Doctor Who_ Return Of The Living Dad Part 33

'Either that,' said Benny, 'or a couple of builders are about to get the fright of their lives.'

Albinex had been waiting in the main hall. It was bitterly cold inside the building; if he had been human, his breath would be steaming in the air.

He looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. Just one set of footsteps. He double-checked his handscan. Yes, just one. He stood up on the stage.

A small figure appeared in the doorway at the other end of the hall. 'You're late,' he told it.

'Traffic,' said the Doctor. He walked down the centre of the hall, steadily.

'Stop there,' said Albinex, raising the Tokarev he was holding. 'And take your hands out of your pockets.'

The Doctor did neither. 'You're not going to shoot me,' he said. He hopped up onto the stage.

'That's close enough,' said Albinex. 'Believe me, if I think you're a threat, I will shoot you.'

'I'm no threat,' said the Doctor. 'How's Ace?'

'She's fine, she's just drugged,' said Albinex. 'It'll wear off shortly. She's not locked in, so she'll simply leave when she wakes up.'

The Doctor took his hands out of his pockets and spread them wide. 'I'm your prisoner now. You can tell me. Are you planning to destroy Earth, or just threaten to destroy it?'

'Threaten,' said Albinex. 'Once I've acc.u.mulated the power and technology I need, I'm going back to Navarro.'

'Ah,' said the Doctor. 'The barbarian who shakes the corrupt empire from its decadence.'

'We were a military power before,' said Albinex. 'And we'll be one again. The fun will stop when the first few bombs fall. The party is over.'

'You know,' said the Doctor, 'it's bad enough incinerating children to win a war. But vaporizing people because you don't like their lifestyle?' He sighed. His breath didn't steam in the air either. 'I think you've been on Earth too long, Albinex.'

'Whatever you say,' said the Navarino. He turned around and shot Joel.

Roz and Chris were following a handscan through the narrow hallways of the centre. It was a big, empty building, full of half-painted walls and exposed wiring. They walked past noticeboards covered in posters and fliers. The cold air smelt of sweat and plaster.

They followed the silent signal down to the gym, treading softly across the echoing wooden floor, until they came to a door.

Roz's left hand curled into the Adjudicator symbol for right here right here. Chris nodded and positioned himself to the side of the door. Roz put the handscan into the big pockets of her jacket and counted down three, two, one, go! three, two, one, go!

Chris booted the door. It wasn't locked. He ran into the room ahead of Roz, nearly knocking over a pile of hockey sticks.

There was nothing in the room but sports equipment and Dorothee.

Well, Ace, really. She'd been in her late twenties when she'd dropped the nickname. Roz crouched down beside the sleeping girl' pulling out the handscan. 'She's about eighteen,' she said. 'She's full of chlorpromazine. Enough to knock out four people.' She pulled the medikit out of her jacket.

'Wow,' said Chris. 'She looks completely different.'

'How do you mean?' said Roz, taking out a derm.

'At the wedding she was kind of tense and relaxed at the same time. Like a hunting animal.'

'I guess this is before her life started to go haywire,' said Roz' pushing the derm onto the skin behind Ace's ear.

'Hey, wait a minute,' said Chris. 'Did you say she was eighteen?'

Roz nodded' watching the young woman stir as the derm wiped the tranquillizer from her system.

'Well' didn't she leave Earth when she was sixteen? If she's eighteen' she ought to be off with the Doctor somewhere. So where did Albinex get her from?'

'Why don't you ask her?' said Roz' a moment before Ace jumped on her and tried to rip out her eyes.

Benny and Jason ought to have been following a handscan through the narrow hallways of the centre. Instead' they were having a stage-whispered row about who should go first.

'Look,' said Jason for the third time. 'If there's anything here, I want it to go through me first, right?'

Will you please drop the macho thing?' said Benny. 'I've had about a billion times more experience at this sort of thing than you.'

'If you think you're the only one who's faced down hostile aliens -'

'I didn't s.h.a.g s.h.a.g them into submission!' them into submission!'

' Look Look,' said Jason. 'We're supposed to be on a mission mission here.' here.'

'That's right! We are!'

They glared at each other.

The handscan screen started to flash. They both glanced down at it.

'Let's do this in alphabetical order,' said Jason.

'First name or last name?'

The point abruptly became academic. A door exploded outwards, knocked right off its hinges.

'Doctor!' said Jason.

