Part 40 (1/2)

McBride let out a deep breath. 'They never wake up in a good mood, do they?'

'Would you if you had that much ironmongery strapped to you?'

O'Brien crossed to the remaining apes. 'Which one do you want next, Doctor?'

Limb scurried over. 'Now, let's see what we have to choose from.

Another gorilla, I think, they seem very effective.'

The door at the other end of the ward crashed open and Bill Collins staggered in, another battery in his arms. Limb clapped his hands.

'Immaculate timing, Major. On the table if you please.

Collins let the heavy lead acid battery crash onto the trolley.

'Crawhammer wants to see you, Doctor.'

The Doctor scowled. I'm busy, Major Collins.'

194.

'I'm sure that Mr Limb can cope without you for a few minutes' The major's hand dropped imperceptibly towards the b.u.t.t of his pistol.

McBride hurried over to the Doctor's side. 'Look, Doc, I'm sure we can get things moving along without you for this one. Best keep the general happy, eh?'

The Doctor smiled at McBride. 'Thank you, Cody. Looking after my best interests as always.'

He sighed and made a half-hearted attempt to brush the dirt from his jacket.

All right, Major Collins, lead on.' He shot a look at Limb. 'You can manage without me, I trust?'

Limb smiled slowly. 'Oh yes, thank you. We'll do very nicely without you.'

McBride watched as Major Collins escorted the Doctor away. The Doc was worried, and that made McBride worried. Crawhammer was up to something, and McBride didn't trust the big southern general as far as he could throw one of these gorillas.

He looked down at the sleeping ape, his stomach churning at the ugly tubes and bolts that wound in and out of the creature's flesh. It had been nearly twenty years since he had seen anything like this.

Twenty years since the Doctor had stepped into his life and shown him things that had haunted his nightmares ever since. Now the Doctor was back and the nightmares were real again, but this time they were home-grown. No silver aliens to deal with. Just people, stirred up by the Doctor and Limb. Two dangerous, powerful little boys.

McBride shook his head. Ace dead, Rita missing, Mullen crippled.

Mullen, who could have whipped his a.s.s if had ever come to a straight fight, was lying in a hospital bed upstairs with no legs, waiting for people to turn him into this. He clenched his fists.

It wasn't fair. He wasn't a young man any more. During the war it had almost been exciting; now it just made him sick. Sick and scared.

'You OK?' Davey O'Brien was looking at him.

McBride nodded. 'Just thinking about ants.'

'Ants?'

'Yeah. Did you ever used to stir them up when you were a kid? The black and the reds?'

'Sure.'

McBride nodded across to where Limb was working on the battery 'Well, he and the Doc have stirred 'em up good this time. With a very big stick. '

As if on cue, Limb turned and smiled that sickly old man smile of 195 his.

'I'm ready for that one now, if you don't mind, Mr McBride.'

McBride almost laughed. With his screwdriver poised, Limb looked like some crazy dentist a mad scientist. O'Brien called over two of the soldiers and between the four of them they heaved the comatose gorilla onto the tiny bed Limb patted the gorilla's chest.

'My, you are a big strong boy, aren't you?'

Leaning over the table he began to connect the gorilla to the battery.

O'Brien slumped into a chair, offering McBride a cigarette. 'You know what bothers me, McBride?'

McBride flicked his lighter into life and shook his head.

'The red ants always used to win.' said Davey O'Brien.

The Doctor followed Major Collins down the long, darkened wards of the hospital. From outside he could hear the distant crackle of the dimensional tear and the screams of frightened Londoners. Visible through the tall windows, the strange flickering light lit up the brooding November sky, sending dancing shadows across the thick pile of the carpet. A Christmas tree, strewn with elegant silver baubles, scattered reflections of the dancing energy across the sterile green walls and high ceilings of the sombre old building. If it wasn't for the screams and the gunfire, it would be almost magical; a fairytale Christmas in London.

All around him American soldiers, rifles clasped tightly in their bands, snapped smartly to attention as they pa.s.sed, but the Doctor could see the suspicion in their faces. The fear. He represented everything that they had been taught to hate. Something different, something unknown. A Russkie. An augment. A little green man from outer s.p.a.ce. Limb couldn't have chosen a worse time in history. A time of ma.s.sive distrust and paranoia, when the two most powerful countries on Earth had access to appallingly powerful weapons, and neither had the wisdom or understanding to realise what they could unleash.

The Doctor sighed. If only Limb had managed to make it another twenty years in the Cybermen's time machine, then there might have been a chance. The Brigadier might be pig-headed and set in his ways, but he was like a Sunday school teacher compared to Crawhammer.

The Doctor glanced at the young major by his side. Despite his youth, there was something very rea.s.suring and confident about the tall American. In many ways he reminded the Doctor of a young Lethbridge-Stewart. There was a level-headedness about him more common in a man twice his age. Certainly he had Crawhammer's trust.

196.

The Doctor had no doubt that the major would follow the general's orders to the letter; the problem was he wasn't sure how dangerous those orders were going to be.

'Do you trust the general, Major?'

Collins said nothing.

'Will you follow your instructions like a good soldier even if it means the destruction of everything that you hold dear?'

Collins stopped. Look, Doctor, there was strain in the major's face.

'I don't know what to believe any more. I'd rather you'd never arrived at all. I wish you'd stayed on Mars or Venus or wherever. You talk about aliens and time travel and other dimensions, and a whole barrel of other weird c.r.a.p. I'm a soldier. I'm from Oregon.'

'And you were trained to fight Communists.'