Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [33]
‘He don’t want to waste no time with you,’ said the tall man.
‘I think he might want to, considering what I’ve got to say to him.
Trust me, the good “Professor” there is best off putting himself in my, uh, protective custody.’
Godlove gave the Doctor a sly smile and a shake of the head, and then he retreated from the window, disappearing into the shadows of the saloon.
‘Reckon that answers that,’ said the brother on the right.
The Doctor held up a hand. ‘No, look, you don’t understand. His life is in danger. Everybody in this town is in danger. People have already been killed.’ He pointed at the Lyles. ‘You could be next!’
The tall man made a mock-concerned face. ‘Why, did you hear that?
Sounded like a threat to me.’
‘Yup,’ chorused the other brothers.
‘We don’t take kindly to those.’
And all at once the Doctor noticed that the other townsfolk were ducking into doorways and shutting them, closing windows and pulling down blinds. He backed off a step and the Lyle brothers followed him out onto the street.
The inside of the wagon was a mess of boxes, with a makeshift work-top and big pottery jugs dangling from ropes. Martha picked one at random, uncorked it and took a sniff, The powerful stench of smelling salts hit her like a smack in the face and she reeled back, her eyes watering. ‘Ugh. Lovely.’ She found bottles of rot-gut whiskey and parcels of stale old beef jerky, wads of roughly printed fly-posters announcing Godlove’s genius to the world, and a crate filled with brown bottles of his ‘panacea’, identical to the one that Jenny Forrest had shown them.
But nothing weird. Nothing strange or peculiar. Martha pouted.
She had been expecting to come across, oh, a glowing crystal? Some creature living in a cage, maybe even a time machine like the Doctor’s TARDIS. Not stinky bottles and unwashed clothes; but then again, she 82
reasoned, the wagon was Godlove’s mobile home, and most single guys didn’t clean up very well after themselves.
Her foot nudged a metal box and Martha paused. Hidden under a grubby blanket she found a small iron chest. The latch came open easily in her hands and her eyes widened. Inside there was a fortune in jewellery, thick wads of big paper dollars and cloth bags that rattled with coins. She didn’t know what counted as being rich in the Wild West, but Martha imagined it wasn’t far off this lot. And there was another strongbox, just the same – only this one had a padlock on it.
She tested the thing’s weight and it was light, rattling slightly.
Martha hesitated. That didn’t make sense. The unlocked box had all this money in it, but the locked one felt like it was practically empty.
‘What’s up with that?’ she said aloud.
The axle of the wagon dipped, creaking as someone limbed onto the back steps, and Martha turned. ‘Nathan, I said wait outside.’
The boy came through the canvas door flap but said nothing, because there was a man holding a hunting knife at his shoulder. The young man’s dark, leathery face was morose.
‘You,’ said the Pawnee. ‘You should not have come here.’
Martha was careful not to make any sudden moves. ‘I think you might be right.’
He glanced at the knife and sighed; then he did something she definitely didn’t expect. He put the blade away and let Nathan go. ‘I warned him,’ he said, sitting down on a box. ‘I warned him that one day someone would come looking. It was only a matter of time.’ He shook his head. ‘I always knew no good would come of it.’
‘Of what?’ Nathan ventured.
‘The cure-all.’
‘Three against one. That’s hardly fair, is it?’ The Doctor kept his hands up, trying to look harmless.
‘Nope,’ agreed one of the brothers. ‘But then, life ain’t fair neither.’
He pressed on. ‘I’m sure we could work out a less violent solution to this, uh, situation. Perhaps I could speak to the town sheriff?’
83
The taller Lyle smirked. ‘Why, sure thing. You just wait five minutes.
Then we’ll be sure to put you on the pile with him and all t’other deaders who perished