Part 23 (1/2)

'It's your money that b.a.s.t.a.r.dizes everything that we hold holy and just,' snapped Colonel Ross. 'This perversion is sickening, and must be destroyed.'

'No!' snapped the Doctor. 'Ross, try and control that indignation of yours.' He pointed out of the window. 'Those are children out there. They never asked for the fate they've been given, and they're innocent of any blame.'

'Whatever they may once have been,' countered Ross, 'they are abominations now.'

'If you touch one of those children,' the Doctor vowed, 'I shall personally take great pleasure in breaking every bone in your body commencing with those in your inner ears.'

Breckinridge laughed. 'Come now, gentlemen,' he said. 'Please don't argue about this. After all, you seem to forget who is in charge here. It is I, not you, who decides what shall happen. You are both powerless.' He smirked at all his captives.

'The future belongs to me, not to any of you, because none of you has a future.'

'You're wrong,' said Sarah flatly. 'You don't have a future. I know, because I'm from it.'

'What?' Breckinridge stared at her, his face a twisted ma.s.s of emotions. It was clear that he didn't quite believe that claim, but also that he wasn't certain what she was up to. His eyes narrowed. 'You expect me to believe that? You're just trying to '

'Believe it,' Sarah told him. 'I'm not due to be born for over sixty years yet. I'm from that future you're talking about, and I can tell you that nowhere are you mentioned. Oh, everything you've talked about is there, and more. But there's no genius named Breckinridge anywhere in it.' She gestured towards Kipling. 'In fact, he's going to become far more famous than you could ever be. He's going to become a great writer.'

'That snotty-nosed little schoolboy?' sneered Breckinridge. 'You're trying to say that he will be known and I won't?'

'Yes.' Sarah glared at him. 'So believe me: you may think you're winning, but you're doomed. Your insane plan can't succeed, because I'm from the future where it hasn't succeeded.'

Anger and disbelief waged war for the businessman's features. Anger finally won. 'I'm still not sure that I believe you, Miss Smith, even though you are like no other woman I've ever met. But I can disprove your little theory quite simply.' He glared at Ross. 'Take Kipling there to your laboratory now, and give him a dose of the salve.' He smiled tightly at Sarah.

'Let's see if he can still become a great writer when he has to spend the rest of his life underwater. His paper is liable to get a trifle damp, I fear.'

Sarah gasped with shock. 'No,' she said. 'You can't do that. You can't change history.'

'Your history, Miss Smith, not mine.' Breckinridge smiled, self-a.s.sured again. 'And if I change that small detail, then everything else will change as well, won't it?'

'Yes,' agreed the Doctor darkly. 'If you can change one brick, the wall of recorded human history will tumble down.'

Breckinridge nodded happily. 'Then do it,' he ordered Ross.

Sarah watched in horror as the scientist crossed to the unconscious schoolboy and started to unfasten him from the table.

She'd really done it this time! She'd hoped to convince Breckinridge to give up, but all she'd managed to do was to make him grimly determined to change the course of history as she knew it.

Was it possible? Could he somehow succeed? The Doctor seemed to believe it could happen. Was Sarah about to be the unwitting pivot about which history would s.h.i.+ft and change?

Lucy pulled another strand of seaweed from the vegetable patch and slipped it into the collecting bag that she carried slung across her shoulders. As she did so, she glanced at the observation room in front of her. Sometimes she had seen Ross in there, watching his 'creations'. At others, Breckinridge would be there, staring out at the empire he was hoping to create for himself. Lucy stared in astonishment as she saw that the viewing room was almost overflowing with people.

And she recognized two of them. One of them was definitely the young woman she'd prevented from drowning. The other one was the man who had helped the woman back to the surface.

What were they doing here? She swam closer to the gla.s.s wall to get a better look. Then she saw that Brogan and Raintree were there, the two men who'd captured her in the first place, and three other men that she didn't recognize. And there was another person strapped down to a table. Brogan and Raintree had guns, so the two people she knew and the other three had to be prisoners. What was going on?

