Doctor Who_ Left-Handed Hummingbird - Kate Orman [46]
After a bit, the Doctor went on. ‘Some sort of psychic force is operating in the general area of Mexico City. Something which certain people of Aztec blood can sense. Something associated with mass killing.’
‘So you haven’t learnt anything more than we already know.’
‘What we’ve learned,’ said Ace, ‘is that we’re up to our collective arse in crocodiles, and we have no idea how to drain the swamp.’
‘Do you know,’ said the Doctor, ‘two years ago the Russians took a survey of what frightened them the most. It wasn’t winter or economic collapse. It was vampires. Specifically, vampires that lived on life energy. Psychevores.’
Ace picked up another burrito. Bernice said, ‘Mind eaters.’
The Doctor let his head tilt backwards onto one of the cushions until he was staring at the ceiling. Bernice looked at him oddly as he said, ‘There are many and varied creatures which feed on the mind The Mara fed on raw emotion. The Fendahl sucked souls whole.’
‘Are you saying that’s what we’re up against?’ said Benny. ‘A mind vampire?’
‘Or many mind vampires. Or something completely different. It’s entirely possible that the event which affected me in Tenochtitlan was simply a massive psychic discharge – a natural, meaningless event.’
‘Affected you?’ said Bernice. ‘What happened?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ he said, bringing his head down to look her in the eyes. ‘I’ve lost about twenty‐four hours. Tabula rasa.’
‘This vampire,’ said Ace. ‘Can you shoot it?’
The Doctor waved a hand at her, agitatedly. ‘It’s only one theory. What was Fitzgerald hiding, what was it you weren’t supposed to find out? Why’d he help you and then try to kill you? We need to go back to the Institute.’
‘Did the Aztecs have vampire legends?’ Benny wanted to know. ‘I don’t recall any from my readings.’
‘There were undead,’ said Cristián. ‘Ghosts of women who died in childbirth.’
‘There might have been records which were destroyed,’ said Bernice. ‘Most of their religious writings were burned.’
‘Yes, very convenient,’ said the Doctor. ‘What does survive?’
‘The Florentine Codex has a whole volume devoted to the atlaca, the inhuman,’ said Benny. ‘Other bits and pieces. The Institute will have all sorts of stuff If only they’d let us in there!’
‘We’ll have to let ourselves in, then.’
Cristián looked alarmed. Ace grinned around her burrito.
* * *
The Doctor was an extraterrestrial. He was also a criminal. He had killed the morgue attendant and one of the patients, for whatever reason – perhaps they’d found out his secret. His companion had killed Professor Fitzgerald.
The UNIT people spoke of him like some harbinger of doom. When he was around, people died, people’s gardens up and killed them.
Macbeth drove in a rental station wagon through thick and angry Mexico City traffic. The sky grew dark. He had everything he needed.
He flashed his faked ID to the guards, parked in the Institute’s lot. It was on his instructions that they’d blocked Professor Summerfield’s access; she wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted the man himself.
He wanted a little word with the extraterrestrial who posed as a human, the real‐live interplanetary monster doing God knew what amongst them while the military bowed and scraped and no one did anything, and he also wanted a word about that girl he’d shot dead in 1968, her dark hair whirling around her as she fell, mouth open in a frozen circle of surprise.
* * *
The Doctor and Bernice were making a rough map of the Institute in the kitchen, talking in low voices and scribbling on a bit of butcher’s paper. Ace and Cristián played draughts in the lounge.
‘That sixth sense of yours,’ said Ace.
Cristián looked at her over the board. He was old enough to be her father. When he had first met her, he had been young enough to be her brother. She was as timeless as an image captured on videotape. She also played draughts very badly.
She said, ‘We met a guy in Tenochtitlan who had the same kind of psychic thing. He could sense the Blue.’
‘Yes?’ Cristián was interested. ‘There were other people with it?’
‘Probably still are. The