Doctor Who_ The Also People - Ben Aaronovitch [61]
'I'm not interested,' said the artist. 'Go away.'
'Well, we'll leave you in peace then,' said the Doctor, 'although I must say I particularly like the striking cloud formations over there, such a moody brown colour. Dust storm, is it? Right, I'll be going.' The Doctor splashed towards some nearby steps.
'What a charming conversationalist.'
'You know,' said the parachute, 'I don't know how you people can put up with you people.'
'It's all part of the way we're hardwired,' said the Doctor.
'May I ask you a personal question?'
'Of course.'
'You're a bit too smart to be running on carbohydrates, aren't you?'
'It's a hobby,' said the Doctor. 'Now, how do I get up to the esplanade?'
'There's a flight of steps to your right.'
He dropped the parachute at the top of the stairs and took a moment to shake some of the water from his shoes. Bernice and saRa!qava waved at him from their table and raised their drinks in an ironic toast as he walked over.
'Nice of you to rush over and help me,' he said.
'We assumed,' said Bernice, 'that you landed in the water for a good reason.'
Since it was the truth he didn't have a good answer for that so instead he sat down and tried to ignore the squelching sounds from his shoes.
'Did you discover anything useful?' asked the furry terminal on the table.
'Is that you, God?' asked the Doctor.
'The one and only,' said God.
'It just turned up while we were working,' said Bernice, 'and now we can't get it to leave.'
'The Doctor hasn't answered my question,' said God.
'Haven't you got something better to do?' asked saRa!qava. 'Sewage recycling systems to monitor perhaps?'
'Well, I'm certain it was murder,' said the Doctor, 'and I think I know how it was done.'
'Means,' said Roz, 'opportunity, motive.'
The Doctor nodded. 'We know the means.'
'Is that really possible?' asked feLixi. 'Could you really introduce that kind of harmonic structure into a lightning bolt?'
Bernice surreptitiously studied feLixi over the rim of her glass. He wasn't quite what she'd expected; somehow he seemed too innocuous, his face just a little too forgettable to be the object of Roz's interest. Still, a forgettable face was probably a good asset in a secret agent and Roz was too long in the tooth to be interested in mere surfaces. Bernice smiled as she noted the set of the older woman's shoulders, the way she leaned ever so slightly towards feLixi when she was speaking. Roz was interested all right, her body language was unmistakable, but Bernice was just as certain that Roz herself didn't know she was interested.
'Yes,' said the Doctor, 'but the source of the electrical discharge would have to be artificial.'
The Doctor's theory was that some person or persons unknown had hit vi!Cari with a specially modulated electrical discharge. He claimed that with the right type of harmonics such a discharge would have not only broken down the drone's defensive shields but also turned it into a flying lightning attractor. The very next bolt would have been sufficient to blow vi!Cari's brains out. God was sceptical: a defensive drone's shields were made up of interlaced force-shells, each set with a different modulation, a set-up designed specifically to resist that kind of attack.
'It wouldn't have to be artificial,' said feLixi. 'A natural static discharge could have been manipulated to provide the harmonics.'
'And anyway,' said Bernice, 'God would have spotted it.'
'Not the energy burst,' said the Doctor. 'That would have been masked by the storm. Isn't that right, God?'
Everyone looked at the furry terminal in the centre of the table which remained resolutely silent.
'Stop sulking,' said saRa!qava, 'and answer the question.'
'You said you didn't want me around,' said God.
'Never mind what I said. Could the storm have masked an electrical discharge?'
'I suppose consistency is