Doctor Who_ Trading Futures - Lance Parkin [32]
Large, dark shapes. Humanoid – stubby legs, slightly longer arms, that bent in the wrong place. Their bodies were top heavy, with wide torsos and hunched backs. Their heads were long, with a blunt snout, tiny eyes. And horns. Horns growing from the end of their snout and between the eyes. Their skin was grey – dark grey.
Their human disguises deactivated, they stepped forward, right at home in the heavy gravity. They were about seven or eight feet tall.
The nearest grabbed the control box from Fitz’s hand. The other grabbed Fitz himself, lifting him easily.
‘If you won’t tell us, we will take the information by force… Doctor,’ it spat.
‘Take him to the pain inducer,’ the other one gleefully agreed.
Fitz gulped.
* * *
Anji had slipped out of her suit and shirt, and was down to her bikini. She’d felt embarrassed to do that in front of Baskerville and Dee, even though she was already wearing the bikini underneath her clothes, so she’d gone below to her cabin. When she stepped back up on to the deck of the yacht, she saw her hosts had also changed. Dee was in a three piece swimsuit. She looked skinny, Anji thought, almost unhealthy. She was very pale, too. She still looked poised and confident, though.
Baskerville was in a cotton shirt and bermuda shorts. He looked appreciatively over his sunglasses at Anji. The East European guy was, presumably, driving the boat, or piloting it, or whatever it was you did to boats.
The midday sun was hot, but the sea breeze was very pleasant indeed. The sea was dark, beautiful. Baskerville’s yacht was even larger than it had appeared from the air. The six‐man helicopter sat on a pad at the stern of the boat.
Dee checked her watch, a rather chunky thing. ‘GPS says we’re well out of the danger zone.’
Baskerville nodded. ‘You’re feeling better, Malady?’
Anji knew he was talking to her, but it took her a moment or two to remember she’d been ill. ‘Yes. Thank you. I was over the time lag before I’d left the sending room.’
She glanced at her watch. It was midday.
‘Athens has been destroyed,’ Baskerville said solemnly.
Despite the midday sun, Anji felt cold. ‘The death toll?’
Dee was looking downcast. ‘Too early to say, of course. The first newscopters have only just arrived on the scene. But it’s clearly in the many thousands. Here.’ She pressed a control on the small table in front of her, and a screen appeared over it. It showed devastation – a city a storey deep in filthy water, waves washing against and churning over the concrete buildings, fires burning. Cars, trees and rubble washing by.
‘Did they evacuate the city?’
Baskerville looked puzzled. ‘They had no warning.’
‘You warned them.’
‘I told Jonah Cosgrove it would happen. He, being a good servant of the superstate, would have told his lords and masters. And then they all sat back and waited.’
Perhaps they did, Anji thought. But the Doctor knew, and he’d gone to warn them, he’d gone to evacuate the city. He’d had two hours to do it. More than enough time for him. Plenty more.
He hadn’t prevented it, though. Anji could think of only one circumstance in which he wouldn’t have done.
The Doctor was dead.
* * *
Chapter Eight
Time and Tide
The Onihrs had led Fitz out of the reconstruction of Earth. It was some sort of solid projection – the Onihrs said it was really advanced technology, but as it hadn’t fooled him, Fitz found it difficult to get that impressed by it. They led him along a transparent corridor, and Fitz had finally seen where he was – on board some sort of space rocket, or space station. One star was larger than all the others, and looked like the Earth’s sun, only about a quarter of the size. There was no sign of the Earth, but Fitz was sure it was around somewhere.
He also got to look out over the Onihr spacecraft. It was quite elegant, particularly for something built by eight‐foot rhinos with hands the size of hams. Fitz had assumed the Onihr ship would be bulky and gunmetal grey, like its owners. Thinking about it, there shouldn’t be a correlation