Downtime - Marc Platt [72]
Several of the cables that lay across the floor twitched and undulated. There was a deafening screech of feedback.
Kirkham gaped as the whole camera podium, operator and all, lifted gracefully away from the floor. The cameraman flung himself sideways. The camera hovered and then threw itself straight at Clive Kirkham. The MP ducked as the massive piece of technology sailed inches above his head and smashed itself into the wall behind him.
There was a loud clunk as someone cut the power.
Technicians and PAs clustered round the astonished Kirkham. All he could think to say was, ‘Bloody hell. You didn’t tell me you had a poltergeist.’
Sarah was getting increasingly frustrated. ‘No. No. I said codes NN and QQ.’
She threw a glance at K9, who was waiting by the desk, monitoring the call to UNIT HQ. The voice still told her that Brigadier Crichton was unavailable, but at least she was not talking to Cavendish.
‘Q...Q! It’s urgent!’ She shook the phone angrily, trying to clear the crackling interference. ‘I’d get more sense out of the tea lady.’
The voice on the other end of the phone burbled something which she didn’t even imagine she had heard correctly.
‘Sorry? Have I encountered any what? What have Yeti got to do with it?’
There was a pause.
‘Mistress?’
She groaned. ‘Not now, K9.’
‘Yeti, mistress?’
‘What?’
‘I have references to Yeti which also mention Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and the London Event.’
‘K9?’
‘Mistress?’
‘I’m sorry for what I said when I tripped over you this morning.’
‘Apologies are unnecessary.’
‘You’re a wee gem, K9, and I won’t ever threaten to put you in kennels again.’
‘Hello,’ said a new voice on the line. ‘This is Crichton.’
‘Oh hello, Brigadier. My name is Sarah Jane Smith. I used to work with UNIT a long time ago. But I’m ringing about Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the London Event and New World University.’
Victoria rose from her desk as the old man appeared in the doorway. He advanced slowly, his white stick sweeping the floor before him.
‘Chancellor,’ she said, and came to meet him.
He stopped, sensing her presence.
She ignored Christopher’s stare and gazed adoringly up at her mentor’s ancient, bedraggled features. ‘Welcome home, Professor Travers.’
His head did not turn and his voice was icy. ‘I am still in the wilderness. Only my will to survive keeps me from despair.’
Victoria took his free hand and lifted it to her face. ‘You have lit a flame of hope in all of us.’
He gave a little groan and started to run his bony fingers almost tenderly across the contours of her face. Then, with a grunt, he caught her chin and held her with sudden ferocity.
‘Is it as I instructed? My shape. Symmetry. A form at last.
Shaping out my future. When will my new web stretch out across the Earth?’
‘Web?’ She struggled to break his grip as his face came closer. He was drooling into his filthy beard.
‘Not until I have the Locus!’
21
A Reunion
he Brigadier followed the canal west from Regents Park.
T He was hungry. He had not eaten since breakfast.
Eventually he saw the figure of his daughter seated on a bench, staring out across the water at the cemetery on the other bank. It was a day for memories. The blonde hair she had inherited from his own mother still reached down to her shoulders, just as it had done since she was little. He thought she looked distinctly lonely.
He had almost reached her before she noticed him. She stood up, looking embarrassed.
‘You’re late,’ she said.
‘I was delayed. The traffic and this computer business.’
It seemed a world away in this desolate spot. They eyed each other warily, both awkward, not touching, each not sure if the other was an enemy.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked politely.
‘I can’t complain. How are you?’
She paused and then turned away. ‘Look, this is stupid. I’ll just go. I shouldn’t have called you.’
‘Kate?’
She was instantly back. ‘Yes, Dad?’
‘Have you eaten? We can go and get a meal.’
She shook her head emphatically. ‘No. I just...’ She sat down