Part 4 (1/2)

The mirage faded and the TARDIS's central column was once more just an opaque cylinder filled with geometric shapes rising, falling and turning.

The door to the corridor was flung open.

Ben was standing there, his pyjamas clinging to his body contours. For a moment the Doctor thought he had been caught in the rain until the odour told him it was sweat.

If he'd lost that much bodily fluid, Ben had to be dehydrated.

As the Doctor crossed to help him over to the Louis XIV, Ben looked up.

'Doc. . . help Pol. I think she's in danger.' The young sailor collapsed in a heap on the floor.

The Doctor dropped to his knees and felt for Ben's pulse.

Strong but fluctuating. He would be all right after some rest and a drink.

Polly!

Polly was flying. Not in a plane but just by herself Through the night sky above London. Over Seven Dials, towards Covent Garden. The Inferno, the nightclub where she had first met the Doctor on Thursday the thirteenth of July 1966. She was pa.s.sing over it. Flying towards the river, along the Strand. Pa.s.sing Trafalgar Square now, turning down the Mall, up to the Palace - and over!

Exhilaration. The cool night air made her goose b.u.mps feel like the greatest goose b.u.mps ever. It was a release - all her problems, her anxieties, seemed to fade away as she whipped up Buckingham Palace Road and up towards Sloane Square. No one could see her, of that she was sure.

35.Otherwise there would be shouts and cries. A woman, flying! Free, like a bird.

She began to descend, involuntarily but slowly, around South Kensington. As her feet neared the pavement she landed as if she had flown all her life. The b.u.mp as her foot touched the kerb transformed into an easy step as she casually walked up a small flight of steps to a black front door.

Her hand reached out for the doorbell but there was a flash. She threw her hands in front of her face, her nose aware of the acrid burning of wood. The door was a pile of ashes and framed in the doorway was a creature. A monster.

Polly screamed.

She had faced robotic war machines, bionic Daleks and Cybermen. But an honest-to-G.o.d monster was a totally new experience.

Her subconscious mind took in the shape - it stood on two powerful legs, like a man, but the mammary glands told her it was female. It wore a sleeveless red jerkin and outsized red silk leggings, tucked into red leather boots. The flesh was covered in grey fur, flicked back and s.h.i.+ning with health. The head, though. It was the head that wrenched the scream from her. It was a cat's head, green eyes staring in mute surprise at Polly. Its whiskers twitched and its ears dropped back flat against the furry skull. Drawing back its lips, it hissed and spat at her. In one paw was a ma.s.sive hand-gun and as Polly backed away the monster brought it up to fire.

Self-preservation took over and Polly dived. Not back, but forward, under the cat-thing's legs. It turned to follow but Polly instinctively smashed her fists down on its tail.

With a loud catawaul, the cat-thing dropped its gun and its claws unfurled. It lashed out, catching at Polly's sweater, shredding it apart. Polly scrambled back into the large entrance hall. To one side, an elderly woman lay spread-eagled on the bottom steps. Polly was no expert but she had seen enough corpses to recognize another one. Sitting further up the stairs was a young man, rolled up like a ball.

36.Polly had time to be aware that he was moaning softly before the cat used its powerful legs to pounce on her.

Polly's second scream alerted the man who suddenly looked up.

'No,' he yelled. 'No! Not you. Where's the Doctor?' Polly woke up, screaming.

Friday the eighth of July 1994. Eight o'clock in the morning exactly. The fire services, police and ambulances arrived very quickly. The small blaze was quickly doused and it was of some relief to the occupants of the bedsits that the only rooms affected were the ground-floor rooms and the hallway.

'It was that goth. Told you he was weird.'

'All those candles and spells.'

'Where is he? Was he burned up as well?'

'Bet one of his stupid candles fell against those black curtains of his and whommpf whommpf up it all went.' up it all went.'

'Poor Mrs Fuller.'

'Hey - does this mean we're gonna be evicted?'

The police never found any trace of the mysterious goth who lived in Flat 1. Nothing was left in anything approaching salvageable condition and no one even knew his name.

Maybe he had been completely burned up.

Poor Mrs Fuller. Looked as if she had inhaled the smoke and tripped coming down the stairs; her neck and back were broken in more places than the pathologist had ever seen before. But he could not account for the ma.s.sive scratch across the back of her neck. Nothing on the stairs or floor could account for that. It reminded him of a large claw mark, like a playful kitten would leave on a hand. Except this playful kitten would have to be lion-sized - or around six feet tall. And there were no reports of animals having escaped from Regent's Park zoo recently.

Like so many mysterious deaths at 164 Cadogan Terrace, SW1, over the last one hundred years, the police report on these two would never be satisfactorily closed.

37.'Polly? Polly Wright?'

The haze cleared and the lovely voice made her smile.

'Pol, you OK?'

A different voice, but one that was still rea.s.suring.

'Ben? Doctor?'

Her vision cleared completely and the Doctor was beaming at her. He clapped his hands together.

'There you are, Ben. I said Polly would be all right, given time.'

Ben was still looking worried. 'Yeah. Right. Polly, you gave us a bit of a fright.'

'I . . . I'm sorry, Ben. I had the most frightful dream.'

Suddenly she sat upright and the Doctor looked back at her questioningly. 'Doctor. Doctor, I was flying. Through London, although it wasn't quite right. It smelled . . . funny.

Heavy.'

Ben's eyebrows raised. 'Flying? In an aeroplane?'

Polly frowned. 'No . . . no, just by myself . . .'

Ben laughed.

The Doctor waved him down. 'Quiet, Ben, this could be important.' He smiled again at Polly and crouched down beside her bed. 'Tell me everything, Polly. Don't miss out any detail.'

After she had finished her story, Polly asked Ben to get her a drink. As he wandered off, she touched the Doctor's arm.

'I had an out-of-body experience, didn't I?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'Why do you think that, my dear?'