Part 45 (1/2)

The flat, black triangle juddered to a halt on the tennis court.

The air around it was s.h.i.+mmering with heat.

Kadiatu got out of the plane. She was twenty feet above ground, but she didn't bother with a ladder or any such frippery, she just jumped, dreadlocks trailing. She had on a white jacket, white slacks, white vest. She wore a violently red flower in her b.u.t.tonhole.

She landed neatly on the ground, ran her eyes over the house, saw the Doctor, and started stomping towards him.

Dear diary, to imagine Kadiatu stomping, you have to imagine a panther who's just been given a parking ticket. A genetically engineered, enhanced killer panther with split-second reflexes and a particularly large thorn in each paw.

's.h.i.+t,' said Chris. He pulled the door open and ran, getting himself between Kadiatu and the Doctor.

She looked at him, and he turned around and ran back to the house.

I let him in, peering past him through the flyscreen. 'I think I'll just let them have a little talk.'

Jason had come out of the kitchen. 'What's up?'

'Keep an eye on them,' I told him, already halfway up the stairs.

'What do we do if something happens?' he wanted to know.

'Um... keep well clear,' I said, lamely.

It was stuffy in the attic room. I opened a window, and pulled my chair over, back to the wall. Sitting down, I could peer up and 312 over my shoulder to see the Doctor and Kadiatu. I could hear them clearly.

Most of the neighbours could probably hear Kadiatu clearly.

'Wake up, you old b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' she yelled.

I sneaked a peek. She was shaking him, not gently. I heard Chris swear, downstairs, wondering whether it would be a fatal idea to try to stop her.

I saw the Doctor grab her arm. She stopped shaking him.

'Wake up,' she said again. 'I'm not ready to be the Ka Faraq Gatri yet. Wake up.'

'I am awake,' he said hoa.r.s.ely. 'Won't you kindly put me down.'

She dropped him into the wheelchair. 'How did you find me?'

he asked.

She dropped into a crouch beside the wheelchair. 'How long are you planning on sitting there?'

The Doctor's hands smoothed the blanket on his knees. 'It's a very pleasant morning,' he said, after a while.

'There's no one to take revenge on, is there?' said Kadiatu. I wondered if Chris and Jason could hear her as well as I could.

'n.o.body you can blame her death on.'

'She chose '

'That's right. She jumped down into history and history ate her whole. Are you going to take revenge on history? Go back and change something so the whole future unravels? No.'

'They found Walid,' said the Doctor. He lifted his head, as though looking at her for the first time. 'He was just a sh.e.l.l, all that was left after the gestalt was destroyed. They turned off the life-support after two days.'

'So there's no one left to hurt,' said Kadiatu. 'No one except you.'

'I'm the wrong one,' said the Doctor.

'What?'

'I'm the wrong one,' he repeated. 'I shouldn't be here at all.'

'You couldn't have died in her place, so don't be stupid,' said Kadiatu.

'It should have been one of the other ones,' he said. I could just hear him. 'One of the other Doctors in the Nexus. The one who 313 was quick enough to s.n.a.t.c.h Adric from the freighter. The one who arrived thirty seconds before Oscar Botcherby was stabbed to death, instead of thirty seconds afterwards. The one who saved Jan as well as everyone else.'

His head had fallen forward again. 'Don't you see?' he said.

'I'm the wrong one.'

I realized I was in floods. I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and prayed that Kadiatu wouldn't give up.

'Wouldn't it be nice if we all had our own little Nexus,' she said. 'And we could pick and choose the way the story ended.

Wouldn't that be nice.'

'But that isn't '

'That isn't how the story ends.'

'I try,' he said. 'I try to make sure the story goes the way it should. That's the whole point point.'

'But you're not always the one who writes the final chapter, are you? You would have written it differently. Not the way Roz wrote it.'

The Doctor made a little sound. I wasn't sure what it was.

'Frightening, isn't it?' said Kadiatu, more gently. 'That someone knows knows.'

The Doctor sat up in the wheelchair. I thought I saw him stroke her hair, like a father, but I couldn't be sure.