Doctor Who_ Warchild - Andrew Cartmel [82]
They’d come through the garden into the sitting room.
Now they were in the hallway that led to the front of the house. They didn’t pause by the kitchen. They kept going to the front door. Roz stopped and stood there, fragments of moonlight on her face from the small pebbled window.
‘Here?’ said Norman Peverell.
‘Here.’
‘What happened exactly?’
Roz sighed. ‘I told you all that in my report.’
‘Are you sure you didn’t leave anything out?’
‘Yes. No. I didn’t leave anything out.’
‘Forgive me, but this creature, who I might add is so elusive he’s almost legendary, has only ever been observed fleetingly and unreliably, from a distance. He has been the subject of special investigation but has never even been photographed. No one has ever got close to him and survived to report it.’
‘So?’
‘So it seems a little extraordinary that he just casually reveals himself to you.’
Roz shrugged. ‘What can I say? He was just sitting out there on the doorstep.’
‘Just outside this door?’
‘Just outside this door.’
She pulled the front door open to show him. The lock on the door was broken and it opened easily, swinging a little unevenly on its hinges.
Moonlight filled the hallway as she opened the door. It was remarkably intense and Roz’s eyes were immediately drawn up towards the big white moon that was riding in the cloudless London sky.
That’s why she didn’t see it right away.
Norman Peverell was saying, ‘It just seems strange that you had such an encounter-’
‘A close encounter,’ chuckled Redmond. He was coming up behind Norman Peverell, who stood behind Roz. Both of them screened the open front door from Redmond’s sight.
‘If you like,’ said the civil servant. Redmond walked up to stand behind Roz. ‘A close encounter. It just seems a little strange that you saw the White King and-’
‘Lived to tell the tale,’ said Redmond. He chuckled again but the sound died in his throat. He was close enough now to see out of the front door.
To see what Norman Peverell and Roz had already seen.
Outside the front door a narrow footpath led down to the low gate that separated the front garden of the house from the street.
The footpath, the front garden and the whole street were thick with dark shapes. What seemed like a million eyes glittered in the moonlight. And all those eyes were watching them.
Not one of the dogs made a sound. That was the worst thing. Their silence seemed to suggest a frightening level of intelligence and power, massed out there in the night. They were like an army of disciplined soldiers waiting for orders.
Even before Roz recovered from the first shock of recognition she realized that the dogs must have gathered very quickly. They had gathered in great numbers and total silence, moving in coordinated groups like well-drilled troops.
They sat patiently, pressing close to the house in untold numbers. Only where the footpath neared the house did the press of bodies lessen. The pack kept a respectful distance from the front steps.
Sitting on those steps, head angled so he could gaze up at Roz, was the strange white dog.
He waggled his head and bared his long teeth in what looked almost like a smile.
Chapter 27
‘I thought I was supposed to see Mr Pangbourne,’ said Ricky.
‘Excuse me?’
‘The announcement over the PA said I was supposed to go to the principal’s office.’
‘Well, that was what you might technically call a ruse,’
said Amy Cowan. She smiled at him over her shoulder as she slipped her key-card through the electronic sensor. The lock on the door clicked open. She swung the door wide and led him into a small office situated across the hall from the school library.
The office was hardly bigger than a broom closet but it had a large window which occupied most of one wall and two comfortable armchairs crowded in beside the desk. Amy sat in one of the chairs and gestured for Ricky to take the other one. He settled into it gingerly, holding his books on his lap.
They were sitting so close together their knees were almost touching and Ricky had to fight the impulse to stare