Part 20 (1/2)

The Doctor strode across the ridge where he had left the TARDIS, followed by a motley a.s.sortment of companions.

Immediately behind him was Darius Cheynor, dressed in battle uniform, and following at a couple of paces, trying to keep up, was Suzi Palsson, now bright-eyed, kitted out in fresh clothes from the Phoenix Phoenix: plain coveralls and a long cloak. Her quicksilver hair was glossy and fresh again, and she was looking human, free of the bonds of Shanstra. Bringing up the rear, motor unit humming gently, was the s.h.i.+ning globe of the Phracton Commandant.

Outside the rickety blue police box, they stopped, and the Doctor nodded.

'Everything in place?' he asked Cheynor.

The captain nodded. 'Leibniz has his instructions, Doctor. I just hope he and Bernice aren't being sent into danger '

'Bernice is more than capable. And I think Mr Leibniz can look after himself,'

the Doctor said, cryptically. 'All right, Suzi?'

157.

'I think so.' She smiled awkwardly, brushed some dust from her nose. 'Doctor, is it safe taking me with you? I mean, if I'm not free of Shanstra . . . '

'If that's the case, you won't be safe anywhere,' said the Doctor darkly. 'So you may as well come with me.' He unlocked the TARDIS door. 'Shall we go?'

Cheynor had been looking the blue box up and down with some apprehen-sion. 'I saw this thing arrive, once,' he said. 'Didn't believe my eyes at the time.' He swallowed hard. 'Seen a lot since then, of course,' he added with a degree of resolve. He went inside.

Suzi peered at the blue box. 'Is this the lift, Doctor?'

'Well, it is a kind of portal,' said the Doctor. He ushered her inside. 'A narrow one,' he added in concern, looking at the Phracton. 'Wait there, old fellow. Won't be a second.'

The Doctor popped inside the TARDIS. There was a swirl of dust as it faded from the landscape, accompanied by a sound of screeching machinery that made the Phracton oscillate with concern.

Seconds later the TARDIS rematerialized right where the Phracton had been, solidifying for just a second, and then the blue box disappeared from Gadrell Major once more.

The ridge was silent and empty. Far below, fires burned in the streets of Banksburgh, and the windows of the library caught the reflection of the setting sun. The ruined city, bathed in orange, could have looked almost beautiful: not half-destroyed, but rather half-formed, unborn, waiting to rise anew from its own ashes.

In the dimly lit Zero Room, Kelzen's eyes snapped open. She was aware that she had company.

The Doctor hovered in the greyish shadows by the door. 'No one knows you are here, yet, except me,' he said.

The Sensopath's eyes glowed in the semi-darkness. 'And you a.s.sume I choose to do it your way.'

'I a.s.sume you are sensible enough. Yes.'

Kelzen chuckled to herself. She unfurled her long body, the Doctor's cloak billowing around her, and she strolled over to stand next to him, her two-metre form towering above the small Time Lord.

'You could be playing with fire, Doctor, you know that?'

'Yes,' he answered, his voice charged with menace. 'Just as long as you don't try the same thing.'

'You do not have the power to keep me here by force,' said Kelzen, amused.

'I trust you to find Jirenal, which is why I have done as you suggested so far.

That is where we are going now, I take it?'

'Yes. I've brought some important friends along for the ride.'

158.

'Ah, Doctor. Still the chess player, surrounding yourself with p.a.w.ns?'

'Actually, no,' said the Doctor. 'I started to tire of chess a while ago. These days, I seem to be playing hopscotch.'

'You are amusing, Doctor.'

'You think so?' The Doctor beamed. 'You should have met my fourth incarnation, he was a real hoot.' The smile vanished rapidly. 'Take a friendly warning, Kelzen: some have found me distinctly unfunny in the past.'

The Sensopath's mouth was large and horrible, as she grinned across her malleable face and showed a barricade of perfect, incisive teeth. 'We have a very fragile trust, Doctor. You are protecting me from Shanstra, yet how do I know I do not need protecting from you?'

'You don't. That's what makes it interesting. And as for not having the power to force you to stay here, remember what I said earlier, about power.'

'I recall the conversation,' said Kelzen haughtily, as she closed her eyes and resumed her levitation posture. 'You advocate this ”mercy”. Having the power, and not using it.'

'Quite. I did so with the Key to Time. And on a number of occasions when I could have killed my mortal enemies. So, you see, by helping you, not entrapping you, I have won your trust.'

'For the moment, Doctor,' said Kelzen, 'for the moment.' And she opened her eyes briefly to look at him again.

For a second or two, they were Sanjay Meswani's eyes, big and deep and dark and sorrowful. His dead mother's eyes. Then the feline gaze of Kelzen returned. 'The boy's body is safe as long as I am, Doctor,' she said. 'Remember that.'

The Doctor gritted his teeth. 'I'll remember,' he snarled.

He stepped out of the Zero Room, sealing the door behind him.

Bernice was beginning to wonder what she had got herself into. She was sitting at the Phoenix Phoenix briefing table with Leibniz whom she found faintly unnerving, a marked contrast to the affable Cheynor and several TechnOps. briefing table with Leibniz whom she found faintly unnerving, a marked contrast to the affable Cheynor and several TechnOps.

Also present were Trinket and Livewire, both looking rather awkward at the end of the table.

'The Doctor has his plans,' Leibniz was saying, 'which he has discussed with the captain. But, for reasons of safety, he has not confided them fully to any of us. We are dealing, lest we forget, with an immensely powerful telepathic alien. If she were to get an inkling from any of us of what the Doctor hopes to do, then the entire mission could be jeopardized.'

Benny was watching Leibniz carefully, and thought to herself that his body language rather betrayed his discomfort during his last little speech. His pale face became, for a few seconds, slightly pinker, and the incisive eyes behind 159 his gla.s.ses avoided meeting the gaze of any single one of them. She bet herself he had sweaty palms.

'She's a kind of telekinetic as well.' All eyes were on Livewire, who had spoken, calmly and emotionlessly. 'Her thoughts, given enough power behind them, can affect the physical world. It's almost as if she can will molecular structures to change.'

Benny nodded, remembering the shattered Phracton globes and the strange plexigla.s.s tree that now stood in the centre of Londinium Plaza.

'She digs deep into your brain and pulls up the things that are rotting there, things you thought were dead. Your hatred. Your fear. Worst of all, she makes you believe that, all the time, you're the one in control. That you're getting your revenge on those who hurt you.'

'Which is why she made you kill the Phractons,' Bernice said. 'It's what you wanted to do, isn't it? Save Banksburgh single-handed.'

Livewire looked away, sullen now, not speaking. Bernice silently chided herself for having said the wrong thing again, for forgetting that this young woman was no more than a confused adolescent with conflicting voices in her head and heart.

'And what do you think, er . . . ' Leibniz gestured vaguely at Trinket.