Doctor Who_ Loving The Alien Part 40

McBride let out a deep breath. 'They never wake up in a good mood, do they?'

'Would you if you had that much ironmongery strapped to you?'

O'Brien crossed to the remaining apes. 'Which one do you want next, Doctor?'

Limb scurried over. 'Now, let's see what we have to choose from.

Another gorilla, I think, they seem very effective.'

The door at the other end of the ward crashed open and Bill Collins staggered in, another battery in his arms. Limb clapped his hands.

'Immaculate timing, Major. On the table if you please.

Collins let the heavy lead acid battery crash onto the trolley.

'Crawhammer wants to see you, Doctor.'

The Doctor scowled. I'm busy, Major Collins.'

194.

'I'm sure that Mr Limb can cope without you for a few minutes' The major's hand dropped imperceptibly towards the b.u.t.t of his pistol.

McBride hurried over to the Doctor's side. 'Look, Doc, I'm sure we can get things moving along without you for this one. Best keep the general happy, eh?'

The Doctor smiled at McBride. 'Thank you, Cody. Looking after my best interests as always.'

He sighed and made a half-hearted attempt to brush the dirt from his jacket.

All right, Major Collins, lead on.' He shot a look at Limb. 'You can manage without me, I trust?'

Limb smiled slowly. 'Oh yes, thank you. We'll do very nicely without you.'

McBride watched as Major Collins escorted the Doctor away. The Doc was worried, and that made McBride worried. Crawhammer was up to something, and McBride didn't trust the big southern general as far as he could throw one of these gorillas.

He looked down at the sleeping ape, his stomach churning at the ugly tubes and bolts that wound in and out of the creature's flesh. It had been nearly twenty years since he had seen anything like this.

Twenty years since the Doctor had stepped into his life and shown him things that had haunted his nightmares ever since. Now the Doctor was back and the nightmares were real again, but this time they were home-grown. No silver aliens to deal with. Just people, stirred up by the Doctor and Limb. Two dangerous, powerful little boys.

McBride shook his head. Ace dead, Rita missing, Mullen crippled.

Mullen, who could have whipped his a.s.s if had ever come to a straight fight, was lying in a hospital bed upstairs with no legs, waiting for people to turn him into this. He clenched his fists.

It wasn't fair. He wasn't a young man any more. During the war it had almost been exciting; now it just made him sick. Sick and scared.

'You OK?' Davey O'Brien was looking at him.

McBride nodded. 'Just thinking about ants.'

'Ants?'

'Yeah. Did you ever used to stir them up when you were a kid? The black and the reds?'

'Sure.'

McBride nodded across to where Limb was working on the battery 'Well, he and the Doc have stirred 'em up good this time. With a very big stick. '

As if on cue, Limb turned and smiled that sickly old man smile of 195 his.

'I'm ready for that one now, if you don't mind, Mr McBride.'

McBride almost laughed. With his screwdriver poised, Limb looked like some crazy dentist a mad scientist. O'Brien called over two of the soldiers and between the four of them they heaved the comatose gorilla onto the tiny bed Limb patted the gorilla's chest.

'My, you are a big strong boy, aren't you?'

Leaning over the table he began to connect the gorilla to the battery.

O'Brien slumped into a chair, offering McBride a cigarette. 'You know what bothers me, McBride?'

McBride flicked his lighter into life and shook his head.

'The red ants always used to win.' said Davey O'Brien.

The Doctor followed Major Collins down the long, darkened wards of the hospital. From outside he could hear the distant crackle of the dimensional tear and the screams of frightened Londoners. Visible through the tall windows, the strange flickering light lit up the brooding November sky, sending dancing shadows across the thick pile of the carpet. A Christmas tree, strewn with elegant silver baubles, scattered reflections of the dancing energy across the sterile green walls and high ceilings of the sombre old building. If it wasn't for the screams and the gunfire, it would be almost magical; a fairytale Christmas in London.

All around him American soldiers, rifles clasped tightly in their bands, snapped smartly to attention as they pa.s.sed, but the Doctor could see the suspicion in their faces. The fear. He represented everything that they had been taught to hate. Something different, something unknown. A Russkie. An augment. A little green man from outer s.p.a.ce. Limb couldn't have chosen a worse time in history. A time of ma.s.sive distrust and paranoia, when the two most powerful countries on Earth had access to appallingly powerful weapons, and neither had the wisdom or understanding to realise what they could unleash.

The Doctor sighed. If only Limb had managed to make it another twenty years in the Cybermen's time machine, then there might have been a chance. The Brigadier might be pig-headed and set in his ways, but he was like a Sunday school teacher compared to Crawhammer.

The Doctor glanced at the young major by his side. Despite his youth, there was something very rea.s.suring and confident about the tall American. In many ways he reminded the Doctor of a young Lethbridge-Stewart. There was a level-headedness about him more common in a man twice his age. Certainly he had Crawhammer's trust.

