Part 30 (1/2)
'How did I know,' said the Doctor, 'that whatever devious and overcomplicated plan you were hatching, if you'll pardon the pun, it would involve someone being tied up?' He peered more closely. 'It's Miss Baber, isn't it? Good evening.' He doffed his hat.
'Very amusing,' said Hatch as Slater finished his search of the two men.
'They're clean,' he said.
'Good,' continued Hatch. 'If they move, you know what to do.' He turned back to the Doctor. 'You shouldn't have interfered, Doctor,' he said sadly.
'Couldn't help it,' noted the Doctor. 'It's my job.'
'Interference?'
'Hmm.' The Doctor ignored Hatch, and walked around the table to the silent surgeon. 'How do you do?' he said holding out a hand. 'I'm the Doctor.'
'Nicholas Bevan,' said the surgeon instantly. 'Erm, a doctor of what, exactly?'
'Oh, this and that,' replied the Doctor. 'What's your speciality? Genetics?'
Bevan cast a nervous glance at Hatch and then back at the Doctor. 'You've heard of me, perhaps?'
'No,' said the Doctor. He leaned over the operating table and gave Rebecca a rea.s.suring pat on the head. 'Don't worry, my dear,' he said. 'We'll have you out of there in a jiffy.'
'If you hurt her...' began Trevor, his voice overwhelmed with emotion. The chauffeur gave a menacing flick of the blade, and Trevor shrank back towards the door.
'She's more interested in monkeys than people, Trev,' said Hatch. 'Has she never told you?' He pushed the Doctor away from the table. 'She's screwed me up one time too many.
And, family or no family, n.o.body screws with me.' Hatch smiled. 'Pardon my my pun.' pun.'
'Not even Jack i' the Green?' asked the Doctor quickly.
Hatch spun around, his eyes ablaze. 'What dost thou know of Jack i' the Green?' he asked, his voice guttural and rough.
'Not as much as I'd like to,' said the Doctor. 'I'd really like to meet him. Could you arrange that?'
'Old Jack don't be needing the likes of 'ee,' said Hatch.
'Are you all right, Matt?' asked Bevan.
Hatch turned his head slowly towards his friend. 'Fine,' he said in his own voice. 'Why do you ask...?'
'Jack,' said the Doctor. Hatch's attention snapped back to him. 'I want to talk to Jack. Are you you Jack?' Jack?'
'I am he, and he is me...'
'...and we are all together,' continued the Doctor.
'Don't play games,' said Hatch. 'I have the cure, Doctor.'
'What are you talking about?' shouted Denman, but the Doctor shushed him to silence.
The cure?'
'The final obliteration of Jack's taint,' said Hatch, as though that explained everything.
'The people of Hexen Bridge cannot reproduce outside of that environment,' stated the Doctor. 'And you've isolated the mutated gene that controls that.'
Hatch smiled. 'We took genetic material and ova from Rebecca, made certain changes to the DNA, and synthesised a serum.'
'So you'll be able to fill the world with little Hatches?'
queried the Doctor. 'I'm delighted for you, if somewhat horrified for everyone else.'
'You don't understand. Sterility is only part of the problem.'
Hatch tapped the side of his head. 'We humans have so much potential up here that we simply do not use.' He smiled a grey smile. 'Like Jack, I abhor waste.'
'And the drug we saw in the water supply in Liverpool liberates untapped psychic ability,' said the Doctor.
'Yes. We've combined a concentrated version of that drug with the new serum.'
'You mustn't use it,' said the Doctor. 'Jack will destroy you.'
'Doctor,' said Hatch softly. 'You're making a habit of being too late. I took the drug ten minutes before you arrived. I now have the power of the universe flowing through me!'
There was a sudden crackle in the air, like the release of static electricity. The Doctor's skin felt p.r.i.c.kly and hot.
'You've used alien technology,' he said.
There were worried looks on the faces of Trevor and Denman, and even Slater was relaxing his grip on the knife.
The vibration increased until it began to pound like an industrial piston. The air around Hatch was glowing. His skin was a spectral pale, his eyes burning fire across the room and into the Doctor's mind.