Part 31 (2/2)

'The story of Hexen Bridge in a nutsh.e.l.l,' said the Doctor, settling back in his seat and humming to himself.

Hatch stood before the ancient mirror in the cavern under the green, staring at quicksilver clouds that gradually formed a reflection. The body was his own, even down to the Paul Smith suit and manicured fingernails, but the face was constantly changing. In a blur it encompa.s.sed young and old, male and female - the souls Jack had devoured over the centuries.

The eyes were a constant, burning flame. The eyes of Jack i' the Green himself.

'Yes?' snapped the figure behind the mirror, momentarily taking on the sun-cracked face of a nineteenth-century farm worker.

'All is prepared. Everything is in place.'

'Everything?' A young girl's face, framed by dark bunches of hair, was incongruous atop a male torso.

'The killing fields in Liverpool have been seeded. We will travel there and feed.'

'Everything has gone as planned?' asked an old woman, eyes blank with cataracts.

'The full force of mankind's madness is being unleashed in that place.'

Jack's face stabilised for a moment: a balding man wearing old-fas.h.i.+oned spectacles. 'Then shall we feed.'

'Indeed. Our enemies cannot stop us now.'

Jack became a blur of faces. 'They still live?' spat the creature.

Hatch nodded dumbly. 'I - I couldn't kill them. I... I was weak.'

Jack calmed, the image settling on that of a tall man with eighteenth-century clothes. His thin, pockmarked face broke into a toothy smile. 'Come, sir, Jack awaits 'ee. Thou shalt never feel the weakness of thy flesh again.'

Matthew Hatch swallowed deeply, reaching out for the mirror. His fingers brushed the metal surface, feeling the cold of the emptiness of s.p.a.ce.

The mirror parted like water, sucking his hand inside.

Closing his eyes, Matthew Hatch pushed his way through the mirror.

And screamed.

'There's one thing that bothers me,' said Trevor Winstone suddenly.

The Doctor's eyes snapped open. 'Only one?' he asked.

'Dear, dear. A lot lot of things are bothering me.' of things are bothering me.'

'What did Hatch do in the clinic? The light, the noise.

'A form of psychic energy. Not a rare phenomenon, but unusual in humans. Unless aided.'

'By... ?' asked Rebecca and Trevor together.

The Doctor looked at Denman, as though the policeman would immediately produce the answer. 'Haven't got a clue,'

said Denman, returning his attention to the road.

'It's Jack, isn't it?' asked Rebecca.

'You tell me,' replied the Doctor. 'You've lived with the knowledge all of your lives.'

'These are things that aren't talked about,' said Trevor, turning and looking out of the window at the countryside flying by.

'No one likes us, we don't care,' said the Doctor with a soft chuckle. 'Oh come, now. It's too late in the day for secrets.'

He looked at the sun, rising high into the sky. 'Metaphorically speaking.'

'But Trev's right,' said Rebecca. 'Hexen Bridge is different.'

She shook her head. 'Nothing is clear any more. Every question throws up another question.'

'But the answers we do have lead to Hexen Bridge,' said the Doctor.

'I still can't understand how Hatch finding a cure for his infertility can have any impact on the outside world.'

'Jack's awakening,' said the Doctor, as if that explained everything.

'What?'

'How else could one man spread Jack's taint beyond Hexen Bridge?'

Denman seemed interested now. 'If he wants to populate a brave new world, sterile or not, it'll take him a long time,' he said.

'Hatch said the cure for infertility was just part of it,'

pondered the Doctor. 'The answer is obscure, but it has something to do with Jack's taint, Hatch's new powers, and the substance introduced into the water supply on Merseyside.' The Doctor withdrew a test tube from his pocket. 'I was able to do a quick a.n.a.lysis of it while you were all unconscious.'

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