Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book One - Lawrence Miles [112]
‘Go ahead,’ the first rider said.
You don’t know who I am, thought Magdelana. And who I am is all that matters.
‘Are you sure?’ said the blind man.
Past the ID badge, or the fact that I’m the one who gets to use the satellite. Past all the things that make me what I am in this town. Only I know who I really am, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.
‘We’re sure,’ said the second rider, in the same old matter‐of‐fact voice. We want to see you blot out the sun.’
‘All right,’ said the blind man. ‘But don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
First assigned defender. First in the firing line. That’s my place in this world now, and I only ended up here because I could shoot straighter than anyone else. Because my mother showed me how to stand still and pull a trigger, nearly half a century ago.
‘Well?’ said the first rider.
‘Don’t rush me,’ said the blind man. ‘I’m doing it.’
See what you did, Mother? I’m walking into the sun, and they’re going to crucify me, and it’s all your fault. But at least they never found out who I am. At least I kept that bit to myself. Dust drags all the life and soul out of you, but I managed to stay whole right up until the end.
‘Here we go,’ said the blind man.
The sun. Walking into the sun. It feels like the heat’s inside me, but maybe that’s just the pain. I don’t know.
‘There,’ said the blind man.
The sun went out inside Magdelana’s head.
There was no light. There was no pain. She opened her eyes, and suddenly the town square was made out of shadows. She could just make out the face of the blind man in the darkness, but suddenly he wasn’t smiling, or talking, or overacting. Magdelana turned on her bad leg, and if there was any sensation there then she was too numb to feel it.
The sun had gone out. Something huge and dark had moved between the town and the light, something that turned the sun into a circle of sheer black. On the backs of their horses, the Remote men turned, and looked into the darkness on the horizon.
Then they turned back again.
‘Told you,’ said the blind man.
‘Is that it?’ asked the first of the riders.
She heard the blind man let out a slow‐motion sigh. ‘I said I’d blot out the sun,’ he said. ‘So I blotted out the sun. What do you want, blood? I can bleed for you, if it’ll make you any happier. Stigmata’s my speciality.’
‘It’s just an eclipse,’ the rider said.
There was a shocked pause. Then a slapping sound. Magdelana didn’t look up, let alone turn round, but she guessed that the blind man had just slapped himself on the forehead.
‘You know about eclipses,’ he said. He sounded disappointed. ‘I’m sorry, I thought you people would’ve forgotten all about elementary astronomy by now. I thought you’d be impressed.’
The Remote were raising their weapons again. There was another spark of pain in Magdelana’s leg.
‘Of course, it could be just an eclipse,’ the blind man went on. He still didn’t sound as though he wanted to rush the conversation, even though he was seconds away from being shot in the head. ‘On the other hand, I could have a stellar manipulator in orbit around this planet. I could have the technology to rearrange your whole solar system. You never know.’
Magdelana could see the outlines of the riders’ guns now. Two blunt little snouts, shining in the darkness, both of them aimed at the blind man. Him first, then her. They saw him as the main threat, even despite his babbling and his stupid waistcoat. Magdelana would’ve been insulted by that, if she’d had the energy.
The blind man just cleared his throat. ‘But if I did have a stellar manipulator, and I had used it to blot out your sun, then I’d have to belong to a species that’s famous for its solar engineers. True?’
Everything went quiet. The Remote men froze, with their big armoured fingers on, the triggers of their weapons.
‘Those masks of yours have got scanning systems built in, haven’t they?’ the blind man went on. He was still playing to an audience, Magdelana realised.
The Remote didn’t reply. She took that