Part 24 (1/2)

August sighed. 'The idea is, we spread out a bit and try and cut off all their exits.

The Pod may be singing away now, but we can't guarantee that it won't have stopped by the time we get there. All right?'

'All right!' Greeneye grabbed the second scanner and marched off determinedly.

'Sometimes,' August opined, 'I wish someone else was the oldest.' He checked the scanner. 'Come on then, let's finish this.'

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'h.e.l.lo, Tim!' Smith called brightly. 'Please, don't run away, we've been looking for you.'

Tim stepped forward uncertainly. 'Dr Smith, Mrs Redfern... What happened to the school?'

'It was blown up,' Smith told him, walking towards him. 'In other circ.u.mstances, we'd have a party, but - '

'No you wouldn't. You liked the place. You liked everything about it.' Tim began to back away. 'You've come to get me because I ran away. When I was bullied, you told me to put up with it.'

'Yes. I did.' Smith stopped and considered. 'I did that because I was trying very hard. To fit in. To be one of the gang. I wanted to have a place so much that I did things I didn't really want to do.' He glanced at Joan. 'I've got a place now, I know who I want to be. I've grown up. I'm sorry that I gave you the wrong advice.'

'So it's all right that I ran away from school?'

'If you don't like a place, you shouldn't stay there.'

'And what about the bullies?'

'They're the worst thing in the world. It's a big circle. They hurt people. The people they hurt feel powerless and go on to hurt other people when they're able to. And the original bullies were once hurt themselves. The wheel keeps on turning. Unless you step off.'

'That's what I'm going to do,' said Tim firmly. 'That's what's in this sphere, you know, the things you need to know so that you don't have to cause harm.'

Joan spoke up. 'John knows all about that, now.'

'Well, that's good. For myself, I know I shall never hurt anybody again.' Tim paused for a moment. 'Were you ever bullied, Dr Smith?'

Smith took a deep breath. 'That depends on what you call me. I remember running through the streets of Aberdeen, with a gang of boys behind me. I remember a lot of military louts shouting at me, and I remember girls hating and excluding me.

That's in here.' He tapped his head. 'But in there' - he gestured towards the Pod - 'I remember other kinds of bullying. A boy in my cla.s.s who so hated and loved me that he kept upsetting my experiments. I made myself forget it, thought that I was an adult and could leave it behind. But if you ignore that, you ignore yourself.' He closed his eyes, concentrating on what the sphere was telling him. 'Recently, I thought I had become wiser than him, but found that I was still hurting people terribly.' He opened his eyes again, an expression of excited discovery on his face.

'I'd climbed back on the wheel. Become a bully. Which is why I decided to stop.'

'Being a bully?'

'Being me.'

Joan put a hand on Smith's shoulder. 'So it's all true? This man I've got to know isn't the real you?'

Smith took her hand. 'He is now. Tim, I know what you're carrying. It's mine, though I didn't know it until now.'

'Then I should give it back to you.' He was frowning, something in his head shouting to him about context and consequences.

'Yes.' Smith held out his hand.

Tim paused, looking at the Pod. 'If I put it to my head, I'd change, wouldn't I?'

'You'd become the Doctor, I suppose. Do you want to?'

'He's the one in the Pod?'

'Apparently.' Smith concentrated on what he was feeling from the Pod. 'He's like me, only inhuman. Dangerous. Loving greatly but not small-ly. He's Merlin. You know the sort of thing.'

'You were him?'

'I took that part of me out and put it in there.' 'Do you want to be him again?'

'No,' Smith said firmly. 'I don't think he's quite me any more.'

'I feel like I should tell them to form a crocodile,' Benny muttered. She and Alexander were leading a group of four boys down the track that led on to the hills.

They'd spent the last half hour wandering about the hummocks and dells of the hillsides in the dark, the boys occasionally gazing down at the moonlit gla.s.s palace that had once been their school. 'I mean, why did we do this? Was Tim really fond of coming up here?'

'He did go up there sometimes, miss,' Merryweather said.

'Call me Bernice or Benny, I really don't like being reminded of my marital status every sentence, particularly at the moment.'

'You're thinking about Dr Smith's engagement?' asked Alexander. 'Oh dear.' He glanced at the startled boys. 'That's let the cat out of the bag.'

'To Mrs Redfern, I gather?' said Alton. 'Everybody knows that those two are sweet on each other.'

'Bleh,' said Merryweather.

'My thoughts exactly.' Benny patted him on the head. 'I mean, she's so old. . .'

'Don't you think that you're being a bit jealous, loved one?' said Alexander.

'Jealous? No, no, I don't think it's jealously to hope that the man who's been transporting you about the place won't settle down in one small country and. . . oh yarbles.'

'Yarbles?'

'It's terribly rude, but they won't understand that either.'

'Interesting,' Alton began, 'that we're old enough to be shot at, but not to hear wicked words.'

Benny ignored him. 'The only reason he sent us off to do this was so that he could spend some time alone with Mrs Redfern. And in the middle of a crisis! I ask you!'

'Well, we've got a few minutes to kill before we get back to the pub,' Alexander said soothingly. 'I don't suppose we could go and have a look at what's happened to the school?'

'Oh, could we, miss?' the boys started to call. 'Could we?'

'Stop! Stop!' Benny waved her arms for quiet. 'I don't believe this! There are people out there who are trying to shoot us, but you want to go sightseeing.'

'We could just take a look from a distance. If anybody's there, we'll sneak off again. Benny, it's made of gla.s.s, where are they going to hide?'