Part 20 (2/2)

Benny bit her lip. 'Yes. I am.'

'Then we are having a similar experience,' concluded the Lacaillan.

'You mean, you know how I feel?' Benny plonked back down in the overstuffed chair. 'Jason does this from time to time. He's usually so... clingy. But sometimes we just need to get a bit of air between us.' She cupped her chin in her hands. 'At least, I hope that's what he's doing. What if the people who took Chris have got him? Oh s.h.i.+t, I'm crying.'

Myn Jareshth raised his hands, wanting to do something, not sure of the etiquette.

'I'm okay,' said Benny. 'I'm all right. You're right, Myn Jareshth, we are having the same experience.'

He watched her, quietly. 'You are very brave,' he said again.

Graeme poked his tip around the corner. Woodworth was browsing the shelves. She had left her rucksack leaning up against the counter.

The spatula hopped across the floor, heading for the bag. Woodworth turned around, pus.h.i.+ng the book she'd been looking at back onto the shelf. Graeme threw himself flat on the floor, and started inching across the wood like a worm.

He wasn't going to make it. Woodworth was reaching for the bag. She'd even see him when she picked it up.

'On your way?' said Isaac's voice.

Graeme hunched up and peeked around the bag.

Woodworth had straightened up. 'I've got to get back to Newbury. There's someone I have to meet.'

'Let me give you one of our catalogues,' said Isaac, rummaging in the fliers on the counter.

Graeme sprang up and dived into the rucksack.

Moments later, Woodworth shoved the photocopied catalogue into the bag beside him and zipped it closed.

Roz was holding the Doctor's ghost-detector in her lap.

'Exactly how is this thing going to help us find Chris?' she said.

'It seems a little unlikely,' said the Doctor, 'that the kidnappings and the ghost don't have something to do with one another.'

'Fair enough,' said Roz. She poked at one of the wires hanging out of the lash-up. 'What's its range?'

'About four miles, reliably,' said the Doctor. 'Anything further than that is luck.'

Fifty miles away They didn't ask him any questions.

Three soldiers - two men and a woman - literally dragged him out of the jeep and into the building. He got glimpses of a high metal fence, more soldiers crunching along a gravel drive, cars parked beside the cold brick house.

It was hard to make out the details of where he was when the woman insisted on keeping him in a headlock.

'I can walk, you know,' he said.

They slammed open a door and dropped him headfirst on the floor with a crunch crunch.

He lay very still on the floor, the bone and concrete sound echoing through his whole body. He didn't want to move, because his head felt as though it might roll away into a corner.

They grabbed at him, and he tried to protest, pus.h.i.+ng them away with hands that had become as soft and useless as marshmallows. They pulled off his clothes, stuffing them into labelled plastic bags.

'Right,' someone ordered. 'Tiller, Heer, Weatherford, out of here.'

Chris pulled himself into a hunched sitting position and looked up. He was in some kind of clinic. The light seemed to go right through his face and bounce off the back of his skull.

The door slammed behind a middle-aged woman in street clothes and a man in a white coat, like a cartoon scientist.

The woman was holding a gun. She wasn't pointing it at him, just holding it, the way the scientist was holding his clipboard.

'Who are you people?' exploded Cwej. He wanted to get to his feet, but a combination of dizziness and modesty kept him on the floor. 'If I'm under arrest, you've got to tell me what the charge is, and where I am.'

The woman said, 'I want a full medical. Blood and tissue samples, X-rays, the lot. If you find anything out of the ordinary, no matter how trivial, I want to know about it. And get his fingerprints checked out.'

'Right,' said the scientist. 'Get on the scales.'

It took Chris a moment to realize the man was talking to him. 'Like fun I will,' he said.

'I'll get you some a.s.sistants,' said the woman, going to the door. 'And for G.o.d's sake, if you kill him, get him to dissection straight away this time, will you?'

17 Rescue

Tony was sitting at one of the tables, drinking Tzun food supplement through a straw. Joel was fidgeting behind the counter, Nelson the cat circling round his ankle. Albinex stood at the window, watching the Admiral overseeing the evacuation. The volunteers had started arriving a few hours after the call had gone out.

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