Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [92]
He turned and walked away. Bernice watched him go.
‘Bit more businesslike when he’s working, isn’t he?’
‘Don’t underestimate him. Stoned or sober, Dantalion is a force to be reckoned with.’
‘A being after my own heart.’
156
‘Don’t say that,’ Forrester cautioned. ‘There’ve been rumours about illegal organ-trafficking in the Undertown for years.’
They followed Dantalion out of the church proper and into a side room that was lined with velvet curtains. Dantalion plumped himself into a chair of alien design and gestured them towards a rough pew. Forrester noted Bernice’s quick appraisal.
‘Genuine,’ Bernice said appreciatively. ‘Like the rest of the church.’
‘St James Garlikhythe,’ Dantalion said. ‘Such poetry in the names you humans give to your places of worship. This building – or rather, the shell of this building – is over one and a half thousand Earth years in age. That’s older than me!’ He giggled, then, just as quickly, became serious again. ‘And so to the sordid question of recompense.’
Forrester decided to forestall the hours of delicate negotiation that she could see looming on the horizon.
‘We can pay whenever you ask,’ she said.
Dantalion sighed.
‘You will never make a good businesswoman,’ he said. ‘Just as you never made a good Adjudicator. Always too willing to hit when a hint might succeed.
But no matter. I do not require your money. There are more important things you can give me.’
‘Such as?’ Forrester was wary.
‘Two things I require of you. Just two. Merely two.’
‘Such as?’
Unruffled, he continued: ‘Firstly, information. Two Adjudicators, one of them badly injured, both of them on the run, correct?’
She hesitated, wondering how much information she could afford to give him. How much did he already know?
‘Correct,’ she said reluctantly.
‘And they were running from an attack in a flitterpark in the Spaceport Five Overcity, above our heads, yes? An attack carried out by robots of unusual design?’
‘Word travels fast.’
‘And they cannot ask for help from the Order of Adjudicators. Why is that, I ask myself?’
Forrester looked helplessly at Bernice, who just shrugged. Thanks a lot, Forrester thought.
‘Let me help,’ Dantalion continued. ‘Could it be because they believe that the Order of Adjudicators is itself implicated?’
Forrester just nodded mutely.
‘The Adjudication service. Always so aloof. So secretive. So proud of its impartiality.’ Dantalion took a sip at an oddly shaped glass of cloudy liquid.
157
Forrester caught the sharp tang of juke. If he kept drinking that stuff, he would rot away from the inside, smiling all the time.
‘And all this,’ he continued, ‘all this . . . is because the two Adjudicators in question did not believe the “official” verdict that an old human female called Annie Falvoriss killed an old Filth male named Waiting for Justice?’
‘You’ve got excellent sources.’
‘Your warden – Lubineki, I believe his name is – in the Spaceport Five Undertown Lodge. An excellent man who commands my admiration in great quantities. And so inexpensive.’
Forrester felt a cold hand clutch at her guts. Was there a straight Adjudicator anywhere apart from her and Cwej?
‘Waiting for Justice and Annie,’ he mused. ‘They were friends of mine. I don’t make friends easily, you may be shocked to learn. Many people will not associate with an “alien”, and those enlightened ones who will don’t particularly like juke-drinkers. But they were different. I liked them. We used to talk.’
He sipped at his drink again, and Forrester thought she could see something sloshing around inside the glass; something that kept moving when the drink stopped.
‘Waiting for Justice didn’t kill Annie,’ he continued. ‘Some kind of robot did. The same kind of robot that attacked you in the Overcity.’
‘You saw it?’ Forrester