Doctor Who_ Timeless Part 27

'Diamonds,' says Sabbath. 'The least tainted substance in all nature.' He surveys his haul and feels pleased. 'The oldest stones here date back some seventeen hundred million years...' He gives a brilliant smile to Chloe. 'Few things can endure so long and remain entirely pure.'

'Purity, yes...' Now Kalic.u.m takes up the rapture. 'And strength. The hardest natural material in the universe, and the most elegantly designed.' He lets fall a shower of the stones from his hand. 'But many of these stones will be useless for our purposes.'

Sabbath delves in near the base of the mountain and pulls out a handful of large, misshapen, dull stones. 'Of course, we could cut these older, rough stones should it '

'There is no "we" in this matter,' snaps Kalic.u.m. 'Do not seek to advise me.'

Sabbath reacts as if stung. His face darkens: 'Have a care, Kalic.u.m,' he says in a voice that makes Chloe s.h.i.+ver.

Kalic.u.m smiles by way of apology. 'Forgive me, my friend my partner but you know my expertise in this matter cannot be matched.' He kicks Jamais with the pointed toe of his spotless boot. 'Would you have a dog and bark yourself?'

Sabbath considers the skinny man before him. His great shaven head nods almost imperceptibly. 'Then make the selection. I wish to begin the final phase.' He sinks his hands into the pockets of his greatcoat, and Chloe can see the lines of weariness that score his broad face. 'It has been so long a journey.'

'Indeed. The culmination of all our plans,' agrees Kalic.u.m, steepling his fingers together and smiling slyly.

'But the journey is not yet over. You, Erasmus ' Sabbath slaps one meaty hand down on his shoulder 'you will take me to the control area of your s.h.i.+p. There is a feat of elemental engineering I would have you accomplish on my behalf.' And at last, he looks down at Chloe, crushed up together with Jamais. 'And you two, rest yourselves. I have more labours in wait for you before your usefulness expires. Before the great task is done.'

He herds Erasmus unprotesting from the room. Chloe shuts her eyes and clings to Jamais while Kalic.u.m sorts through the diamonds, scrutinising them, testing them, tasting them, building up his own miniature mountain of gemstones, stripping away the love and the sentiment about them until there is only harsh rock and the cold light it reflects.

Over the sound of Stacy breathing in his ear, and Basalt's rattling breaths beside him, Fitz thought he could hear the grating engines of the TARDIS outside.

'D'you hear that?' he whispered to Stacy. Her salty tears were stinging the messy cut on his cheek from Basalt's blow. 'I think it's the Doctor coming.'

'Too late for the explanations this time.' Stacy gave a snotty chuckle. 'I heard it straight from the b.a.s.t.a.r.d's mouth.'

'Heard what?'

She pulled back a little way, stared at him oddly with swollen eyes. 'It all adds up,' she said wretchedly. 'The dreams. The weird little things I misremembered...'

'Take it easy, Stacy.'

'No, listen...' She shrugged. 'I'm one of them. Basalt's victims. One of the duplicates.'

Fitz's eyes widened, and made his cheek sting like h.e.l.l. 'What?'

'That's what he said.' She looked down at the floor. 'That's why he came to me in the first place, told me what he was doing. He got a taste for the stuff he did to that other me.'

Fitz didn't know what to say, so he just wound up staring. She looked down at her knees, her back turned to Basalt's p.r.o.ne body. Tracy Marlowe popped unbidden into his head: a name from the licence list.

But then Stacy's mobile piped into unmusical life. She made no move to answer it, so Fitz gently disengaged himself and answered. 'Yes?'

'Fitz, it's Anji.'

'Oh, thank G.o.d! Is the Doctor with you?'

'Just about.'

'Only I just heard the sound of Never mind.' He took Stacy's limp hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. 'Listen, everything's been kicking off here, Guy and Trix are '

'Fitz, stay calm, we'll be there in a few moments. Just tell me where you are.'

'Seventy-two Boyard Towers, Streatham,' he said. 'Nencini's place.' He heard Anji relay the information across to the Doctor. 'Uh, Anji?'

