Doctor Who_ The Deviant Strain Part 2

'It was one of my first a.s.signments after training. The Cold War was coming to an end, Russia was disarming. We couldn't afford to keep the same level of military spending. There were two installations here at Novrosk.' He pointed across at the squat, squared*off buildings round the harbour. 'The dockyards and barracks.' Then in the other direction, towards a low*lying concrete complex. 'The research station.'

'Research?' Jack asked.

'Secret, of course. Everything here is was secret. The submarine base and the Organic Weapons Research Inst.i.tute.'

'Organic?' Rose's nose wrinkled. 'I take it that isn't like organic vegetables.'

'That's what you're left with after deployment, probably,' Jack said.

The Doctor waved them both to silence. 'Let him finish, can't you?'

'They kept the research inst.i.tute open,' Levin explained. 'There are only a few scientists still there, but at least they have funding, they get supplies and they appear on some paperwork. They exist.'

'And the docks?' the Doctor prompted.

Two tiny figures in khaki were just visible jogging down the snowy hill, reaching the edge of the concreted track leading into the dock area. It was as if the snow didn't dare settle on the old military base.

'They closed it down. Left the submarines to rot. We were supposed to decommission them. Rip out whatever was of use and take it away. Same with the community we took the sailors and the troops and the higher*grade workers. Left the rest. To rot.'

'You mean, people?' Rose said.

'I mean people. There was a whole civilian infrastructure built up round the base. Mechanics and caterers, fishermen and farmers. They relied on the docks and the military for their livelihood.'

'So the military pulled out and left them... Left them what?' the Doctor asked.

Levin shrugged. 'Just left them. I don't imagine they'll be grateful for our return.' In the distance, a cl.u.s.ter of tiny dark shapes people were gathered round the two soldiers at the edge of the docks.

'And the submarines?' Jack asked. 'You said they were supposed supposed to be stripped and decommissioned, right? Only, you mentioned radiation.' to be stripped and decommissioned, right? Only, you mentioned radiation.'

Levin nodded. The guy wasn't daft after all. Working in Intelligence was no guarantee of a share of it, but he could obviously think. 'It's expensive to completely close down nuclear reactors. We've "decommissioned" about 150 subs in the last ten years. Not a single one has yet had its reactor removed.'

'Oh, great.' Rose blew out a long, misty breath. 'You're telling us there's any number of submarines down there with dodgy nuclear reactors.'

Levin smiled thinly. 'Fifteen.' He waited for them to absorb this before adding, 'And there are the missiles too, of course.'

Sofia Barinska was, as Levin had said, the only figure of recognised authority in the community. She was also one of the few with transport. Her battered four*wheel drive screeched to a protesting halt beside the stones. The door creaked as she pushed it open. She glared at Levin and his men, frowned at the Doctor and his friends, shook her head as she caught sight of the blanket covering the body.

'You're lucky I have any fuel left,' she told Levin. 'Don't expect a lift.'

'I'm surprised you have any fuel at all. You get it from the inst.i.tute?'

She snorted. 'Where else? Who else knows we are here?'

Rose was watching Levin, surprised at how he was frowning at the woman, as if there was something wrong. But she looked normal enough to Rose despite being wrapped in a thick coat, her jeans tucked into heavy walking boots, the woman was obviously fit and attractive. Her face was weathered and she looked tired, but Rose guessed she was in her thirties. Her dark hair was tied back in a bun that made her look severe and official.

Barinska had noticed Levin's stare as well. She glared back. 'What is it, Colonel? You're going to reprimand me for not wearing my uniform, is that it? If so, you should know it fell apart years ago.'

'I'm sorry. I thought... I thought I recognised you.'

She was surprised. 'You have been here before?'

'For the decommissioning.'

'Ah. But that was twenty years ago. Perhaps you remember my mother.'

'Keeping it in the family?' Rose asked.

The policewoman turned and glared hard at her. 'This is a closed community. No one comes, no one can leave. What else would we do?'

