Part 26 (1/2)

'No,' said the Doctor wearily. 'It's just a case of two different women existing in two parallel universes. They just swapped places, that's all.'

Imperial Lee went to Lady Silk and kissed her. 'I'm so glad you could make it, babe. I thought you weren't going to see the fireworks.'

'I wouldn't have missed it for the world,' said Silk, and they both laughed.

'How long have we got?'

Imperial Lee glanced at his watch. 'Trinity is due for detonation.'

Butcher felt the bottom fall out of his world. 'How does he know that? How does he know so much about it?'

'It's all in the history books, Major,' said the Doctor. 'You see, Imperial Lee comes from the future.'

'And another dimension,' said Ace.

'Let's not confuse the Major, shall we Ace?'

'Due for detonation at five twenty-nine and forty-five seconds on Monday the sixteenth of July 1945,' said Imperial Lee.

Butcher said, 'But '

The Doctor cut in immediately. 'Don't interrupt when the madman is making his big speech,' he said.

Imperial Lee gave a hard bark of laughter. 'I'll show you who the madman is, when first this planet, then this solar system, then this galaxy, then this entire universe goes up in one vast explosion.'

'There will be time to get clear, won't there?' said Lady Silk. 'I mean, I want to watch the big fireworks start here, but then I want to get home again safe and sound and snug.'

'I thought you were kamikaze commandos,' said Ace.

'That's Lee's big thing,' said Silk. 'He says he wants to stay and go up in the big bang.'

'It will be an honour to sacrifice myself for the New Empire,' said Lee.

172.'That's right, sweetie,' said Silk. 'You do that. But personally I suspect that the apocalypse would ruin my complexion. So I'm ducking out as soon as the show starts.'

'Me too,' said Ray hastily. 'And I'm taking my records with me, man. That was the deal, wasn't it?'

Ace gave him a steady look of disgust, as though he was something unpleasant she'd found adhering to the underside of her shoe. 'Your records? Is that all you care about?'

'Don't worry, Ray,' said Silk. 'You and I will go back together. Just make sure you have the necessary equations ready to open that portal.'

'Speaking of equations,' said Imperial Lee. 'Take a look at the work he's done ready for the blast. I want to make sure he isn't going to double-cross us.'

Lady Silk went and perched on the arm of Ray's chair, taking one page at a time from the pile in the big man's lap and scrutinising each one with care.

Finally she said, 'It all looks pretty kosher to me. Not quite complete, though.'

'What the h.e.l.l are they talking about?' said Butcher.

The Doctor cleared his throat and looked at Ace. 'Would you like to explain?'

'All right,' said Ace. 'Ray here is a big science brain. His equations '

'Or incantations,' said Imperial Lee.

'Or incantations,' said Ace wearily, 'are so powerful that they will have an effect on the atomic bomb when it goes off. They'll amplify the blast. Amplify it so much that this entire universe will be destroyed.' She looked at the Doctor. 'Is that about right?'

'Not bad. You covered most of the salient points, although you rather glossed over the crucial matter of probability, the way that Ray's mathematical prediction of an event interacts with that event at a quantum level to bring it into being.'

'Anyway,' said Ace to Butcher. 'You get the gist.'

'You're all insane,' said Butcher.

The Doctor shook his head sadly. 'No, just Imperial Lee.'

Lady Silk laughed, but Lee looked angry. 'I'm getting tired of you saying that about me.' He raised his gun and aimed it at the Doctor. It looked as though he was going to use it. Butcher braced himself. If the punk started shooting he was going to try and jump him. It might be his last chance.

'What are you doing, Lee?' said Lady Silk in a calm, stern voice. 'I thought we agreed that all this bloodshed and human sacrifice nonsense was just tacky.

All we need is the equations and the desire.'

The barrel of Lee's gun wavered, and then he slowly lowered it. He looked at Silk. 'We're not short of desire,' he said. His voice was low and thick, and 173Butcher realised that he really believed in all this. Believed it and wanted it to happen. Wanted to see the world blow up like a hand grenade. 'But what about the equations?'

Lady Silk shrugged, 'Like I said, not quite complete.'

Imperial Lee looked at his watch. 'There isn't much time left.' He turned his gun on Ray. 'Get to work. Finish them.'

'All right man,' said Ray, quickly picking up his pen and a sheet of paper.

'Take it easy. I'm almost done.'

'Finish them except for the very last figure,' said Lady Silk. 'Then you can write that in at exactly the right moment.' She smiled at Lee. 'We'll time it to perfection.'

'OK, baby, OK.' Ray scribbled a few last lines of calculation, then lifted his pen and chewed at the end of it. He studied the paper, sighed, set the pen down on the arm of his chair and said, 'It's all done. I just have to write in a final term.'

Imperial Lee nodded excitedly. 'It's now five twenty-five. At five twenty-nine I will begin a countdown. We will try and coincide precisely with the detonation at Trinity, in the Jornada Del Muerto desert to the south of here.

So I will start counting at forty-five and work backwards to zero. I will say, ”Forty-five, forty-four, forty-three. . . ”'

'I get the picture man, I get the picture,' said Ray.

'You will put the finis.h.i.+ng touch on your incantation, or equation,' said Lee, 'at precisely five twenty-nine and forty-five seconds, which is when they will detonate the bomb.'

Butcher glanced at the Doctor, who shot him an urgent look, as if to say to keep his mouth shut. Imperial Lee went over to Lady Silk and handed her his gun. 'Keep an eye on them. The safety's off. If they even stir, shoot.'

'With pleasure, love,' said Lady Silk. 'But where are you going?'

'Just over here.' Lee strode to the living-room windows and threw them open. Cool, rain-scented night air spilled in, chilling the sweat on Butcher's face. He watched Silk intently, but she seemed to know how to handle a gun and her hand was steady. Lee paced impatiently. He looked at his watch. 'Five twenty-six and thirty seconds.'

'Now,' said Lady Silk. 'You do have our getaway equations ready, don't you Ray?'