Part 19 (1/2)

The Xhinn halted the torture, giving the Doctor a brief respite in which to answer. 'No. No more killing.'

'Your logic is flawed.'

'You ask for the killing to cease.'

'Yet you would kill the Xhinn.'

The Doctor got to his feet again. 'Alright. You win. How can I help you?'

It was dusk by the time Bette Mills finally died, her gasps for breath slowly fading to nothing. Mary pulled the blanket up over her daughter's lifeless face. Jean and Rita were sobbing in a corner, the elder girl trying to comfort her inconsolable sister.

Sarah got up and turned on the overhead light.

'Sun's gone down, though you'd hardly know it in this weather,' she said. 'This smog it's killing thousands of people.'

'I don't care about thousands of people!' Mary spat angrily. 'I care about my daughter! Who's going to bring her back?' She threw herself over the body, hugging her youngest child.

Sarah felt hollow inside. When she had first read about the deaths of thousands of Londoners, it had seemed like a mystery to solve, an intriguing adventure to lure the Doctor from his inactivity. That idea seemed trivial and unworthy now. The people who died they were just an abstract statistic, a number on a page. It was hard to care about someone dying if you had never known them, never shared their hopes and dreams and aspirations.

But the death of this child made it all too real for Sarah. She knew this grim reality was being repeated across London. She had read all the reports, her dispa.s.sionate journalistic att.i.tude keeping her at arm's length from the horror and the tragedy of it.

Not anymore, she vowed. Something had to be done, somebody had to stop this killing mist and its murderous instigators.

Sarah approached Mary, pulling the distraught mother away from her dead child. 'Mary, you've got to listen to me. Mary!'

The grieving woman looked up. 'Yes, Sarah what is it?'

'I've got to go now. I have a friend, he may be able to stop this smog. He says he can and I believe him. I've got to help him however I can.'

Mary nodded.

'The police are evacuating residents from the East End,'

Sarah continued. 'They say it's for your protection, to take you away from the smog. Whatever you do, don't go with them!'

'Why not?'

'The police I think they are being controlled by some other force. I saw them beating an old man who wouldn't leave his home. There's something very wrong happening. So whatever you do, don't let them in.' Sarah shook Mary to get her attention.

'Do you understand me?'

'Yes, I understand.' Mary beckoned her two surviving daughters over and hugged them both. 'Bette's gone, but I've still got these two. Don't worry the police won't get them.'

Sarah smiled. 'Goodbye, Mary.'

'Goodbye, Sarah. And good luck.'

'To us all.' Sarah walked out of the house, closing the door carefully behind her. Only after she was outside did the tears come.

The Doctor listened to the demands of the Xhinn triumvirate.

'You will tell us the truth.'

'Are you a Time Lord?'

'Yes,' he replied.

'You travel in s.p.a.ce and time?'

'Yes.'

'How? The Xhinn would value such technology.'

'So you can plunder the past and future, as well as the present? Do you believe I would willingly give you such capability?'

'You said you would help us.'

'Give us this and we would spare this world.'

'The Xhinn will abandon all plans for its colonisation.'

'How do I know I can trust you?' the Doctor asked.

'You have no choice.'

'You must believe in the Xhinn.'

'You must believe.'

'Alright, I agree to your terms,' the Doctor said. 'My time s.h.i.+p is not far from your own vessel. I will take one of the triumvirate with me to see it.'

The three Xhinn consulted silently before nodding their agreement. One of them broke from formation and floated down to hover by the Doctor. 'Prepare yourself for matter transmission. Many species find this unpleasant.'

'I've had quite enough of being scrambled by your trans-mat systems for one day.' The Doctor folded his arms stubbornly. 'I will walk out of here. You can show me the way. Lead on!'

The Xhinn hovered indecisively then moved off into the darkness, its pulsating blue energy illuminating a path for the Doctor. He followed the creature as it left the vast chamber.

Hodge was still stripping clothes from corpses when he noticed a familiar face standing beside him. It was Sergeant Diggle, who had inserted himself into the line of policemen working at the conveyor belt.

'Hodge! Can you hear me? If you can, don't look around.

Just nod.'

The constable gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head.