Part 23 (2/2)

'We get moving,' Dee ordered.

'And we bring the body,' Cosgrove said, looking down at the alien.

Baskerville nodded, then turned to Anji. 'Miss Kapoor, do you have any idea why they were so interested in your telephone?'

The Onihr s.h.i.+p was in uproar.

Fitz had watched the three*Onihr landing party depart. All they needed was one of those little control boxes. So that meant all he needed to get out of here was one of those little boxes.

Well, he also needed to know where they stored them. And how to work it. But it was something to aim for.

The Onihr leader gloated to 'the Doctor' about how they were going to teleport down and take the time traveller and their time machine (which they a.s.sumed was the device they'd detected).

They'd also said their attack would be fast a s.n.a.t.c.h and grab raid, one where any resistance would be met with maximum retaliation.

But even the Onihrs who stayed behind on the s.h.i.+p seemed surprised how quickly the landing party returned.

When only two of the Onihrs returned, surprise turned to shock.

Shortly afterwards, when it became clear that the leader hadn't returned, that the humans had managed to kill him, that turned into an uncomprehending silence.

The deputy leader shuffled forwards to hear the report.

One of the human weapons had killed the leader with one shot. They had ma.s.sively underestimated human ingenuity, for the second time. They had recovered the time machine, though.

It looked remarkably like Anji's mobile phone.

'This device is the human time machine,' the deputy leader told him. 'You will make it operate.'

Fitz took it from the Onihr, turned it on and selected something from the menu.

It started to bleep out the X-Files X-Files theme tune. theme tune.

'This is a telephone,' he told him. 'A communications device. It's nothing like a time machine.'

'Our instruments prove that it has travelled through time.

Fitz brandished it. 'It has, I'm sure. But that doesn't make it a time machine. Did you kill the owner of this?' he asked, beginning to feel a little numb himself.

'A man and a woman died,' one of the landing party confirmed.

'The woman holding this device?' Fitz asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

'No.'

Fitz took a deep breath, felt a bit more calm. What he was going to do next was horrible, insensitive and exploitative, but it was the break he'd needed and he wasn't going to let it slip away.

He whirled to face the Deputy Leader.

'I warned you,' he snarled. 'I warned you the humans were not to be underestimated. Your leader's arrogance killed him, not the humans.'

The Deputy Leader looked taken aback at least that's what Fitz a.s.sumed. He'd no idea what an offended rhinoceros looked like.

'You sully the honour of our leader.'

'No. I'm merely telling you the truth. You're playing with fire. If you can't deal with the humans, then how do you ever hope to deal with the implications of time travel?' He fished for a suitably portentous phrase. 'You're meddling in the fundamental elemental forces of the universe. They'll destroy you. My concern is that you will accidentally destroy this whole tangent of the galaxy!'

He wasn't sure he meant 'tangent', but it had the desired effect. The Deputy Leader looked cowed.

'Hand me that!' Fitz demanded, and was pa.s.sed Anji's phone. He slipped it into his jeans pocket.

'And hand me one of those control boxes.'

The Deputy Leader, used to taking orders, not yet giving them, handed it over.

Fitz, not quite believing his luck, tucked that into a jacket pocket.

'Now, you must prepare to leave this solar system. You have done enough harm here.'

The other Onihrs murmured what sounded like consent, all eyes (or noses, Fitz supposed) on their new leader.

The Deputy stood his ground for the moment, then straightened up.

'No!' it roared. 'No! We will destroy the humans. We will purge them from the universe for this action! Prepare the invasion!'

Fitz sighed. It had all been going so well.

Chapter Fifteen.

Time*Flight Anji sat in the helicopter as it swept over Istanbul, but she hardly registered the historic city beneath her.

The helicopter was full up Dee was flying, Cosgrove in the copilot's seat. Baskerville was sitting next to the President... and she, being the smallest, was squeezed in the back with the dead alien.

It stared at her, through one gla.s.sy, dead eye. Its skin was smooth up close, it looked more like a seal's or a dolphin's than the hide of a rhinoceros. But the head was almost an exact replica of the Earth animal. The boxlike snout, the fearsome horn, those funny little round ears right at the back of their heads.

The armour was a substance that looked and felt like some hitherto unsuspected alloy of wrought iron and rubber.

There was a n.o.bility in the creature's face. It was an undignified way to treat the corpse, she thought.

They were heading for the airport. That's all Baskerville would tell them.

The President twisted round to talk to Anji it was pretty difficult to hear him over the noise of the rotors.

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