Rose looked away. 'Sorry. Er, where's your mum now?'

'In the ground.' Without any apparent emotion or further thought on the matter, she nodded at the body. 'Show me.'

A glimpse was enough, then Rose turned away. Jack joined her. A minute later, the Doctor wandered over.

'Don't worry about it,' he told Rose. 'They're all hurting a bit. They've been hurting for years. And now this...'

'Does she know who it is?' Rose wondered.

'From the clothes, she thinks it's a kid who went missing last night. Boy called Pavel Vahlen. His parents thought he'd sneaked out to meet a girl. He never came back.'

'And the girl?' Rose asked.

'Is missing too, yeah. She's just nineteen.' He didn't need to add, 'Like you.'

Two of the soldiers were loading the body into the back of Barinska's vehicle. It was like a cross between a Range Rover and an estate car. Rose could just make out a faded police symbol on the tailgate as it caught the light when they opened it. Like the buildings round the docks below them in the valley, it looked old and worn out.

Levin was giving orders to the soldiers and they began to spread out, moving slowly across the cliff top.

'Where are they going?' Rose wondered.

'Search party.'

'We should help,' Jack said. 'Damsel in distress.'

'Damsel probably dead,' Levin said, joining them.

'Even so,' the Doctor said. 'You could do with some help. How many men have you got?'

'Now?' Levin asked for no apparent reason, though Rose could hear in his voice that it meant something important to him. 'Thirty*six, plus me.'

'Thirty*seven, then,' the Doctor said. 'Plus us. So that's forty.'

Levin nodded. 'You really a captain?' he asked Jack.

'Oh, yes. Born and bred.'

'Then go with Sergeyev and his group they're checking the woods. Doctor, you and Miss Tyler can go with Lieutenant Krylek he's heading towards the inst.i.tute. I'll talk to Barinska. We need the locals on our side.'

'Point out to her,' the Doctor said quietly, 'that they might need you.'

Levin nodded. Then he saluted and left them.

'Right, woods it is,' Jack said. 'See you later, team.' He set off at a jog to catch up with the soldiers.

The snow faded and thinned at the edge of the woods. The ground was visible in patches, more and more of it the further in Jack looked, making the woods seem even darker than they were. The trees were skeletal, stripped bare of leaves and greenery. Like the rusting derricks he had glimpsed down at the docks.

Sergeyev had acknowledged Jack's arrival with a hard stare. Jack hadn't bothered telling the soldier he outranked him. Probably it would make no difference. Probably they would find nothing. The dozen soldiers had fanned out into a line, walking slowly and purposefully through the gloom, rifles held ready across their bodies, angled at the ground. For now.

They were well trained, he could see that. The way they moved always alert, not hurrying, no sign of impatience, frequently checking on the man either side as they moved onwards.

Boring. It would take for ever like this. Jack had no idea how big the wood was, but he didn't fancy being stuck in it for hours. As the Doctor said, the girl was probably dead anyway. Jellified like the poor teenager up at the circle.

Teenager? He'd looked about ninety.

So Jack found himself moving ahead of the soldiers. He earned sighs and glares as he advanced past them. He smiled and waved to show he didn't care, and he carried on at his own pace.

She was lying so still, he almost tripped over her.

Face down, her arms extended, gloved hands gripping the base of a tree as if holding on for dear life. But there was no grip in her fingers as he gently eased them away. Jack thought she was dead, but in the quiet of the wood he could hear her sigh, could see the faint trace of warm breath in the cold air.

'Over here!' he yelled to the soldiers.

They were there in seconds. Several stood with their backs to Jack and the others, watching behind them, alert to the possibility of ambush. Sergeyev stooped down beside Jack. He looked about twenty at most, Jack thought, as the slices of sunlight that got through the trees cut across the soldier's face. Just a kid, really.

'She's breathing,' Jack said. He rolled the girl over on to her back. Her hair was so fair it was almost white, spread across, hiding her face. He brushed it gently away with his fingers.

