Doctor Who_ The Also People - Ben Aaronovitch [113]
'Maybe not the ship,' said Roz, 'but what if it had a human accomplice?'
'Why should it?' asked Chris. 'It doesn't need one.'
'Doesn't mean it doesn't have one though, does it?'
'More importantly,' said the Doctor, 'is how did the ship, whoever it is, do the deed. We're still missing an energy source, not to mention a motive.'
'This is a waste of time,' said Roz. 'We're just going round in circles.'
'We need a way to flush the killer out,' said Chris. 'If we can just convince it that we know who it is it will have to make a move, God watching or not.'
'Chris,' said Roz, 'we're talking about a ship, for Christ's sake. Those buggers can waste planets. I for one would like to sneak up on it very quietly.'
The Doctor asked Roz whether she'd had any luck with the time telescope. 'Not much,' said Roz, 'except the more I look at the data the more it seems that Omicron 378 is the best motive. If it was a rehabilitated mass murderer I doubt that even XR(N)IG are so liberal as to let it stay as a military ship.'
'That rules out the VASs,' said Bernice.
'And the GPSs,' said the Doctor. 'What does that leave us?'
'The VLRDs and the TSH,' said Roz. 'According to God the TSH !C-Mel was undergoing a partial shut-down at the time of the murder.'
'Could a VLRD do the business with the grubs?' asked Bernice.
'I don't know,' said the Doctor. 'We'll have to –'
They never did get to find out what the Doctor thought they should do because at that moment a small remote-drone shot into the cafe and came to an abrupt halt over the table.
'I say I say I say,' said the remote-drone.
'Is that you, God?' asked the Doctor.
'What is brown, runs on carbohydrates and runs at forty kilometres per hour?' asked God.
Bernice felt her breath catch. She looked at the Doctor.
'Kadiatu,' said the Doctor.
'Oh, cruk,' said Bernice.
'Where?' asked the Doctor.
'Down by the harbour,' said God.
'No need to panic,' said the Doctor, getting an obvious grip on himself. 'AM!xitsa can keep her out of trouble.'
'I hope it can do it long range,' said God, 'because it's still three kilometres up the coast.'
The Doctor blinked, opened his mouth, closed it again.
'Panic stations,' he said calmly.
They were too late. Kadiatu was on the pebble beach, standing very still, as beRut advanced towards her, murder written in every line of his body. The Doctor was slightly ahead of Bernice as they reached the esplanade and without even slowing he passed between two bollards and jumped. Without giving herself time to think Bernice jumped after him. She hit the pebbles two and a half metres down and felt something wrench in her left knee. She rolled over, yelling in pain and tried to scramble to her feet. Chris came down heavily beside her, rolled over on his shoulder and came up unhurt.
'Stop him,' Bernice yelled at Chris.
She watched in horror as beRut reached Kadiatu; she could hear him screaming at her. The tall woman gave no reaction, just stared impassively at the raging man.
Bernice tried to run but her knee was a white blaze of agony. She thought it might be OK
because beRut wasn't doing anything physical and the Doctor had nearly reached him.
Then the Doctor stopped two metres short of beRut. Calmly he put out his arm and stopped Chris as well. Bernice tried to scream at him but it came out as a long moan of pain. She watched as beRut pulled back his arm and punched Kadiatu in the face. There was a spurt of red as the tall woman rocked backwards.
Bernice could only gape as beRut seemed to go mad, smashing his fists into Kadiatu's face and body, knocking her sprawling and then kicking her viciously while she lay on the ground. She didn't even lift her hands to defend herself. 'He'll kill her,' Bernice heard Roz yelling.
You don't understand, she wanted to tell her, he should be dead.
And then, as if suddenly realizing what he had done beRut recoiled backwards, his hands flying to his face. In front of him Kadiatu slowly got to her feet. There were bruises on her face and body, blood was pouring from her nose and one eye was