'The Doctor says hang up. Fast.'

The phone went dead just as the Doctor and Anji burst into the wrecked flat. 'Not a second to lose,' the Doctor explained. 'And we don't want any more paradoxes, do we? Now the TARDIS is back on home turf, she loves showing off with these short hops...'

Finally he seemed to take in what must've happened in the little flat, and shut up. Anji put her hand to her mouth, staring around. The Doctor simply ran across to where Fitz and Stacy were kneeling, dropped down and threw his arms round them both. His velvet sleeve tickled Fitz's nose.

'Home turf,' said Stacy through a mouthful of the Doctor's lapel, adding oddly: 'Where they don't call eight-triple-eight for the cops.'

He squeezed her a little more tightly and Fitz heard her wince. 'She's hurt, Doctor.'

The Doctor peered at his face. 'And so are you.'

'Looks like a bomb went off in here,' said Anji, shakily.

'Nope. Basalt.' He gestured at the gory bulk of the snoring killer. 'And now the only thing going off is Nencini. We were too late.' He frowned. 'Name me a famous Marlowe.'

'Christopher,' said Anji distantly.

'Philip,' the Doctor volunteered.

'American detective.' Fitz nodded sadly. 'And Tracy like Stacy. It's there on the environmental licence... Tracy Marlowe. Stacy Phillips.' He tried to take Stacy's hand but she was hugging herself now and shaking with sobs. 'Funny, Mike,' he muttered. 'Really funny.' He turned to Anji. 'Call an ambulance.'

Anji already had out her phone. 'And the police.'

'Yes,' said the Doctor, getting to his feet. 'They'll deal with this better than we could.' He peered at Basalt with detached interest. 'So that's him, is it?'

No one spoke except Anji, who'd got through to the emergency operator: 'I need to report a murder...'

'How many murders...?' The Doctor tutted. 'The full record of his crimes may never come to light. I wonder what petty punishments your legal system will devise for what he's done.'

'He'll get life for Nencini,' said Fitz. 'The fella's a stiff, no matter how duplicated he is. And attempted homicide on Stacy...'

Anji had sat down beside Stacy, trying to ascertain how bad she was, presumably on the operator's instruction. 'Yes... a Caucasian female. Her name is Stacy Phillips, and she has... broken ribs? I think they're broken.'

Stacy was staring at the smashed record player on the floor. 'And maybe one or two internal injuries,' she added softly.

'There's a man too, the killer. He's very dangerous. Daniel Basalt, he's currently... unconscious. Yes, also wounded...' She looked at the Doctor and mouthed: 'What's wrong with him?'

'A fractured skull, by the looks of things,' the Doctor reported. 'Oh, and there's some nasty abdominal bruising, just here.'

So saying, he booted Basalt full-force in the guts.

Basalt didn't stir as he rolled a little deeper into the wreckage of the trashed sideboard.

'Come on,' the Doctor said, a disgusted look on his face though whether at Basalt or himself, Fitz couldn't quite decide. 'Finish that call, Anji. It's time to leave.'

'And Doctor, I have to tell you about Trix,' Fitz fretted. 'She's missing, and... Sabbath's got Guy.'

'Guy?' Anji raised her eyebrows. 'Is he OK?'

The Doctor looked keen to get off. 'We can trade information in the TARDIS.'

'How about you, Stacy?' said Fitz gently.

'I'm staying here. Got a date with a paramedic.'

'You'll be all right alone with...' He gestured awkwardly behind her.

Stacy glanced back briefly at Basalt. 'Sure.' She shrugged again. 'Seems being alone with him is nothing new.'

Fitz got back up. Anji gave him a squeeze on the shoulder, and he was grateful for it.

'Doctor?' Stacy asked without looking round at him. 'Did you know this about me... all along?'

'No,' he told her. 'I only knew you were a part of whatever was going on. Like Guy. Like the white van and the crew of Prometheus Prometheus.'

'But you understand now,' said Stacy calmly. 'And you'll come back, won't you? You'll explain it to me.'

