Doctor Who_ So Vile a Sin - Ben Aaronovitch [83]
Roz switched off the news, right in the middle of a report about the Youkali hostage situation. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t trust those acolytes as far as I could throw them.’
‘That’s probably how they feel about us.’ He sat down opposite her.
‘I’m sure it is. We’re just grunts, chipping away at the coalface of law enforcement, with no formal training in legal theory. Most of this building is a library, you know – including a major Centcomp node. Computers and theoreticians churning out new laws and new commentary on the laws they just made up.’
‘You’ve been here before.’
192
‘Nope. No one comes here.’
‘So how come you know so much about it?’ Chris tapped the table top. ‘You’ve been reading up.’
Roz shook her head. ‘I considered becoming an acolyte, for a while. Once. I read up on the place then.’
Chris shook his head. ‘I can’t see it.’
‘Neither can I. But you know. It was one of those twenty-four-hour plans, where the solution to all your problems is perfectly clear for just one day… It was after I killed Martle.’
Chris looked at her in surprise, then quickly looked away, fingers drumming on the edge of the table.
‘It’s not a dirty word,’ said Roz.
‘You never talk about that,’ said Chris.
‘I dunno,’ she said. She called up the news again. ‘It doesn’t seem like such a big deal.’
‘Hey.’
‘All this history,’ said Roz. ‘Happening all around us.
Everything shifting. The Empire’s coming apart at the seams. It’s like all those possibilities spraying out of the Nexus.’
‘But –’
‘Anything could happen. So none of it matters.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ insisted Chris. ‘We do matter.’
‘It’s all so small. Don’t you see? Martle and me. You and me.’
‘Stop it,’ said Chris. He stood up suddenly, almost knocking the sofa chair over. ‘You’re getting her attention.’
‘What are you talking about?’ said Roz.
Chris turned his head from side to side, trying to hear it more clearly. ‘She’s been watching us for hours,’ he said. ‘But now you’ve gone and gotten her attention.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Roz was up, wishing she had a weapon, looking around the suite to find something that would substitute. ‘You’re not making any sense.’
He knew he wasn’t. He couldn’t stop. ‘She’s on her way,’ he said.
Roz stood up. She could feel it too, now, getting closer. ‘Shit,’
she said. ‘The Brotherhood.’
Chris felt his head filling up. He sat down again. He knew they were being attacked, some kind of psychic attack, but he didn’t 193
care. That was part of the attack, of course, but it was hard to get excited about it. Probably they’d be here in a minute, or they might just keep pushing their way into their victims’ minds, looking for information. Or looking for the off switch.
He didn’t care. She was coming. And she wasn’t part of the attack. Oh no. They didn’t even know about her.
He blinked, wondering how Roz was doing. She was behind the other sofa, hanging on to it like a life preserver, and looking at something behind him. ‘Chris!’ she said.
‘Mmm-hmm?’
‘Chris! What’s the worst thing in the world?’
He thought about it. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I suppose it’s different for everyone. What do you see?’
‘She’s scaly,’ moaned Roz. She sounded like a little kid. ‘She can see me.’
‘Scaly?’
‘She’s a reptile. She can see me, she can see me.’
‘Don’t be fooled,’ said Chris. ‘That’s not her. That’s part of the attack.’
‘Help me.’
‘You don’t need help. You only think you see her.’
‘We’re going to die,’ said Roz. She pressed her face into the sofa. ‘They’re going to kill us. I don’t understand.’
Chris got up. There was something tugging at him, something stronger than the thick blanket of ennui that had settled over him.
He walked over to where Roz was cowering. Might as well.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘She’s almost here. We don’t want to keep her waiting.’
He put his hands on Roz’s shoulders and gently pulled her to her feet. ‘No, no,’ she was muttering. Chris’s head was full of the soft humming, pushing him down to the floor to sleep, to dream and