Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [13]
You wouldn’t believe.’ She looked Forrester and Cwej over. ‘You’re late.’
‘And fairness be your friend. They moved the –’ Forrester started to say.
‘Don’t want to know.’ Rashid gave Cwej another glance, and frowned. He smiled sunnily back. ‘Who’s this?’
‘This is Cwej.’
‘Reporting for duty, sir!’ Cwej said cheerily.
Rashid and Forrester exchanged glances.
‘Keen, isn’t he?’ Rashid said.
Forrester decided to get out while the going was good. ‘Adjudicator Secular, if there’s nothing you want to see me for, I’ll mosey across and grab some breakfast –’
Rashid smiled. ‘Not so fast. Glad you’re here. Saved me calling for you.’
Forrester felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.
‘Cwej here is your new squire,’ Rashid continued.
Forrester glanced across at Cwej. To give the guy his due, his expression fell slightly at the news. Just slightly, but it made Forrester feel a lot better.
‘Oh good,’ she said.
‘Nice to know you,’ Cwej said, recovering his sunny smile and holding out a hand. Forrester looked at it for a long moment, then shook it.
‘Now that the pleasantries are over,’ said Rashid, ‘get your arses across to District Five. Been a murder. Only an offworlder, but we’ve got to go through the formalities. Securitybot happened to be passing by on patrol just after it happened. Suspect’s being held.’
Forrester frowned. ‘Another one? What’s going on?’
‘Just get over there. Centcomp’ll have the details.’
22
‘Adjudicator Secular, we must be batting way over the stats here. How many murders have we had this month? Fifty? Sixty? We usually average ten a month, max. Something’s going down.’
‘All solved, though. Even the offworlders.’
‘That’s not the point.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Rashid grumbled, shifting position on the cushion. ‘Ul-cers are playing merry hell. Not just the Undertown, either. Lodges up top are reporting an increase in crimes of violence. Had another one this morning: some company executive cut a guy’s head off with a laser. The killer’s hysterical now: claims she doesn’t know why she did it. Centcomp says we’re dead on the percentages, though. Nothing unusual. Probably a freak statistical spike. Just get out there and pull in the suspect.’
They got.
The room was dark, apart from the glow of a desk-screen. A pair of fat hands was clasped across the surface of the desk, appearing to hover above the stream of images and data that spurted, too fast for the human eye to follow, within its crystalline depths.
The hands suddenly jerked, the fingers separating convulsively. Slowly they caressed the surface of the desk.
‘So,’ a voice crooned smugly in the darkness, ‘you return again to our little planet, Doctor, with a new face and a new friend. You must find us very interesting indeed. Almost as interesting, perhaps, as I find you. You and your fascinating and, I must say, refreshingly anachronistic craft.’
The voice’s owner chuckled.
‘After all,’ it continued, ‘I must be the only man alive who still remembers police boxes.’
23
Chapter 2
‘I’m Evan Claple and this is The Empire Today , on the spot, on and off the Earth. Today’s news: Imperial fleets devastate the planet Jal-lafillia, bringing the insurrection to a close. We have live footage of the execution of the alien ringleaders. Also: controversy as a leaked Imperial report recommends that the Undertowns be razed to the ground, and their inhabitants with them . . . ’
While Cwej powered up the least battered flitter on the raft, Forrester accessed centcomp for the location of the murder and programmed their destination into the vehicle’s navicomp.
‘Roz Forrester . . . ’ Cwej mused as they lifted off and skimmed close to the scummy surface of the water. His furry, snub-nosed face was screwed up into a caricature snarl. ‘I know that name. I know that name.’ His face suddenly brightened. ‘Hey,’ he said, ‘you’re not the Roz Forrester who eats idents, are you?’
Here we go, Forrester thought. They’ll never let me forget it. ‘Yeah. The same.’
‘Wow!’ It’s one of