'Yes. I will.'

Then he turned and left. After a moment's hesitation, Anji followed him.

Fitz groped around for something warm or wise that might be a crumb of comfort to her. Finding nothing, he walked off after the others.

Stacy didn't look up.

Twenty-nine Premiere Trix woke in a room that was brilliant white, with no doors or windows.

The back of her neck was stinging, but luckily for her and her latex disguise, the incision had not been deep. She guessed that Kalic.u.m's blade had been drugged or something, so he'd be spared an old lady's hysteria until he was in a position to properly enjoy it.

She frowned as she looked about. The whiteness was bright but didn't hurt her eyes. And she could see something else now, forming out of a blur of light: Guy, on his knees, some distance away.

'Hey,' she hissed. 'Young man! It's me, an innocent bystander of pensionable age. Can you hear me?'

Guy opened his eyes. 'Who're you?' he murmured.

'Er, good, thanks,' she said in a suitably dishevelled voice in case they were being overheard. 'How's tricks tricks with you?' with you?'

His eyes showed that he'd got it. 'Where are we?'

'Locked up somewhere, isn't it obvious? More to the point,' she hissed, 'what were you doing before, acting like Sabbath's zombie lapdog?'

'G.o.d,' he said as if suddenly remembering. 'That was so weird. It's like someone walked over my grave. I knew those two. Especially the skinny one. I knew them so clearly, like they were old mates, or colleagues. Or, like... family.'

'Christmas must be fun round your place,' she grumbled.

'But the thing is,' he went on nervously. 'I've never seen either of them before in my life.'

'Lucky you,' said Trix. 'But I have a hunch that piece of good fortune is about to change.'

It was weird, staring round into the white void. She kept catching gla.s.sy glitterings of light reflected at strange angles. It put her in mind of the glare of the diamonds she'd poured into Fitz's hand, the way they had caught the light before he'd pa.s.sed them to Basalt as if signalling to her. Beckoning her to look deep inside.

And she felt deep inside now. Like it was diamond that held them here, trapped and powerless, waiting and wondering what would come next.

'There it is,' said Fitz, pointing to the silvery sheen beneath the sc.u.mmy surface of the River Colne.

'The Jonah Jonah,' proclaimed the Doctor.

'Conveniently parked so he could sneak into our friendly neighbourhood psychotic's warehouse,' added Anji.

The TARDIS had put them down in the overgrown grounds of Basalt's base. They'd looked inside but there was no one there, not one solitary body, human or ape. Fitz hoped that meant that Trix and Guy were still alive somewhere. And at least concern for Guy seemed to be keeping Anji's mind off the state of her trashed motor. ('I'm not sure my cover extends to Acts of Total Prat,' was her only dispirited comment.) The Doctor turned to Fitz, looking thoughtful. 'And you're sure Chloe, Jamais and Erasmus were here?'

He nodded. 'Sabbath and his guard apes were all around them.'

'Chloe said they were meant to meet Basalt, remember?' said Anji. 'And he led them into a trap.'

'Maybe not willingly. Sabbath seemed to be after Basalt too,' Fitz told them. 'Not that I'm sticking up for the git.'

'So what do we think?' the Doctor mused. 'Is Sabbath holding our Timeless friends on the Jonah Jonah?'

'If he is, why is the Jonah Jonah still moored here?' wondered Anji. still moored here?' wondered Anji.

'Precisely,' said the Doctor. 'So Sabbath has business elsewhere.'

'Which means he's not on board the Jonah Jonah,' said Fitz.

The Doctor grinned at them. 'Which will make it easier for us to sneak aboard.'

Anji sighed. 'So what do we do? Go paddling and hope he's left the door open?'

'And that his apes are all out water-skiing?' Fitz added.

The Doctor nodded cheerfully. 'Why not? I'm sure they could certainly use a distraction.'

'And I could use some raw steak,' Fitz said, unable to resist touching the tender bruises on his face.

'At least your nose wasn't hurt this time,' said the Doctor.