Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book One - Lawrence Miles [49]
But she stayed just where she was, lying sprawled out on the floor of the warehouse, the blonde‐haired girl hovering over her. The girl was standing awkwardly, clearly not used to the heels on her shoes, or the way the skirt around her knees stopped her moving her legs properly. Compassion tried to strike out, but the girl’s fist was already halfway to her face. There was a squishing noise as the knuckles sank into Compassion’s mask.
The mask was solid Cold, kept in check by a restraining field, so it didn’t take anything it touched out of the mundane universe. But the girl was pummelling it, clawing at it. The pain wasn’t quite as bad as the thought of what would happen if she disrupted the field. Compassion tried to shout, to tell the girl to stop, but every time she opened her mouth the girl slammed a fist into it.
There was no option. The stun gun was long gone, probably eaten by the Cold on the floor, but Compassion still had one hand curled around the intact vial.
She flipped open the plastic stopper, and ordered the Cold inside to latch on to its target.
* * *
6:
Sarah had opened the door on the driver’s side of the Land Rover. Which was inconvenient, as the driver’s seat was already occupied.
‘Mistress,’ said K9.
Sarah clambered over him, trying to keep her head down as she squirmed towards the passenger seat. ‘Oof,’ she said, by way of greeting.
‘Reversing, mistress,’ K9 told her. There was the sound of grinding gears from somewhere beneath the cab.
Really, she should have used the back door to get into the Rover. It was linked to the vehicle’s central computer, so K9 would have been able to open it from the inside. In fact, the rear door had a special locking attachment that allowed K9 to open it from the outside, as well; when the rear door opened, the ramp would automatically lower itself to the ground, letting him roll straight in.
She’d bought the Land Rover four months ago, mainly because she’d been sick of having to load K9 in and out of her old banana‐coloured roadster whenever she’d needed to take him anywhere. K9 had suggested that she might download his intelligence into a more portable unit as an alternative, but Sarah hadn’t liked the idea much, partly because it was too much like cheating, but mainly because she hadn’t been the one who’d thought of it. So she’d gone out and bought the Rover, choosing the model with the most sophisticated computer system available. ‘The latest in safety software from I+sp2*sp’, according to the brochure.
Naturally, K9 had considered the software primitive. He’d spent hours talking to the vehicle, before concluding that it really wasn’t going to say anything intelligent. Then he’d started making suggestions about how the systems might be improved. Sarah’s cousin had brought him the hardware, and K9 had got his human servicers to do all the fiddly bits while he’d sat in the driver’s seat, inserting his eye‐probe‐thingummy into the dashboard computer. Linking up with the machine’s systems.
Sarah struggled into the passenger seat as the Land Rover reversed. In front of her, she saw the open floor of the warehouse, covered in scattered boxes and vials. She tried to concentrate on the people, the humanoid shapes sliding in the wreckage, but before she could work out who was who the Land Rover shot out of the building. K9 began to execute a neat three‐point turn.
‘K9!’ Sarah shouted.
The land Rover stopped in mid‐turn, the engine rattling to itself on the other side of the cracked windscreen. ‘Mistress?’
‘We can’t go yet. We’ve got to get Sam out of there.’
The things‐that‐weren’t‐really‐ears on top of K9’s head swivelled a little. ‘Query: Sam?’
‘Um. Human female, about, um, twenty. She’s a friend.’
More swivelling. ‘Sensors detect no such person in immediate area.’
‘What?’
‘Sensors detect –’
‘I heard!’ In front of the Land Rover, the two alien security guards were running out of the warehouse, pounding across the concrete towards them. ‘Sam. She’s in there.