Part 40 (1/2)

You need someone with a few more years left in them.'

'Hey, c'mon,' he said.

'You need someone as... as happy as you. As optimistic.'

He held her tighter.

'You're good for me, Chris,' she whispered. 'I need you.

Don't you ever doubt that.'

The Doctor was dreaming that Death had come for Benny, and he had to protect her, make her wake up, but he couldn't move. He was pinned in place while those hollow eyes watched his companion, his own half-frozen body sucking the heat out of her, the tears dried on her cheeks.

Death leant in close. He could taste the empty flavour of her breath.

She became Roz Forrester.

She had pulled open the door of the van, just enough so that she could squat beside the vehicle and look at him. Chris was standing behind her, looking nervous.

Beside him, Benny was crammed into a narrow sleeping bag. She was breathing normally, fast asleep.

'I risk your lives,' he murmured. 'I keep you in the dark.

I've even lied to you. And you stay with me.'

'I'll never leave you, Doctor,' said Chris. He sounded as though he was about to cry. Benny stirred in her sleep, murmuring.

'Doctor,' Roz said. 'Are you dying?'

'No one escapes time's arrow,' the Doctor said hoa.r.s.ely.

Chris looked at him in astonishment. 'Do you know, I had always a.s.sumed I could beat chance and choose the moment to die. I imagined I'd rise out of the ashes of regeneration and laugh, ”I meant to do that.” But that's not going to happen. I'm not going to be in control. Surrounded by strangers. Helpless.'

's.h.i.+t happens, Doctor,' said Roz. She took his hand. 'But we'll always be there to shovel you out. You're not gonna die alone.'

'Not today,' breathed the Doctor. 'This isn't the day.'

Chris grinned. Roz smiled warily. 'Can we move you? It's very exposed here, and we're freezing our buns off to boot.'

Albinex won't bother us again,' said the Doctor.

Tomorrow is his day.'

They didn't know how to take that. But he couldn't keep his eyes open. Not even when Roz turned to Chris, and they put their mouths together.

The second time the Doctor woke up he was wearing warm pyjamas. There was a cat asleep on top of his feet.

He looked up from the bed. He was in his room back in Little Caldwell. It was still night. He wondered if his watch had survived the long dive into the lake.

Isaac was sitting in the chair next to the window. The small blond man turned to look at him as he stirred. Nelson meowed a complaint and hopped off the bed.

'What are your intentions towards my daughter?' said the Admiral, with one of his tiny smiles.

'How did you find me?'

'Your ghost-detector,' said Isaac. 'It was Benny's idea.

Are you well? What did Albinex do to you?'

'He used that poor creature - the ”ghost” - to try to get the codes from me. She would have died if he'd continued.'

'He used her? How?'

'Oh' he tried whatever he could think of. He's not much of a torturer. But you don't have to be competent to do the work...'

'So what did you do?'

The Doctor looked at Isaac and said' 'I gave him the codes.'

'You did what?'

'They're a decade out of date,' said the Doctor. 'He'll invade USAF Greenhorn Common in his ridiculous electric flying shoe, find that the codes don't work, and give up in disgust.'

'Ah,' said Isaac. 'But you see, M'Kabel will be able to extrapolate the new codes from the old.' The Doctor nodded, as though to himself. 'He's been studying the nuclear weapons computers since the seventies. Human technology is child's play to him, amusing puzzles.'

'The thing I can't understand,' said the Doctor slowly, 'is what Albinex really hopes to accomplish. His claim about returning to Navarino as the glorious conqueror just doesn't ring true.'

'Perhaps,' said Isaac, 'he believes he's working for the greater good.'

'The greater good,' smiled the Doctor. 'I used to work for the greater good, you know. But the hours were bad and the conditions were worse.'

'It takes courage to do something terrible because it's the right thing to do,' said Isaac. 'To save more lives than are lost. To see the big picture of history.'