Doctor Who_ Warlock - Andrew Cartmel [95]
Tommy cursed and recoiled with surprise as the cat flashed past. He lunged after the small animal but he was far too slow. ‘Shit,’ he said. Then he stopped and grinned. It didn’t matter. The light was back on. Darkness had been the cat’s only advantage and now he’d dispelled that.
The cat was at his mercy now. It was only a matter of time until he had it cornered and captured. Tommy smiled again. He was beginning to have second thoughts about the pesticide experiment. It was a good idea, but it could wait. Why rush things? First he could try a number of other procedures on the cat. The Draize eye irritancy tests, for example.
Tommy began to speculate about the kind of substances which were on hand in the lab, and which one it would be most satisfying to slowly drip into the eyes of the tethered black cat.
He glanced around the annexe, his gaze alighting on the heavy square ten‐litre water bottles on the floor. Before he tidied them up, before he did anything else, he decided, he would replace the bulb in the ceiling light.
Tommy was just opening the door of the storage cupboard when he heard the sound from the main lab room. A clean metallic sound. A ringing, clinking sound.
Tommy froze. For one crazy instant he thought he recognized the sound. He shook his head. It couldn’t be. Yet it sounded just like the clicking of the release mechanisms on one of the animal cages.
Then the noise came again. Tommy turned away from the storage cupboard and ran into the lab. The cages were where he’d left them, stacked on the electric trolley. Only now they were all empty. The cats had escaped.
Tommy saw a furry curve of white tail just disappearing around the corridor towards the rodent section. Without thinking he launched himself forward and grabbed the cat by the tail. It shrieked as he dragged it back into the lab and caught it by the scruff of the neck.
This white cat was older and fatter than the black one, and consequently slower. Tommy wouldn’t have had much trouble getting her back in the cage even without his gloves on. The animal seemed dazed and cringed meekly back as he locked the door of the cage again.
That left two cats on the loose: the small ginger one and the vicious black beast who’d led him such a merry chase through the annexe.
Tommy went into the corridor, past the room where they stored the rodents, towards the primate section. That was when he remembered the dog he’d also brought across on the trolley. He doubled back to the kennels and found the cage just inside the door where he’d unloaded it. Empty.
Before he had time to do much more than register the fact he heard a sudden shrill clamour from the primate section, two rooms along.
In there, among the cages containing red‐billed tamarin monkeys, he found the small ginger cat prowling around. The little animal didn’t offer any resistance when he scooped it up and carried it back into the main lab. Unlike the black or white cat, this one didn’t seem particularly intent on escape. It was merely curious about the strange place it had found itself in.
Tommy was locking the ginger cat back in its cage when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. A flash of light, coming from the far end of the lab.
Coming from the annexe.
Tommy’s hands were soaking with sweat in the heavy plastic gloves. He stripped them off and let them fall and they slapped onto the concrete floor.
He walked towards the far end of the lab. As he got nearer he saw something had happened to the light down there. The annexe was dark again.
Tommy felt like he was caught in one of those nightmares which kept repeating itself. He peered cautiously around the corner into the annexe. At the back of his mind was a thought he couldn’t quite begin to face. It had threatened to surface for several minutes now. Given a choice between going into the annexe and confronting the thought, Tommy chose