Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [43]
‘What’s happening?’ the dolphin asked.
‘We can wait no longer,’ said Mottrack. ‘Set maximum drive for Coralee.’
Ace must have walked the beach for about two hours. She watched one of Coralee’s suns rise over sea while the other was still an orange glow.
She’d gone back to the hotel but had been unable to sleep. Where the hell was the Doctor?
‘I had a hunch I’d find you here.’
Ace spun around, poised to run. Rajiid was smiling at her.
‘Sorry I blew you out earlier,’ said Ace. ‘Stuff I had to do for the Doctor.’
‘It’s OK, said Rajiid. ‘I wasn’t in much of a party mood anyway.’
‘I know what you mean,’ said Ace. ‘We came here for a holiday.’
She sniffed, derisively. ‘Fat chance...’
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She was suddenly aware of soft footfalls running along the sand behind them. She and Rajiid turned at the same time.
‘Troy,’ she said in surprise. The boy from the beach.
The lad appeared agitated. In the distance behind him, where the sand gave way to low cliffs, a group of his contemporaries was huddled around something. Troy beckoned urgently to Ace.
‘OK, OK,’ said Ace. ‘We’re coming. What is it?’
‘In the old shuttle wreck,’ Troy said. ‘I’ll show you.’
They followed him at a trot along the beach. A crowd of kids was gathered around a cluster of rusted metal that stuck out from the sand like the ribcage of a metal animal. As the three of them approached Ace could see the shape of a small shuttlecraft, long since gutted. The kids were sticking their heads into it and jabbering loudly to each other.
‘There’s something in there,’ said Troy. ‘A dead thing. No one’ll go in.’
Ace peered into the tangle of the wreck. Thick cables and rusted beams formed an artificial cavern.
‘Let me, said Rajiid, squeezing past Ace and into the wreck. Ace squeezed through behind him.
‘It’s over by the far wall,’ Troy called from outside.
Ace could see it. One of the creatures that had attacked them in the sub.
It lay, motionless, on its back, eyes wide and staring. She could study it closely now It was humanoid – vaguely. Two arms, two legs...
But its head was fiercely alien. Rows of razor-teeth lined its open mouth. Its skin was a pale bluish-grey and glistened wetly, putting Ace in mind of the scales of a fish.
A fish that had been gutted. There were deep, long gashes along its front and sides. One of its legs was virtually severed at the knee.
Rajiid let out a low whistle.
‘Look at the claws. He pointed at the creature’s outstretched hands.
The shell-like talons glinted like cold steel.
‘No wonder they nearly tore us apart,’ said Rajiid. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this on Coralee... Not anywhere. What the hell happened to it?’
Ace shook her head. ‘Beats me. The eel? Could the body have floated here?’
‘It’s possible.’ Rajiid looked at her. ‘What should we do with it?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ace. Not take it back to MacKenzie’s lab, that was for sure.
‘Maybe we should tell the police,’ said Rajiid without much 82
enthusiasm.
‘No,’ said Ace. That was the last thing the Doctor would want. ‘But we need to get it somewhere safe.’
Somewhere the police wouldn’t find it.
‘I’ve got a workshop close to the harbour,’ said Rajiid, as if reading her thoughts. ‘If you don’t want anyone finding it...’
It took them the best part of an hour to drag the body across the beach with the help of the kids. They bribed the gang with a handful of change that Rajiid had in his pocket, and Ace promised to take them rock climbing. They lashed the body to a metal plate from the shuttle wreck and hauled it like a sledge to the prefabricated metal shed where Rajiid evidently did al1 his own repairs on the sub. Greg was there working. Bits of machinery lay everywhere. A spare sub engine hung front a heavy block and tackle. Greg cleared a space on his long workbench, and the three of them heaved the body on to it.
‘There’s something weird about this thing,’ said Rajiid, peeling back a flap of torn skin on the creature’s chest. ‘Its insides... No proper organs, no proper muscles...’
‘What?’
‘I was a medical student for a bit,’ said Rajiid sheepishly.