Part 49 (1/2)

It was true men were pouring onto the s.h.i.+ps, and the s.h.i.+ps were streaking off into the breach. Crawhammer let out a heavy breath.

'Thank G.o.d,' he said.

Drakefell smiled. He felt bold for the first time in his life.

An end to it.

He pushed forward, shouldering General Crawhammer aside, threw himself at the b.u.t.tons that held the code that opened up h.e.l.l' and deftly triggered the sequence.

'Drakefell!' Crawhammer bellowed. 'Get away from there!'

'Too late!' he sang. 'Too late!'

He was vaguely aware of Crawhammer drawing his pistol, aware of the noise, aware that he'd been shot. The last thing he heard was the 242 automated voice of rocket control confirming a successful launch. The warheads were in flight.

The Doctor sat cross-legged in the snow, eyes closed, palms pressed against the crackling ball of energy that flickered around the time machine. Rita watched nervously. The Doctor hadn't moved for a while, and the tremors shaking the graveyard were getting stronger.

'Doctor?' She reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. 'Doctor are you all right?'

The Doctor opened his eyes and stared at her sternly. Miss Hawks, I am attempting to break through a temporal force field. It is a complex and delicate operation that requires quiet and a great deal of concentration. Now, if you don't mind...'

Rita backed away. 'OK, OK! Sorry...'

The Doctor took a deep breath and placed his hands back on the force field. Inside the bubble she could see Limb poking at controls, his face as determined as the Doctor's.

Suddenly the ground began to tremble. Rita stared around her as a throaty roar filled the air.

'Doctor...'

'Shhh!'

'No, really Doctor, I think we should go.'

'Not now, Rita!'

'No time to argue, Doctor.'

Grabbing him by the collar of his jacket Rita hauled him backwards across the frozen ground.

Before the Doctor even had time to argue, something huge and silver flashed before him.

The Porsche 550 Spider slammed into the energy bubble at eighty miles an hour. Rita saw Limb throw up his hands in horror as the sports car sliced through the bubble of energy, glancing off the time machine and sending it spinning across the graveyard. Headstones shattered as car and machine tumbled end over end. Rita stared in horror as the Porsche landed on its roof and burst into flames.

The Doctor scrambled to his feet. 'Of course, there is always brute force and ignorance to fall back on.'

The Doctor and Rita picked their way through the shattered graves and burning wreckage to the twisted remains of the two machines. The sports car was an inferno: there was no way that anyone could possibly have survived. The Doctor waved at Rita to stay back as he approached the blazing wreck. Rita saw him reach down and pluck something from the snow. He came back grave-faced, shaking his head. 'There's 243 nothing we can do...'

Rita glanced over at where the remains of the time machine lay amongst a tangle of brambles. 'And Limb?'

'Let's see, shall we?'

Pulling the brambles aside, the Doctor heaved open the hatch of the battered machine Limb, bruised and bloodied, stared up at him with baffled eyes.

'I can put it all right you know... in time...'

The Doctor reached inside the machine and tore the dimensional stabiliser free of the old man's hot-wiring.

'I think you've done enough damage.'

There was a distant roaring. Rita could see vapour-trails in the sky, at least two dozen, all blazing skyward' all converging on the shrinking chasm of light in the sky. And there were no enemy craft left to stop them.

'They did it,; the Doctor gasped. 'The idiots! It was just a bluff! I begged Crawhammer...'

He turned to Limb. 'I hope you're satisfied,' he whispered icily.

Limb caught hold of his arm. 'You don't know' Doctor... You don't know how many times I've watched myself die cold and lonely and in pain. You understand that, don't you? I know how I'm going to die, and I can't bear it... There has to be another way.'

'There is.' The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a revolver.

Rita held her breath. That was what the Doctor had plucked from the snow. Jimmy's revolver.

'Your fate is set, Mr Limb, the same as everyone else's. You can try to break free from the clutches of time, but in the end there is no escape. Whatever you do, however many alternatives you create, the end will always be the same. Destiny.'

He handed the old man the revolver.

'This is the only solution I can offer you,' said the Doctor. 'I will stay with you, if you wish.'

'Thank you, Doctor,' said George Limb. 'I would appreciate that and I imagine you would appreciate knowing that I am actually dead.'

The Doctor smiled mirthlessly, then turned to Rita.

'Why don't you make your way out, he said gently 'I'll catch you up: Rita flashed the Doctor a shallow smile. She couldn't look at the old man. She turned and limped wearily away towards the exit.

Behind them in the trees she heard a single gunshot. Rita closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

244.

Epilogue.Mama's Bar was alive with the babble of conversation and the beat from the jukebox. The Doctor sat at a table near the window sipping at a gla.s.s of red wine, watching the people around him.

Over at the bar McBride was arguing with Mama.

'That's the lousiest excuse I ever heard in my life, McBride,' the big black bar-owner growled. 'Ten years you ain't set foot in the joint, then you roll on in with a story like that.'

'I swear to G.o.d it's true!' McBride protested.

'Buuulls.h.i.+t,' Mama drawled. 'You always were full of it, McBride.'

The Doctor smiled. Temporal scarring. Anomalies.

Ace, hunched over to avoid cracking her head on the low ceiling, was trying to play pool with O'Brien, while the crowd gawped openly.