Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [12]
As she had known she would.
She stayed in the green shadows, the cold, waxy cuticle of the wall pressing against her back. Stayed silent and invisible.
‘What are you . . . going to do?’ he asked.
The tiny rasp of his voice fluttered through cold storage. Ms Cohen’s fingers were frozen to the gun as she stepped out, keeping the weapon between them.
‘Ship knows what you’re doing,’ he wheezed. ‘Interested to see what will happen.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Her fingers hurt.
‘Still think the Ants . . . in charge?’ He didn’t move as he spoke; his voice just drifted into the cold air. It was like listening to a corpse. ‘Meijer . . . far from the truth. They’re just Ship’s hands.’
‘Who’s, who’s the pilot?’
‘No-one but Ship. Perhaps, once . . . now it’s just following orders.’
The capsule had completed its thawing cycle. Now the translucent lid began to hiss open, condensation puffing into the air. The woman inside made an incoherent sound and fell out.
Meijer caught her.
He looked at the woman for a moment, holding her in the crook of one arm.
She lolled, her teeth chattering in her head. He dropped her onto the floor.
‘The whole time,’ he said, turning to Ms Cohen. ‘The whole time he was trying to get in here. Because of her.’
Ms Cohen was shaking, keeping her gun trained on 24. Half a dozen hired hands were following Meijer, flashlights pushing through the mist of condensation. The beams intersected at the crumpled little figure on the floor.
24
Meijer reached down and grabbed him. 24 made no attempt to resist as he was dragged to his feet, the same arm pulled behind his back again. The hired hand looped his other arm around 24’s throat in a mugger’s grip. The machine he had been carrying rolled away on the floor, pulsing with some internal light.
Meijer twisted his arm behind his back, wrenched until he felt muscle start to tear. ‘Scream, curse you!’ he spat. ‘Why don’t you scream?’
‘Doctor?’ said the woman on the floor. She squinted into the flashlights, limbs twitching dully. ‘What? What?’
‘So that’s what the game’s been about,’ Meijer hissed into his captive’s ear.
‘Her. What was the point? What was the crukking point?’
He tightened his grip. ‘We processed a four-year-old this morning. Subject 51. We’ll make her number fifty-two.’
With a movement that was almost graceful, Meijer twisted the arm he was holding one more notch. There was a crack.
The Doctor screamed.
The sound was cut off by an explosion. Ms Cohen forced her hands away from her ears, snapped her head around in time to see the glass cylinder smashing outwards. The light inside roared and spluttered.
Something had jumped out of the light and through the glass wall, spraying fragments in all directions. It was shaped like a human, but it glowed violently, covered in seething light, like some sort of toxic angel.
The hired hands shrieked and ran.
The light around the figure was changing as it came towards them, shading down through blue and green to a hot yellow. Ms Cohen thought she could make out features behind the light – eyes, hands. It was a woman, it was just a woman, not even armed. She had long blonde hair and a satchel slung across her shoulders.
Meijer shot at the figure, a finger of energy stabbing out of his gun to connect with the cocoon of light. The field flared and exploded upwards and outwards. The glare caught Meijer in the face and chest. His uniform and hair burst into flames. There was a sudden movement on his face – his eyes, melting –
Ms Cohen ran from cold storage, screaming and screaming like a banshee.
And now, Ms Cohen had finished remembering.
She gave one last spasm and hung loose in the chair. The Leech settled itself into a more comfortable position on her neck, waited a few seconds, and bit her spinal cord in two.
And Ship continued on.
25
Chapter 3
Interesting Times
Egestatem
Potestatem
Dissolvit ut glaciem
[Fate] dissolves poverty and power like ice.
(Carmina Burana, thirteenth century)
Near Akhetaten 1366 BCE
After a while she realized