Doctor Who_ So Vile a Sin - Ben Aaronovitch [112]
He changed again, flowing back into his own shape. Sweat was running down into his eyes. He moved trembling fingers over his brow. They felt insubstantial, fading.
Walid felt safe. Too safe. Safe enough to let his allies crawl out of the shadows in his own palace. He wasn’t even here, he’d left them to it.
‘This is what Zatopek told you,’ he breathed. ‘He must have seen the pattern of the ley lines. Learnt that one passes right through Earth’s solar system. That’s what attracted the N-form we encountered in 1987.’
The Doctor had counted twelve alternatives so far. Presumably they couldn’t use any of the timelines where he was dead. There must be thousands of those. That left all the different paths his life hadn’t taken.
‘One of these selves,’ said the Brotherhood, ‘will tell us what we need to know.’
‘There must be another Nexus here,’ said the Doctor. ‘Hidden somewhere in Earth’s solar system. There are only a few places it might be concealed.’ He heard his voice changing as the probability intercession gripped him again, flowing over him.
‘You only think you can control your pet Nexus. Otherwise you wouldn’t need my help.’
‘Who is this?’
The Doctor wore full ceremonial Time Lord robes. He lifted a hand to his curly hair. ‘This is an earlier version of myself who became President of the Time Lords.’
‘We must remember that one,’ said the Brotherhood. ‘Shall we continue?’
The Doctor looked at him as his face flowed back. ‘Yes,’ he said.
Chris shook his head. He felt as though he was being rebooted, like a primitive computer. ‘Cold start,’ he said.
Shhh, said the Brotherhood. Don’t use your mouth.
‘My mouth?’ said Chris.
261
Don’t use your mouth, repeated the Brotherhood.
Chris realized he was slumped forward in his chair, as though he’d nodded off. He sat up straight.
Nothing had changed. He was still sitting in the gazebo, on a long Callisto morning, facing what the Brotherhood had done to Iaomnet.
Everything has changed, said the Brotherhood.
Chris looked at himself. He was wearing black. Tight black trousers, black shirt with a high collar, tall black boots with four wraparound buckles. His big jacket was hanging over the back of the chair.
His normal uniform, then. He looked at the rank flash over his left breast. A balance, bright red. He was still the Pontifex Saecularis, then.
Everything has changed, the Brotherhood insisted.
Chris listened.
There were two guards behind him. One was bored by all the weirdness, and was admiring the garden, because he’d been stuck on a courier run for over a week and it was nice to be breathing fresh air again. The other was focused, watching Chris’s back for the slightest sign of trouble, determined to do his job right for the Emperor. Both of them were Brotherhood operatives, not psis, just hired muscle.
‘What have you done to me?’ he said cautiously.
The Brotherhood said, in one hundred and seven perfectly clear voices, You are one of us now. Not one of the gestalt. One of the Brotherhood. Tell us everything you know about the Nexus. Help us. Join us. You are us.
‘We were right,’ said Chris. ‘There is another Nexus. Another fake crater. On Tethys. That’s why the Brotherhood was there, in the Temple of the Goddess.’
The Brotherhood just watched him. He needed to stall for time, find out what was going on. ‘What are you waiting for?’ he said.
He stood up, pulling on his jacket, smoothing the shoulders so the red epaulettes sat straight. ‘What do you expect me to do?’
What you did on Yemaya, said the Brotherhood patiently.
‘You’re going to do this to everybody,’ he said. ‘You know what it is and you know how to use it.’ Goddess, it was obvious 262
now, the investigation coming together. ‘No. You don’t know how to use it. Just a little bit. Just enough to twist those poor people into monsters. Just enough to make little changes. You switched allegiance from Armand to Walid when you saw which one had the best chance of becoming Emperor. Do you know what I did on Yemaya?