for them for years.'
'Not strictly true, Ace. Let us just say that they have been of far more use to me than I to them.'
'Do you know what they are? Do you know what they do to people?'
'Indeed I do, Ace. A ghastly rabble, I agree. But I am a realist, my dear. A small man trying, like everybody else, to stay afloat upon the riptides of history Herr Hitler and his gang are here. Indeed, they are everywhere. They are a fact, and facts, however unpalatable, have to be addressed with unflinching realism. I am sure you have heard the expression
"the road to hell is paved with good intentions"... Come.'
He beckoned her from the cell.
'I first became aware of the National Socialists in 1923.
Hitler attempted an armed uprising. It was a fiasco, and he ended up in prison, but it was clear from his conduct in court that this man had... potential. From then on I have taken a close interest in the party's fortunes. I tried, largely through dear Winston, to get the British government to take this man seriously, but with little success. After the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia there was an international conference held in Munich to try to secure the peace in Europe. The prime minister of the time, Mr Chamberlain, attended, and so did I.
Immediately, I saw it for the farce it was. The very fact that the conference took place was an absolute indication of the Allies' lack of resolve. Chancellor Hitler walked all over them.'
' Ï have in my hand a piece of paper..." '
'Precisely.'
No. She wouldn't listen to this. She fixed her eyes across the concrete expanse on to the lethal wooden bench with the straps. 'You're a user, Limb. You've manipulated and lied to me ever since I first visited you with Cody. You sent us into that factory, didn't you? You knew how dangerous it was going to be.'
'I have never lied to you, Ace. Believe it or not, I have a high regard for your courage and resourcefulness. And if you recall I advised you not to break into the Peddler factory.'
'You knew we were going to go in.' Her voice was low and resentful. 'You knew.'
'If you must blame me for that, accuse me only of bowing to the inevitable, and perhaps of being a little opportunistic. I was... curious. You and Mr McBride had come to me with the beginnings of an interesting story. I wished to as it were stir things up a bit. See what floated to the surface.'
'You could just have asked me what was going on. Like a fool, I'd have told you...'
'Openness and trust are not the hallmarks of the fool, Ace. They are virtues, to be highly prized though I am aware of my own shortcomings in those areas. Sadly, however, the information one can receive from the mouths of others is invariably of limited use: however loyal, diligent or indeed intelligent they are, they inevitably colour the facts with their own prejudices. They see in part what they want to see.
Moreover, they