Doctor Who_ The Sleep of Reason - Martin Day [117]
‘We all thought it was Oldfield, maybe Thomson.’
‘Dr Oldfield is simply bitter,’ said Smith. ‘Not evil as such, but not very altruistic.’
‘That’s being very polite.’
‘And Mike Thomson. . . He’s a good man. He kept hearing stories about things going on at the folly. . . The mausoleum, should I say?’ Smith corrected, turning around to look at the squat building behind them. ‘And he did receive a call on his mobile, from someone impersonating a police officer.’
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‘James.’
Smith nodded. ‘James was nearby – perhaps that helped with the signal-strength problem you all experience here. Then James sabotaged the fire alarms. He’d already dealt with the phone lines. He murdered the security guard – perhaps the guard stumbled across James fiddling about with some wiring or something, I just don’t know. Like Fern back in 1903, James was now driven only by one thought – to create panic and destruction. It’s possible he found a way of driving the patient to commit suicide. Or perhaps, by then, the influence of the Sholem-Luz was just too strong over all of us. . . ’
Laska shivered. She didn’t like remembering the tense desperation that characterised the atmosphere in the Retreat on the night of the fire. ‘Once you pushed James back through the portal,’ said Laska, ‘what did you do?’
‘As I said, the Sholem-Luz took quite a shine to me. For centuries I have been. . . familiar with grief. As ancient Arab mythologists might have put it, I was a pot of honey, and the Sholem-Luz were the bees.’
‘You knew they’d target you.’
‘I had an inkling. Fitz and the others were about to extinguish the fire but –
they live beyond time, remember – from one point of view, the fire in 1903
was still raging. I found a way back to Mausolus House. They followed me blindly now, utterly obsessed by the fire in 1903, and my memories – even the ones I don’t know I have!’
‘I take it you were doing the opposite of what I was trying to achieve,’ said Laska. ‘You were thinking about bad things.’
‘Yes,’ said Smith. ‘Very bad things. I led them straight into the fire of 1903 –
the fire that they themselves had instigated. I then “shut off” my memories.
They had precious little energy left – especially as I knew that that conflagration, too, was about to end. Suddenly in the real world, so to speak, they were as vulnerable to fire as any other creature. Lacking pain receptors, they didn’t even realise what was happening. The Sholem-Luz were destroyed in the flames before they could produce any seeds.’
‘Apart from the dog’s tooth.’
Smith nodded. ‘Apart from the single seed that resembled a dog’s tooth, which found its way to you, and purely by luck therefore back to Mausolus House, and this mausoleum behind us.’
‘That’s amazing,’ said Laska. ‘So you’ve destroyed the Sholem-Luz!’
‘Not entirely,’ said Smith. ‘This was only a single colony. I daresay others remain. But at least I know how to defeat them now.’
‘So that’s another weirdo space monster crossed off your list,’ said Laska.
Smith nodded. ‘It’s good to face your doubts and fears and come out on top.’
Laska smiled. For once she knew exactly what Dr Smith meant.
∗ ∗ ∗
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Laska and Dr Smith strolled through the ornamental gardens, enjoying the sunshine on their backs. Laska found herself glancing at her watch from time to time – the minute hand seemed barely to have moved since morning – but largely Smith’s words held her captivated.
‘So there I was, back in 1903,’ said Smith, ‘a hundred years or so from my craft, from Fitz and Trix. The Sholem-Luz tunnels were collapsing, you see.’
‘What did you do?’ asked Laska.
‘The first person I met was Mr Sands. Do you remember him from the diary?
The unexpected hero.’ Smith grinned. ‘I told him to head for the basement, then I set about saving what people I could – and calling for a fire engine, of course. I knew I had something of a head start on Dr Christie and the others, I suppose you could say. A head start in time. No more than twenty minutes or so, I