Doctor Who_ Warlock - Andrew Cartmel [32]
Jack gestured politely for Ace to follow her. As they left, she noticed that the tall blond was no longer at the bar. He must have left while Shell was talking about him. Perhaps his ears were burning.
The car park was situated beside a small theatre up a winding narrow street. They approached it, feet resounding on the cobbles in the night‐time stillness, the street lights making their shadows crooked behind them. A cool night wind was blowing in their faces. Jack and Shell had found a space for their hulking VW by the wall and Ace had parked her own car near the entrance.
She felt a sense of homecoming when she saw the Mazda sitting there, shining under the sodium yellow of the security lights. She had a sudden longing just to get in and drive back to the Doctor’s house. What the hell was she doing here with Shell and Jack? They were nice enough but she just didn’t share their passion for animal rights.
Ace said, ‘Open up. There’s a good car.’ She didn’t speak loudly but the Mazda recognized her key phrase. It double‐checked her speech patterns and then hissed and clicked as its doors unlocked.
Ace smiled as she heard the familiar noise. It was indeed a good car. She knew it was just a machine with a smart computer in it but she had begun to think of the Mazda as a real creature. A blunt, friendly beast who carried her good naturedly along the roads. And did it fast.
Ace reflected that she could just start this obedient beast and slip out into the midnight traffic. Once clear of Canterbury city centre she’d be speeding along the dark curves of country roads. If she put her foot down she could be home in no time at all.
Ace was tired. Did she really want to go on this fool’s mission with Jack and Shell? There was nothing she could accomplish by going to look at the research labs. Perhaps it was unfair to lead them on.
Suddenly Ace knew she’d made her decision. She had no intention of helping them to break into a lab to daub slogans on the wall or free caged rabbits just so they could die in the wild. And besides, there was something not quite right about this evening. It was a deep instinctive feeling and Ace couldn’t entirely articulate it, but the whole enterprise seemed too tenuous, too vague. She wouldn’t be surprised if the lab had nothing to do with animal experimentation and Shell and Jack turned out to be a couple of harmless but misguided fantasists. Ace simply couldn’t believe that the blond in the pub had been some kind of monster. He looked like an ordinary bloke. In fact, she’d quite fancied him.
Resisting the impulse to just get in the Mazda and drive off, Ace turned to give Jack and Shell the bad news. She had just stepped away from her car and was moving towards the VW when she heard Shell scream.
‘She’s gone!’
‘Easy, Shell. Are you sure?’
‘Sheba’s gone. Look. She isn’t in there.’ Jack had wrenched open the sliding side door of the Volkswagen and was peering inside as Ace trotted up. She looked over his shoulder. There was no sign of the dog inside the vehicle.
‘Maybe she got out.’ Jack put a hand on Shell’s shoulder.
‘How could she?’ She brushed the hand off. ‘The door was locked.’ Nonetheless she stalked off, her shadow huge and jagged behind her in the sodium lights. She began to call out for the dog. ‘Sheba! Sheba!’
Her voice echoed off the old stone walls. An elderly couple walking past on the pavement glanced over at her curiously. ‘Have you seen a black dog?’ Shell called. ‘She had a red collar.’ The man and woman shook their heads and hurried on. Shell came back to the VW. Jack was still staring unhappily inside as if he expected the dog to reappear magically.
‘It was him,’ said Shell. ‘That bastard’s put Sheba in his van and taken her off to the labs.’
‘How could he? We locked up before we went into the pub, and the door was still locked just now.’
Shell twisted her face in disgust. Her tattoos writhed, colourless dark shapes in the yellow light of the car park. ‘He’ll have tools.