Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [39]
To be afraid and still to defy what terrified you, that was the real measure of it. She found herself stepping up, head held high, walking tall.
‘I’ve faced Judoon enforcers. Carrionites. Killer scarecrows. I’ve looked Daleks right in the eyestalk.’ She fought down a tremor in her voice. ‘I’m not going to back down to these creeps.’ Martha filled her lungs and shouted. ‘Oi! Leave those people alone!’
96
Kutter and Tangleleg both stopped instantly and turned as one to see who had dared to interrupt them. Kutter’s eyes narrowed under his broad preacher hat. ‘You.’ He glanced at Nathan. ‘And the young one.’
‘How did you get here before us?’ demanded Tangleleg.
‘Shortcut,’ Martha spat. ‘What’s it to you?’ She came to a halt and stood before them, hands on her hips. She stood like that so they couldn’t see the trembling in her fingers.
‘You lied to us,’ said Kutter. ‘That was a mistake.’ The stink of his breath, like rotting meat, wafted over her. The outlaws reeked of decay.
Tangleleg nodded at the men who had been lashed to their horses.
‘Found these two on the trail. Learned the truth from them. Came here instead.’
‘Tactical error on your part,’ continued Kutter. He said the words awkwardly, as if his mouth wasn’t used to saying such things. ‘Misdi-rection ploy failed.’ The clipped, almost mechanical words sounded strange with the outlaw’s thick Midwestern accent.
‘You know what we want.’ Tangleleg twisted the barrel of his gun and panned it down the length of the street, wavering over different targets as the people ran for cover. ‘Where is the –’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Martha broke in. ‘ Where is the healer? We’ve heard it all before. What does it matter to you? Why do you care where Godlove is?’
The two men glanced at each other, then back at Martha. ‘Answer or die.’ Kutter aimed his massive pistol at the woman and the boy.
‘You missed him, you lousy crow-bait!’ Nathan hissed angrily. ‘You gotta be the worst bounty hunters ever, you couldn’t find your backsides with both hands!’
Kutter studied Nathan for a moment and then pulled the trigger; but instead of a thunderclap of destructive white lightning, his gun emitted a cone of orange light that swept over Martha and the youth.
Her skin tingled as it touched her.
Tangleleg watched. ‘Evaluation?’
97
‘The younger one has been marked,’ Kutter said carefully. ‘Residual traces. The female. . . ’ He paused. ‘It’s unclear.’
Both men tipped back their heads, opening their mouths slightly, and an insectile buzzing rattled in their throats.
‘What’s that sound?’ said Nathan.
With a sudden flash of understanding, Martha realised what they were doing, She remembered picking up the phone at Leo’s place when he’d been using his laptop to dial up the internet. The sound of the computer sending data had been almost the same. ‘They’re sharing information.’
At once, both of the longriders fell silent and turned to glare at Martha. ‘If the healer is not here, then this settlement will be destroyed,’ Kutter growled.
‘Punitive strike,’ added Tangleleg, and he fired a pulse of hard light into the feed store across the street, blasting flame across the clapboard building.
‘That is enough!’ Martha shouted.
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor, ‘it is.’
He strolled out across the street from an alley with Walking Crow a few steps behind him. He gave Martha a serious nod. ‘I’ll take it from here.’
‘Gladly,’ she said, blowing out a breath. Trying to be as bold as the Doctor, even for a moment, wasn’t easy.
‘The other,’ noted Tangleleg. ‘The offworlder.’
Kutter nodded but said nothing as the Doctor took off his hat and handed it to Nathan. ‘Statement. I invoke the 15th convention of the Shadow Proclamation. Cessation of hostilities for parlay. Accept or deny?’
After a moment of hesitation, both longriders spoke as one.