Part 50 (1/2)

'Just go, Chris!'

The young man shook his head, but Innocet took his arm. 'Quickly, Chris.'

He allowed himself to be led away backwards still watching the Doctor with a look of exasperation.

Badger had lumbered across and started heaving the rubble.

Romana lingered. 'Doctor, what did you do with the dispatch I sent you?'

'Nothing.'

209.

'You must rescue the Loom core. Download its genius loci.'

He looked doubtful.

'Do it, Doctor. That's a Presidential order.'

Ferain stepped up behind them. 'If you'd done that before, you'd have saved a lot of time and trouble.' He levelled a staser. 'You're both stil under arrest!'

The Doctor sneered. 'The CIA jump in and out of legitimacy like a pogo stick.'

'Right back to their origins as Ra.s.silon's guards,' added Romana.

'Don't trust her, Doctor,' said Ferain through the roar of the House. 'Has she still not told you why she really summoned you home?'

The Doctor glanced at Romana. 'She will, when she's ready.'

Badger started to move in.

'Call that brute off,' warned Ferain.

There was a scuffle of footsteps.

A dusty figure rammed into the Doctor, tumbling him to the floor. Glospin, with the strength of a madman, pressed a long, ornate weapon to the Doctor's chest. It was one of Satthralope's huge keys.

'You stole everything that was mine by right!' he yelled. 'You've destroyed this Family! I don't even know if I can kill you, whatever you are! Monster!'

He raised the weapon to strike.

'No!' shouted the Doctor.

Badger s.n.a.t.c.hed Glospin up like a doll. It flung him the length of the Hall, where he lay broken and unmoving.

Seizing her moment, Romana grabbed Ferain's arm and prized away the staser.

The Doctor struggled up. 'Romana, get out of this place. I'll deal with the Loom.'

'But. . .' she said.

'And that is an ex-Presidential order.'

He watched her push Ferain away.

As he turned towards the Loom, the whole building gave a violent lurch. He touched the floor. The structure was starting to s.h.i.+ft.

Halfway along a shuddering cloister, Ferain turned on Romana.

'Who is the Doctor?'

'What does it matter to you?' she said. 'The Agency's used him often enough.'

'As you intend to use him, Madam,' said Ferain. 'Rumours have been rife about him for years. The more absurd they become, the more likely and alarming I find them.'

210.

'As a former President, the Doctor is under my protection.' She level ed the gun. 'Now move, Ferain.'

He pushed the weapon aside. 'Madam President, the High Council are calling for your impeachment.'

She shrugged. 'The Doctor is more important. You hate him because he breaks your precious laws. But Gallifrey owes him an almighty debt of grat.i.tude.'

The building lurched. Dust fell in clouds.

Ferain was calm and cold. 'Send him on the mission you planned for him and I swear the Agency will leave him alone.'

Romana paused. She took a deep breath and nodded. They crooked fingers.

The air and light almost choked them.

Owis lingered in the gap torn out of the mountain, avoiding the cold wind, the huge sky and his Cousins. 'What about the fledershrews?' he said, staring back into the gloom.

Leela eventual y dragged him squealing into the open. The ground was scattered with dead fish. The other Cousins and agents huddled miserably in a group near the blast hole. The grey clouds threatened rain and the top of Mount Lung was lost from sight. The untended orchards had run wild, tangling across the lower slopes.

'My bike,' said Dorothee.

Leela grabbed her. 'You can't go back.'

Chris and Innocet emerged from the hole. 'The whole place is falling apart,' he said.

Dorothee ran a little way in. 'Where's the Doctor?'

'He said he'd fol ow.'

'Like h.e.l.l, Chris!'