Doctor Who_ Transit - Ben Aaronovitch [53]
She snatched up the first page of the hard copy and ran her finger along the top. There was a raised pattern in the centre, the printer's best guess at a company logo. There was a Braille translation underneath: 'IMOGEN - Wholly Confidential -Ubersoldaten - generation two.'
Twenty-one years before.
The Stop
'The light at the end of a tunnel,' said the Doctor, 'is often that of an oncoming train.'
They had penetrated perhaps six hundred metres into the tunnel and the ambient light from the station behind them had long become a tiny point in the distance. The Doctor had produced a small torch from his pocket. They needed it. Shafts bisected the tunnel at random intervals. The Doctor almost fell into the first one.
'What do you think it is?' he asked. Kadiatu didn't answer; she was trying to keep her grip on the Doctor's forearm. The fingertips of her right hand had found a shallow depression in the tunnel wall and she was trying to exploit it for leverage. Her kneecaps hurt from their impact on the floor and she was sure that the twisted position of her back wasn't doing her spine any good. Light flickered below her as the Doctor played his torch over the sides of the shaft.
'I think it's a maintenance conduit of some kind,' said the Doctor. 'I can see pipes and cables, that sort of thing. I can't see the bottom though. Hold on, I'll drop something.'
Kadiatu fought the slow progression of her fingertips out of their hold. If they slipped she'd pitch forward and she'd go head first down the shaft. There was a small sound from a long way below; metal hitting concrete.
'Were you counting?' asked the Doctor. 'I made it a hundred and thirty-two metres.'
A drop of sweat rolled off the bridge of Kadiatu's nose and into her left eye.
'You can pull me up now,' said the Doctor. 'I've finished down here.'
It wasn't easy, Kadiatu wasn't sure it was possible, but she found the strength from somewhere and hauled him up. It would have been simpler if the Doctor had used his free hand to help but he didn't want to let go of his umbrella.
'How do we get across?' asked Kadiatu.
'We jump,' said the Doctor. 'The exercise will do you good.'
They walked a few metres away from the edge.
'You go first,' said Kadiatu.
'As you like,' said the Doctor.
Kadiatu was sudddenly alone in the darkness. The torch bobbed along at waist level as the Doctor ran back towards the shaft. The soft slap of his shoes on concrete stopped, the torch flew through the air and then there was a scrape as the Doctor landed.
'Your turn,' he said.
Kadiatu figured the shaft couldn't be more than two metres across. She should be able to jump that. 'Right,' she said. 'I can do this.'
The Doctor pointed the torch at the edge of the shaft. 'Jump there,' he said.
Kadiatu took a couple more steps away from the edge, then a couple more.
'That's enough of a run-up,' said the Doctor.
The shaft was a square of darkness behind the patch of light thrown by the torch. The Doctor's eyes glittered in the scant reflected light. Two metres, easy.
The torch went out.
'Oh dear,' said the Doctor.
'What happened?'
'I'm fairly certain that it's the batteries.'
'What do we do now?'
'Have you moved since the lights went out?'
'No.'
'Then it's simple. When I say "run" you start running. I'll tell you when to jump.'
'What!'
'Ready when you are.'
'Can you see in the dark?'
'No.'
'So how are you going to know?'
'I have an excellent sense of spacial awareness.'
'Bollocks.'
'Did you say something?'
'No.'
'I'm going to count to three, all right?'
'No.'
'Run!'
The body started without her, took off through the darkness towards the Doctor's voice, her rope-soled Bajan pumps, three seventy-five from a stall in the plaza, getting good traction on the gritty concrete floor. Her eyes hurt from being held wide open for too long, useless in the total blackness. Her mind caught up with her body, snapped back into a total awareness of her physicality.