Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [52]
After some hesitation, the others straggled after them.
‘I’m impressed,’ Rinandor announced loudly.
‘Shut up, Rinandor,’ Kley said.
‘I should stick with the showmanship, The,’ Rinandor continued even more loudly. ‘I can’t see you making it as a chaser.’
‘I said be quiet!’ Kley snapped. ‘Do I have to remind you that I am a CI and I am the team leader here?’
‘No. I think perhaps I have to remind you of that,’ Rinandor snapped back. ‘Why are you trailing along behind him? Why are you giving so much respect to that... that... duellist’s agent?’
‘Is that what she is?’ Fermindor asked. ‘A contract duellist?’
Pertanor said, ‘We’re not absolutely sure.’
‘Yes we are,’ Rinandor chided.
‘We think she might be, yes.’
‘I wish I’d known.’
‘Would it have made a difference?’ Belay asked mildly.
Fermindor grinned ruefully. ‘She’d have scared the hell out of me even more than she did.’
Kley said, ‘And he’s running her? Illegal offworlds training then.’
‘She saved our lives three times,’ Pertanor said. ‘Rinandor and me.’
‘She did,’ Rinandor said. ‘But he didn’t.’
‘She seems to think a lot of him,’ Fermindor said.
‘Respects his opinion.’
‘She’s young,’ Kley said.
The Doctor and Leela were sitting under the tree when the others got to them. The Doctor had stretched out and closed his eyes. Leela had opened Sozerdor’s equipment pack and was eating a ration concentrate biscuit.
Kley frowned and said, ‘Those are for personal emergency use.
‘Your friend does not need them any more,’ Leela said reasonably.
‘In which case we divide them up,’ Kley said, sitting down heavily. ‘That’s the rule.’ She couldn’t believe how absolutely exhausted she was.
Leela tossed her the uneaten portion. ‘I have already taken my share.’ Then seeing the expression on the woman’s face she said, ‘You should eat some now. For your personal emergency.’ She shook Sozerdor’s canteen. It was less than half full. ‘How much water are you all carrying?’
‘We were expecting to find some,’ Fermindor said. ‘But so far...’ He shrugged.
‘There’s the lake,’ Rinandor said. ‘We found a lake, didn’t we, Pe?’
‘I’m not sure. I think it might have found us,’ Pertanor said.
Rinandor chortled. ‘Yes, of course it did.’
‘And I’m not sure we could find it again.’
‘We were stalked by a pond,’ Rinandor sniggered.
‘Pursued by a puddle.’
‘It won’t be there now,’ the Doctor said without opening his eyes. ‘I don’t think drinking it would have been a good idea anyway.’
‘Why not?’ Rinandor demanded. ‘Could it be because you forgot to take any?’
The Doctor opened his eyes and sat up. ‘Somehow I doubt whether it was water.’
‘It tastes fine to me,’ Rinandor said, producing her canteen and opening it with a defiant flourish. ‘Score another one for the showman.’
She raised the canteen to her lips but before she could drink from it Leela leaned back and stretched out her leg.
She flipped the canteen out of Rinandor’s hands with her foot and caught it neatly. ‘If you will not listen to the Doctor,’ she said, ‘then listen to yourself. Do you not remember the effect the meat had on us?’
Rinandor stared at Leela with owlish concentration. ‘That could have hurt,’ she said finally.
Kley asked, ‘What is the matter with you, Rinandor?’
Rinandor yawned, lay down and curled up. ‘I hate it when people I don’t like are right,’ she muttered as she went to sleep.
‘Rinandor?’ Kley said. ‘Rinandor? Is she sick?’
‘She will be, the Doctor said. ‘When she sobers up.’
Pertanor took the canteen from Leela and poured the contents away. He took his fatigue jacket off, folded it and put it under Rinandor’s head. ‘Why is this happening to us?’ he asked looking at the Doctor. ‘Why is this place so weird. And why is it so different from what we were told to expect?’
Why indeed? the Doctor thought, and it occurred to him