Doctor Who: Nightshade Part 22

praying.

Robin spotted the stairway to the tower and pointed.

Medway wondered whether he had a lunatic in the car.

'There!'

He'd listened with patience to Trevithick's story and They ducked and weaved through the columns of light.

accepted the reality of the missing persons and the Like running through a forest fire, thought Ace, grabbing landlady's death. Now the old man had insisted they drive Robin's hand as he stumbled.

to the radio telescope to find someone called 'the Doctor'.

She pushed him into the well of the staircase and his 'It's not that I don't believe you, sir,' he said, turning the knees connected with the steps. He howled in pain but car on to the moor road once again. 'It's just a little hard to didn't stop, dragging himself upwards. Ace cast an anxious take in.'

look behind. The room was humming with light, spindly 'I know, I know,' said Trevithick, biting his finger nails.

fronds crackling their way towards them.

'But there's more.'

Ace pushed at Robin's backside and he clambered up the 'More?' Medway raised his eyebrows. The old man steps, using his hands for purchase on the cold stone. They looked out of the car window into the night. The headlights seemed to go around and around endlessly.

lit up dark bushes and indiscernible structures. 'I told you I After several exhausting minutes, they emerged on to a was attacked and that the... thing which attacked me was narrow landing which led to a long, long corridor. From frightened off by Mr Yeadon's car.'

behind one of the doors came the sound of prayer.

He nodded slowly. Trevithick took a deep breath. 'Mr 'Shh!' hissed Ace. They listened intently. The voice was Medway. It was a monster. Seven feet tall. Like a great cracked, defeated, mumbling the prayers in a hopeless dirge.

insect.'

'It's the Abbot,' said Ace. Robin looked back the way they Medway opened his mouth but Trevithick pressed on.

had come. The dark walls were already brightening.

'You came here to see me about Nightshade. Well, I can tell 'It's coming after us!' he cried. Ace grabbed his collar and you for certain that the creature, that real creature, was the they clattered up the next flight of steps.

same thing which I used to fight on television!'

'I know we shouldn't keep going up,' she gasped, her Medway didn't say anything. Trevithick rubbed his eyes.

lungs bursting. 'In movies, if people go up buildings you 'Not a man in a rubber suit. Not this time. A real thing.

know they're going to fall off sooner or later!'

Trying to kill me. That's what I saw under the lamp last 'No choice,' called Robin over his shoulder, feeling dizzy night and that's what smashed my window. They've come as he ran round and round the never-ending spiral.

back to get me!'

Behind them, the tide of light reached the landing, 'Right,' said Medway.

throbbing with power. It paused as though listening, fronds 'Oh, I know you don't believe me. But it's true! I swear it!

Look!'

190.

191.

He showed Medway the tear in his jacket and waistcoat where the creature's mandible had struck him. Medway Medway and Trevithick opened the control room doors was grateful for the distraction of arrival. The security gate on to a scene of pandemonium. Cooper, Vijay and Holly was wide open, just as the Doctor had left it, and the were running about the place, trying desperately to fathom telescope dish plunged into darkness.

the explosion of data. The Doctor stood alone in the centre 'We're here,' said Medway quietly.

of everything, his eyes dark and fathomless.

'It's so strong!' cried Cooper.

Hawthorne sat on his bed, hugging his knees to his chin.

'Doctor!' Trevithick called above the din.

b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.

'We've got to use the safety cutouts!' Vijay shouted. 'It's Who did they think they were?

too big this time!'

Well, he'd soon sort them out. One phone call to Cooper nodded. 'See what you can do.'

Cambridge and he'd have the pair of them off the project.

Holly threw herself into a chair and began to hammer He sighed. That was if the b.l.o.o.d.y phones ever started figures into a console. She frowned. 'It's no good. I can't working again.

stop it!'

Anyway, his superiors were bound to recognise the truth 'Doctor!' Trevithick advanced across the room and shook of his statements. It was all well and good paying lip service the Doctor's arm. 'I have things to tell you.' Medway to these fashionable ideas on racial harmony but it jumped as a hideous wail began to a.s.sail his ears.

obviously didn't work in practice. He could show them that.

'Klaxon?' said Cooper.

Vijay Degun had admitted to taking illegal substances, had 'Fence breached again.' Holly looked up from her work.

risked the entire project!

The Doctor glanced at Trevithick. 'Not now, not now.' He Hawthorne was disappointed in Cooper. He'd expected ran to the window and peered out into the darkness. Light more. Didn't she realise where it would all lead? Powell was was pouring from the silhouetted monastery.

right. 'Rivers of blood,' he'd promised. Rivers of blood.

Cooper pulled on a parka. 'I'm going to check the fence.

