Doctor Who_ Warchild - Andrew Cartmel [63]
‘You really are extremely rude,’ said Roz, reversing the Styer AUG and slamming its butt on the floor to make sure the bayonet was firmly secured.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to be,’ said Redmond. He leant forward and spoke confidentially to Creed. ‘I’m actually a great fan of Roz’s.’
‘Ass-kisser,’ said Roz.
‘Seriously,’ said Redmond. ‘You and Mrs Woodcott both.
You saved my life.’ He scratched at the thick pad of bandages on his throat.
‘None of that would have happened if you had secured the hatch properly,’ said Roz.
‘Hey. Quit arguing in the back,’ said Creed from the steering-wheel. He said it with the authority of an experienced family man who had gone on long trips with children. Then he chuckled. ‘So Mrs Woodcott saved your ass, did she?’
Redmond clambered up into the front of the armoured car to sit beside Creed. He was glad to get away from Roz.
‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Well, my throat actually. I was fighting off this-’
‘Dog,’ said Creed.
‘Oh no,’ Redmond called back to Roz. ‘Our new colleague has correctly guessed the mystery question.’
‘That was quick,’ said Roz, leaning forward to put her head on Redmond’s shoulder. She hadn’t really meant to nag him about the hatch. It’s just that he’d nearly got himself killed and she couldn’t bear the thought that he might have been careless. She wanted Redmond to come through this business in one piece. ‘You must have given him too many clues.’
‘No,’ said Redmond. ‘He just plucked the answer out of the blue.’
‘Even assuming that dogs have suddenly become unpredictably vicious-’
‘Oh, you can assume that, all right,’ said Redmond tugging at his bandage.
‘Vicious and well organized,’ said Roz.
‘Even assuming that, how can there be enough of them in London to create a civil emergency?’ Creed was slowing the vehicle down and checking its location against the computer map. He glanced around at Roz. ‘We’re at the place where you wanted to stop.’ He put on the brakes and the big vehicle slowly coasted to a halt.
‘Good,’ said Roz as she made her way to the back of the vehicle. She began to climb up towards the hatch.
Creed called after her. ‘Don’t think I’ve forgotten my question.’
‘Here’s someone who may be able to answer it,’ said Roz, opening the hatch.
She climbed up the ladder until she was invisible above the waist. Redmond stared at her buttocks jutting just below the hatch and silently mouthed the words ‘bony arse’ at Creed.
Creed felt a shift in the armoured car’s suspension as someone climbed on board. Roz said something which he couldn’t hear. Then she began descending, her boots ringing on the metal rungs of the ladder as she came back through the hatch. There was the sound of someone following her.
‘— need for an investigation,’ Roz was saying, her voice sharp with irritation.
‘Not an investigation, just an appraisal,’ said the man who followed her into the armoured car. He climbed to the bottom of the ladder then stood blinking in the semi-darkness. He was a tall paunchy man with a small moustache. In one hand he carried what looked incongruously like a sports bag. He would have been more at home with a brief-case, thought Creed. This man shouldn’t be carrying a sports bag; he looked the sort who was permanently behind a desk in an office.
Kind of like me, thought Creed wryly.
‘I’m really not very happy about this either,’ said the man.
Roz ignored him. She was smouldering with rage. The man looked like he might burst into tears. He seemed bewildered at finding himself in the small cabin of the armoured car with three strangers. He reminded Creed ludicrously of an overgrown infant on his first day at school, suddenly and inexplicably abandoned among strangers by his parents. He wouldn’t let go of his bag and he didn’t know where to sit down.
Redmond took pity on him. ‘Our friend was just asking a question,’ he said, nodding at Creed. ‘He doesn’t believe there can be enough dogs in London to create an emergency like this.’
Redmond’s ploy worked. Confronted with a