Part 17 (1/2)

'Er, Doctor, we were wondering what you were up to.'

'Looking for evidence.' He grunted with effort, and very carefully eased the two lobes of Fazakerli's brain apart.

Cwej, who had straightened up, bent over convulsively again. Steaming liquid splattered against the barrier.

'I've seen evidence hidden in a lot of places,' the female Adjudicator said almost conversationally to Bernice, 'but that's a new one on me.'

'What's your name, by the way?'

'Forrester.'

'Ah!' the Doctor exclaimed. 'Look!'

Beltempest bent closer, and gasped. Bernice and Forrester stepped forward.

Cwej turned away.

Bernice craned her neck to get a better look at what the Doctor was doing, even though her stomach rebelled at the sight. The tissue of Fazakerli's brain had been prised apart by the Doctor's nimble fingers, exposing the lobes, the stringy bundle of the corpus callosum and a mess of membranes and blood.

And a vein of fire that ran through the tissue and faded as Bernice watched.

'What was that?' Beltempest asked.

'Something I've seen before. Incontrovertible evidence that this man's mind has been affected by outside influences,' the Doctor said darkly. He stood, and was just about to wipe his hands on his jacket when he realized how much blood and brain matter was on them. He held them out to Bernice.

'Tissue?' he asked hopefully.

'Bless you,' she said. 'What made you think that it had?'

'His actions.' The Doctor gazed around, and ended up wiping his hands on the force wall, leaving a reddish-grey smear that the teddy bear Adjudicator couldn't seem to take his eyes off. 'As the provost-major here said, these men are trained.'

'Trained killers!'

'Yes, but this man completely forgot all of his training. Were you watching his face? It came over him like a wave. Sheer bloodl.u.s.t.'

104.'There's a lot of it around,' the female Adjudicator said. What was her name? Forrester?

'What do you mean?' the Doctor asked.

'Bloodl.u.s.t. People suddenly going off the deep end and slicing up their nearest and dearest with the first sharp object that comes to hand. Or taking potshots at pa.s.sers by. Or cras.h.i.+ng flitters into packed restaurants.'

The Doctor's eyes took on that dreamy, misty quality that Bernice had seen so often before. It meant that he was thinking about sticking his Gallifreyan oar in.

'Just on Earth?' he said, shooting Forrester a penetrating glance.

'As far as we know,' she confirmed.

The Doctor gazed meaningfully at Bernice. 'And so it begins,' he murmured, then glanced over at Provost-Major Beltempest. 'Had this man been on Earth recently?' he asked.

Beltempest shrugged. Not sure,' he said. 'I could check when we get back to the admin sector.'

Bernice interrupted. 'He was on the Arachnae Arachnae with us. I recognized him.' with us. I recognized him.'

'Must have just come back from leave, then,' Beltempest said thoughtfully.

'Hmm,' the Doctor mused.

Everybody looked expectantly at him.

He glanced up, surprised and slightly embarra.s.sed by the attention.

'What is it?' Beltempest said. 'What exactly did we see in that man's brain?'

'Well, as far as I can make out, it was some kind of resonance effect, as if he had been subject to an extremely strong ' The Doctor paused, as if he was only just realizing what he was saying. ' an extremely strong icaron field.

Hmm.'

'Icaron field?' Forrester asked.

'Elementary particles of the tachyon family. Imaginary ma.s.s, imaginary charge . . . '

'But the effects are all too real,' Bernice said quietly.

'Indeed,' the Doctor said. 'Icarons have been known to cause paranoia and psychotic behaviour in humans under certain rare circ.u.mstances, and only to genetically susceptible individuals those who have gone through body-bepple, I would suggest. That's why they were called icarons, I believe because of Icarus, the legendary character whose death was a result of badly applied science. If only I knew more . . . '

'Icarons drive people mad?' Beltempest snapped, eyes wide in surprise. 'I've never seen any reports to that effect. How do you know? How can you be so sure?'

'Experience,' the Doctor said succinctly. 'Interesting that you know what icarons are.'

'Ah. I've . . . come across them,' Beltempest spluttered through his trunk.

105.'You suspect that there's an what did you call them? an icaron field affecting people on Earth?' Forrester said, frowning.

The Doctor grimaced. 'Based on other information which has reached our ears, I think it's a distinct possibility. I'd need to talk to an expert first.'

Forrester shook her head. 'Shame you're not going to get the chance.'

'But this is '

'Don't care. You're a suspect in a murder investigation. You're both coming back to Earth with us.'

'Wait!' Beltempest's authoritative bark made the two Adjudicators freeze in their tracks. 'The Imperial Landsknechte need to know why these men died.'

'The Order of Adjudicators needs to question these two in connection with a murder,' Forrester snapped. 'That takes priority.'

'It's a matter of interstellar security '