Doctor Who_ Placebo Effect Part 23

'Not until this morning. Mr Carrington has suddenly brought a Doradan over from there. I can only a.s.sume she is blackmailing him in some way.' Ms Sox shrugged. 'Beyond that, I've no involvement with any of Commandant Ritchie's bizarre problems. And fewer still in that of the Foamasi Government over there.'

The Doctor shook his head, speaking quickly and urgently. 'Commandant Ritchie directed me to Green Fingers - clearly to help highlight his problem with the Dark Peaks Lodge. In turn, Ms Sox, it was Green Fingers who directed me to you.'

'He knows what I do. He knows everything that goes on here.'

'Indeed,' agreed Green Fingers - rather cryptically, the Doctor decided.

'I'm afraid there probably is a connection,' the Doctor continued.'You told me Mr Carrington was behaving oddly today, yes?'

Ms Sox agreed, then stopped and looked at Green Fingers. 'Oh no... you don't think...'

'I'm afraid I do, Ms Sox. Now, if we work on the a.s.sumption that you are right about the Doradan, I don't think it takes too much of a leap of logic to suppose that rather than being blackmailed, Mr Carrington was not Mr Carrington at all this morning, but more likely, he was Commandant Ritchie's not-so-friendly Dark Peaks agent.'

Ms Sox stood up.'But the real Chase Carrington...?'

'Dead, I imagine; said Green Fingers.'If the Doctor is correct, the Dark Peaks Lodge don't leave loose ends. They kill and supplant rather than kidnap or send on vacation their targets for subst.i.tution. Traditional Foamasi Lodge techniques, I regret to say.'

Ms Sox bit her lip, took a deep breath and then carried on.'OK, where's the link?'

"The link is the tunnels, Ms Sox. The Dark Peaks guessed that something killed Dallion's troopers. Would I be right in guessing that you ascertained that when Dr Mason was spotted on Earth in conversation with your "alien", he was discussing drugs?'

'Yes. That's what made me investigate our pharmaceutical division. I hoped it was nothing to do with Carrington Corp. Drugs are bad publicity. Sadly, I was proven wrong.'

The Doctor looked straight at Green Fingers. 'Your Lodges are not averse to a bit of freelance help, are they, Amba.s.sador?'

The Foamasi laughed. 'No, of course not. And any freelancer worth his price would automatically sell us the same recordings as he sold Ms Sox, and I imagine about ten other groups and corporations.'

'So, Commandant Ritchie's Foamasi chum, having already infiltrated Carrington Corp's Ganymede pharmaceutical operation, also knew that Dr Mason was doing a deal. I suspect at some point they had him under surveillance, and whoever he is working for is based in the tunnels.

Sergeant Dallion's people encountered them and were killed. So now we have both this Foamasi Lodge and the Earth SSS investigating the tunnels for different reasons.'

Ritchie put his hand up.'I have to say that I gave the Foamasi I... dealt with absolutely no indication where my troopers went.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'I doubt they cared, Commandant. They just want whoever is in the tunnels. They will either join forces or wipe them out and take over their business as they seem to have done now with Carrington Corp.' The Doctor reached over and took Ms Sox's hands, easing her back down to sit on a crate. 'And I am truly sorry about Chase Carrington. From our brief meeting, he seemed very... honourable.' He straightened up again, a different person once more. 'So, Query Four is: this leaves us where? I suggest we now pool our resources. We have three main operations. One - the Olympic Games must go ahead safely. That is Commandant Ritchie's responsibility. Two - we must stop the drug suppliers in the tunnels. That will be Sergeant Dallion's task. Thirdly - you need to get your Lodges to pull back, Amba.s.sador. If the Foamasi cause any problems here, you and your planet will most likely be expelled from the Federation, which with Liasici's poor financial state right now, will be most detrimental to your home planet, correct?'

Green Fingers nodded slowly.

'And fourthly, Ms Sox and I need to get some of these drugs and find out just why someone has gone to such trouble to attempt this.'

'But Doctor,' said Dallion,'drugs are an everyday problem. Why is this lot so special?'

