Part 8 (1/2)

'Lady are you seriously telling me that in the middle of the biggest blackout since 1922, you expect me to help you?'

Amy smiled. 'Don't take it so hard. You may have won the War of Independence, but right now you can consider yourself my colonial conquest...'

113.

Oscar considered for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Amy beamed at him 'Good! Let's go to work then, partner.'

She cheerily took the car keys out of the ignition and called to the dog. 'Over here, Fido!'

Oscar's sniffer dog leapt up at her, excited to be on a case after hours dozing on the station floor. Amy pulled a bow tie from her pocket and dangled it in front of the dog. 'This is one of his most colourful,' she confided. 'I've confiscated it, in case he ever decides to wear it...'

The dog was acting strangely, not used to the smell of a Time Lord.

'Come on.' Amy went on. ”There's a good dog. Eurgh, this actually has one of his hairs on it,' Amy pulled away a long strand of hair, adding, 'He is such a girl.'

Oscar was watching Amy with a weary look on his face.

He clapped his hands, and the dog ran to his feet. 'His name is Bismarck. And he'll do as I say...' Another clap of his hands had Bismarck tracing the ground for a scent, das.h.i.+ng to and fro in ten-metre bursts, covering the area methodically.

'My friend was on the pavement there.' Amy pointed, but Oscar looked confused. 'Oh, OK, if it makes you happy, on the sidewalk. Honestly, it's not like you've got a mainwalk, is it?'

Oscar opened his mouth to answer, but then Bismarck gave a businesslike bark and started to 114 hare along the sidewalk towards downtown New York.

Amy turned to Oscar, surprised. 'I thought he might have been taken to Central Park or something. Wouldn't someone have noticed a man being dragged along the street?'

This was something Oscar did understand. 'You see all sorts in New York, ma'am. Takes a lot to stop traffic.'

As they followed Bismarck, Oscar asked: 'So, tell me about this guy we're trying to find.'

'The Doctor?' Amy paused. There was something about Oscar that made her want to tell him everything. 'He's the most amazing man you'll ever meet, Oscar. So wonderful, and so kind, and able to do the most incredible things. He's shown me places I didn't know existed, and made me realise I can do things I never expected. But most of all, he'll walk across the galaxies to stop a single innocent life being lost.

He's the man I've been waiting for almost my whole life, and now I've found him, it's even better than I expected.'

From his expression, Oscar clearly thought Amy was in love with the Doctor. She quickly decided to tone down the limitless appreciation.

'He's also a complete buffoon, with a silly fringe, and bandy legs, and the most bizarre way of talking. But if he was here, Oscar, he'd have the lights back on again in a second.'

115.

Amy realised Oscar was now trying to work out exactly how mad she was. She smiled at her tame New York cop.

'Don't think so hard, Oscar. Tomorrow you may never see me again. This is the life, eh? On the trail of a mystery man with a dog at midnight. Plus you get a hot companion for your evening's work...'

Oscar blushed.

'No need to be shy, Oscar,' Amy continued. 'I might need a c.o.c.ktail later...'

The police dog led them down Fifth Avenue, past the Metro station, and towards the looming arch of the Grand Army Plaza Memorial, more sombre than ever in the dark.

'Right, it's my turn now,' Amy said, eager to reverse the stakes with Oscar. 'So what got you into this? Was it Starsky and Hutch or The Sopranos?' Oscar didn't know what to say. 'Or maybe The A-Team? Come on, you can tell me, I know what it's all about. A great battle of good versus evil, you on the side of good, plus you get to wear a s.e.xy uniform.'

'My dad was a cop,' Oscar mumbled.

Amy nodded. 'Good reason. Better than my reason for joining the police.'

'Why?' Oscar asked curiously.

'The Chief of Police in New Scotland Yard made a deal: either turn cop, or do a ten-year stretch...'

'No way!' Oscar said, wide-eyed with astonishment.

116.

'Course not, dumbo!' Amy laughed. 'Imagine me, in stripy prisoner clothes! I am going to have so much fun winding you up. We'll be like the new Bonnie and Clyde, except, of course, we'll be good guys.'

Amy's laughter was interrupted by a sudden crash. Far up the street, towards Central Park, she could see people running into the middle of the street. A ma.s.sive plate gla.s.s window had smashed into tiny fragments, showering shards on the pavement. Amy and Oscar stared up the road, Bismarck growling at the unseen aggressor.

There was a second crash, and another window fell into little pieces. This time the building was nearer to them.

'What's happening?' Oscar asked Before Amy could answer, they saw a brick fly through the windscreen of the stolen squad car. Its alarm made a weak bleat, like a newborn lamb. Drained of power, like everything else in the city it soon fell silent.

'I told the Doctor we shouldn't have taken the car,' Amy told Oscar. 'That's gonna take some explaining.'

Amy.' Oscar was agitated. 'That brick. No one threw it. I was watching... How'd it fly through the air by itself?'

Another crash echoed through the night.

The lamp-post above their heads shattered.

117.

They ducked as the gla.s.s fell, then leapt clear as the lamp-post itself fell and slammed into the ground between them.

Amy looked Oscar in the eye. 'I don't really know. I normally get to ask questions like that.'

With a series of ear-splitting roars, the gla.s.s windows of the Trump Tower above them began to crack, lines breaking across it, as if hundreds of abseiling window cleaners were having a mad moment of rebellion and cracking each pane with the heels of their boots.

'But,' Am y continued, 'there's something you probably need to know.'

Behind them, Central Park's ducks rose up from the lake in terror - the water stirred to a frenzy by some unknown force. The lake settled again, but a fearsome whirlpool at its heart began to spread its vortices across the lake. The water was being drained away, as if someone had pulled a plug.

Amy had never seen such madness. She stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and watched as every lamp-post in sight was torn from its footings and thrown into the road.

Drinkers chucked out of the bars were having the beer bottles torn from their hands.

Around them the air was filled with a vicious clangin g of metal being bent out of shape. In front of them, the facades of the buildings were being pitted with tiny holes.

118.