Part 15 (2/2)

'As long as they're useful, I like them perfectly well.

When they start pretending to be people, that's another thing.'

He paused to consider. 'On the other hand, I've known some quite charming computers'

I had to grin. 'I'll bet you have.'

'Oh, good heavens.'

'What is it?'

'That sandwich Peri gave me. I'd forgotten all about it'

The Doctor extracted the cold and sodden melt from his pocket, sniffed at it, and then stuffed it into the glovebox. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he struggled with the contents of his pocket it seemed to be crammed with toys and coins and bits of junk, all of which needed wiping after their encounter with the sandwich. It was the equivalent of Mondy's bat-belt, an engineer's collection of tools and spare parts.

I was nodding to myself. The Doctor was obviously involved in the design of new computers which would make the current crop of high-tech gizmos look like junk not just faster machines, but machines with a completely different basis.

The Doctor seemed to guess my thoughts. 'Oh, I think the electronic digital computer has some life left in it yet,' he said.

'Electricity is quite a fast way to move information around. Of course, there are faster ways.'

'Like what?'

'Light, for example. You can't get faster than that.' I suppose he meant fibre-optic cables. 'Or if you must use physical things, then you keep making the components smaller and smaller to speed up the movement of information, you see until at last they are so small that quantum mechanics becomes a consideration.' He touched the back of my hand with a finger. 'Something like that already operates in your DNA.'

I s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably. 'That's enough about me. So where are you from?'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at me. 'It's best not to know everything about a person. A little mystery is a good thing.' I couldn't interpret his smile.

We arrived in Ocean City not long afterwards. Peri sat up and peeked out through the venetians.

'Grim,' commented the Doctor.

'I don't know,' she said. 'I kind of like it.' Which made me wonder what kind of places she usually visited. 'It reminds me of being a kid. Do you think maybe when this is all over we could come back here?'

The Doctor hesitated. 'Perhaps in summer.' It was hard to imagine him on the miniature golf course, that was for sure.

'Maybe,' said Peri, in a small voice. I think they had both just remembered that they might not be together once this was all over. 'It'd be nice to just look around and not have to rush off because the planet's going to blow up.'

We parked several blocks from Cobb's house. The Doctor packed a dufflebag with equipment from the back of the RV: I could see the weight of it as he hefted it onto his shoulder. The machine he had built on our trip was inside, obviously. But what else had he stuffed in there? We followed him, Peri breaking into short bursts of running to keep up with his long stride.

The phone rang.

Swan froze at the sound. Literally froze, every inch of her skin turning blue-cold. The dead phone in the living room had come to life.

Years ago, Swan had seen an episode of some black-and-white anthology show, in which a phone junction box came to life and started calling people. Her younger self had been equal parts fascinated and frightened too scared to touch a phone for weeks, but secretly jealous of the monster and its power to mock the human voice. She had played its role many times since: the unseen, threatening caller, the voice which could be coming from the next room or from thousands of miles away. Now, for a second, she was that kid again, jumping every time she heard the phone ring.

Swan got up from the desk and stomped into the living room, furious with herself, ready to tear the ears off whoever was on the other end of that line. If it was some blundering telco technician, she was going to wish 'em into the cornfield.

Swan s.n.a.t.c.hed up the receiver and said nothing. After a moment, the Doctor said,'Ah, there you are. I'm afraid you beat us there after all.'

'You freakin' idiot,' said Swan. 'If you hadn't told me about Cobb, I'd never have come out here. What'd you think you were doing?'

The Doctor was silent for a long second. 'I a.s.sumed you knew one another.'

'Of course we knew one another. But he never mentioned anything about this.'

'Oh, good grief,' said the Doctor.

While they were arguing, Peri and I were marching up the street to Cobb's house. I was carrying the duffle bag, which wasn't light.

We both saw the veranda, and the office equipment inside, at the same moment.

'Stay back,' said Peri. She was tugging the Doctor's ramshackle device out of the bag. 'I'm gonna torch the porch.'

'You're going to do what?'

Peri hefted the long machine. 'Like this,' she said.

Fire erupted from the end of the thing with a heavy kerosene smell.

's.h.i.+t!' I scuffled sideways like a startled dab.

The window burst inwards. Peri let go of the trigger for a second, startled. Then she got a crazy smile going and stepped up to it, pushed the blunt nozzle through, and pulled the trigger again.

'Jesus, girl, what are you doing?'

Peri started to turn towards me, making me jump back even further as the line of flame followed her motion. She realised and turned back to the window. 'Well, what does it look like I'm doing?' A pile of papers on Cobb's desk erupted with a crackling roar.

This time she held the trigger in, holding the Doctor's improvised flamethrower with both hands, moving it back and forth in quick little jabs. The desk erupted like a warzone in puffs of orange and black. The box of diskettes issued a hideous chemical smell as it began to melt and char.

The screen of Cobb's PC burst inwards with a terrific crunch. Peri yelped, jumping back and letting go of the flamethrower's trigger.

Swan dropped the phone the instant she heard the window go, knowing instantly that she'd been had. She ran back towards the study.

She reacted just as quickly when she saw the flames: she ran like h.e.l.l in the other direction, bursting out the front door of the house. We never even saw her, running like h.e.l.l from the back of the house.

She ended up watching from a couple of streets away as the fire engines rolled in. The trip hadn't been wasted; she knew far more than she did before. The ruse with the phone tap bad been worth it, although It meant she could never again use that method for disinformation. If the Doctor and co had arrived only a little earlier, she would never have had the chance to learn so much. But Cobb had never had the component at all, whatever he may have hinted to his fellow collectors.

California, Canada, Salisbury. The components she and Luis had bought were the only two left. Correction: the component Luis had hatched in his bathtub was the only component left. The Doctor was obviously playing the same role as Cobb had, acting as the original owner's agent. And she had let him take away something that was worth scouring the continent for, something that was worth killing for.

There was only one thing to do now The Doctor had watched until he was satisfied with the level of destruction; then he pulled a pair of miniature fire extinguishers out of the duffle bag and set about dousing the conflagration before it could spread further.

'As a matter of fact,' he a.s.sured me between cold bursts of white vapour, 'I called the fire brigade to warn them of my intentions just before we set to work. They're taking longer to arrive than I had expected. Perhaps they thought it was a prank call.'

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