Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [43]
The trail they had left was so clear and obvious to the naked eye. She stared at it half expecting to see it disappear as she watched.
‘Chief?’ Fermindor said.
Kley turned and moved to lead off. ‘Sorry, Fe. Let’s get on it.’
If Belay and Sozerdor noticed the breach in command formality and the failure to maintain firster-toody etiquette they were both too diplomatic or too tired to react.
‘Do you want me to cut trail?’ Fermindor asked. ‘Might be better if you saved your strength.’
‘I’m all right,’ she said. ‘Stay close, though. If something comes at me suddenly I’m not sure how fast I’ll react.’
‘Don’t worry, Fermindor assured her, and strapped his handgun higher to make sure he could reach it quickly.
That was how it was that Fermindor almost got his throat cut after he took a shot at the girl who stepped out of the tangle of vegetation just ahead of Kley.
The Doctor was not entirely sure whether Leela would have killed the second-in-command of the patrol if he had not stopped her in time. She had been holding the man from behind with her knife at his throat. She was frightened and angry and reluctant to let him go.
‘Shooting at someone without warning is cowardly,’ she had said loudly in his ear. ‘And you have the Doctor to thank that it is not the last stupid thing you will ever get the chance to do!’
It was fortunate that the man was, as far as the Doctor could see, one of those tough-minded professionals who are comfortable enough with themselves not to carry a grudge.
And when the man told her, ‘You took me by surprise,’ this was clearly intended as an explanation, not an excuse.
‘Do you kill everything that surprises you?’ Leela had demanded, still tense.
‘On this planet we do!’ the woman in charge of the unit had interrupted, angry herself. ‘We’ve already lost one man. And jumping out at an OIG patrol on an interdicted planet may get you shot or it may get you arrested but what it won’t get you is prizes for intelligence.’
With some of the misunderstandings sorted out, the reunion with Pertanor and Rinandor had still been marred slightly, and things didn’t improve when they finally made their report.
‘He can’t have stolen the ship,’ Sozerdor protested. ‘Can he?’
Exhaustion rolled over Kley like a suffocating cloud. ‘Does it matter?’ she said. ‘We’re trapped here. For whatever reason.’ If she could just lie down, she thought, and sleep for a while, perhaps she could think of an answer. ‘I’ll have to send a help call. Get them to pull us out.’
‘Can you do that without your ship?’ the Doctor asked.
No she couldn’t. Of course she couldn’t. Find somewhere unobscured and set off a low power general distress beacon
– that was the best she could do. Kley closed her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘Why should that concern you?’ She opened her eyes and gave him a hard stare.
‘We’re as trapped as you are,’ the Doctor explained. ‘Our ship has disappeared too, you see.’
Sozerdor dropped his pack and sat down on it heavily.
‘You know why all this is happening, don’t you?’ he said. ‘It’s because of me. Those bony-brains will go to any lengths to avoid paying me my benefits package.’
Kley looked at him. He was smiling. He was actually smiling. She smiled back. ‘Maybe if we shot you?’
‘Too late, Chief,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what the plan is, the big plan I mean, but I don’t think it involves any of us drawing contract bonus credits on this one.’
‘I take it you can’t send a signal?’ the Doctor said.
‘Distress beacon,’ Fermindor said. ‘No real power. Can’t get it off-planet or even do a surface uplink to one of the orbiters. Open ground might help. Somewhere high and wide preferably.’
‘You have satellites up there?’ the Doctor asked.
‘Low-orbit microbeacons,’ he said. ‘Most of them will have burnt up by the time we find this runner and stuff his guts into a disposal sack.’ He looked at Kley. ‘That is what we plan to do, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ she said, trying to sound as positive as he did.
‘Never mind the big plan, our aim is to finish what we started.
Are we all agreed?’ She glanced round