Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [19]
Leela looked at the animal. Youth could explain its condition. ‘It was probably young,’ she said.
‘You equate youth with perfection.’ The Doctor reached the ground and retrieved the remains of his scarf.
‘Scars come with time,’ Leela said, joining him.
‘That depends,’ he said.
‘On what?’
‘On how long it takes you.’
Leela decided he was being deliberately obscure. She collected the spear and practised throwing it so that it stuck into the ground and on her chosen target. ‘Do you want the coins and the shiny pebble?’
‘The wool might be useful,’ the Doctor said, pocketing shreds of scarf. ‘I don’t suppose you can knit by any chance?’
‘Knit?’
The Doctor nodded. ‘I must teach you. It’s very relaxing.
It’s an effect of the rhythm of repetitive actions. And I shall need a new scarf. How did you find me, by the way?’
Leela gestured at the fairly clear tracks on the forest floor.
‘I tracked the animal that was tracking you. It was not difficult.’
‘I expect you must have come across my coat and hat then?’
‘No. How did you lose them?’
‘It was by way of an experiment.’
‘To see if you could run faster without them?’
The Doctor set out to follow the tracks. ‘I’m sure we can find them,’ he beamed. ‘Then you can show me this jungle of yours.’
They stared at the devastated patch of deciduous forest.
Everything had been blasted from the primary impact zone, leaving only a wide shallow crater of blackly scorched soil.
Around the edge, trees had been flattened and burned.
Further out those left standing had been stripped of leaves and the exposed side of the trunks charred. It had obviously been a much more major crash and burn than the initial data had suggested. So where was the debris from the downed ship? They searched as far as the undamaged trees and there was no sign of anything.
When they reassembled in the new clearing Fermindor said, ‘I’ve seen emergency disposal outfits do a less thorough job.’
‘Any guesses?’ Kley asked. According to the book this was a time for including everyone, for keeping the dynamic of the team positive. Apart from which she was completely at a loss for ideas.
‘We missed it. This isn’t the drop zone,’ Belay offered.
‘So what is all this? A meteorite strike?’ Sozerdor demanded. He was sweating, despite the drop in temperature there had been since they left the jungle and crossed into the temperate woodland.
‘It’s possible,’ Monly said.
Kley ran a multiple-reference-point check on her wrist compass. ‘These are the correct coordinates.’
Monly said, ‘As far as we can tell without the base computer.’
Kley refused to be provoked. ‘This is the correct terrain.
It’s what we’ve been expecting.’
‘Finally, it does appear to be, yes.’
‘The runner’s hidden everything,’ Fermindor said.
Sozerdor snorted. ‘If he has we’re going to need a bigger team.
‘Why do you say that?’ Belay asked.
‘Because he’s obviously got one!’ Sozerdor tried to laugh but it sounded nervous and forced. ‘He couldn’t do it on his own, could he? He’d still be burying the bits.’
‘I mean,’ Fermindor said, coolly ignoring the interruption,
‘that he’s faked this. He didn’t lose it coming in. He made a controlled descent. He hid the lander. He set an explosion.
You could get this effect without much trouble. You could do it all with a directed charge.’
‘That could be it,’ Kley agreed, trying to sound more confident than she felt. It was just about plausible. If you didn’t think about the details too closely. I’ll believe it if you’ll believe it, she thought. I need time to get a grip on this. She could see that there was one glaring and immediate problem.
‘Why?’ Monly asked. ‘What would he hope to gain?’
Kley nodded. For once it was a fair question. ‘We’d spot it, wouldn’t we?’ she said.
‘We just did, Chief,’ Fermindor remarked flatly.
‘As soon as we got here we’d spot it,’ Monly agreed.
‘Time?’ Belay suggested. ‘He gains time. It’s a delaying tactic.’
‘Time to do what?’ Monly pressed.
The sudden possibility of humiliating disaster struck Kley in a sickening rush, like waking from a nightmare to