Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [49]
She pushed open the lounge door and stepped out into the cool of the hallway. There was definitely a noise. She could hear something rustling, shuffling. She looked back into the lounge. Her parents were leaning forward, captivated by something happening on the screen. Freel knew that she would only get shouted at if she disturbed them again.
Sighing she edged forward. The hall was dark, with long shadows cast from outside. Freel didn’t like the hallway. It was the one place in the house that monsters could lurk. Her parents kept telling her that she was stupid, that there were no monsters on Blinni-Gaar, but Freel knew better.
A gust of wind blew leaves against the front door, making her jump. She crept forward, listening. There. That noise again. A dragging, a shuffling. It was coming from upstairs, from one of the guest rooms.
‘Gatti, is that you?’
She peered up the stairs, hoping her sister’s face would peer down at her in irritation. No one appeared.
There was a bellow of laughter from the front room.
Something was keeping her father entertained. Freel started to edge her way upstairs. The noises were getting louder. She kept telling herself that it was just a window that had come loose, curtains flapping in the wind. There were no monsters.
‘Not on Blinni-Gaar.’
She stepped on to the landing. The sounds were coming from the room of the new guest, Miss Trasker.
Freel reached out and opened the door.
And started to scream.
Maltin Rooth rolled his eyes in irritation as his daughter’s scream echoed from upstairs.
‘That dratted child again.’
Freel screamed again, louder now, pure fear in her voice.
His wife looked at him in alarm. ‘Maltin?’
He scrambled from his chair, tumbling into the hall.
‘Freel?’
His daughter appeared at the top of the stairs, her face a picture of abject terror. Maltin raced up the stairs and scooped her into his arms. ‘What is it Freel, what’s wrong?’
Freel raised a shaking arm, pointing into the guest room.
Maltin recoiled in horror. His wife started to scream.
The room was a mess, the window shattered, the furniture turned over. Amidst the chaos was a creature, its thick robes soaked with rainwater, its clawed hands raking through Rennie Trasker’s possessions.
It turned its face towards them and Maltin Rooth saw his own terrified face reflected in the glittering camera lens that was the creature’s right eye. The creature held out its twisted, broken hands. It held a press card with a photograph of Rennie Trasker.
With a sudden scream of rage and pain the creature surged forward. Maltin lashed out, bile rising in his throat as his hand connected with soft weeping flesh.
The creature tumbled down the stairs, gurgling horribly.
There was a shattering of glass as the front door was torn from its hinges, then silence save for the sobbing of Freel and the babble of the television in the front room.
Chapter Thirteen
Ace and Gatti huddled behind the bulk of a huge boiler. Ahead of them Trasker crept through the shadows. As soon as they had got inside the building she had led them down a stairwell into the service levels. The basement was vast, a tangle of pipes and corridors stretching back into the mountainside.
The only people they had seen were cleaners and service robots. They had been given a few curious glances, but no one had stopped them.
Ace didn’t like it. She felt trapped. The ceilings were low and if they were seen by the commissionaires escape was going to be difficult.
Trasker came back and pointed at a stairway ahead of them. ‘The newsroom is just at the top of those stairs. I’m going to get up there, check things out. You two wait here.’
She hurried away, vanishing up the stairs. Gatti sank on to the floor.
‘What are you going to do when you get in there, Ace?’
Ace shrugged. ‘I’m not sure yet.’ She pulled the piton gun from her rucksack. ‘But this should help my case. I’m just after getting the Doctor out of there.’
‘And then?’ asked Gatti.
Ace slid on to the floor next to her. ‘That’s up to the Doctor. He’s been up to something, I’m not