196.

The Doctor had no doubt that the major would follow the general's orders to the letter; the problem was he wasn't sure how dangerous those orders were going to be.

'Do you trust the general, Major?'

Collins said nothing.

'Will you follow your instructions like a good soldier even if it means the destruction of everything that you hold dear?'

Collins stopped. Look, Doctor, there was strain in the major's face.

'I don't know what to believe any more. I'd rather you'd never arrived at all. I wish you'd stayed on Mars or Venus or wherever. You talk about aliens and time travel and other dimensions, and a whole barrel of other weird c.r.a.p. I'm a soldier. I'm from Oregon.'

'And you were trained to fight Communists.'

'Yes.'

'No questions, no uncertainty.'

'No. A simple choice.'

'The world laid out in red and white...

The major's face flushed with anger. 'Have you ever seen the effects of a nuclear blast, Doctor? Have you ever seen what it can do to a city?'

'Oh, yes,' the Doctor's face was grave.

Collins stared at him. 'I was out on Bikini Atoll last year; with a military survey team a.s.sessing the damage to the environment. Do you know that the sand had turned to gla.s.s, the trees to stone?'

The Doctor met his gaze, his steel grey eyes sombre and reflective.

He remembered standing on a world burnt up by nuclear holocaust, the forests petrified, the soil turned to ash, the people mutated. It had followed him for the rest of his life.

'I know what you mean, Major.'

'It can't happen again, Doctor.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Right now, anything could happen.'

Collins straightened his uniform jacket and nodded towards an office door at the end of the corridor.

'The general is waiting for you, Doctor.'

197.

Chapter Twenty-one.

Cody McBride dragged hard on a cigarette. Limb had given him a break they were running out of monkeys anyway rather than have him smoke where there was a risk of explosion. He'd chain-smoked his way through almost an entire packet. He listened to Crawhammer's m.u.f.fled, distant bellow. Obviously the Doctor wasn't winning the general over. McBride swore he could see, twenty yards down the corridor, the office door rattling.

He was thinking about Mullen he was in here somewhere. Mullen was the reason he'd come here: finding the Doc had given McBride new heart, but had sidetracked him. McBride wanted to go and find Mullen.

There was a sudden commotion from the other end of the corridor. A soldier was running from the direction of their workshop, shouting.

'He's gone!'

McBride crawled to his feet. 'Who's gone?'

'The old man!'

'Go get the Doctor the guy who's arguing with the general.'

He didn't wait for any debate, but sprinted to the end of the workshop corridor, drawing his gun. He peered around and moved towards the doors. There was no sound and no movement.

He decided, 'To h.e.l.l with it', and burst through the doors, both hands on the b.u.t.t of the gun.

The ward was a mess. Beds were on their sides, electrical equipment and gla.s.s strewn across the floor. Bodies of the remaining apes littered the floor, but of Limb there was no sign.

'O'Brien?'

McBride could see the captain slumped over a chair on the far side of the ward. He stirred at the sound of McBride's voice and tried to haul himself upright, but instantly slid back to the floor clutching his head.

'Jeez. How long have I been out?'

Search me,' said McBride. 'I've been gone half an hour...'

He spun as the big double doors crashed open and a dozen troops pushed into the room, Crawhammer towering over them. The little figure of the Doctor pushed through them and hurried over.

'Cody. Are you OK? What happened?' The Doctor pulled a paisley 198 handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed delicately at O'Brien's scalp.

'We couldn't stop him, sir,' O'Brien said to Crawhammer. 'He and the ape just took off. Knocked me cold as I tried to stop them.'

Crawhammer strode across the devastated room. 'What in G.o.d's name...?'

The old man and the American kid. Gone, sir,' said O'Brien. 'They went out of the window. Carried by one of the apes.'

'One of the apes?' Crawhammer bellowed. 'You mean he can control it? How in the name of holy h.e.l.l's he managed that? These things don't respond to a quiet word and a handful of nuts!'

'Ultrasonics, I daresay,' said the Doctor. 'Control on a very basic level. Still, at the moment anything that helps him helps us.'

McBride was puzzled.

'I don't get it.'

'It was George Limb's move,' said the Doctor, smiling slightly. 'I was waiting for him to make it. I hadn't expected the ape... I'm sorry about that. One of you could have been seriously hurt.'

O'Brien tried to smile through the pain of his pounding head. 'No problem, Doc.'

'And now it's my move,' the Doctor said.

He turned to McBride.

'Hold on there one minute, boy,' boomed Crawhammer. The Doctor ignored him.

'Come on, Cody.'

He turned to leave, but Crawhammer stepped into his path. 'No one's goin' anywhere.'

The Doctor's eyes flashed with anger. 'I don't have time for this, General!'

He ducked under the big general's arms and made for the door. In one smooth movement Crawhammer spun and pulled one of his pearl-handled revolvers from its holster.