Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [38]
They would see how wrong they had been.
Huran woke up dead.
He screamed, drawing air into phantom lungs and hurling it out of his ghost-throat. It was like being alive, like it. He was only breathing because he chose to, there was no blood in his veins or food in his stomach.
The Time Lord stood watching him the whole time. He was a senior member of the High Council, one of the Ministers.
He wore a black robe that absorbed every photon of light that fell on it. There was no sympathy in the man’s eyes, no feeling at all. Behind him were two of the Watch: a young one and the man that had been held hostage. The man who had killed him. They were sifting through a tray of Huran’s belongings.
‘I’m dead. Aren’t I?’ Huran asked.
‘Yes,’ the Magistrate said simply. ‘We found your body above the shop in Fish Street. Your current form is a computer simulation, reconstructed from your brain patterns.’
He indicated a glowing datacube slotted into his hand terminal.
Thoughts spiralled around Huran’s head, not quite connecting with each other. ‘You’re going to fix me up, aren’t you, though? Force a regeneration by remote.’
‘No.’
A digital shiver ran down Huran’s spine. ‘You could do it,’
he insisted. ‘You brought that guard back.’
‘We found Constable Peltroc in time. Despite the injuries that you had inflicted on him, the surgeons were able to effect a full recovery.’
‘If you found him in time, you found me in time!’ Huran shouted.
The Magistrate didn’t deny it. ‘Your body has already been recycled,’ the Time Lord calmly informed him.
‘Then weave me a new one!’
The Magistrate shook his head.
Huran closed his eyes, never more aware of the skin on his face and the weight of his skull. ‘Yiri,’ he said.
‘The female has also been matriculated.’
‘Could we be together when this is over?’
‘It is already over.’
‘But we both still exist, even if it is only as simulations. This is still me. We could be downloaded into the same program, we could be together.’
‘Whyever would you want to do that?’
‘You’d never understand, you motherless dried-up Timey –
’ The rest of the words didn’t come out, however much Huran wanted them to.
The Magistrate yawned, then released one of the controls.
‘Constable Peltroc is a hero, injured in the course of his duties. You were a criminal, Huran, and so was your mate.
There is no reason why we should extend any privileges to you. However, we are not inhumane and have no wish to annihilate you. Both your biodata records will be archived and preserved.’
‘Show me Yiri, promise that we can be together. If you don’t, then I won’t tell you anything.’
The Magistrate sighed, tapping at his hand terminal. ‘You were assisting a masked man in the abduction of a Capitol Guard. Who was this man?’
Huran smiled, ready to stand his ground, but then found himself answering. ‘I don’t know his name. He was a Timey, never gave us his name.’ It was him speaking, but he wasn’t Huran any more. Just a computer model, a push-button copy.
The Time Lords knew everything about him, now, even more than he’d told Yiri. They knew about every lie, every false boast, every excuse, every private thought and moment. All they had to do was ask.
The interrogation continued without his needing to think. ‘A Time Lord? Why do you say that?’
‘You all speak and act the same way, you all act as if you own the place. And only Timeys have telepathy, you’ve made sure of that.’
The Magistrate nodded thoughtfully. ‘When did you first meet?’
‘Ten days ago, Outside. Said he needed some work doing and that he’d pay us in components.’
The Magistrate raised an eyebrow.
‘Spare circuits and gears, other parts for machines. Hard to come by normally, unless you’ve got contacts Inside.
Always valuable, especially new ones.’
‘What sort of work?’
‘We rented that room for him, helped him find stuff.’
‘Did you help him break into Chamber 403?’
‘Where?’
‘An archive storeroom in the Citadel. Immediately before Constable Peltroc was abducted, certain items were stolen from