'What the cruk!' said Benny.

The Doctor climbed over the door, fingernails pressing into the wood of the doorframe. He was wearing an ill-fitting black uniform. His hair was too long, tied back out of his face.

He bared his teeth at them. His eyes were red instead of blue, as though he was a flash photograph.

'Oh s.h.i.t,' said Benny and Jason together.

They dropped the handscan and legged it.

Slow motion: Joel drops and rolls, frantically pushing himself out of the line of fire.

The Doctor grabs Albinex's gun arm as the Navarino tracks to take another shot. He pulls back, hard, knowing to expect the alien strength. Another shot bursts in the ceiling.

Isaac, coming up the stairs behind Joel, has flung himself to one side, landing hard on the wooden floor of the hall.

'What the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing?' he explodes.

Ms Randrianasolo is racing up the steps from stage left.

Upstage, Joel is yelping 's.h.i.t! s.h.i.t! s.h.i.t! Medic!'

Albinex wrenches his gun arm out of the Doctor's grip and elbows the Time Lord in the ribs, hard enough to send him stumbling back across the stage. The Doctor collides with Ms Randrianasolo.

Isaac, halfway off the hall floor, sees the terrible moment in which Albinex could swing his hips back and forth and put a bullet into every single one of them.

The Navarino bolts, leaping down from the stage and sprinting for the doors. The Doctor follows, moving past Isaac even as the Admiral gets up off the floor.

The hall doors explode inwards as Benny and Jason run in, right for Albinex.

The Navarino does a cartoon skid, nearly losing his balance on the polished floor. He brings his gun to bear. 'No!'

shouts the Doctor.

Something follows Benny and Jason into the hall.

Albinex is distracted for the moment it takes Jason to grab Benny and wrench her to one side. He looks at the monster bearing down on him. He puts all the bullets he has left into it and bolts from the hall, jumping over the body.

Roz yelled and leapt backwards, smashing into a rubbish bin full of plastic b.a.l.l.s. They went everywhere as Ace went for her throat - with her teeth teeth for Christ's sake! for Christ's sake!

Chris, reacting fast, thank the G.o.ddess, landed a heavy double-handed blow between the girl's shoulders. Roz pulled at Ace's hands, trying to get her fingernails away from her eyes. G.o.d, she was strong. Roz's face was bleeding. She pushed hard, to get some distance between the girl's mouth and her carotid.

Chris wrenched Ace off Roz and threw her at the wall, hard. Bats and b.a.l.l.s and stumps flew everywhere as she rolled hard down to the floor. When she got up, he picked her up and threw her again, harder this time.

It didn't stop her. She snaked out from under his grip and snagged his leg in her teeth, shearing through cloth and skin.

He kicked her loose, his trainer crunching in her ribs. She shot up off the floor at Roz again.

Roz broke a hockey stick across the monster's face. It didn't stop her. She grabbed Roz's shoulders with both hands and sank her teeth into the woman's neck. The pain pierced straight to her heart, shocking the breath out of her, trying to rip her life loose.

Roz screamed.

Chris reached down and twisted Ace's neck until it broke with a resounding snap.

'Christ!' said Roz, trying to clamber out from under the body. The ripped flesh of her throat and shoulders was bleeding copiously.

Chris pulled the corpse off her and tossed it aside. He knelt down. 'You all right?' he said, and the tenderness in his voice broke her heart.

Benny looked between the body of the demon Doctor and the real Doctor. Jason was still holding her off the floor.

The real Doctor turned and ran back to the stage. Isaac had already jumped up there, and Ms Randrianasolo was picking herself up.

'Jason,' said Benny, 'put me down.'

He dropped her. They both ran to the stage.

Joel was lying awkwardly on his side, where he'd stopped rolling. The Doctor had already sliced open the arm of the boy's T-shirt with his Swiss Army knife. Blood was spattered across the stage. 'It doesn't hurt,' Joel said panickily. 'That's a bad sign, right? Am I okay?'

'You'll be fine,' said the Doctor firmly. 'You're in shock now. Don't worry, it'll hurt later.'

'Great,' said the boy shakily.

'Medikit,' said Ms Randrianasolo, pa.s.sing it to the Time Lord.

'That son of a b.i.t.c.h,' said Joel, his eyes filling up with tears.

'Where are Chris and Roz?' said the Doctor, not looking up from where he was bandaging Joel's arm.