Doctor Who_ Loving The Alien Part 36

The Doctor buried his head in his hands. 'You fool!'

'Oh, only in small ways at first. Like saving young Jimmy. A life ruined by success, then given a second chance. And betting.'

'Betting?'

'I needed an income, Doctor. And it's not really gambling when you've a time machine, is it?'

The Doctor scowled.

'I'm going to dismantle that time machine,' he growled.

'I'm afraid you will have to be patient, Doctor.'

'Why? 'Where is it?'

'Under some trees in the cemetery where poor Ace was laid to rest, two days in the future. You see, there was one more journey I had to make. Unfortunately a component had burned out on her a year or two ago.'

'The lode-circuit.'

'So it would appear. I was working at the zoo by now, and had copies of all the keys and codes to the primate research labs. I took the circuit to the workshop one night after the project people had gone home. I was trying to repair it when the whole research team nearly thirty of them burst in, drunk as lords. I was forced to make a surrept.i.tious exit without the component. When I returned the place was a wreck and I couldn't find it anywhere.

'Drakefell took it.'

'Yes, I confess I hadn't expected that. It took me a long time to get 171 Drakefell to open up to me, and by then the blessed thing was destroyed. But in the meantime Betty seemed to be running normally, and I had to take the risk. I was resolved to carry out my plan.'

'To dig Ace up and plant clues on her body for me to find. You're obscene, Limb.'

'Oh, I intend to put it all right again,' said Limb. 'Just as soon as we, as it were, catch up with ourselves. You see, I returned from the graveside but the machine did not. It's still there, three days hence.'

'You can't just "put it all right", Mr Limb. It doesn't work like that.

Ace is dead.'

'And yet isn't that exactly what you came here to do?'

'I was acting from selfish motives. I wanted to create the illusion that Ace was still alive. It was terribly wrong of me.'

'I'm not sure that I understand,' said Limb.

'Of course you don't understand! You don't understand any of this, and yet still you play these dangerous, dangerous games with time!

You can't undo what you've done ever! You can go back and stop yourself pulling the trigger, but you don't change what happened you can only change your position with respect to what happened!

Somewhere out there, though you can't see it from this perspective on reality, you will forever more be shooting Ace in the head and dumping her corpse in the Thames! Somewhere out there the last thing she will see is you, pulling that trigger! It's unalterable!'

'I see...'

Limb rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

'Oh, but it's worse than that,' the Doctor snarled. 'Much, much worse! Infinitely worse!'

'Do tell me, said Limb. 'I am keen to learn.'

'Every point in s.p.a.ce/time has endless variations. It's an infinitely branching tree, filling the vortex. These are not mere potential realities, they are actualities. They exist. And more are created every time consciousness interacts with the physical world. An infinite rate of expansion. The vortex is packed, Mr Limb.'

'Fascinating...'

'The whole system is finely balanced. You and I have upset that balance.'

'Really? How?'

'When someone intercepts a specific time line with the intention of altering known events this creates whole new chains of actualities. The vortex becomes overfilled. The realities become too dense. The walls that separate them become worn. Damaged. Sometimes they can even break.'

172.

'Oh, dear.'

'It's happening, Mr Limb. I've already experienced some localised effects. And if I can't stop it, the results could be cataclysmic.'

'I see,' said George Limb, with the hint of smile and a faraway look in his eyes. 'Fascinating.'

Cody McBride had been left behind in Islington, along with Davey O'Brien and Sarah Eyles, with instructions to take care of Drakefell.

While Sarah tended to the patient and O'Brien snoozed, McBride bathed and reflected. It was always the same with George Limb suddenly you were left not knowing whose side you were on whose side anybody was on.

McBride's ribs burned while the rest of his body ached dully. He crawled out of the bath to find that Sarah had made up a bed for him on the settee. He was far too tired and far too sore to be gentlemanly he crawled under the blankets and for a fitful hour tried to sleep, before getting up again.

'Tea?' offered Sarah.

'Uh, yeah,' said McBride.

'Edward's sleeping now,' she said. 'I think he was glad to see me. I work for him, you know.'

'So what's the set-up here?' McBride challenged. ''Cos it stinks to me.'

'What do you mean?' the girl queried.

'You and your Dutch uncle.

'Sorry?'

'How much do you really know about him?'

'Uncle George? I've known him my whole life.'