Sergeyev was speaking quietly into his lapel mike. His words froze as the girl's face appeared from under the strands of hair.

She was nineteen, the Doctor had said. From the shape of her body, from the hair and the clothing, from the startlingly blue eyes that were staring up at him, Jack could believe it. But her face was lined and wrinkled, dry and weathered. Jack was staring at the face of an old woman.

TWO.

He could see how she had been, how she must have looked, before whatever had happened to her.

'It's all right, we're here to help.'

But how would she cope did she even know how she looked now?

No response. Nothing. She didn't even blink. Jack could see she was breathing the movement of her chest, the mist from her immobile lips. But the blue eyes were glazed and fixated, no expression on her lined face. Nothing. He waved his hand in front of her eyes. Again, nothing.

Sergeyev caught Jack's hand with his own. The soldier was shaking his head. 'She's gone,' he said. 'I have seen it on the battlefield. Shock, trauma. You just leave them to die.'

Jack pulled his hand away. He levered the girl upright into a sitting position. She didn't resist, but she did nothing at all to help. Still there was no acknowledgement that they were even there.

'We're not on a battlefield,' he said.

'Are you sure?' Sergeyev gestured for two of the other soldiers to lift the girl.

She swayed unsteadily on her feet for a few moments, then seemed to remember how to balance. The soldiers walked her forwards shuffling, stubborn steps at first.

'You're taking it too fast,' Jack told them. He moved one of the men aside and took his place, arms tight round the girl's back as he gently eased her forwards. 'Come on, you can do it,' he murmured.

There was no sign she could hear. What the h.e.l.l had happened to her? He had her full weight now, and the other soldier shrugged away and looked to Sergeyev, who nodded.

'Let's get her back to the stone circle,' Jack said.

'They are already waiting,' Sergeyev told him.

To Sofia Barinska's undisguised annoyance, Levin had commandeered her car. One of the soldiers was sitting in the driving seat, and Sofia was leaning against one of the stones, glaring and smoking a thin cigarette.

Sergeyev's message came before they drove the body away. The Doctor and Rose arrived with the other troops before Jack and Sergeyev's contingent.

'We were going to take the body over to the research inst.i.tute,' Levin told the Doctor. 'I'd rather the medical officer there took a look at him than some quack from the village.'

'You don't think they have a decent doctor in the village?' Rose asked.

'If they had, he'd have left long ago,' Levin said.

He glanced at Sofia as he spoke, and Rose wondered what he had deduced about her competence. She had grown up here, Rose supposed what training had she had, if any?

One of the soldiers called across, pointing towards the woods. Rose could see the other troops returning now, leaving a dark trail behind them in the snow. In the middle of the group, Rose could see Jack. He was all but carrying a young woman, pulling her along beside him. As they got closer, Rose could see that he was talking to her, encouraging her every step of the way, as if she was a small child who'd just learned to walk.

Except that when they got closer still Rose could see that the girl had the face of an old woman. She stumbled, almost fell dragging Jack with her. He regained his balance with difficulty and pulled her along again.

'Well, help him,' Rose called out. Were they worried she might be infectious or something?

Two of the soldiers with Levin ran to help. But Jack snarled something at them and they stepped aside. Well, that answered that one. Rose ran over, the Doctor beside her.

'Don't be so proud,' she hissed at Jack. 'You're exhausted.'

He pushed her away with his free hand. But the Doctor eased him aside and took the girl's weight. 'I know,' he said gently. 'She has to do this on her own. Or as much as she can. It's OK. Really, it's OK.' He might have said this to Jack or to the girl.

Grudgingly, Jack allowed the Doctor to take over. But he stayed beside the girl, and asked, 'What's her name? Who is she?'

It was Sofia Barinska who answered. She pushed herself off the stone she had been leaning on and flicked away the stub end of her cigarette. 'Her name is Valeria Mamentova.' The policewoman crossed herself quickly and muttered something.