Doctor Who_ Transit - Ben Aaronovitch [74]
It was Zamina.
Achebe Gorge
Acturus Station to Achebe Gorge was five minutes in the prioritized VEP shuttle. The Doctor and Kadiatu did the journey standing up, overrode the door controls and left the shuttle while it was still moving.
The OXFAM information centre didn't want to give them Benny's location. 'Privileged data,' said the man behind the counter. Kadiatu kept the man distracted by threatening to break his fingers while the Doctor raided the files. He was the fastest console operator Kadiatu had ever seen.
'Kanger Crossing,' said the Doctor. 'Where is it?'
Kadiatu surreptitiously leant a little bit harder on the man's hand until he agreed to take them. The OXFAM worker had an open-topped four-by-four parked round the back. It looked like something he'd built in his spare time.
'I'll drive,' said the Doctor.
'It's got manual gears,' protested the OXFAM man.
'So have I,' said the Doctor.
There was a grinding sound from under the seats and the jeep lurched off. Directions from the OXFAM man put them on a tarmac road heading roughly east. The small Martian sun was high overhead and as the jeep topped a ridge Kadiatu could see the dark smudge of the memorial forest to the north.
Every tree a soldier.
Four hundred and fifty thousand, not counting Paris.
She buried her father there three years back, in the plot for soldiers who'd outlived their war, under a Douglas fir with her mother.
Pale green sunlight on the needle carpet.
Kadiatu knew what had happened when she saw that the door to the bungalow was open. She went in behind the Doctor wishing she'd asked Francine for a gun.
Benny's resettlement officer was face down over the kitchen table. Single stab wound from behind, under the fourth rib and into the right auricle according to the Doctor.
'Instantaneous,' he said. 'Probably a carving knife.'
'His mother lived with him,' said the OXFAM man.
'In the bathroom,' said the Doctor. 'The tap's dripping.'
Kadiatu went towards the door.
'Wait,' said the Doctor. 'Listen, you can hear the air move '
He was through the door with such suddenness that Kadiatu hardly saw him move. She heard a window break at the rear of the house. 'The jeep,' shouted the Doctor.
'Call the police,' Kadiatu told the OXFAM man.
Outside a figure sprinted across the garden for the parked jeep. The Doctor was right behind her. Kadiatu got a look at the person's face as she cut across the lawn to head her off. It was the woman from the cavern. The woman saw her and swung her left arm round to point at Kadiatu.
Kadiatu heard a bang as she flung herself down and the flat whine of a subsonic projectile going overhead.
Damn, thought Kadiatu, left-handed and I didn't see the gun.
Benny jumped into the jeep and reached quickly down to start it. Kadiatu watched as the Doctor sprinted and jumped for the back of the jeep. He scrambled on board, fighting for a grip as Benny threw the jeep into a screeching three-point turn.
Kadiatu got to her feet and chased them up the drive. The jeep veered to the right and hit a banked verge. The Doctor was catapulted into a low line of bushes. The jeep rolled over once and ended up on its side, striking sparks off the tarmac.
Kadiatu reached the Doctor just as a police siren dopplered overhead towards the bungalow, a blue-painted drone circling in to seal off the crime scene.
'That way,' said the Doctor. Benny had fought free of the jeep and took off to the west. They set off after her but a second police-drone appeared over the ridge and veered to intercept them.
'Can you lose the drone?' asked the Doctor.
Kadiatu stopped and swung her extensions over her shoulder. She untangled a matt black cube and twisted the microswitch on the top with a fingernail. The police-drone wobbled uncertainly for a moment and turned back towards the bungalow. Kadiatu said a silent prayer for Lunar Max, a scumbag but an honest scumbag.
The ground began to slope upwards and the going got slow.
'She's heading for that escarpment,' said the Doctor.
The cliff wall projected inwards across the canyon