Doctor Who_ Warlock - Andrew Cartmel [77]
‘Are you okay?’
‘Yeah,’ Jack fought for breath, finally bringing the coughing under control. ‘Just a touch of asthma. I get it now and then. Mostly when I’m in a situation like this.’
‘You mean when you’re drugged and kidnapped?’ said Ace.
‘No.’ Jack smiled. ‘When I’m in a room with animals. It’s just an allergy thing. Not ideal for an animal rights activist, I know.’
‘What did you do with Sheba?’ Ace corrected the past tense. ‘I mean what do you do with Sheba?’
‘We keep her outside. She had a bed in the shed in Shell’s back garden. She only comes indoors for mealtimes and about twenty‐three other hours in the day.’ Jack tried to smile but he was still wheezing and Ace noticed that his gasping breathing was falling into the same pattern as hers and Shell’s.
In the silent room the three of them were breathing like a single entity. Maybe it was the drug, sending subliminal signals back and forth, causing their respiratory patterns to synchronize.
‘Listen,’ Jack’s voice was suddenly urgent. ‘We’ve got to get out of these chairs.’
‘We will,’ said Ace, and she meant it, although she had no idea how they could manage it. She felt a fierce anger kindling in her. A powerful, simple desire to escape from the bonds that held her. There had to be a way.
The small bird fluttered back into view and Ace watched it, following every movement as if fascinated. The bird seemed to be sucking all her attention towards it. She could feel the drug operating deep inside her now, causing her thoughts and emotions to float in strange new patterns. She watched the bird flap randomly above them.
‘We’ll fly away,’ whispered Shell, ‘as free as birds. We shall escape from these bonds.’ She sounded confident and calm and Ace glanced over at her in surprise.
The girl wasn’t looking her way, so all Ace could see of Shell’s face was the right cheek with the blue Siamese cat tattooed on it. It seemed to glow with vast hidden significance which might be revealed at any moment. The image of the blue cat stretching was lifelike and vivid. Ace could imagine it beginning to move around on Shell’s cheek. The thought was so disturbing she blinked and averted her eyes. She could feel the drug surfacing in her, gathering strength.
‘Warlock will show us the way,’ said Shell softly. There was the flapping of tiny wings and Ace found her gaze inexorably drawn to the small bird as it circled her head then flew across the room to resume its perch on top of the animal cages.
Ace stared at the cages, unable to look away. Immediately beneath the bird the elegant black cat stirred and stretched like the tattooed cat on Shell’s face. Ace watched it, unblinking. The cat began to move around as if her gaze made it uncomfortable. The liquorice smell seemed to be growing thicker in the room.
‘Warlock will free us,’ said Shell.
Got to get out of this chair, thought Ace. Somehow. Anyhow.
In its cage the black cat stirred uneasily.
* * *
Chapter 18
Benny collected the Mercedes from the airport car park at Heathrow where she’d left it. She paid a machine and drove out of the airport on the network of curving roads.
It was a clear drive down to Kent and in less than two hours she was back at the old house in Allen Road, cutting the headlights as she coasted into the open garage.
She found the Doctor sitting in there, using one of the old computer terminals, sitting on a battered chrome bar stool hunched over the keyboards, typing rapidly.
‘Why don’t you use the voice interpreter?’ Benny said, getting out of the car and going over to stand behind him in the shadows. If the Doctor was startled by her sudden arrival he gave no sign of it.
‘Exactly what I intend to do.’
‘I’ll bet. You’re so old‐fashioned. You’re going to communicate by typing on the computer.’
‘I am not,’ said the Doctor. ‘I just have to boot it up first.’ Benny watched as he typed a line of cryptic letters in glowing white on the monochrome computer screen. Instantly the screen blossomed into brilliant colours, icons springing up at its margins. There was