Part 21 (1/2)

said Chris. 'I used to always want whatever looked grossest.' He stuck a fork in something which wriggled.

Roz said, 'Maybe I'll get something from the menu.'

She glanced back at the table. The two Doctors were sitting side by side, Iaomnet on the opposite side of the table. The identical Time Lords weren't talking, for once. The last month had been a non-stop discussion of everything from probability physics to Roy Lichtenstein, and on one especially garrulous occasion, both at once. But they'd seemed to wind down over the last week or so. Maybe they'd talked about everything they knew.

The five of them had been crammed into the same room aboard the liner for the last week of the trip. She and Chris hadn't had many chances to talk; they had to constantly keep one eye on Iaomnet. She'd almost succeeded in getting a message to a double-eye, twice. After the second time Roz had wanted to keep her sedated, but both Doctors had objected.

'The copy,' said Roz. 'Do you think we can trust him?'

158.

Chris looked up from the desserts. 'He's just the Doctor, isn't he?' he said. 'I mean, he hasn't done anything suspicious for the last month. Besides, I keep forgetting which one is which.' Roz decided not to let on she had the same problem. 'I'm more worried about Iaomnet what're we going to do with her?'

'I'm not sure yet. We can't keep dragging her around behind us.'

'Good thing we've had so much experience at escaping,' said Chris. 'We know all the tricks.'

'Messy situation.'

'The Lacaillian stuff's pretty safe,' said Chris. 'Kind of bland, though.'

Iaomnet was eating breadsticks, snapping them into little pieces. She hardly noticed when one of the Doctors got up to hit the buffet table. She ground a piece of breadstick into powder with her fingernail.

'I can help you escape,' said the other one.

Iaomnet stopped mangling the breadstick. She carefully didn't look up. 'OK,' she said. 'How?'

'I have almost entirely regained control,' said the Doctor. 'It's becoming difficult to maintain this facade. We must both get away.'

'Regained '

'This form... attached itself to me when the Nexus was disrupted.'

It was like finding the missing part of a jigsaw puzzle under the bed. 'Emil?' she hissed.

'We'll wait until we have only one or two of them to deal with,' he said. 'Then I'll immobilize one of them, and you take care of the other.'

'Why didn't you say something on the liner?'

'I was still reintegrating my own personality,' said Zatopek.

'And if we had escaped, where would we have gone?'

She looked at him. He was still absolutely identical to the other Doctor as though he was wearing this body like a suit of clothes. 'How '

159.

'Perhaps later,' said Emil, quickly. Iaomnet glanced over to the buffet. The others were on their way back.

The bagbot was waiting for them at the door to the hotel room.

'Hiya,' it said. The Doctor patted it, absently. 'Your package is right where you left it. Almayer's Storage reopens at eight thirty tomorrow morning.'

The Doctor fed the little machine credits and sent it rolling back towards the lifts. Roz was unlocking the door. 'We've got two rooms, joined by a connecting door which stays open at all times,' she said. 'I've asked them to take out the Centcomp terminal.'

They went in. Roz locked the door and slung the key around her neck. The room was small, clean and grey. She told Iaomnet, 'Just chill. We ought to have sorted ourselves out by noon tomorrow. After that you'll be free to go.'

Iaomnet nodded, but didn't say anything. Roz didn't think the double-eye believed her.

Chris announced, 'There's one bathroom between the two rooms. If n.o.body minds, I'm going for a bath.' The Doctors plonked themselves down on the curved lounge, switching on the 3D and flicking around until they found the news.

Iaomnet sat on one of the beds, and took out the book she'd filched from the liner's library. Roz stretched out, put her arms behind her head, and let out a long sigh.

The evening dragged on like that until Zatopek grabbed hold of Roz's heart and made it stop.

Roz had got up to get a drink out of the bar fridge. She had read the price list and had decided to drink the most expensive thing on it. She had just uncorked a miniature bottle of Dargolian Jus de Claymore '56 when one of the Doctors said her name.

She turned around. One of them (the copy? the real one?) was looking at her, and the other one was looking at him.

Her heart stopped.

She felt it, felt the muscle fighting against the sudden violent grip that was crus.h.i.+ng it. She dropped the bottle. For two seconds, she thought she was having a heart attack. It took two 160 more seconds to realize it was some other kind of attack. It took two more seconds for her to lose consciousness.

The grip was gone as she hit the floor. She heard shouts as she went under, wondering if her heart had started again.

Chris heard the Doctor shouting. He exploded out of the bath and ran into the other room without stopping.

Roz was on the floor, a pool of liquor spreading out from a bottle near her head. The two Doctors were struggling with each other. Iaomnet was standing next to the door. She kicked him in the stomach. The breath woofed out of him as he fell back and collided with the bathroom door.

Chris rolled to his feet as Iaomnet pulled the Doctors apart.

'Which one are you?' she said.

'It's me,' said one of the Doctors. 'Let's get going.'

Iaomnet grabbed the other one. She had Roz's pistol, jamming it into the Doctor's collarbone. 'He's coming as well,' she said. 'I have to have something to show for this whole disaster.'

'Yes,' said the other Doctor. 'But he's coming with me. You both are.'

'Excuse me,' said the original Doctor.

Iaomnet shook her head. 'Orders. Right from the top. He's mine.'

'You ought to listen to her, Emil,' said the Doctor. 'You don't want an angry double-eye pursuing you.'

'He's Zatopek?' said Chris.