Doctor Who_ Transit - Ben Aaronovitch [39]
'They're at Hyperion and they're not slowing down.'
'Tethys station coming up.'
Dogface had shown him the gutted interior of India, President Achebe's wartime command train. It still had its blonde wood floor and strips of oak panelling where equipment had been ripped out.
'Three stations.'
'Everybody strap in.'
Dogface gave Blondie no warning at all, just let him walk round an old Canadian pushme-pullyou and find the Bad Accident waiting for him at the end of the line.
It had happened just after the war. A Honda Pullman exited the Beverly Hills-Hawaii commuter line at Hollywood Boulevard, carrying forty-nine passengers. A fraction of a second later a General Electric Go-Faster Caboose carrying thirty passengers exited the same gateway. The Honda was only halfway out at the time.
The gateway compensator did its job and prevented matter-annihilation from taking place, saving Los Angeles from appearing on that short list of cities that started with Hiroshima. Instead the physical substance of the two trains was smoothly integrated as they emerged from the tunnel gateway. The lucky passengers died immediately.
'Goddamit Dogface,' screamed Lambada, 'stop the train.'
'Too late,' said Credit Card.
Somebody had turned the noisebox off and Blondie had stopped hearing the turbines. 'What's the matter,' Dogface had said, 'you never seen two trains fucking before?' It seemed very quiet in the last stretch of tunnel.
'Hey, Lambada,' said Dogface, 'turn the cameras on. We might be able to sell this to Yak Harris.'
Fat Mama hit something.
Silence banged at Blondie's eardrums.
He felt his body smash into the restraint harness, head snapping forward before slamming back on to the headrest. There was a metallic ripping sound to his left and Dogface started shouting. The cab was shaking, turning the instrumentation into streaks of light. Dogface's voice choked off. Blondie watched as a spike drilled its way out the back of the driver's seat. He thought he saw movement on the outside of the windscreen just before it exploded inwards. Shafts of psychedelic light penetrated the bulkheads to flood the cab as Fat Mama lost her shield integrity.
Blondie heard the turbines whine into over-rev as Dogface slumped back off the dead man's switch. Blood was dripping from the point of the spike and Blondie realized that Dogface had been transfixed to the chair through his stomach.
Wind struck his face as they exploded into the station.
The reality transition tore strips of metal from Fat Mama's nose. The train yawed violently to the right and rode up on to the platform. Sparks flew up from underneath it as it scraped along the edge of the platform. There was another tremendous lurch as the train settled back on to the friction field.
Somebody was clinging to the nose. Blondie saw a face leaning in through the shattered windscreen. It had human eyes but the mouth was a circular maw lined with concentric rows of teeth. Dogface batted feebly at the creature with his fists, blood was bubbling out of his mouth. The creature put its hands on either side of the windscreen frame and started to pull itself inside. With a sound of grating bone the rows of teeth started to rotate as the mouth inched closer to Dogface's head.
On the other side of the cab Lambada was fighting with her harness to get free. Credit Card was slumped in his seat with a line of blood across his forehead. The creature had its shoulders through the windscreen. Its jaw line was distorting, its mouth growing wider to envelop Dogface's head.
'Hey,' shouted Blondie.
The creature's head whipped round to face him and Blondie could see right down its throat. The teeth were whirling fast enough to blur, its breath was sickly sweet with rotten chocolate
'Oh shit,' said Blondie. The creature was trying to wriggle its hips into the cab. The horrible mouth was whirring towards him like a kitchen recycler. Blondie ripped a fingernail off trying to undo his harness.
The creature's head exploded.
Old Sam was in