Part 40 (2/2)

'It takes even more courage to realize that you've made a mistake,' said the Doctor, 'and to give up a plan you've been working on for twenty years. I don't think Albinex has that courage. The question, Admiral Summerfield, is: do you?'

Isaac stood up and walked over to the bed.

'How long have you known?' he said.

'My,' said the Doctor. 'That was a good guess, wasn't it?

What now?'

Will you listen to my plan?' said Isaac. 'Give it a fair hearing?'

'No,' said the Doctor. 'I'll do whatever I can to stop you.

And if you want to stop me, you'll have to kill me.'

Isaac looked at him.

'Although at this very moment,' said the Doctor, 'it may not be the best idea.'

Slowly, the Admiral turned to the doorway.

'She's been there since we began to talk,' said the Doctor gently. 'I don't think she wanted to interrupt us.'

Benny didn't even look surprised. She was leaning on the doorframe, one hand pressed to her forehead. When Isaac tried to meet her eyes, she turned around and walked away.

The Admiral glanced back at the Doctor. 'I ordered Albinex not to hurt you,' he said.

'Don't mind me,' said the Time Lord. 'I think you'd better go and talk to your daughter.'

Dad's Army

It was time. The phone calls had been made. The signals had gone out.

In Porthmadog, two stranded Chameleon scouts took the car and the likenesses of a young married couple, moving eastwards.

In London, a lonely Sirian boarded a train going west, moving invisibly through the late-evening crowds.

In La Baule, a Sea Devil pod waded ash.o.r.e, following a flas.h.i.+ng light held by a shaking human.

A group of former soldiers rendezvoused at a flat in Rickmansworth. All of them had been discharged from UNIT on psychiatric grounds. They left their guns behind and climbed into a car.

In Reykjavik, a sleek Procyonian robot moulded itself a human-looking exterior and boarded a jet.

In Liverpool, a Vardan downloaded himself from the phone system and walked through the darkening streets, looking for a taxi.

Deep in the Australian outback, a Caxtarid put down the only telephone in town, stepped outside the pub, and activated her teleport module.

They were specks on a map, wheeling inwards. From the safehouses in Berks.h.i.+re and Wilts.h.i.+re and Hamps.h.i.+re, from a motel in Maryland and a hotel in Holland Park, they came. An army of the aliens and the alienated. Heading for Little Caldwell.

Meanwhile, in s.p.a.ce

A lone satellite, slick and black and invisible to eye and radar alike, continued its circular slide around the Earth.

Waiting for the signal.

29 The quick and the dad

Benny stood on the covered verandah, looking down into the street. The sun was coming up' a pale light filtering through the mist.

The cars had been arriving for half an hour. The engines had woken her up, sending her wandering through the house, wondering what the fuss was about and whether the Doctor was all right. And to the doorway of the spare room. And the inevitable' the unavoidable revelation.

The door bells jingled behind her. She didn't turn around, watching a Volvo parking outside the post office. She couldn't make out the driver. They were all staying in their vehicles'

patient shadows.

'You expected this.'

'Of course I expected it.' She didn't look at him. 'I was awful to Jason before our wedding, waiting for him to s.h.a.g someone else behind my back. It's some sort of deep Freudian thing. I expect the men I love to betray me.'

'Ever since Simon Kyle.'

'Ever since my father promised to come back and didn't.'

'The Doctor won't listen to me,' said Isaac, after a beat.

Will you?'

'I can't stop you from talking,' she said.

<script>