What was he doing skulking in his room? Who were they Won't be five minutes.'

to tell him how to behave? They weren't his teachers. They 'No!' cried Holly. 'It's not safe.'

weren't his mother. Hawthorne wished she were here now 'Be careful,' said Vijay.

so he could bury his head into the secure, perfumed folds of Cooper threw a glance at the bewildered Trevithick and her dress. Perhaps she would read him a bedtime story. He Medway, and then disappeared through the doors. 'There's stiffened. No. Not that. Not... now.

something happening at the monastery!' cried the Doctor, He could hear the frantic activity in the control room but covering his ears as the klaxon honked deafeningly.

didn't move from his bed. If they were so clever, they could Then the lights went out.

manage without him. Couldn't they?

192.

193.

[image]

Hawthorne lay back on his bed, chuckling to himself. He could hear the klaxon wailing now. They had got themselves into a pickle.

Well, crisis or no crisis, he wasn't going to offer any advice. First thing in the morning he would take the Land Rover, drive to York and get the first train out of this rancid county. Then he would deliver his official letter of complaint and...

He turned over and pushed his hands under the pillow then jumped up in shock. There was a pool of sticky black liquid spreading across the sheet.

Surprised, he lifted his coated fingers to his face and sniffed. What was it? Pitch? Bitumen? No, it was... it was...

Tar.

Hawthorne's spine froze. For several long minutes he was Winstanley didn't move. There had been a voice in his quite unable to move. The harsh, unshaded light above his head. No words. Just a voice. A presence. Answering his head flickered, brightened and died.

prayers. He glanced around his cell quickly. A corona of He listened to the sound of his own stertorous breathing light sparkled round the door. With his heart in his mouth, and then swung his legs over the side of the bed.

he put a pudgy hand on the door and slowly opened it. He He would get up. Run to the door. Down the corridor. To yelped in shock at the wall of energy which filled the the control room. Everything would be all right.

corridor like sheet-lightning.

Everything...

It was beautiful. Beautiful...

Strangely, he wasn't at all surprised when the tacky black Backing into the room, he stumbled against a chair and paw grasped his ankle.

fell to his knees.

Yes, that was only right. On your knees, he thought. He had doubted. His faith had been weak but now, oh now, his prayers had been answered. Winstanley prostrated himself before the light. Slowly, scarcely daring to breathe, he opened his eyes.

The energy before him had begun to a.s.sume a shape, pixels of delicate light swirling and swirling until a man stood before him, robed arms outstretched. The face was 194 195.

pale, bearded, ascetic. Light shivered over the shoulder-length hair.

'Oh my Christ!' sobbed Winstanley, reaching out trembling hands. 'Oh, Christ! Christ!'

He stumbled forwards on his knees. The man's face was Chapter Eight kindly, the brown eyes warm and forgiving. He extended a hand: a long, finely boned hand in which a ragged hole had been torn. Blood oozed from the wound.

Winstanley took the man's hand and pressed it to his face.

'Blessed blood,' he wept. 'Sweet Jesus, forgive me.'

His eyes flicked upwards, catching a tiny change in the man's face. The brows drew together, eyes narrowing. The Trevithick slid to the floor, his eyes darting to and fro as kindly smile creased into a mocking grin.

he willed them to become accustomed to the darkness. He Winstanley felt the stigmatic hand close around his face, could make out only indistinct shapes illuminated by the the bones of his jaw crumbling like powder. Then there was glow of the monastery. Something bobbed into view by him nothing but a searing pain: pain like a billion needles and he gasped, startled. 'Are you all right, sir?' It was ripping through his mind as the apparition surged down his Medway.

throat.

Trevithick nodded and then realised he'd have to vocalise Winstanley's smile, so long forced and unreal, widened his a.s.sent. 'Yes. Yes, thank you.'

impossibly as energy roared into him. Then his broad head Around them, the machinery was once again winding imploded with a vile clatter.

down. Vijay stumbled across the room and found Holly. He 'You are forgiven,' chuckled the apparition as it closed pressed his cheek to hers and called, 'Doctor?'

around the Abbot's lifeless body.

The Doctor moved to stand by the window, his figure silhouetted against the glow of the monastery like that of a child watching a bonfire.

'Please excuse me,' he said quietly. 'I must return to the monastery. Ace may need me.'

He dashed across the room without knocking over a single stick of furniture.

'I'll be back,' he called over his shoulder. 'Try and stay together. Things are getting serious.' The double doors clattered and he was gone.

196.

197.

Holly jumped as Medway flicked the flint of his lighter, Vijay tripped over Holly. 'Wait!' he called. She grasped his face looming into view close by. 'I suggest we find some his hand. 'What is it?'

illumination,' he said, standing up.

The double doors opened again and Medway ran through 'There are some candles in my room,' said Vijay.

into the night.

'No,' said Holly quickly. 'I don't want you to go back 'We found Hawthorne. In his room,' whispered Vijay.

there.'