Part 20 (2/2)

All these stupid questions. Lethbridge-Stewart opened the car door and stepped out onto the beach. He surveyed the terrain, looking for trouble. 'In those days it called itself the Great Intelligence.'

Hinton lowered his window and peered out. 'And?'

Despite provocation, the Brigadier no longer really cared whether the information was cla.s.sified or not. 'It had no physical shape of its own, so it enslaved humans as its p.a.w.ns.

And it deployed a squad of strategic robots camouflaged like Yeti.'

He knelt and dusted at a footprint in the sand. When he turned, the boy was leaning against the wing of the car. Was this in Tibet, sir?'

'No. London about thirty years ago. It invaded the city like a virus, using the Underground network as a sort of nervous system. No shape of its own, so it steals others. Grisly business. I thought we were rid of the blighter.'

Danny looked out to sea, where dark clouds rumbled on the horizon.

'It's still out there,' he said. 'On the Bardo, the astral plane.

Trapped outside our physical existence.'

The Brigadier nodded grimly. 'Is it indeed? And what does it want?'

The boy shrugged. 'Don't know, sir. It's you it's hunting.'

'What's this got to do with you, Hinton?' It was the Brigadier's dream and he didn't see why the boy should be dictating events to him.

Daniel Hinton looked ruefully at his teacher. 'Just don't trust anyone, sir.' He turned and started walking away across the sand-blown flats.

'What?' called the Brigadier.

The boy glanced back. 'No one at all.' But he kept walking.

'I'll thank you, Hinton, not to treat me like a total...' It was no use. The boy had rapidly vanished into the sandstorm.

The Brigadier was suddenly startled by the close blast of a horn.

He jolted awake with a start in the driving seat. A chorus of horns was blaring.

The face of the hooded woman was staring directly through the windscreen at him. Her clear blue eyes were fiercely penetrating. He felt her searching into his thoughts. She was angry and accusing. And it was time he put a stop to it.

He opened the car door, but by the time he had scrambled out, she had vanished once again.

There was a furious animal roar behind him. He spun round, reaching inside his jacket for the gun. A huge brown and s.h.a.ggy creature reared above him. Just what he expected.

Its eyes blazed with scarlet fire. Its ma.s.sive claws raked the air. The Brigadier raised his gun to shoot as the Yeti lashed at him.

Its roar mingled with a fresh barrage of car horns.

The monster had vanished. The Brigadier was alone in the traffic, gun in hand.

He mustered a charming smile for the family in the next car two astonished parents and their fascinated daughter.

'd.a.m.n traffic. Brings out the worst in you, doesn't it?' The father, a look of disgust on his face, slammed his fist against the horn.

The Brigadier hurriedly slipped the gun away and got back into his car.

16.

The Summons t's coming closer,' murmured the boy in his sleep.

'I Harrods clapped a hand over his mouth. Outside, something was moving. A steady tap-tap-tap sound that was coming nearer. Harrods' eyes darted round his garage at the dozens of 'useful' things he had collected. An old magpie, he was. Never knew what he might need next, so best to have plenty of things just in case. But what to save if they caught up with him?

The boy was still asleep under Harrods' hand, s.h.i.+fting his body restlessly. A real fight he was having.

The air had gone chill, although the watery sun still shone in at the garage entrance. From outside came the tap-tap-tap and the shuffling of worn-down shoes. Something was wheezing like a landed whale. A hunched shadow lurched across the sacking that hung in the entrance. It stopped, turning back and forth, searching.

The boy sat up with a yell. His eyes staring, wide awake.

He was shaking. Harrods, one hand still on the boy's mouth, shushed him quiet and nodded at the door.

They stared at the silhouette on the sacking. A bulky figure of a man, slowly sweeping a stick before him. Harrods thought of a metal detector.

An unearthly voice broke the stillness. A dry ancient whisper that was full of weariness and hatred. 'Daniel Hinton.

You are summoned.'

Harrods felt the boy's body go so taut it might snap.

The shadow stick jerked forward and the rest of the silhouette followed. The shadow focused darker as the figure approached. The sacking was pushed aside and the light flooded in.

'Daniel,' commanded the figure.

Harrods could not make out the features against the glare, but the white hair was like a halo.

The tramp and the boy scrambled backwards to the wall as the intruder entered, his stick swinging as if it it was searching rather than the old blind man. Something like web seemed to be drifting in around him. was searching rather than the old blind man. Something like web seemed to be drifting in around him.

Harrods edged back further. The stolen phone dropped from his pocket with a clatter.

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