Part 31 (1/2)

The Doctor felt the hood being lifted from his head.

'How do you do,' his captor said. 'I am Dr William Hark. Please, call me Bill.'

The car drew inside the gates.

'Marvellous hospital,' said Hark.

'Obscenely used,' the Doctor spat.

He was escorted inside by the soldiers, and taken up several flights of stairs to a huge, empty ward, where his handcuffs were removed.

The soldiers left.

'You have the freedom of this floor,' said Hark. 'The top floor. I shouldn't try to escape, the windows are barred and there's a guard on 149 each side of every door with orders to shoot if you try anything.

Remember, we can still learn a lot from you dead.'

He left, and the Doctor slumped back onto one of the beds.

The anger he had felt earlier at Ace's fate was less acute now, the sadness greater. And the uncertainty. He felt the tangle of the time lines around him, leading him deeper into their appalling net. Was he making things better or worse? He looked around him. Worse, by the look of things.

'Doc?'

His head snapped around, and he smiled.

'Davey...'

Davey O'Brien, in a pair of striped pyjamas.

'You escaped the attack then. Good.'

'We all did, Doc. It was weird no-one had anything but a few bruises. I spent a day in sick-bay, then they sent me here.'

He looked around and shuddered. 'Gives me the w.i.l.l.i.e.s, this place.'

'Yes, said the Doctor. 'I've been here before. Are we the only, uh, patients?'

'There's an old chappie in the next ward. They keep him sedated.

I've never got two words that made sense out of him, poor sod.'

'Why did they bring you here?'

'Don't know. They keep doing tests on me blood tests, word a.s.sociation tests, ink blots... I think it must be some kind of military nut-house. Maybe I cheesed my shrink off.'

'Yes,' said the Doctor slowly 'Dr Hopkins, wasn't it? Would you describe him?'

O'Brien shrugged.

'Old feller, slight, thinning grey hair, very gentle voice. Funny, sort of, slow way of blinking...'

'George Limb,' said the Doctor. 'Everything leads to him, whatever it is he's up to.'

O'Brien raised the transistor radio he was carrying.

'I found this under one of the beds the neatest thing.'

The Doctor frowned. Sony Walkman, circa 1980. It was Ace's. She must have dropped it when they were first here. Its radio crackled quietly in O'Brien's hand.

'What's been happening, Doc? No-one told me anything after the crash. I just heard they're accusing Khruschev of acts of sabotage they're not saying exactly what, of course '

The Doctor let out a sigh of exasperation.

' and Khruschev's accusing us of cooking up warmongering propaganda.'

150.

'And if I can't get anyone to listen to me, this planet is going to blunder into another global orgy of destruction!'

A male nurse pa.s.sed through the ward.

'I need to talk to Dr Hark,' the Doctor muttered. 'Excuse me...'

'Yes?' The nurse smiled, but kept on walking.

'He'll be going to give the old boy his pills,' whispered O'Brien.

The Doctor trotted off after the nurse, past the guards into the next, identical, ward. Again, there was only one patient, in bed, propped half-upright on pillows.

'I need to see Dr Hark,' he said.

The doctor will be doing his late rounds in an hour or so.'

'I don't have an hour or so' The Doctor sounded petulant. He watched as the nurse popped a pill into the old man's sagging mouth and tried to hold a cup of water to his lips.

'Come on,' the nurse said gently. 'I know they catch... There's a good chap...'

He closed the old man's mouth and strode out, smiling at the Doctor as he pa.s.sed. Immediately the Doctor went up to the old man and, slipping his arms behind the man's back, flexed sharply with his fingers. The old man hiccupped and the pill popped up.

'Diazedrine,' muttered the Doctor. A powerful sedative. He popped it into his pocket.

'Uh,' the old man mumbled. 'Uh...'

The Doctor stared deep into the old man's eyes. They were half lidded, vacant and unfocused. Only then did the Doctor recognize him.

Chief Inspector Mullen.

He looked years older, thin and pale.

'h.e.l.lo again, old friend,' the Doctor whispered sadly. 'I'm going to try and sort things out if I can.'