'Yeah, but how much do you know about him? What's he told you about all this?'

'Perhaps you should ask him that.'

'I'm asking you. C'mon, I climbed down the G.o.dd.a.m.n chimney for you, didn't I?'

Sarah Eyles smiled.

'All right,' she said. 'Well, I suppose you'd call him a sort of secret agent. The government are worried about potential security leaks high up in weapons research, and Uncle George is keeping an eye on some people they're particularly worried about. Hence all the psychiatrist stuff.'

'And where do you fit into all this?'

'Well, I suppose you could say he recruited me.'

McBride sucked in his cheeks.

173.

'Well, I tell you babe, my my Uncle George used to tell me stories like that around Thanksgiving and I believed every one o' them. But then again, I was only eight.' Uncle George used to tell me stories like that around Thanksgiving and I believed every one o' them. But then again, I was only eight.'

'Did your your Uncle George bring Winston Churchill to your ninth birthday party?' Uncle George bring Winston Churchill to your ninth birthday party?'

'Uh, not that I recall, no'

'He always worked close to the government. During the war they sent him overseas.'

'Jersey?'

'Poland and Russia.' He stayed behind Soviet lines after the Cold War started, but they uncovered him and he spent the next six years in a Russian prison camp.

McBride snorted. 'He looks good for a Russian prisoner. In fact, he hardly looks a day older that when I ran across him during the war.' He laughed out loud. 'George Limb in a gulag? He'd be running the country inside of a year.'

'It's not funny. I thought he was dead. Killed in the Blitz. He just vanished, you see? Overseas.' She lowered her head. 'I lost both my parents a fortnight later.'

'I'm sorry,' said McBride.

'I had no family... then they let him out. The Russians. I'd never been so happy. That was nearly a year ago now.'

'Look... I gotta tell ya kid it's tough, but... I know stuff about George Limb that'd make your hair stand on end. You know he killed a girl? He shot her in the face.'

Sarah Eyles scowled.

'That's wicked!' she said. 'I don't believe that for a second!'

She turned and marched out of the door.

'Try to get some sleep, she said icily, not looking back.

The traffic was heavy for a Sunday morning. The day was fine and people clearly wanted to make the most of it. The Doctor couldn't blame them they sensed there might not be many more of them.

He was slumped in the seat, propped up on his elbows, his chin sunk on his fists.

'I defeated you once, you know,' said Limb.

'Mmm?' the Doctor mumbled.

'I went back to London just after the Blitz ended, located the Cybermen in the sewers. By then, you see, I knew from Inspector Mullen and Mr McBride's heroic little protest that they were there. So it was easy to nip back a few years, dig them out and get on to my old friends in government.'

174.

'Mr Churchill.'

'Oh, Winnie was a disappointment. But there were plenty of others who were prepared to listen. Our old friend Major Lazonby got his dream, albeit posthumously. We built our Cyberarmy. We overran Hitler's Europe within a year. I was a hero!'

'I'm surprised you left.'

'Wanderl.u.s.t, said Limb wistfully. 'And homesickness. You see, I'd remade the acquaintance of my dear G.o.ddaughter by then I should say my G.o.ddaughter and my great-niece and she is the joy of my life.'

'And Edward Drakefell's secretary.'

'Ah yes, Edward'

Limb smiled again.

'You still haven't told me why you're doing all this,' said the Doctor, 'though I can guess. Trying to develop some form of Cyber technology on primates, posing as a psychiatrist, weaving your nasty little spells around Dr Drakefell. And then there's your acquaintance With Mr Dumont-Smith.'

'Ah...'

'You've been up to your old tricks again, haven't you? Pa.s.sing secrets carrying tales, setting one side against another. Can you deny that this war you're so keen for me to avert is partly of your creation?'

Of course I don't deny it,' Limb exclaimed. 'Doctor, I fully intended to start a nuclear war.'

175.

Chapter Nineteen.

'D'you think there'll be a war?'

Sarah Eyles had found Cody McBride walking in the overgrown garden behind Drakefell's flat.

'I dunno,' said McBride. 'Nah not if I know the Doc.'

'I like your friend the Doctor,' said Sarah. 'He reminds me a lot of a younger Uncle George.'

'Believe me, they're nothing like each other,' said McBride.

'You don't know Uncle George,' said Sarah plaintively. 'He's a wonderful man. He's kind, clever...'