'Joshua,' she called to the newcomer. He'd been with them only a little while, but he seemed to be filled with fire and intelligence. She liked him, and felt that she could rely on him. 'Look at the viewing room.'

Joshua swam slowly to join her. His eyes narrowed and he frowned. 'What's going on?' he asked softly.

'It looks like the woman I helped last night is in trouble again,' Lucy explained. 'I think she and her friends are trying to stop Ross and Breckinridge.'

'It does look like that,' Joshua agreed. 'In fact . . .' He gave a little jump of shock. 'That boy on the table! I know him!

That's Gigger!'

'Who?'

'Someone from my school,' Joshua explained, excited. 'He must have been looking for me. These people are trying to fight those villains, I'll bet!'

'Then they're not doing very well,' Lucy observed. 'They're in serious trouble, by the looks of things.'

'Then we have to try and help them, Lucy,' said Joshua eagerly. 'If they can manage to stop Ross and Breckinridge, then we'll be free.'

'Do you think so?' She wanted so desperately to believe that. But One of the Guards swam swiftly over, squealing a warning at them. Lucy knew that it meant return to work return to work. The seal's mouth opened to show its cruel fangs. She knew that it was hoping for some excuse to attack. It loved to maim and kill, and with the slightest excuse it would rip into them all.

'We'd better do as it says,' she told Joshua.

'No!' he yelled. 'I won't! You said that you were waiting for the best time to break free. Well, this is it! There are only three Guards left, and it looks like Ross has his own troubles.'

'Joshua!' she yelled, but it was too late. He ripped the collecting bag from his shoulders, and threw it in slow-motion to the sea bed.

'I'm not not going back to work!' he yelled at the Guard. 'What are you going to do about that?' going back to work!' he yelled at the Guard. 'What are you going to do about that?'

Horrified, Lucy saw exactly what the Guard intended to do. It swam away slightly, and then whipped around, teeth bared.

It was going to kill Joshua!

Without hesitation, she s.n.a.t.c.hed up Joshua's discarded bag. As the Guard shot past her, she threw the strap from the bag about its neck and then hung on grimly. The strap tightened about the Guard's throat, cutting deeply into its windpipe.

Unlike the merfolk, the Guards still needed to breathe air from time to time. Even though the Guard could go for half an hour between breaths, its instincts told it that it was being strangled, and it panicked. The raking teeth missed Joshua entirely as the Guard twisted, trying to get Lucy off its back. She held tight to the straps, twisting them in her hands to get more leverage.

She'd almost forgotten that the Change had increased her strength until she heard the snap of the Guard's neck, and felt its death throes. In shock, Lucy let go of the straps. The broken body of the dead Guard sank slowly to the sea bed. She could do nothing but stare at it, hardly able to understand what she had done.

'Lucy!' cried Joshua happily. 'You did it! You killed the Guard!' He whirled about to face the other children. They had stopped working to watch what they had felt certain would be Joshua getting killed. Instead they had witnessed the unexpected a miracle.

'They're vulnerable!' Joshua yelled, pointing to the fallen Guard. 'And there are only two of them left!'

The children needed no further urging. As one, they went for the two remaining Guards. The seals had been bred to be killers, but even they couldn't stand against this force. One of them fastened its teeth onto Patrick's arm and tore the limb apart in a spray of blood that clouded the water. Patrick screamed and went rigid in death. The Guard didn't even have the time to spit out the arm before six of the children, wielding stones torn from the sea bed, battered it into pulp.

The final Guard tried to flee, but the children were faster. Two of them grabbed the Guard's flukes and the rest of them descended on it like locusts, hammering away at it, not letting up until it was a b.l.o.o.d.y smear in the dark sand.

'We did it!' Joshua cried triumphantly. 'We're free!'

Sarah watched numbly as Ross loosened the straps on Kipling. The boy, thankfully, was still unconscious and thus unaware of what was in store for him.

'Are you still so certain that I cannot change the future?' asked Breckinridge.

'Yes,' the Doctor broke in. 'I think you'd better take a look behind you.'