'My point exactly, Sergeant, good thinking. Why? All I can a.s.sume is that these drugs must offer something very new, totally unique, and probably insanely destructive to make people go to these lengths. With existing drugs, at least the SSS and other law enforcers know what they are dealing with. If someone has designed a new drug, then we must investigate.'

As soon as the Doctor stopped talking, two unexpected things happened at the same time.

First, the Doctor opened his mouth and screamed. Clutching his head, he fell motionless to the ground.

Secondly, the door burst open and a group of heavily armed Teknix came in, pointing blasters at everyone. Through the middle of them, Events Coordinator Sumner marched in.

'By the powers invested in me as the representative of the Federation Council here on Micawber's World, I hereby expel every one of you from the planet under the accusation of plotting to murder various officials, members of the Earth Royal Family, eight hundred galactic athletes and numerous spectators. You will be taken to the planet Desperus to await your trial, which will occur within one to five years of the Games ending.' He turned to the lead Teknix. 'Madox, if anyone argues, shoot them dead.' He looked straight back at the group. 'Oh yes, before you ask, I am empowered to order exactly that. Thank you, and goodnight.'

Chapter 10.

The Rapture

Commandant Ritchie stared at the door, willing it to open. Frankly, he was not used to seeing the inside of the SSS cell block and was beginning to tire of staring at the same four blank walls over and over again.

Twenty-four years in the service, and it had come to this. He remembered the first time he had seen a prisoner in an SSS cell -a criminal who had murdered two other agents and a grocery-store owner. Out of his head on FeelGoodz or Cake or Skar. Whatever.

The prisoner had stared at him from within the cell, coming down off his murderous high, and screaming his innocence. When that was ignored, he started yelling obscenities. And when that failed to provoke even a flicker from the young Agent Ritchie, he started pleading.

But Ritchie had refused to be taken in, no matter how convincing the performance. He had left the prisoner to get everything out of his system and, three days later, sat in on his questioning. Interrogation. Whichever.

Truth drugs were useless -the junkie had put so much c.r.a.p in his system over the previous few years that more drugs would just send him over the top again. So it was down to straightforward questioning. And no matter how hard Marshal Tarrant tried to get the truth out of the junkie, no facts were forthcoming.

Unbidden, and against protocol, Ritchie had suddenly asked the junkie about death, and what it meant to him. How would he cope with death?

What did he believe in? Was there a G.o.d? As the junkie rambled on, Ritchie pressed home each point that was brought up, leading the junkie through his own psyche. Unlike Tarrant, Ritchie listened to everything that was said. Unlike Tarrant, he avoided the set questions and standard threats and actually had a conversation with the junkie. And during this, the confession came out completely matter-of-facdy.

Afterwards, much to the annoyance of Marshal Tarrant, Ritchie was praised. Recordings of his technique were used in training sessions for interrogators as an alternative means of getting at the truth.

Ritchie's own career blossomed and before long, he was a Marshal of his own group. He instigated the enlisting of the first non-human members of the SSS - a couple of Pakhars, a Draconian and a Cantryan - and brought about a few necessary reforms in codes and practices that brought him to the attention of the head of the SSS, Karlton.

He was soon rising through the ranks. Some years were spent on colonies, some on Earth, and when his own son was born, they were at Federation Headquarters on lo. Most recently, the promotion to Commandant - just a couple of rungs below Karlton himself - and the posting to Micawber's World had seemed to be the answer to his prayers.

Then the Foamasi stepped into his purview, and he began to lose it. First the gentle cajoling, the requests to turn a blind eye to odd shipments from Green Fingers. But when the Dark Peaks Lodge entered the scene, Ritchie found himself cut off from the Foamasi Amba.s.sador he had helped and shortly afterwards, the kidnapping of his wife and son took place.

And the rest, as they say, was recent history.

Beside him, Quartermaster-Sergeant Dallion regarded him with the same look he had given that junkie all those years back in an identical cell - a look diat said, 'You haven't a hope.' On top of that, however, the sergeant's face also seemed to be saying, 'Not only have you betrayed us, but it didn't do you any good anyway.' And Commandant Ritchie couldn't really argue with those sentiments either.

