Part 20 (2/2)

'They have stripes,' the Doctor said.

'Spare us the zoology lesson,' Nepath sneered.

'Oh, so you know why why they have stripes, do you?' The Doctor was shaking with pent*up emotion, his voice rising to match the volume of Nepath's. 'It's a collective defence. It's so that predators see only the whole herd. The stripes of one zebra blend into the next so it is difficult to see where one animal stops and the next begins. It's camouflage, it masks their form.' they have stripes, do you?' The Doctor was shaking with pent*up emotion, his voice rising to match the volume of Nepath's. 'It's a collective defence. It's so that predators see only the whole herd. The stripes of one zebra blend into the next so it is difficult to see where one animal stops and the next begins. It's camouflage, it masks their form.'

Nepath took a deep breath. 'What exactly is your point, Doctor?' he asked with mock patience. 'I a.s.sume you are are making a point?' making a point?'

The Doctor stared back at him, unintimidated. 'The point is,' he said, mimicking Nepath's forced patience, 'that the Zebras understand the advantages of acting collectively. That's why why they have stripes.' He raised a finger, like a school teacher explaining to the cla.s.s, or a preacher sermonising from the pulpit. 'But no two zebras have identical stripes.' they have stripes.' He raised a finger, like a school teacher explaining to the cla.s.s, or a preacher sermonising from the pulpit. 'But no two zebras have identical stripes.'

'Is that so?' s...o...b..ld asked, intrigued despite the situation.

The Doctor nodded. 'Oh yes. You see, zebras value their individuality. Each zebra knows it is different from the herd. even though it's a part of it. There is a time and a s.p.a.ce for both the individual and the collective the human and the mechanical.'

For a moment there was silence. Then Nepath slowly clapped his hands in feigned appreciation.

The Doctor turned to s...o...b..ld. 'You will notice that Mr Nepath has not sacrificed his own individuality. Not yet.' He looked back at Nepath. 'But he will. He thinks he can control the forces he has unleashed, but he can't. He'll discover that soon enough.' He took a step towards Nepath. 'You do need our help,' the Doctor told Nepath. 'You need us to help you stop this thing, before it destroys us all.'

'I don't think so, Doctor.'

'You don't think at all,' the Doctor said.

'Enough discussion,' Nepath shouted angrily.

'Oh I quite agree,' the Doctor said lightly. 'But it is interesting to hear your views on the subject.' His voice hardened. 'Especially as your whole life has revolved round the quest for one particular individual individual.'

Nepath's mouth dropped open. 'What do you mean?' he hissed. For the first time he really seemed concerned. A frown creased his face. 'Explain yourself.'

In answer the Doctor pulled a flimsy sheet of paper from his pocket. 'I'd had my doubts about Betty for some time so I sent a telegram too,' he said, nodding to the thing that looked like s...o...b..ld's daughter. 'I'm sure you've seen the text, so you know that I was inquiring into your background. Checking newspaper reports, journals, society lists. Anything really. For some clue as to why you came here, what drove you on. We are all driven by something you know, as we twist and turn our firefly way through life.' As he spoke he waved the folded, flimsy paper in the air, just out of Nepath's reach. 'We gleam for an instant here, shed some light there, settle a moment along the way before we eventually burn ourselves out.'

Nepath seemed transfixed, unable to take his eyes from the paper as the Doctor slowly unfolded it.

'It is fairly obvious really what you have been searching for. Your heart's desire, I think you said. I understand your quest, really I do.' There was a hint of sympathy in the Doctor's tone now. 'Just as you and I both understand Matthew's yearning for his daughter.' More than a hint. For a moment the Doctor's eyes gazed off into s.p.a.ce. Then he blinked quickly and shook his head. 'But I am forgetting my manners,' he said slowly, deliberately. 'I should have inquired earlier. How is your dear sister?'

At once Nepath's eyes flicked upwards, locking with the Doctor's.

The fire was a living thing. Burning. Roaring its way through the roof timbers and running liquid down the front of the building. It licked its way out of the eye-windows of the house, crackling and cackling in the doorway.

The glow was hot on the boy's face as he watched. His eyes were wide, his mouth an open 'o' of rapture. He sat immobile, letting the firelight dance and flicker in his eyes and across his reddened cheeks. The blur of movement, of people running, buckets pa.s.sed, hoses unwound, hands at the pump, was lost to him. Only the flames mattered, the heat. The burning.

'There you are.' There was relief mixed in with the annoyance in her voice. 'Mum was worried. We all were.'

He did not reply. He leaned slightly to the side, to watch the flames past her. They seemed to erupt from the black silhouette of her body in the autumn dusk.

'Supper's been on the table for an hour,' she said. 'Don't you know what time it is?' More anger now. 'What do you think you're doing?'

'Watching.' His voice was barely more than a whisper 'I'm watching the fire aren't I?'

She raised her hand, ready to cuff him for his insolence. 'I can see that,' she hissed. 'But it's time to come home. Long past time. Mum'll learn you to be late when we get back.'

