Doctor Who_ So Vile a Sin - Ben Aaronovitch [30]
Thank Goddess the sirens weren’t between her and where she needed to get.
The N-form caught up with her in the foundry. The sound of it vomiting out through a tear in space-time was magnified by the slab-sided shapes of the dead machinery. There was nothing left of Mei Feng any more, at least nothing visible.
Roz stood very still, as though petrified by terror. She backed away slowly as Mei Feng came forward.
‘Did you really think you could get away?’ said the N-form, in a calm and reasonable voice.
‘Listen,’ said Roz. She held out the DataStream™ she was holding. ‘Everything I learnt is here in this palmtop. You can take it, no one else knows. You can let me go.’ She rubbed her thumb across a button on the DataStream.
Mei Feng continued to wobble towards her. ‘We know all about your encounter with our sibling, but that was a damaged unit, whereas we are fully functional. We assure you that we will not make the same mistakes –’
One million tons of dwarf star alloy smashed down on the N-form from above. The concussion knocked Roz on to her back.
‘Goddess,’ she said out loud. ‘That thing liked to talk.’
She found another hotel room, crawled inside, and smoked an entire pack of Yemaya Strikes.
Outside, she could hear sirens everywhere. Given what had happened the last time they’d encountered an N-form, she’d managed to keep the damage down to a surprising minimum.
Given what had happened last time.
They’d be coming for her, Mr Cheesecloth and whoever he was working for. Even a green-walled, cigarette-burnt hole like this one would have some securicam, somewhere. She was surprised they hadn’t got here already. Maybe she’d just given them one hell of a fright, and they were waiting to see what she’d do next.
73
The gun was in her hand and aimed before she even knew it.
‘Who the living hell are you!’ she yelled.
The tall, curly-headed stranger just raised his hands. ‘It’s me,’
he said.
‘Jesus,’ coughed Roz. ‘I nearly swallowed my cigarette. Who are you?’
‘I’m the Doctor,’ said the stranger.
She looked at him. She’d never seen him before. Tall, his curly head nearly bumping on the low ceiling. He was wearing a coat like a fairground performer. She half expected him to start juggling.
‘Or at least, I might have been.’
‘What?’
‘I’m on Iphigenia, Roz. I need your help. Desperately. Come at once. Aulis. You won’t miss it.’
‘What do you mean, you might have been the Doctor?’
‘If you don’t reach Iphigenia right away,’ said the maybe-Doctor, ‘I won’t have been. No one will have been. There’ll have been no one to tell you not to spoil your tea with sweetener.’
Roz stared at him. She reached for her money belt, on the end of the bed. ‘I’m on my –’
She looked up. He was gone.
She pulled on her shoes, swearing. She didn’t know what the hell that had all been about, but she did know one thing.
Whatever was on Iphigenia was so dangerous that not only shouldn’t she go there, but the Doctor shouldn’t have gone there either.
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2
Iphigenia
5 January 2982
Bruchac was going over the pre-flight checklist when he saw the guy waving at him from the tarmac. He put down his DataStream clipboard and walked down to the main airlock of the Hopper, halfway down the length of the little intersystem shuttle.
The safeties were off in Aegisthus’s artificial atmosphere, both doors open.
The guy was standing beneath the airlock, the wind blowing his blond hair around. ‘Hi,’ he said, waving an ID. ‘Biocustoms. Can you let me up?’
Bruchac hit the extend-ladder button with his toe. The guy grabbed hold of it and hauled himself up, work case tucked under his arm. He was tall and muscular, filling out his blue uniform.
The yellow and black flash of Aegisthus Biocustoms bulged on his left breast.
‘Thanks.’ The guy smiled. There was an environmental mask slung around his neck. ‘Charter Pilot Leo Bruchac, right?’
‘Why didn’t you radio ahead?’ said Bruchac. ‘I’m due for pushback in twenty.’
‘I’m in a hurry.’ The customs guy snapped open the work case, consulted the screen in the lid. ‘Is this your ship?