Doctor Who_ So Vile a Sin - Ben Aaronovitch [103]
‘When we first met,’ said Armand, ‘you were full of praise for the Brotherhood. All the things they’d accomplished, their secret positions of power and influence. You sold them to me, Emil.’
‘It wasn’t hard,’ said Zatopek. ‘You wanted to be Emperor so much your teeth hurt. Didn’t you?’
‘You know,’ said Duke Armand, ‘I’ve never been to Zanzibar.’
‘I have,’ said his guest. ‘I was there when Vasco da Gama sailed into the harbour in 1499.’
‘I knew it was you, Doctor,’ said Armand. He drained the last of his coffee. ‘Even before you made that little slip.’
‘Did I omit a coded greeting?’ said the Doctor. ‘Does the real Zatopek hate coffee?’
‘No,’ said a voice from the doorway. Armand watched as the Doctor looked up, raising an eyebrow.
‘Hello again, Emil,’ he said.
Emil Zatopek walked into the room, slowly. He was supported by one of Armand’s nursing staff, a woman in a stiff white 238
uniform. She helped him into a chair, and stood behind it, managing not to stare at the Doctor.
Armand looked between them. At first glance, you might not realize they were identical. Zatopek wore a loose-fitting, dark-red suit, stylish in comparison with the Doctor’s battered tweed.
But it was much more than that. Zatopek had aged. His hair was rich with grey, his face heavy with wrinkles. The irises of his eyes were flecked with white, and his hands shook as they held the arms of his chair.
‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ said Zatopek. ‘I knew you’d be drawn here to me.’
‘You were wrong,’ said the Doctor.
‘Look at me!’ insisted the psychokinetic. ‘You must feel a connection with me. When the Nexus exploded, your timeline shattered. Every possibility of your life, past and present, exploding outwards in your own personal Big Bang.’
The Doctor glanced at Armand. The Duke felt as though he was being measured, evaluated – could he understand this bizarre talk? He sat forward in his chair, listening intently.
‘And I caught one of them,’ Zatopek went on. ‘I didn’t want to.
I felt that possibility reach out and grab at me, desperate to become real. Wrapping itself around me. Suffocating me.’
‘You’re dying,’ said the Doctor. ‘You’re dying because you fought your way free of it.’
Zatopek nodded. ‘This possibility is dying, its probability falling back to zero, its time burning up.’ His cloudy eyes were fixed on the Doctor. ‘Can you get this thing off me? Can you tear this shroud away?’
The Doctor shook his head.
‘Do you want to know how he was different to you?’
‘No,’ said the Doctor.
Zatopek grinned, a crooked, insane grin, out of place on the Doctor’s face. ‘That’s good,’ he said. ‘Because I’m not going to tell you.’
Armand said, ‘So he can’t help you?’
Zatopek glared at the Duke, as though he was a child who’d spoken out of turn. ‘He can’t help me,’ he said.
‘Then I’ll have him killed. That’ll be one less problem.’
239
‘Sit still, Geoffrey,’ said Zatopek.
The Duke stared at him.
‘He can’t help either of us. He’s not our enemy any more.
We’ve both been betrayed.’ Zatopek’s voice quivered with rage.
‘I gave them the key to ultimate power, and they left me here to die.’
‘No,’ said Armand.
‘They’ve forgotten about you, Duke,’ snapped Zatopek.
‘Walid’s coronation was never part of the plan. At least, not the original plan.’
Armand got up. ‘If they want a war,’ he said, and realized he was shouting, and damn it, he had reason to shout, ‘they’ll have one, by God!’
The Doctor said, ‘Are you quite ready to go up against Walid’s army?’
‘I will be,’ said Armand. ‘I’ll build up the largest army this solar system has ever seen. I’ll tear the throne out of the House Walid.’
‘I don’t think you’ll have time,’ said the Doctor. ‘History’s moving too fast for you, Lord High Sheriff. The Brotherhood kept you quiet with promises of power, and now it’s too late for you to act. Besides, I’ve only just beaten Imperial Intelligence to your door.’
Armand slumped back into his chair. The