Doctor Who_ The Taint - Michael Collier [59]
Then he'd know exactly what he was, and why he was here.
***
Fitz started shaking. It was no good, he couldn't stick it in here. There was blood everywhere , for God's sake. And here was his second dead body in twenty-four hours, in more of a state than the last one.
Fitz went over to the door. You couldn't even bolt it from the inside. As a plan, this had been a total disaster.
He looked round the doorway and saw the man in the blue coat walking down the corridor towards him. This isn't happening, he told himself, closing the door again.
There was nowhere to hide. But why should that weirdo think of looking in here anyway?
A few seconds passed. Then the door opened.
***
Azoth sensed he needed something from one of the rooms beyond. He scanned. Three human things were there, and something else...
He found the room, entered it, and detected that two humans were carrying a third. He advanced, ordered them to stop. The female human dropped the male they were carrying and pulled the slighter male with her through a door in the far side of the room.
He didn't need to pursue them. He wanted the one they had left behind.
***
'We left Taylor!' wailed Roley, miserably. He and Maria had decamped to his office, but now Roley was moving back towards the door. 'I will not have another death on my conscience.'
Maria thought quickly. 'But Charles, without you here to protect us, we may all of us die!'
Roley looked at her, torn between facing that thing and going back for Taylor or staying put, out of the way.
If he was honest, it wasn't really much of a choice at all.
***
Fitz curled himself up in a ball as the man with the coat stepped into the room.
'Please... Don't kill me. Oh, go on, please...' he said.
The man said nothing. Fitz looked up at him, and suddenly realised where he knew the man from. And, from the look on his face, the other man had come to a similar conclusion.
'Your surname...' Fitz's voice was as small as his chances of getting out of this alive. 'It's Tarr, isn't it?'
The man nodded. 'Yes,' he said, simply. Then he turned his attention to the corpse on the couch, lifting it up, struggling slightly under its weight.
His objective apparently achieved, and with a final look at Fitz, Tarr left the room with the man's dead body.
'Thanks for tidying up,' called Fitz, weakly, slumping back on to the floor with near hysterical relief.
***
'Quickly,' said Azoth when he saw Tarr approaching with the corpse he had felt was here. 'We must get that in the vehicle.'
'Where's Sam Jones?' asked Tarr.
'I have placed her in the vehicle, with another human.'
'But that'll make four bodies in the back!' Tarr sighed. 'I wish you'd keep me better informed. We could have killed someone with a larger
***
Even when she heard the sound of a car roaring away from the house, Cynthia stayed in the wardrobe, clutching her bear.
She didn't want to come out, ever.
5.3
Roley peeped round the splintered door frame that led out from the drawing room into the passageway to the hall. All was quiet. Though he strained to hear the slightest sound in the silence. it seemed the intruders were gone.
He was aware Maria had come into the room behind him. Her being there made him feel more confident, and he walked out into the passageway.
Then, holding his breath, he entered the hall.
It was a mess. The door was shattered, his table was overturned, a chair lay on its side, and an almighty chunk had been taken out of his banisters.
Of Fitz and Sam, there was no sign.
'Have I missed something?'
The Doctor had suddenly appeared, standing at the top of the stairs, fixing him with those alarming, piercing eyes of his. 'My machinery's terribly noisy.'
Roley stared back at him. 'You mean... you missed all that...?'
'All what?'
'Crikey Moses, man, where've you been, the moon?'
The Doctor nodded, his voice perfectly serious. 'Yes. Once or twice.' Then he noticed the banisters, and his flippancy was forgotten in an instant. He frowned. 'Where's