Doctor Who_ The Bodysnatchers - Mark Morris [30]
'I am, sir,' said Emmeline.
'I thought so. I saw you arrive.'
'Indeed?' said Emmeline.'And who, may I ask, are you?'
The man smiled at her.'I'm usually referred to as the Doctor.'
'The Doctor?' said Emmeline, bemused.'I see.And what,Docto»; do you want with me?'
'To talk,' the Doctor said.'I have a cab waiting outside the gates. I'd be honoured if you would share it with me.'
Emmeline bridled a little. 'I am not usually in the habit of sharing cabs with strangers, sir.'
'Of course you aren't,' said the Doctor soothingly. 'Very wise. It's just that...
I wanted to talk to you about your father.'
'My father?'
'Yes. I'm a friend and associate of his, you see. And just lately, well... he's changed. He's not the man he was at all.And I for one am gravely worried about him.'
***
Hetherington watched as the Doctor and Emmeline turned and walked across the yard towards the gates, deep in conversation. He had been trailing the Doctor for a little while now, had watched the man poking around the factory and the outbuildings, rattling locked doors, peering through windows. He had not been unduly worried by the Doctor's inquisitiveness; he knew that the man would find nothing untoward. As the Doctor and Emmeline strolled out of the gates, Hetherington rose up from behind his hiding place - a water barrel beside one of the factory's outbuildings - and hurried towards the stable block.
He procured one of the horses and carts belonging to the factory and set off in pursuit of the Doctor and Emmeline, the cart rattling and jouncing over the cobbles. He realised how conspicuous he would be until they reached the more busy thoroughfares, but he was banking on the fact that the Doctor and Emmeline would be inside the carriage that she had waiting for her outside the gates, and so would neither see nor hear him, and that the cab driver would simply assume he was making a delivery. As the horse trotted out of the gates, Hetherington, a weaselty man wearing a heavy topcoat and a bowler hat, turned his head to look both ways, and saw the hansom cab fifty yards away to his left. With a flick of the reins he urged his horse onward, and had soon made up the distance between the two vehicles.
He tugged on the reins and his horse slowed a little. He was ten yards behind the cab now, keeping pace with it. Glancing around to ensure there were no onlookers, Hetherington slipped his hand into his coat pocket and withdrew a strange insect that was about the size of a tarantula, and, indeed, looked like a cross between a large spider and a jellyfish. It had a shimmering, gelatinous body and bony, jointed legs. It was shrimp-coloured, apart from the clusters of black, bead-like eyes on what passed for its head. As Hetherington held it delicately by its body, the creature moved its legs slowly up and down, trying to gain purchase on something.
Hetherington glanced around again, and then, with a sudden flick of his wrist, tossed the creature through the air, towards the Doctor's cab.
It struck the back of the cab, but, rather than bounce off, attached itself instantly, its bony legs somehow clamping themselves to the smooth, painted wood. It quivered for a moment, and then scuttled like the large pink spider it resembled around to the carriage window and slipped inside.
Hetherington nodded in satisfaction and produced yet another of the creatures from his pocket. He flipped it upside down, and ignoring its wildly perambulating legs, dug his fingers into its jelly-like flesh and peeled back part of its stomach. Beneath the outer layer of flesh was a smooth lens, not unlike that possessed by the creature that Seers had taken from his desk drawer, inset with pulsing black blood vessels. On the lens was a fuzzy image of the Doctor and Emmeline inside the cab. The creature, its legs moving feebly now, resonated with the Doctor's and Emmeline's voices, which, though tinny, were audible enough. Above the rattling of the two carts, Hetherington heard the Doctor say,'I'm not sure yet...'
***
'.. .but I intend to find