There was a crack from across the street as a wooden beam gave way under the onslaught of the fire. It crashed through the weakened first floor joists sending cascades of sparks flying out of the ruptured roof and through the sightless windows. The girl turned to watch.

For a moment, the briefest of instants, her expression mirrored her brother's awe, excitement, rapture. For an instant she too seemed to see the beauty and life in the dance of the flames. Her hand rested on her young brother's shoulder, holding it affectionately, protectively.

Then a fireman ran across in front of her; oilskin jacket glistening as the water from the steam pump dried in the beat. Behind him a horse whinnied and trod the aim in fright and surprise at the sparks and the flames. The steam pump lurched as the horses moved. Firelight gleamed off the bra.s.s of the boiler mounted on its carriage. Black smoke rose from the funnel, mingling with that from the house fire. The people encircling the burning house stepped back, as if part of the dance, as the fire jumped and raced to the adjacent house and started to rip into its roof with a dry throaty cackle.

'Mum says you're to come now,' the girl said. Her voice was husky and dry, barely audible above the cracking and popping of the fire and the cry of the horses and the people. Somewhere down the street a baby cried. At the front of the house the flames balled and gathered, as if preparing for an attack on the house opposite. It was gathering itself The boy licked his lips.

The girl shook her head. 'Come now,' she said again. 'I mean it. Now, or you're in big trouble.' She waited only a few seconds longer, long enough to see that the boy was not listening, that he was still watching the flames. Enthralled. She shook her head, and started to back away across the street.

The boy's attention flickered from the flames to his sister as she backed away. He watched her as she prepared to turn and walk off into the gathering dusk. Behind her the crack and rustle of the fire was reaching a crescendo.

A sudden eruption of spark and light, a thunderclap of exploding flames and the boy blinked. He leaped to his feet, his hand reaching out suddenly towards the burning house as it crashed forwards. The front of the house, the facade, was peeling away toppling forwards towards him. He stood, motionless, transfixed as the frontage crashed down, trailing smoke and flame in its wake. His shouts and cries were lost in the melee of sound and light. But for a moment he could hear his sister above and through it all. Screaming.

The tears dried in his eyes, unshed.

'See for yourself, Doctor.' Nepath's hand went to his head. He rubbed at his forehead as he stepped aside. Betty mirrored his movement. And framed between them, s...o...b..ld saw for the first time into the gla.s.s cabinet. He stepped back in surprise and revulsion.

The Doctor took several steps forward. He stuffed the telegram into his pocket and stared with interest at the blackened husk that stood before him, his nose almost to the gla.s.s.

'You were fourteen at the time,' he said softly. 'A formative age. Impressionable, even before you'd stolen the body from the morgue. I can't imagine that was easy for you, or for the family that lost her again. Especially your mother. She died within the year, of course... You've been through so much,' the Doctor said softly 'Suffered so much already.'

'You don't need to tell me,' Nepath replied. His expression was neutral, distant.

'But there is something something I need to tell you. To help you see that the suffering must end.' The sympathy was clear in the Doctor's tone as he turned away from the cabinet and faced Nepath. 'I don't know what promises you think you've been made, what sort of Faustian bargain you have entered into. But I do know this: The creature you have unearthed can never bring your sister back to you. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.' I need to tell you. To help you see that the suffering must end.' The sympathy was clear in the Doctor's tone as he turned away from the cabinet and faced Nepath. 'I don't know what promises you think you've been made, what sort of Faustian bargain you have entered into. But I do know this: The creature you have unearthed can never bring your sister back to you. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.'

It was as if he had slapped Nepath. The man blanched, took a step backwards. Then he raised his hand as if to strike the Doctor. 'You know nothing,' he roared. 'Don't dare tell me what is possible or impossible. The fire took her, and it can bring her back. It consumes and creates, Doctor. Remember the Phoenix,' he roared.

'The myth myth of the Phoenix,' the Doctor shouted back. 'It's a story, no more.' of the Phoenix,' the Doctor shouted back. 'It's a story, no more.'

Nepath shook his head. His hands were clenched, shaking at his sides. His eyes were moist. 'Have you any idea how long or how far I have sought for this? Any idea what it means to me?'

'More than anything else in the world,' s...o...b..ld murmured, remembering the Doctor's words. Knowing how he himself felt. 'More, perhaps, than the world itself.'

If either the Doctor or Nepath heard him, they took no notice.

'But can't you see?' the Doctor demanded. 'You can't change the past. What's done is done. ”Iacta alea est” , though Caesar actually said it in Greek as I recall.' s...o...b..ld thought he saw a flicker of puzzlement cross the Doctor's face then, but he barely paused in his attack on Nepath. 'For your own sake you have to accept that. Accept it and live with it or banish it to the hidden depths of your memory where you never dare venture. One or the other.'

'No!' shrieked Nepath. 'Never.'

'Is it guilt? Is that it?' The Doctor was shaking his heard as he tried to understand, grey dust flying from his long salt and pepper hair. 'You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened.'

'Do not presume to know what happened, Doctor,' Nepath yelled at him. 'You weren't there. You did not see or hear her.'

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