He turned to look at her apologetically.'It was my wish that you would solve this problem, Sergeant. Please believe drat.'

She glanced over to the far corner, where her five troopers glared at their former Commandant mutinously. 'Yeah, whatever. Sir.' Ritchie winced inwardly at the sarcasm that coated the word 'Sir'.

'Of course, if you'd let us in on the secret right from the word go, it might have been easier.'

Ritchie slowly shook his head. 'And if I had said "Excuse me, Sergeant, I'm being blackmailed by the Foamasi, who are holding my wife and son prisoner," would you have believed me? I wouldn't.'

Dallion gave a snort. 'Either way, you let us believe we were being given an opportunity to find out the truth about Cartwright, Salt and the others. In feet, we were convenient scapegoats. We won't forget diat in a hurry, Commandant.'

'No. No, I don't suppose you will. Meanwhile, I propose that we use our SSS training to find a way out of here. I don't intend being left here to rot by Coordinator Sumner until after the Games -not when we know diat somediing's going to happen.'

'Why did you ask for the Doctor's help?' murmured Klein. 'I mean, he's not even SSS-trained.'

Ritchie smiled at this. "That's entirely the point, Agent Klein. As soon as I met him, I realised he was... unusual. Irreverent. Undisciplined. Exacdy what I needed as an alternative route to discovering what was going on in the tunnels. We lost a group of scientists working on a dead Foamasi.

Bearing in mind my own Foamasi problems, an outside agent doing some nosing around seemed an expedient use of resources. He seems to have been right most of the time as well.'

Dallion nodded in agreement. 'So what now?'

'Now? Now we wait. I'm sure the Doctor has a trick or two up his sleeve.'

The Olympic Games were getting ready to start. In just a couple of hours, millions across the galaxy would see the famous opening ceremony, highlighted by the winner of the Olympic Compet.i.tion on Axiss lighting the Olympic Bowl with the Olympic Flame, having been running with it all the way from Axiss to Micawber's World. As this involved a great deal of running around the interior of luxury s.p.a.ce cruisers, the poor Axi was probably very exhausted and this last stretch undoubtedly seemed longer than any other.

On top of which there had been a panic when, while crossing the deserts of the planet Metalupiter, the Olympic Flame had actually gone out and he had been forced to borrow a cigar lighter from a Metalupitan trader who was paid handsomely by the entourage of Axiss, not just for his trouble, but to ensure he told no one - least of all any holovid crews.

Consort Ethelredd, Secretary Aigburth and Gar the V'orrn were not enjoying themselves at all. The Royal Party had somehow got itself lost between the Carrington Grande and the Stadium - an astonishing feat of incompetence bearing in mind they were on the same road. It crossed Ethelredd's already cynical mind that maybe the sight of green gra.s.s giving way to dusty sandbowl had been too much for the d.u.c.h.ess, who may well have insisted on changing her entire wardrobe in case it clashed with the dust. Then he realised that even Counsellor De'Ath would have reminded her that once inside the Stadium, it would be green again.

Still, you never could tell with the d.u.c.h.ess. Bearing in mind that her official duty would involve her making a one-minute speech after which she could sit quietly watching the opening ceremonies for a while, no doubt thinking the time could be better served in the shopping malls, perhaps she had realised the complete pointlessness of her entire existence and irrelevance of human aristocracy to 99-9 per cent of those on Micawber's World right now and imploded in a brightly coloured puff of self-deprecation. In which case, he could look forward to one final trip in thes.p.a.ce Pioneer back to Earth, followed by a long period of unemployment. Still, that had a certain ring of charm about it.

'No sign, then?' he said to Aigburth, who, having not moved for the last hour, would have had the same opportunities to see the arrival of the Royal Party as Ethelredd - but asking made for a break in the monotony, if nothing else.

'Nope.' Aigburth was chewing his nails.

Nope indeed. The monotony had increased.

