Doctor Who_ The Taint - Michael Collier [100]
Maria fell off the bed head first, and scrambled away. Lucy was watching her from the bed, panting a little from her exertions, her straight black hair hanging over her face. 'It's ever so soft, isn't it?' she said, grinning. 'Weren't you missing out?'
'Leave me alone,' said Maria, backing away until her head bumped against the wardrobe.
'No!' said Lucy, her grin growing wider.
Maria shut her eyes as she heard Lucy jump off the bed, and began murmuring the Lord's Prayer.
'What are you saying?" Lucy asked, suspiciously.
'"Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come..."'
'Shut up!' she shouted.
'"And deliver us from -"'
'Shut up, you silly woman!' cried Lucy, pouting, grabbing Maria's cardigan and lifting her up by it. 'He doesn't give a damn about you, and you know it.
And you needn't pretend you love God any more. We know. And we're so pleased, we're going to spare your miserable, unhappy life!'
Maria broke off, her eyes flickering open, mouth gaping in baffled disbelief.
You... No, you can't mean...' She looked over at the empty pill bottle, then back up at the white round face of her tormentor.
Lucy let go of her and Maria sank to her knees in silence. Then she felt the toe of Lucy's shoe poke her in the ribs.
'For just a few minutes longer,' the witch added.
6.6
Fitz tried not to look at the bundle of body and fabric outside the broken windows as he ran into the drawing room. Seemed a bit of a breach in Watson's security, this hole in the wall; on a hunch, he tried the inner door and found it stuck fast. He nodded grimly, then thought he heard something outside. Taylor was coming. Fitz went to crouch behind the desk as he'd done before.
His mum was down there already, gouging skin from the backs of her hands with her nails.
'I've taken a tumble, Fitzie,' she whined, then grabbed him by the throat, forcing him on to his back. 'You feel a fall so much harder at my age.'
Fitz looked at her, uncomprehendingly, unable to swallow or to draw in air, tears welling up, the gun falling from his hand. Then Taylor loomed into view.
'I told them to expect you,' he said, nodding.
***
The Doctor lifted Roley up on to the wooden surface of the workbench; he wasn't sure it was any more comfortable, but it seemed a little more dignified. He checked the man's eyes, but the pupils weren't responding to light. He slammed his fist against the table, and turned back to Azoth. It was time their friends downstairs were taken care of.
He propped Azoth up against the bench, and took out the sonic screwdriver once again, producing the superleech in its box from his pocket at the same time. Once the initial power was generated by the screwdriver, a quick poke in the diagnostic region -
Azoth's strange, slurred voice suddenly sounded up. 'Terminal solution,' it droned.
He must've sparked off some vestigial power in the droid's circuits. 'Yes, don't worry about that, old chap. That's nowhere, remember?' As he talked, he made calibrations on the screwdriver, trying to switch Azoth off again.
'Containment program... Assess 'evel of 'ailure..."
'No need for that, no need; said the Doctor, twisting the bulbous tip of the screwdriver round a little further and trying again.
Azoth abruptly stood up, sending the Doctor reeling back against the TARDIS, slamming his head against the corner joist. His head swam. The droid walked straight into the wall, took a step back and did so again, before staggering out into the corridor.
The Doctor recovered to find Azoth gone, and rubbed the back of his bruised head ruefully as he got to his feet. He was always being thrown around these days...
It was possible Azoth would just shamble about blindly, but to be in such close proximity to his own creations... Even when he'd been in the Cave they had called to him from here. Whatever this final solution was, if Azoth judged his work to have failed completely...