• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Dot realised she was standing next to the Doctor, the door to the Other Room pushed open behind her. He was lying on the desk, head resting on his arms, where he’d fallen when White had let him go. The Colonel glanced up at her, dismissed her.

She hadn’t noticed before that his eyes were two different colours — no, they were both blue, but the cornea of one was stained with blood. He nodded at her, gripping her hand as she helped him sit up.

That had been an hour ago. Dot lay on her side on the gurney, knees drawn up to her chest. She wondered what he had bought with a little piece of his mind. She hoped it had been something worthwhile.

It wasn’t the same room. Benny was fairly sure of that. She couldn’t see much of it, lying on the floor with the nerve block pushed into her neck, loose as a rag-doll. But she fancied that the walls were a slightly different shade of white.

She was starting to see things. Already she had lost her grip on how far away the ceiling was. It seemed to loom low, blurring at the edges of her vision.

All right. How long before her cheese slipped right off her cracker? She wasn’t even sure how long she’d been here.

Madhanagopal had shot her up with his experimental memory RNA, replaced the nerve block, had his lackeys wheel her back here and dump her.

Time. How much time was passing? She’d tried to count heartbeats, found herself drifting off into nonsense. She tried to meditate, but couldn’t remember how. How long did he plan to keep her here — keep them here — trapped like this, paralysed like this?

The door slammed open. She rolled her eyes, trying to see what was happening.

Two people in masks and gowns dropped Roz onto the floor next to her. The older woman’s head and shoulder hit the plastic with a thunk. Roz’s eyes were open.

The door slammed. Roz and Benny looked at each other.

Someone put their hand on the back of Benny’s neck.

She made a noise, tried to squirm. There couldn’t be anyone else in here! But she could feel the hand, fingertips working at the piece of metal in her neck.

A sharp pain shot down her arms. She reached back, convulsively, and snatched the thing out of her flesh.

It rolled out of her spasming grip, fell away across the floor. She leapt up and immediately fell over, pulled herself onto her knees, looked around wildly, her head spinning, blood dribbling down her neck. What was going on?

She gingerly pulled the nerve block out of the top of Roz’s spine. The Adjudicator stretched like a cat, almost involuntarily, her back arching and her arms reaching out.

Then she swore and swore and swore and swore and swore.

‘All right?’ said Benny hoarsely, sitting down next to her.

Roz had ended up half curled, lying on her side on the floor, staring at the opposite wall. For a nasty moment, Benny thought she’d left her groceries at the supermarket.

‘All right,’ she said gruffly. ‘Benny, if I get near Madhanagopal, I am going to have to kill him.’

‘But that would mean blowing our cover.’

‘I’m not joking.’

‘I suppose I’ll have to stop you, then,’ said Benny, rubbing her neck. It was sore and inflamed where the block had been, but the bleeding was slowing. ‘On the other hand, maybe I’ll have to wash my hair that night.’

‘How’d you get loose?’

‘I’m not sure. It shorted out or something.’

There was a loud clunk. They both jumped up, looked around frantically.

‘The door,’ said Roz. She grabbed the handle, wrenched it open. There was no-one outside.

The two women looked at one another. ‘FLORANCE?’

said Roz.

‘She’ll be long gone.’

‘GRUMPY.’

‘Let’s get the cruk out of here,’ said Benny. ‘We’ll worry about the exposition later.’

Deep inside the colony’s mainframe, where the DKC

technicians couldn’t pry, three computer programs were having the equivalent of a hasty, whispered discussion.

‘I don’t have any problems with trusting him,’ said BAR B.

‘He hasn’t lied to us, or not done anything he said he would.’

‘I don’t know what