Part 33 (1/2)

'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' pus.h.i.+ng 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.