Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [34]
The Doctor stopped backing away and drew himself up. ‘All right then,’ he replied, steel in his voice. ‘If that’s the way it’s got to be. You boys want to throw down?’ He adjusted his hat and gave them a level stare. ‘I’m willing to oblige you.’
His sudden change in manner brought the Lyle brothers up short.
They weren’t used to facing people who stood up to them, that was clear. The Doctor took a quick glance left and right, making sure that there were no bystanders around who might get caught in the crossfire. He allowed a slow smile to cross his lips.
‘Why, this fella’s itching to buck out.’ The taller brother returned a cold grin. ‘ Draw!’
There was a flash of motion and three guns cleared leather, fast as striking snakes.
Alvin was swinging into the saddle of the horse he had stolen from the hitching post behind the Pioneer when the sounds of gunshots rippled through the air. He grinned wolfishly, and dug his heels into the animal’s flanks, urging it on and out of Ironhill in a headlong gallop.
He didn’t look back.
‘My name is Walking Crow,’ said the man. ‘I have been travelling with Godlove for two years now.’
‘Why?’ asked Nathan. ‘You’re Pawnee, ain’t you? Why aren’t you with your tribe?’
‘I am disgraced,’ came the dour reply. ‘I would be dead now, if not for Godlove. He won my life in a game of chance, and I have been with him ever since.’
‘You’re his slave?’ Martha was disgusted.
Walking Crow began to shake his head, but suddenly the sharp report of gunfire cut through the air.
84
Nathan started. ‘Remington .44s!’ He gasped. ‘I’d know the sound of ’em anywhere.’
Martha’s blood ran cold. ‘Doctor?’
The Lyle brothers were quick on the draw, and they put a fan of bullets into the air before them; but they could only be as fast as human beings.
The Doctor was a Time Lord, and he moved between the ticks of the clock. His hand blurred towards the holster on his hip, grabbing the slender wand there and thumbing the activation switch. The sonic screwdriver droned loudly, and the air between the gunslingers and the Doctor shimmered like heat-haze off the desert. Three speeding dots of lead stopped dead and flattened against an invisible wall of sound, before falling harmlessly to the dirt.
‘What th-?’ The eldest Lyle gawked. His aim had been true; the talkative stranger in the brown coat should have been laid out and croaking his last.
‘I warned you,’ growled the Doctor. He adjusted the gain on the sonic and it buzzed, a wasp-storm sound that hammered at the ears of the brothers.
All three of them looked down at the guns in their hands as the weapons began to vibrate and tremble, rattling furiously. The Doctor kept the sonic trained on them and, with a sudden clatter of metal, each brother’s revolver came to pieces in his grip. Screws and bolts, barrel and bullets, the components of the pistols fell apart leaving them unarmed and most certainly shocked into silence.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow and switched off the vibration pulse, raising the screwdriver’s tip to his lips. He blew imaginary smoke from the end and eyed the Lyles. ‘Don’t let me see you three rattlesnakes in this town again, you hear?’
They turned and fled, as Martha and Nathan emerged from a side street with a Pawnee brave following behind them.
‘Doctor!’ she called, ‘We heard shots, are you OK?’
He twirled the sonic and holstered it. ‘I’m all-a-settlin’, as they say around here. Intact and undamaged, thank you.’
85
Nathan nudged at the broken pieces of gun with his boot. ‘How’d you manage this, Doc?’
‘Easy,’ he sniffed. ‘Focused molecular frequency wave. Brilliant for taking things to bits in a jiffy.’ He glanced at the Pawnee. ‘I know you.
You were watching us when we rode into town.’
‘Doctor, this is Walking Crow,’ said Martha. ‘Alvin’s, uh, assistant.’
He walked forward and made a ritual sign. Walking Crow covered a look of surprise and returned the gesture. ‘You know my Nation?’
he asked.
‘I do. I’m proud to say I’m a friend to all tribes. Some of them call