Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [109]
The Doctor probably would have kept jabbering, if I.M. Foreman hadn’t stepped forward and cleared his throat. ‘So you’re going to have us killed,’ the showman said.
‘Looks that way,’ Kreiner agreed.
I.M. Foreman nodded. ‘Fair enough. But there is one thing I think you should know before you do anything… irreparable.’
Kreiner clenched his teeth. This sounded like exactly the kind of distraction the Doctor might have used.
Still. Best not to take any chances.
‘Well?’ he said.
I.M. Foreman thought for a moment. Then he turned, stretched out one long, spindly arm, and waved it towards the line of freaks behind him. ‘Did I introduce all my colleagues?’ he said. ‘That’s Mohandas, standing on the end there. He’s a geek, in the old-fashioned sense of the word. Isn’t it wonderful, by the way? Living in a culture that’s got a special word for a person who bites the heads off animals. Anyway. The one next to Mohandas is Melmoth, but –’
‘That’s enough,’ Kreiner snapped. If he’d been carrying a gun of his own, he probably would have shot the man himself.
I.M. Foreman ignored him, and kept talking. ‘Actually, there are thirteen of us in the show, not twelve. We don’t generally let Number Thirteen out. Bit on the unstable side, Number Thirteen. Not mad, strictly speaking, but… he’s not like you and me. Well, he’s not like you, anyway.’
Suddenly, I.M. Foreman was facing the Remote troops again, whirling round on his heel and fixing his dead eyes on his firing squad. Most of the men took a step back, which was irritating.
‘What you’re forgetting is this,’ the blind man said. ‘I’m a priest. From one of the old orders. And back in my day the priesthood had the same privileges as the Time Lords. Including the right to regeneration.’
The companion girl glanced at the Doctor, and mouthed something Kreiner couldn’t see. He didn’t let it bother him.
‘Not very impressive,’ he said, putting as much contempt into his voice as he could manage. ‘We’ve got weapons built to take out Time Lords. We can scramble your nervous systems. You can’t regenerate your way out of that.’
But I.M. Foreman just shook his head. ‘You’re missing the point, Father. The important thing is, I’ve got the same regenerative cycle as the Time Lords.’
‘And?’ said Kreiner.
‘I can regenerate twelve times over.’
‘And?’ said Kreiner.
‘Which means, I can have a total of thirteen different bodies.’
Kreiner was just on the verge of saying ‘and?’ again, when something about the man’s words struck a chord.
Thirteen. Thirteen different bodies. Thirteen lives. The number thirteen that had been painted on the one sealed door of the travelling show. Thirteen freaks in all. Number Thirteen…
Father Kreiner suddenly found his eyes drifting along the row of freaks behind the Doctor, all of them as still and as silent as ever. There was a kind of order in the way they’d been lined up, he could see that now. The ones on the left were very nearly human, but they got less and less recognisable as you moved along the line, until in the end…
‘No,’ said Kreiner. Not possible.
‘I’m afraid it’s true,’ said the Doctor, and he almost sounded sympathetic. ‘I didn’t believe it either, at first.’
‘Erm,’ said his companion. ‘Is this what you were talking about in the wagon? Sorry, you weren’t making much sense.’
The Doctor looked down at her, and smiled. ‘These fine people here,’ he said, nodding towards the freaks. They’re all Gallifreyan. But, more specifically, they’re all the same Gallifreyan.’
The companion paused for a moment, clearly not getting the idea. Then she whirled around to stare at I.M. Foreman.
‘I’m afraid so,’ the blind man told her. This is a one-man show. All my compatriots here – Mohandas, Melmoth, Mr Zarathustra – they’re all me. All my future selves. All my future regenerations.’
‘Doesn’t this break that Blinovitch Limitation wotsit?’ the companion asked.
‘Gallifreyans used to be shielded against that kind of thing,’ I.M. Foreman replied. ‘The Time Lords took out the biological defences after a while. They didn’t want