Doctor Who_ Warlock - Andrew Cartmel [81]
‘Sorry about that, sir,’ said Webster.
The old man shrugged. ‘Nothing to be done about it, son. Obviously you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to put one over on the Doctor. Anyhow, he detected our bug and terminated the connection. So we’ve learned as much as we can from him.’ Harrigan smiled. ‘Or at least, as much as we can without going over there in person.’
* * *
Creed had finished packing for the flight. He was standing in front of the mirror in the bedroom when he noticed something. A small white triangle sticking out between the mirror and the wall. The corner of a photograph. Creed drew it out from behind the mirror. It was a colour picture of himself and Anna.
He picked it up and held it in his hand, equally attracted to the ideas of throwing it away and putting it into his suitcase. But in the end he just found a thumbtack and stuck it back on the wall beside the mirror. He opened his flight bag and checked his Python handgun in its holster, wrapping the MIDI links in protective plastic.
He zipped the case shut and picked it up in one hand. As he left the room he looked at the picture of Anna and then at his own reflection. He stared at himself in the mirror, a man holding a suitcase, about to embark on an adventure in a new country, and he felt a sudden joyous stab of hope.
Maybe this time they would kill him.
* * *
Chapter 19
It was brilliant daylight outside but the annexe at the far end of the laboratory where Tommy stood was almost totally in darkness. The building didn’t have any windows and the lights in that section of the lab had blown.
It was just a matter of replacing the bulbs, but Tommy hadn’t got around to doing it. His sister Pam disliked the dark annexe for some reason. She had to go into it on the way to the incinerator or whenever she used the photocopier or the water‐cooler and she nagged Tommy constantly about replacing the light‐bulb, in the traditional manner of big sisters everywhere.
It was true that, as junior lab technician, this sort of menial task was his responsibility. But, in the traditional manner of younger brothers everywhere, Tommy just ignored her and left the light‐bulb.
It was also Tommy’s job to replace the bottles for the water‐cooler in the annexe, which he was busy doing now, working in the light of a portable desk lamp. Tommy took pride in this task because he’d devised a better way of doing it.
The water‐cooler was located beside the photocopying machine and Maxine or Pam inevitably ended up splashing mineral water everywhere and soaking the photocopier when they tried to reload the cooler. Tommy on the other hand always managed to perform the job without any fuss or disaster. There was a trick to it.
He lifted the big empty plastic bottle off the well of the cooler and set it on the floor beside the row of full bottles. He wrestled one of these up off the floor. They were ten‐litre bottles and they were heavy, sure, but there was no need to slop water everywhere the way Pam did. For such a smart girl she was pretty stupid sometimes.
Tommy’s shadow was steep and dramatic behind him as he worked by the light of the desk lamp beside the photocopier. That lamp drove Pam crazy. She hated temporary fixes; she wanted Tommy to do the job properly. To get the damned folding ladder out and fumble around on the filthy ceiling replacing the bulb in the overhead light fixture. But Tommy thought the temporary lamp was perfectly adequate.
His shadow looming hugely, he held the heavy water bottle balanced on the edge of the table. He was holding it in place with one hand while he used his other to open it. The big square bottle tapered to a thin neck sealed with a plastic membrane. Tommy punctured the membrane with his thumb.
Now came the tricky bit: turning the bottle upside‐down and manoeuvring it into the water‐cooler without splashing water everywhere. This was where Pam or Maxine panicked and soaked the entire area. This was where the trick came in. Tommy inserted his finger into the