Doctor Who_ Warchild - Andrew Cartmel [28]
Creed watched Amy disappear into the school. The flagpole made its metallic lashing noise. The parking lot baked in the sun. Creed sighed, got into his car and started the engine. All the way home he felt the heavy silence of his daughters in the back seat.
Chapter 10
‘Who are you?’ said the woman’s voice. ‘I wanted to speak to the police.’
‘Just let me ask the questions, please,’ said Roz. She shifted in her seat and adjusted the microphone. She was sitting at the communications console in the rear of the armoured personnel carrier. Redmond had only let her drive while they were on the orbital road. He took over as soon as they passed a sign that said: CENTRAL LONDON 8KM.
‘Please. Who am I talking to?’ the woman’s voice had an edge of growing hysteria, reproduced authentically by the speaker in the roof of the armoured car.
‘Just listen, please,’ said Roz. To tell the truth, she was just as glad that Redmond had taken over the driving. She doubted she could match his skill at navigating the maze of streets that led into the heart of London.
‘Are you the police? Who are you?’ begged the woman.
Roz took pity on her. She forced herself to explain patiently. ‘No, we’re not the police, but we are working with them during the state of emergency.’
‘I dialled 999 and I asked for the police.’
‘Yes, but-’
‘And I was talking to the police but then something happened.’
‘Yes,’ said Roz, biting back the urge to shout at the woman, to tell her to just shut up and listen.
‘Then I was suddenly talking to you.’
‘Yes,’ said Roz. ‘As soon as you said a certain word it was detected by a computer which recognized it and automatically transferred your call to the nearest unit in your area. In other words, they put you through to me.’
‘Automatically did what? What word?’
‘Dog,’ said Roz.
The speaker above her was silent for a moment.
‘Are you there?’ said Roz.
‘Dog,’ said the woman. There was an ugly chuckling note in her voice as if she was about to begin laughing. Roz had no desire to find out what that laughter might sound like.
‘Take it easy,’ she said. ‘Take a deep breath.’
But instead of laughing the woman began to cry. ‘Dog,’
she said, sobbing. Then: ‘I came home, and I walked in, and I saw Roy dead in the kitchen.’
Roz covered the microphone. ‘It’s already killed one of the occupiers,’ she called. At the front of the armoured car Redmond nodded silently as he concentrated on the driving.
‘I saw Roy,’ said the woman’s voice on the speaker. ‘And then I walked into the hall to get my phone. And then it came down the stairs.’ The voice was shaking. ‘He came down the stairs. Scooter.’ Roz could hear that she was hanging on to her self-control by a thread. ‘My dog,’ she said. ‘Our dog.’
‘Don’t worry. Hang on. We’re on our way.’
‘He was moving very quickly.’ The woman sounded like a child now, like a little girl reciting a story.
‘I got into the bedroom just in time,’ confided the childish voice. ‘It’s safe in the bedroom. He can’t get through the door.’
‘We’ll be with you soon,’ said Roz.
‘He’s outside the door. He wants to come in but I won’t let him.’
‘Tell her I’m driving as fast as I can,’ shouted Redmond from the front of the vehicle.
‘Scooter’s outside the door,’ said the horribly childish voice. ‘But I won’t let him in.’
Scooter was outside the door.
But it was a good, strong, sturdy door. Roy had put it up, hanging it on the hinges himself.
The people they’d bought the house from had ripped out all the original fittings and replaced them with inferior modern designs. But over the course of many months Roy and Jessica had haunted the estate’s communal recycling area and salvaged a full set of original doors.
With her help Roy had painstakingly replaced them. It was their pet project, restoring the little house. The bedroom door had been the last one and Roy had put