Part 18 (2/2)

'What can we do?' asked Myrg.

'We invade the church. Enros won't be out fighting, he'll be cowering in the safest possible place. But he won't be as well protected as usual, he'll only have a skeleton guard. With a concentrated, well-planned attack, we can kill him!'

A murmur of uncertainty ran through the rebels. Rokk was annoyed; Kat guessed he had been antic.i.p.ating a supportive cheer. 'What's wrong with you all?'

'What . .' a young man asked, timorously. 'What if he's telling the truth? What if we die when we kill him?'

For a moment, Rokk didn't know how to respond. He looked from one upturned face to another and Kat did likewise, seeing nervousness and anguish, and outright fear in some of their expressions.

'You can't believe that,' said Thruskarr. 'You can't!'

'We've lost enough men to these fanatics already!' said Rokk bitterly. 'Between the Miracle and the lizard ma.s.sacre, too many weak-willed people have gone over to Enros.'

'But what,' came the dissenting voice again, 'if they are right?'

This time, the mumblings of discontent were louder.

'I've been looking for you!'

The cat abandoned its contemplation of its paws and tensed. It stared distrustfully at the intruder in its garden.

'Why didn't you come out and fight Ace with us? I thought 142 you wanted to join our adventure!'

The cat blinked. Jason glowered. 'You never come and play, no matter how you keep on promising. You've just been lying to me and I'm beginning to think we're not real chums any more!'

The cat yawned, stretched, then jumped of its shelf and padded along the paved path by the pondside.

Intellectually, Jason knew that his powers did not extend to the control of living organisms: giving the cat a costume and imagining that it spoke to him did not guarantee the creature's obedience. Emotionally, he brimmed with anger that this horrid beast was conspiring to ruin his story.

He leapt for the creature, which evaded his clumsy lunge and shot to safety beneath a bush on the garden's far side. He crouched and snarled at it, enraged by its steadfast green eyes, s.h.i.+ning contemptuously through protective thorns. 'You're not the real Power Puss at all, are you? The Doctor has turned you into mincemeat, replacing you secretly with one of his minions.

Well, you've been found out. You're a spy, an evil traitor in my midst, and you must be punished!'

He dived for the bush, prepared to risk a few scratches in the laudable cause of destroying the enemy. The cat bolted, but collided with a plaster gnome which hadn't existed but a second earlier. It rolled and landed back on its feet with a disgruntled hiss, then screeched out loud as Jason gripped its collar and hauled it upwards. 'Gotcha!'

The cat dealt Jason a vicious scratch across the neck and he dropped it, howling in pain. It went for the door, but Jason was in no mood for pretend continuity now. So what if he used his powers overtly anyway?

A force-field blocked the doorway and giant hands hemmed the feline animal in until there was nowhere it could go. It was lifted and propelled towards Jason, who s.h.i.+elded his face with one hand and lashed out with the other. He punched the cat three times until it managed to sc.r.a.pe a sharp claw across his knuckles. He yelled again and waved an arm to send his foe across the garden with a visible surge of kinetic energy. It 143 landed in the pond and thrashed to stay afloat.

Clutching his neck, Jason staggered through the dissipating barrier and into the roundel-decorated corridor.

In his wake, Wolsey climbed, spitting and spluttering, from the hated water and made a token attempt to shake himself dry before collapsing, battered and exhausted.

Blood soaked into the concrete.

Dr Who stood in the doorway of Chris's room. 'I've had an idea. We'll take a trip somewhere and you can see how I operate.'

'I'd rather go back to Detrios,' said Chris, staring at the ceiling. Even as he spoke the words, he wasn't sure. A cold knot formed in his stomach at the thought of what he might find on that planet: Kat's corpse, for a start. She couldn't have survived. Was he better not knowing?

'But we've been there twice,' said Dr Who, 'I'm bored with it. Besides, I thought you wanted to find your friend.'

Chris sat up alertly. 'You know where Roz is?'

He shook his head. 'But I'm a.s.suming she discovered the Doctor's evil and he dealt with her somehow. If that is the case, she could well be dead.'

'She can't be. She's too strong!'

'Then there is one obvious place to look. Coincidentally, it's a planet I have wanted to clean up for some time, but which I was unable to help whilst the Doctor lived.'

Chris flinched at that reminder of his ex-companion's alleged fate. No matter what the Doctor had done, he couldn't - no, wouldn't - believe it.

'Where is this planet?' he asked, to divert his mind.

'You saw it briefly before,' said Dr Who. 'It's a world where hatred rules. Different races despise each other, corruption is rife and the rulers care nothing for their subjects, only for the acc.u.mulation of wealth.'

'It sounds like Detrios,' commented Chris.

'And what did you do on that planet?' asked Dr Who searchingly.

144.

Chris thought about that and remembered their earlier conversation. 'I suppose I did what you said before. The rulers were in the wrong so I joined a rebel group who wanted to bring the system down.'

His visitor was beaming. 'That's excellent!' He stepped out into the corridor and reached to close the door behind him.

'Then I'm sure you will agree,' he said as he left, 'that a similar course of action will be appropriate on the planet Earth.'

145.

16.

Return of the Evil Doctor

For a long time, there was only the dark.

Chris had tried to catch an hour's sleep, but had found that unusually difficult. Kat'lanna's face had swum through his dreams, the worry of Roz's disappearance had nagged him and the Doctor's betrayal - and death? had churned his guts alongside the uncertainty of his current alliance.

He returned to the console room, defeated but determined to put a brave face on his tiredness and disorientation. 'I've found one of our old crew,' he announced brightly. His travelling partners whirled to face him. 'Our cat, I mean. Wolsey. He was in the gardens.'

'When?' asked Jason, too keenly.

'About an hour ago,' said Chris, puzzled by the intense interest. pa.s.sed through on the way to my room. I don't know where he is now.'

'We're landing soon,' said Jason. Chris thought the change of subject a little obvious, although he couldn't guess the reason.

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