Doctor Who_ The Sleep of Reason - Martin Day [63]
Laska didn’t know what to say – whether to ask directly about James, or to explain herself, or just keep quiet. Thankfully Smith’s wider agenda seemed genuine and he seemed keen to move the conversation forward.
‘I think that you’re involved in what’s going on here,’ said Smith. ‘It’s not your fault,’ he added hurriedly, ‘it’s not something you’ve deliberately set out to do. It’s a more subtle link than that. But, from the moment you came here, and you mentioned dreaming about this building all the time. . . Well, I had my suspicions.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Laska, though she remembered her dreams of the benighted Victorian building only too well.
‘I would be surprised if you did,’ said Smith. ‘I can tell you what’s going on here – what I think is going on – but you must be straight with me. You asked me what you’ve done wrong. The answer is nothing – a sin of omission rather commission, if you like.’
‘Dad tried to explain that to me once,’ said Laska. ‘A bit hard to get your head round when you’re seven!’
‘That’s exactly it!’ said Smith, leaning forward. ‘That’s the sort of thing you’re not telling me. You’ve never mentioned your father to me before.’
‘So? Why are you so interested in him?’
‘It’s not just your father I’m interested in,’ said Smith. ‘But it’s something about you, your family, some link to this place – and not just the dreams you used to have, either. Something more. . . concrete.’ He paused, waiting for a couple of patients to pass by. ‘I do understand your reluctance to talk about your family, your father in particular,’ he whispered gently.
‘I don’t think you do,’ said Laska, noticing her voice beginning to rise. ‘You have no idea how I feel.’
‘I don’t wish to cause you any distress,’ said Smith, his voice as calm as a midsummer lake. ‘But I hope you will forgive me if I have to ask difficult questions at a time like this. The murder of Mr Farrell. . . Well, it raises the stakes somewhat. I sense that, all around me, things are changing gear – and though I’ve had a long time to prepare I now run the risk of being left behind.
And that could be catastrophic for all of us.’
‘You’re sounding like someone walking down Oxford Street with The End is Nigh on a sandwich board.’ Laska was desperate to change the subject, steer 109
the conversation away from her family, and Smith’s justification of his prying questions.
‘If you’d seen the things I have. . . ’ Smith sighed, looking through Laska and seemingly towards inexpressible horrors. ‘I must ask you bluntly,’ he said, swinging his attention back to Laska moments later, ‘if you’re aware of any connection between your family and this place?’
‘No,’ said Laska. ‘But I dreamt about it last night, for the first time since I arrived. If you must know, that’s why I was awake. I had a nightmare, and it freaked me out. It was all so vivid.’
‘Would you like to tell me?’ asked Smith.
Laska paused. She’d dropped the mention of her dream into the conversation as a sideshow, something to throw Smith off the scent. She hadn’t expected him to seem quite so interested in it, though given his curiosity about all things personal and internal, perhaps she should have known better.
Of course, she’d dreamed about the Retreat almost every night since she’d come here, but she wasn’t about to tell Smith that. She’d tell him about the latest dream, but she resolved to tell him nothing about the dog, or anything else about her father. She placed all such thoughts and recollections in a filing cabinet in her mind labelled Private – Keep Out.
Laska closed her eyes, partly to remember, and partly because it was a nice touch she imagined Smith would lap up. ‘I was walking through the grounds.
The grass was wet – I remember because I was trying to work out if it had just rained, or if it was dew. It was dark. I glanced up and saw dark clouds writhing in the sky, blocking out the light of the stars, the moon.’
She opened her eyes.
‘When you dream, Dr Smith, are you in control?’
It was a diversionary tactic that Dr Thomson would have seen through