Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [72]
‘No, not yet.’ He turned and looked at her pleadingly. ‘We couldn’t stay a little longer, could we?’
Ace shook her head. ‘You heard what the Doctor said. We have to get a head start before the aliens try and stop us.’
‘Do you really think that they might?’
Ace shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter what I think, mate. The Doctor’s the boss and he says we’ve got to get going.’ She stood up and stuffed her jacket into her rucksack, looking around the room for anything else that might be useful. Nothing. Like all hotel rooms anywhere it was full of complimentary soap and little else.
‘Right, Professor. Let’s get going, shall we?’
With a last lingering look at the alien ship, MacKenzie shrugged on his jacket and followed Ace out of the room.
He made for the lift, but Ace caught him by the arm.
‘I think we’ll take the quiet way out, Prof. Rajiid’s meeting ills by the fire exit.’
Ace raced down the stairs, followed by the puffing archaeologist.
Rajiid was waiting for them at the bottom, clutching two wicked-looking machetes. Ace raised her eyebrows.
Rajiid grinned. ‘They belong to my dad.’
Ace took one, testing the weight. ‘Remind me to see what other weapons of mass destruction your father has tucked away.’
‘I got these too.’ Rajiid passed a couple of heavy rubber torches to Ace and MacKenzie.
Ace nodded approvingly. ‘Right, let’s get going.’
She pushed open the heavy fire door and the three of them stepped out into the backyard of the hotel. The mountain loomed before them, the trees on its summit already beginning to bend under the growing force of the wind.
MacKenzie looked nervously at the ominous sky. ‘That hurricane is starting to get terribly close, you know.’
‘Then the faster we find Garrett, get that weapon and get back the better.’ Ace didn’t disguise her impatience. ‘Which way do we go, Professor?’
MacKenzie looked at her blankly. ‘What?’
‘Well, you’re the archaeologist. Where do we find this voodoo temple?’
139
‘Oh...’ MacKenzie pointed to a tangled path along the edge of the perimeter wall. This way.’
Ace rolled her eyes at Rajiid and the two of them set off after the professor.
The colony was quiet. Most of the surviving inhabitants were either wounded or in shock, mourning their dead or watching the alien craft that now floated off the coast. The trio passed through the building work on the edge of the colony – service drones were lashing equipment down, preparing for the coming storm.
As they crossed the colony perimeter, Rajiid stopped.
‘Ace, come and look at this.’ Ace crossed to his side. A section of the colony’s huge perimeter wall lay in the sand, returned to its rest position by huge hydraulic rams. The steel surface of the storm shutters was pitted and scarred. In plates the metal was almost torn through.
Rajiid looked up in awe.
‘Those bastards were nearly in.’
Ace wandered along another section of the wall, ‘Same here.’ All around on the sand were dark stains where the Krill had been obliterated. She shook her head. ‘We’d better hope that there are no more of those things out there.’
MacKenzie looked at her in alarm. ‘More Krill? Surely not. Surely Garrett destroyed them all with the weapon.’
Ace shrugged. ‘Possibly. But if that’s true, why is the Doctor so keen to get it back?’ She hauled her rucksack on to her shoulder.
‘Come on, Professor. Lead on.’
With a lingering look at the damaged shutters, MacKenzie set off along the path again.
For several minutes they walked along the curve of the bay, the colony becoming a distant white stain among the green. Soon the path itself began to become more indistinct, and the jungle began to thicken.
Ace pulled her jacket around her as the wind whipped in off the sea.
Rajiid nodded at the sky
‘Much as I hate to agree with him, MacKenzie is right. If we get caught out in the open when that hurricane hits we haven’t got a chance.