With Torin Chalfont having become part of the Wirrrn Hive Mind, Miles Mason was now aware of the importance to the events of the d.u.c.h.ess of Auckland. He was also aware who everyone in the Royal Party was and their significance to the opening of the Olympic Games.

So, calmly he sat in one of the trainers' trenches, watching the athletes going through their paces, waiting.

And around him were hundreds of athletes, most of whom had succ.u.mbed to his pills, either because they lacked the morals to refuse them, or the self-respect to be seen not to be taking them.

This galaxy, the Hive Mind decided, was full of weak-minded creatures.

The Wirrm Queen had been correct. This galaxy would soon be theirs.

The Doctor awoke with a start, sat bolt upright and took in his surroundings in an instant.

'Why am I in a prison cell? Again ?'

Ms Sox and Green Fingers were his companions and they both sighed, then looked at each other, exasperated.'Something's gone wrong again, hasn't it?'

They nodded.

'Typical.' He jumped up off the hard bed he was lying on. 'Tell me,' he said, grabbing Ms Sox by the shoulders and staring at her. 'Tell me what happened.'

After a few seconds of his staring at the quite uncomfortable-looking Ms Sox, Green Fingers decided to intervene, easing the Doctor away from her.

Ms Sox immediately shivered.

The Doctor's eyes opened wide.'Ah ha!' He smiled at Ms Sox.'I think you're going to do rather well out of your agency, by the way.'

Ms Sox gasped. 'What agency... ?'

But the Doctor just smiled. 'Ah, let the future unravel its own truths, Ms Sox.' But she clearly wasn't going to let that go. 'Oh dear,' he said to her. 'I keep doing this. I must learn to watch my mouth.'

'You can see the future, Doctor?' asked Green Fingers.

'No, not entirely. But it seems I have developed something of a gift in this body for reading the patterns of time as they weave around everything.

Spotting links between the now and the... now.' He smiled, hoping that explained everything.

By the looks on their faces, it clearly didn't.

'Each new body offers me something new, something unique. Once I was a master of unarmed combat without any training. Another one could fractionally disrupt the brain's electrons at a touch, changing people's moods and emotions. Another one lacked the innate ability most of my bodies have of discerning praxis gases. Simple, really.'

'How many of these bodies were just simply b.l.o.o.d.y annoying?' asked Ms Sox.

'All of them,' he retorted.'Or so I'm told. Can't see it myself.'

Ms Sox threw a look to Green Fingers. 'Whatever happened must have befuddled him more than we thought. He's raving.'

The Doctor ignored her. 'I received a very powerful psychic wave.

Somewhere on this planet is an extremely powerful mind. It sent out a message to all those who could read it.'

'What did it say?' Green Fingers clearly had given up trying to argue with him, and now appeared to be humouring him.

'I don't know. The sheer force of it knocked me senseless. But I caught a quick glimpse of something.' He tried to concentrate, letting his mind flow back. Trying to retrace any of the ma.s.sive overload of images, thoughts and emotions that had hit him before. 'It came from the tunnels. That I do know. I felt that very distinctly.'

Ms Sox also appeared to have given up. 'According to you, everything can be solved in the tunnels. If it's just a few drug smugglers -'

'Oh no.' The Doctor suddenly slapped the door.'No, it's far more powerful than that. The drugs are something else. Perhaps a diversion, perhaps a tiny part of a master plan. We need to get out of here.'

'Bravo,' said Ms Sox. 'I mean, we'd have never thought of that. We thought staying in here was a great idea.'

The Doctor sighed. Why was everyone so taciturn these days? It wasn't as if he was deliberately uncommunicative, or talked incoherently. He took great pains to explain everything, in great detail, all the time.

He'd just done so.

Anyway, time to escape. He reached into his jacket for his sonic screwdriver but it was gone.

'Gone! How can my sonic screwdriver have gone! The guards wouldn't be able to locate the pan-dimensional pocket I sewed in here, let alone the sonic screwdriver!' Then he remembered.'Sam! Sam must have it. But why has Sam got it? What does she need my sonic screwdriver for?' A new thought crossed his mind and he turned back to his fellow prisoners.