• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

They grabbed at him, and he tried to protest, pushing them away with hands that had become as soft and useless as marshmallows. They pulled off his clothes, stuffing them into labelled plastic bags.

‘Right,’ someone ordered. ‘Tiller, Heer, Weatherford, out of here.’

Chris pulled himself into a hunched sitting position and looked up. He was in some kind of clinic. The light seemed to go right through his face and bounce off the back of his skull.

The door slammed behind a middle-aged woman in street clothes and a man in a white coat, like a cartoon scientist.

The woman was holding a gun. She wasn’t pointing it at him, just holding it, the way the scientist was holding his clipboard.

‘Who are you people?’ exploded Cwej. He wanted to get to his feet, but a combination of dizziness and modesty kept him on the floor. ‘If I’m under arrest, you’ve got to tell me what the charge is, and where I am.’

The woman said, ‘I want a full medical. Blood and tissue samples, X-rays, the lot. If you find anything out of the ordinary, no matter how trivial, I want to know about it. And get his fingerprints checked out.’

‘Right,’ said the scientist. ‘Get on the scales.’

It took Chris a moment to realize the man was talking to him. ‘Like fun I will,’ he said.

‘I’ll get you some assistants,’ said the woman, going to the door. ‘And for God’s sake, if you kill him, get him to dissection straight away this time, will you?’

17 Rescue

Tony was sitting at one of the tables, drinking Tzun food supplement through a straw. Joel was fidgeting behind the counter, Nelson the cat circling round his ankle. Albinex stood at the window, watching the Admiral overseeing the evacuation. The volunteers had started arriving a few hours after the call had gone out.

Isaac was going over their routes once again, making sure the aliens were carefully hidden under blankets and bundles. The volunteers had done this a few times now. But this time there were lines of worry on foreheads. One couple had even packed up and gone home once they’d learnt the situation.

‘This is awful,’ said Joel. ‘I hate waiting like this. If only we had a clue. Just any kind of lead at all.’

Tony sat bolt upright. ‘Where’s Graeme?’

Albinex looked behind the counter. ‘I don’t see him.’

‘I’m getting a message,’ said Tony. He tilted his head in an almost human gesture, as though listening to a faint voice.

Albinex sat down opposite the disguised Tzun. ‘What is it?’ he said. ‘What’s the message?’

‘He’s... he’s in a bag. At a house. He got inside someone’s bag.’ Tony’s hologram eyes widened. ‘It’s that woman who came to visit the Doctor this afternoon.’

‘The one who was in the bookshop?’

Tony nodded. ‘The house is far away. It’s full of soldiers.

It’s — that’s Chris! That’s the Doctor’s companion!’ ‘Rock and roll!’ said Joel. ‘Smarter than the average spatula!’ Albinex said, ‘Can he guide us there?’ Tony nodded. ‘I can follow his telepathic transmission.’ ‘I’ll get the Admiral,’ said Albinex.

‘Hang on,’ said Joel. ‘My car’s a write-off, and we can’t all fit into yours.’

They looked at one another.

‘There’s only one thing for it,’ said Joel.

The Doctor drove on the way back, his mouth drawn into a tight line. Roz cradled the ghost-detector in her lap. There hadn’t been a peep out of it.

‘We’ll find him,’ she said. ‘We’ll find all of them.’

He glanced at her, sideways. ‘I was counting on you to be the pessimist I could disagree with.’

Roz didn’t smile. ‘The truth is, wherever they are, they’re probably causing as much trouble as they can manage. Chris can take care of himself. And from everything I’ve heard about Jason, so can he.’

‘If we just had one proper lead,’ said the Doctor. ‘To tell you the truth, I feel... I feel unrehearsed. I didn’t know about any of this. There wasn’t time to prepare.’

‘It’s not the first time we’ve walked into a new and dangerous situation without a map,’ said Roz. ‘And it won’t be the last.’

‘I don’t want to lose one of you because I didn’t see it coming,’ said the Doctor,