Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [39]
Roz Forrester stood in a doorway, looking out into the night.
It was the same doorway they’d dragged the Doctor through. Her jaw still ached from when he’d smacked his head against it, trying to break loose.
If the same thing happened to Chris, there was no way she’d be able to get him through the doorway. It had taken both of them, working together, to manage the little Time Lord.
He was out there now, somewhere in the darkness, with eight more of them. Lured out by some sort of voice. If she had heard a voice in her head, she’d have run a mile.
Preferably in the direction of a hospital.
The search parties were waiting until morning to try again. In the meantime, all they could do was watch the exits of the habitat dome. Anyone who would admit to being a telepath and who wasn’t scared stiff of psychokinesis was in Byerley’s infirmary. They could all hear the voice now. When Chris had left her to her shift on the door, Byerley had been handing out tranquillizers.
What was she going to do when she found her squire?
Going off like this was dereliction of duty. Back home, she’d have hauled his butt in front of a court martial. Here, she’d have to think of something else.
Shooting his head off presented itself as an option.
He hadn’t told her. He’d been reading her mind, for weeks, and he hadn’t told her.
Little moments were making more sense. Like how he had heard the SmithSmith girl — before Roz had noticed any noise. All that time, and he hadn’t told her. What had he dredged out of her mind, without her even knowing it? What idle thoughts had he caught?
At least it meant he really knew how angry she was. He must have caught it all, in a single unmistakable blast, when she’d told him to get out of her sight.
And perhaps that’s why he had.
The boy almost blundered into the back of her. It was Cephas, the psychokinetic who’d crashed the hovertractor, a head shorter than her.
‘Is it okay if I go outside?’ he gulped.
‘No,’ said Roz.
‘But—’ He leaned against the wall of the corridor. ‘That isn’t fair. Why do you get to say where I go?’
‘Got a double dose, did you?’ said Roz. She folded her arms, filling up the open doorway. ‘PK and TP.’
He nodded.
‘And now something out there is calling your name. And You want to go to it.’
He nodded again. His whole body was tensed up; he wanted to bolt past her, push her aside and run into the blackness. ‘Tell me why,’ she said.
‘Why what?’ said Cephas.
‘Why do you want to go to it?’
Cephas opened his mouth, shook his head.
‘How do you know it won’t kill you? Or do something worse?’ He listened, eyes on the metal floor. ‘Goddess knows you’d probably break your neck before you reached it, wandering around in the dark.’
Cephas just shook his head. ‘If you could hear it,’ he whispered, ‘you’d understand. If you could hear, you’d know.
It’s so loud... ’
A huge, invisible hand slapped Roz against the wall. She yelled in surprise and fury, keeping her head up as she rolled down. She grabbed at Cephas’s leg as he jumped over her, twisted her fingers in the cloth of his pants. He didn’t quite trip, but stood awkwardly in the mud as she snatched at him with her other hand.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, and broke her arm.
Roz shouted as the sudden force smashed down on the flesh and bone, right through the armour, breaking her radius and ulna into two pieces each and shattering the delicate bones of her wrist. She let the yell gather into a tremendous sound of agony, just let it come, curling up around the crushed limb.
‘Jesus,’ said Cephas.
She had been dimly aware of his feet pounding away across the grass. Now he was back. Why was he back? Why hadn’t he gone?
‘Are you okay?’ he said. ‘Jesus, I didn’t mean to do that.
Are you okay?’ She couldn’t answer, biting down furiously, trying to keep the sound inside her. ‘Look, I’ll go and get someone. I’ll go and get Doctor St John. All right? Stay here.’
I’m not going anywhere, she thought at his back. He turned back to look at her. ‘Jesus. I’m sorry. Just wait.’ He pelted down the corridor.
‘I’m going to kill you,’ said Forrester,