Doctor Who_ Warchild - Andrew Cartmel [105]
Wally Saddler was staring down the branch of corridor that led towards the staffroom. The young monk had stopped walking and was staring at something. In the corridor in front of him the crowd of kids had thinned but there were still thirty or forty laggards who hadn’t reached their classes yet. Now suddenly these kids had fallen silent. And they were moving, moving in a hasty panicky way.
What was apparently random motion swiftly assumed a pattern as it spread through the crowd. The kids were fleeing from the centre of the hallway, scattering towards the locker-covered walls. They were moving away from someone, making room for his passage.
Someone was coming down the corridor, towards the Young Master.
It was weird seeing the kids hastily making way like this.
It reminded Wally of an old movie he had once seen; one about Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. As he stared down the corridor, watching the strange phenomenon develop, Wally noticed Ricky McIlveen appear again. There was something about the kid; you always noticed him in a crowd.
Ricky was coming back from the direction of the gym. He had evidently sensed that something was wrong.
Standing beside Wally, Wolf Leemark was saying,
‘What’s happening? What is-’
And then he fell silent. Because the cluster of kids had finally cleared, pressed back against the lockers on either side of the hallway. And suddenly it was possible to see the figure that was coming, approaching the Young Master.
Then Wally saw who it was. He couldn’t believe it for a second. Then he quickly stole a glance at Wolfs face, to see his reaction.
Because the man coming up the corridor was Wolfs dad.
Old-man Leemark was walking towards the Buddhist monk with one arm outstretched and the most peculiar expression on his face. It was an expression of grim joy, unlike anything Wally had ever seen. Wally didn’t even need to look at what was in old-man Leemark’s outstretched hand.
It was obviously a gun.
‘Hey, monkey-man!’ called Wolfs father. ‘I’ve got something here for you.’ He stopped and raised the gun, turning his body in the classic pistol-fighter’s stance, to minimize the target area of his own body, and took careful aim.
The gun was pointing straight at the monk’s head. His poor bald head looked naked and terribly vulnerable. Wally Saddler felt a sickening dropping feeling in his stomach. He knew what was about to happen and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it.
Oddly, the strongest thought that flashed through Wally’s mind was a powerful sympathy for Wolf. What was about to happen would mark him forever. All his life up to now he’d merely been the son of a crazy old coot. From this point on he would be the son of a murderer.
But then a voice called out along the corridor. There was a shocking power to the voice so that at first one didn’t hear the words. One was just aware of the impact of the four sounds, like the sudden raw jolt of electricity applied directly to one’s nerves. And then the meaning of the four words slowly penetrated the listeners’ brains.
‘Put that gun down.’
It was a voice of absolute authority. A voice so unquestioning in its command that any thought of disobedience was impossible. It was the primal father telling the child what to do. Everyone in the corridor responded to it.
Even Wally found himself, for one idiot-second, trying to put down a gun when he wasn’t even holding one.
Old-man Leemark, on the other hand, didn’t lower his gun. But the voice bit into his mind and he couldn’t ignore it.
His finger had been tightening on the trigger but now he stopped, hesitating for a second.
And that was enough.
The Young Master threw himself forward in an elegant arcing martial arts kick that put Wolf, and every member of the Wolf Pack, to shame. He was still in mid-air when his foot connected with old-man Leemark’s gun, and sent it flying to land with a clatter twenty metres down the corridor. Then he threw himself