Doctor Who_ So Vile a Sin - Ben Aaronovitch [104]
It took Zatopek two weeks to die.
The Doctor sent Chris and Roz home to Kibero. Double-eye cleaned out Armand’s palace, checking every computer and physical record, interrogating his harem and servants. They left Zatopek where he was, on the Doctor’s advice that moving him would probably kill him. Iaomnet spent a fruitless afternoon trying to get him to talk.
The Doctor stayed with him the whole time, dozing by his bed and bossing the nursing staff around. Zatopek was often delirious in the last few days.
240
Once or twice he fixed the Doctor with his nearly blind eyes.
The Time Lord had been reading the first time.
‘Kuleya will be dead by now,’ said Zatopek.
The Doctor looked up from Vurt. ‘I told Iaomnet to give her high-security protection,’ he said.
‘They’ll have installed immolate into her subconscious,’ said Zatopek. ‘It’ll activate the instant someone tries to interrogate her telepathically. They’d better be standing a little distance away.’
The Doctor silently thanked the shutterfly’s designers. ‘A cruel thing to do to a child.’
‘A tiny price to pay for liberation,’ said Zatopek. ‘The liberation of an entire species, Doctor. How many lives is that worth?’ He fell asleep again.
Sometimes the Doctor tried to guess what had gone differently in this alternative Doctor’s life. Had he decided against destroying Skaro, leaving billions to be killed or enslaved by the Daleks? Had he found a way to stop Kopyion destroying the Seven Planets? Or had he just had cornflakes instead of scrambled eggs for breakfast one morning?
The next time Zatopek woke, he said, ‘No more silence, Doctor. Imagine it. We are the real human beings. It’s our responsibility, you see. Our responsibility to bring them across.’
‘You thought Aulis Crater would contain the answer, didn’t you?’ said the Doctor. ‘You thought that whatever was there would make your dream come true.’
Zatopek nodded. ‘We detected its psychic leakage. I believed it to be some kind of massive psi generator. We didn’t realize it was something even more powerful, more precious.’
‘You said you gave them – the Brotherhood? – the key to ultimate power. What did you tell them?’ Zatopek just looked away.
The Doctor said, ‘Armand was just a cover, wasn’t he?’
‘Yes. Of course. They never had any intention of making him Emperor, any more than they intended to help me. The Duke was just something to keep the double-eyes occupied while we attended to the real work.’
‘And what is the real work, Emil?’
241
He just smiled, a nasty, fading smile. ‘You will find out, Doctor,’ he said. ‘You will find them, I have complete confidence in you. Hopefully it will result in your mutual destruction.’
Five hours later, he died.
He never did tell the Doctor which alternative he was.
242
Interlude
1 September 2982
The Doctor opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a clock.
Two hours since Roz’s funeral. It would all be over by now.
Someone in a white medic’s uniform was standing over him, holding a handscan. He pushed the man’s hand away. ‘Please,’ he said. ‘I just need to rest. Please.’
His eyes closed of their own accord. Dimly he heard Chris telling the medic, ‘Take his word for it.’ There was a muttered conversation, drowned out by the sudden clenching of his left heart like a fist around a broken glass, the red rushing noise in his ears.
He opened his eyes again. The clock had jumped forward a quarter of an hour. The wall of the medical shuttle curved up and over to his right; a plastic curtain hid the rest of the vehicle to his left. They’d left him alone, covered with a thin blanket, a scattering of cool electrodes across his chest.
His right shoulder ached, inexplicably. He closed his eyes again.
His left heart clenched. He felt the sweat start out of his forehead. His body was still trying to heal the damage done by the heart attack, nanites racing to tear up the dead tissue, build fresh muscle in its place. Struggling to hold back death.