Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [89]
‘What the hell are you staring at! Get the back-up generators online, and get the coastguard down to the harbour. Full emergency kit and personal tracers. I don’t want anyone taking stupid risks. Does anyone know if the medical unit still has power?’
Blank faces looked back at her.
‘Well find out! And get some geiger counters up here. The reactor was meant to be at a safe distance away but given that Garrett sited it I want to be sure. Get the medics to break out the anti-radiation gear anyway.’
Around her there was a whirl of activity. Brenda watched as the windswept papers from her desk and scattered them across the room.
‘You rage all you like, she growled, lighting a cigarette in defiance.
The first Bisoncawl knew about the functionaries’ rising was a hail of gunfire that cut through his men as they prepared to ascend to the command level. It caught them completely by surprise. Four fell instantly.
‘Take cover!’ Bisoncawl shouted, unholstering his gun. He dived round a corner and through an open door and spun round, ready to shoot. He could see his squad falling beneath the barrage. Two troopers managed to join him. He sealed the door behind them.
‘It’s the functionaries,’ said one of the troopers, his voice registering 172
utter disbelief.
‘I know,’ said Bisoncawl. He’d expected this to happen one day, on some ship or other. ‘We must get to the command deck.’
He opened the door again.
‘Come on!’
He lurched into the corridor, laying a blanket of plasma-fire in front of him. The troopers followed. The barrage came again. He saw his two colleagues cut to pieces beside him. He charged forward firing, darting round a corner. Blaster fire burnt him. He threw himself round another corner and down another corridor, running hard.
A door next to him slid open.
‘In here,’ a voice whispered. The Doctor...
Bisoncawl dived through the door, which slid shut behind him.
‘I thought you were dead,’ he said.
Ace stumbled through the storm, numb with shock. A nuclear explosion. That could only mean that the Doctor had failed, that the Krill were on their way. As the glow had faded from the sky and the clouds had swept back in she had tried to tell herself that this was all part of the Doctor’s plan, that it was some grand scheme of his, but she knew that without the weapon she could do nothing to save all those people. She had failed them all.
Failed the Doctor.
Somehow the determination to make things right, to prove to the Doctor that he could rely on her, had forced her onwards even though she knew it was futile.
She had screamed at Rajiid, forced him to follow her into the storm, knowing full well that she had no chance of fighting through the hurricane.
Now Rajiid was leading her by the hand, dragging her through the thrashing waterlogged foliage, trying to find shelter deeper in the jungle. Only their combined weight stopped them being hurled into the air by the ferocity of the wind.
They were following a path that had to have been made by Garrett –
a ragged trail, sometimes of slashed branches cut with a machete, sometimes of trees torn up by their roots. Palm leaves whipped at their faces as they struggled on, now ankle deep in mud. Rajiid pushed Ace to one side as a huge branch crashed down in front of them.
She flicked the wet hair out of her eyes and stared back at the mountain, now a dim hazy shape in the rain. It was impossible to say how far they had come – every step was an effort. Water streamed around her legs, bringing a constant avalanche of rocks and twigs. She 173
grasped at Rajiid for support as her feet were whipped from under her for the millionth time.
He looked at her in despair. ‘We’re going to have to find some shelter soon, Ace, otherwise we’re dead.’
Ace nodded her head, weary and defeated. The two of them began to push deeper into the jungle.
Chaos reigned on the lower decks of the Cythosi ship. Securing them had been relatively simple for the rebels. The Cythosi’s complete