Part 30 (2/2)

On the staircase, Benny screamed, 'JASON!'

'The same,' he said, opening his arms.

Benny hurled herself down the stairs and shot across the floor. They ended up in an awkward embrace, with her arms and legs wrapped around him. He stumbled back under her weight.

Roz came up and stood next to the Doctor. 'You've been busy,' she said.

He glanced at her. 'What's yellow, black and fuzzy?'

'A bee,' said Roz.

'I don't know either,' said the Doctor, 'but there's one crawling up your arm.' He reached up his hand, and the lone insect hopped onto his index finger.

'Doctor!' Chris exploded into the shop. 'Jason!' He caused a moment's chaos by trying to shake Jason's and the Time Lord's hands, especially since Benny was still firmly fastened around her husband, trying to kiss him to death.

'What was that s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p? Why did it look like a boat? Are you both okay?'

The Time Lord looked past Benny and Jason, to where Isaac was coming down the stairs. Their eyes met for a moment.

'Conference,' said the Doctor.

'What's all the shouting about?' muttered Joel.

He logged off the bulletin board and switched off the brand-new ancient computer. He gripped his cigarette in his mouth as he pulled on his trainers.

It wasn't until he raised his head that he saw the window.

There was something wrong with it.

It was covered in bees.

Joel took a couple of steps towards the window. The insects were all on the outside, their furry bodies pressed up against the gla.s.s. They wanted in in.

Joel's mouth opened, and the cigarette dangled from his bottom lip.

There was something in the room with him.

'Oh s.h.i.+t,' said Joel. ' Incoming Incoming!'

His whole life flashed before his eyes in a flurry of beating wings. It was like being inside a bird, inside that furious heat and movement, all those feathers. It was as though his life was a ribbon of landscape below him and a roc (Frequency: Very Rare) had plucked him up and was flying over it, faster and faster.

There was the first time he saw Star Trek VI Star Trek VI at the cinema, with a crowd of cheering fans, and the flow of happiness and excitement had been almost overwhelming. at the cinema, with a crowd of cheering fans, and the flow of happiness and excitement had been almost overwhelming.

There was his Professor X Professor X script, all carefully plotted out and typed up at the age of fifteen, ready to send off to London. Thrown out the door into the mud by his father because the pages were littering the floor of his room. script, all carefully plotted out and typed up at the age of fifteen, ready to send off to London. Thrown out the door into the mud by his father because the pages were littering the floor of his room.

And there there was the moment when the time rift had grabbed him - was the moment when the time rift had grabbed him - There was a sudden jar, a grinding sensation that shook the insides of his bones. For a moment he thought it was going to kill him, smash him between its movement and the wall of time.

The beating wings grew louder, then faster, then frantic, and suddenly he was over that b.u.mp, that twist in the landscape.

The years seared past at blipvert speed.

He tried to protest as the bird dragged him onwards, into his future.

It was five minutes before it let him go, with a terrible !eating sound. He found himself on the floor of his room, breathing hard. The bees whirled away from his window with a lazy sound, tracing patterns of dots in the air.

Joel held onto his bed and kept breathing, taking slow, deep lungfuls, until the dizziness and the iron grip in his chest subsided. He pulled himself to his feet.

He plucked the cigarette from his mouth with both shaking hands and stubbed it out in the ashtray. Then he went downstairs.

They pulled chairs from under the tables, arranged them in a tight circle at the back of the shop. Isaac and Ms Randrianasolo, Joel and Chris, Jason and Benny, Roz and the Doctor.

Graeme hopped up onto the counter. Chris held out a hand, and the spatula jumped down to join the circle. 'My hero,' said the Adjudicator.

The Time Lord said, 'I'm afraid that our problems haven't ended with stopping Woodworth's operation. I'm sorry to tell you this, Admiral, but I'm afraid Albinex is up to something.

Something nuclear.'

Isaac nodded slowly. 'He's been gone since last night,'

he said.

'He kidnapped me because he wants a set of government codes he believes will enable him to launch a nuclear missile.'

'Those Caxtarids,' said Benny. She was still hanging onto Jason, one hand on his shoulder and another on his arm, as though a beam of light might come through the roof and s.n.a.t.c.h him away.

'Indeed,' said the Doctor. 'He's holding the TARDIS hostage. He can't do anything to hurt her, though, not with the level of technology he has access to.'

'But why take Jason hostage and then not make any demands?' said Benny.

'I was just along for the ride,' said Jason. 'I was in the TARDIS having a think when Albinex took it. He probably just beamed it up into his s.h.i.+p, or something. The next time I looked out the door I was on board his yacht.'

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