Doctor Who_ Amorality Tale Part 23

Perhaps. It was a lot for anyone to take in.

As she got dressed, Sarah remembered her first experience of time travel with the Doctor. She had stowed away in the TARDIS and found herself in medieval England. Of course, she didn't believe it was medieval England. Why should she? It looked like any forest anywhere, at any time. Even when she had been taken to a castle, she still thought it was some sort of pageant or contemporary recreation of the past.

By comparison to her experience, Tommy seemed to take her wild and unlikely story in good faith. Of course, he had already seen an alien killer manifest itself in murderous mood on the streets of 1952 London. After that, a woman claiming to be a time traveller from the future probably seemed a perfectly reasonable proposition.

Sarah went down to the kitchen where Mrs Ramsey had just finished serving breakfast. 'I'm sorry dear, would you like me to cook you something? We haven't got long before the service starts and I don't want to miss it.'

'That's okay, Vera. I'll just have a slice of toast while you get ready. Then we can walk over to the church together.'

'Right you are, love.'

Father Simmons stood in the midst of the Xhinn, preparing himself for the worst. 'I'd rather die than go on serving you. I'd rather sacrifice my life, if it will save the lives of others.' He gazed up at the hovering figures of the triumvirate. 'You will never conquer this world. Mankind will stand against you to the last man. We would rather go down fighting than live as slaves to the likes of you!'

The Xhinn shared that strange, disturbing laughter again.

'Stop laughing at me! If you want to kill me, get it over with!

I'm ready for death now. It would be a release after all this.'

'You are the most amusing being.'

'You speak so pa.s.sionately about mankind.'

'You seem to believe you are one of them.'

'What do you mean?' the priest demanded.

'You are not human.'

'You never have been.'

'You are one of us.'

'No! No, that's not possible!'

'Look to your feelings.'

'You know it is true.'

'You know who you are.'

'No! You're lying! It's another trick! It can't be true!'

Simmons shouted.

'Such faith.'

'Such belief.'

'So misplaced.'

The triumvirate all raised their arms and pointed at Father Simmons. He closed his eyes, waiting for the killing blast to strike him down. Instead he felt himself coming apart, as if his very soul was being disa.s.sembled and put back together again.

White light engulfed him, spinning around in ever accelerating circles. Finally, the swirling maelstrom of light and darkness died away.

The priest was gone. In his place stood one of the Xhinn.

The Doctor heard another Black Maria approaching from the west, heading towards Tabernacle Street. He darted into an alleyway before it reached him, avoiding the searching gaze of the policeman driving the van. The evacuation was moving ever closer to the Ramsey Mob's headquarters. If the Doctor didn't reach Tommy and Sarah soon, it would be too late.

He was about to step back on to Old Street when another vehicle stopped directly outside the alleyway. The Doctor pressed himself into the darkness, edging away from the main road. He would have to take a less direct route. There were just too many patrols to avoid on the key streets.

As he crept away from Old Street, the Doctor thought back to his conversation with Father Simmons in the church the previous night. If the bread factory was under Xhinn control, then the priest must also be working for the alien scouting mission. Simmons might even be Xhinn himself.

That explained the readout on the tracker, which had indicated a ma.s.sive level of alien activity near the church. But the signal had been too strong just for a single Xhinn...

'Of course!' the Doctor exclaimed, careful to keep his voice quiet. 'The Xhinn vessel its core must be beneath the church, buried underground. That's where the tunnel leads!'

The location of the Xhinns.h.i.+p had been troubling the Doctor since Callum's transfiguration. The clue had been in the photograph Sarah had shown him. St Luke's Church was visible in the background, a curious rippling effect visible in the fabric of the building. It was that which had made him come back to 1952. He recognised the effect as a warpshadow, created by the detonation of a terrifying weapon the Doctor knew could not be of human making.

He emerged from the other end of the alleyway and resumed his journey east. It was more urgent than ever that he reached Tommy and Sarah ahead of the Xhinn-controlled police.

Mrs Ramsey was finally ready to leave for St Luke's. She had spent many minutes fussing over Tommy and his men, who were gathered upstairs in the dining room cleaning and checking their shotguns and pistols. Norman had arrived just after breakfast, bringing more than a dozen men, all carrying armfuls of guns and ammunition.

Sarah popped her head round the door to say goodbye to Tommy and Brick. 'We're off at last!' She rolled her eyes and smiled. 'We should be back by midday, all things being equal.'

Tommy wasn't happy about the two women leaving without an escort. 'You sure you won't take Brick with you, for protection?'

'Brick doesn't need our help he can look after himself,'

Sarah replied, getting a laugh from the men. 'See you later.'

'This can't be true. It can't!' The newly transformed Xhinn tried to speak but found itself projecting the words mentally instead.

'It's another trick!'

'This is the truth.'

'You are one of us.'

'You are Xhinn, like us.'

'No! I can't be! I remember growing up in Chicago. I went to ballgames and played truant from school. I got into trouble and ran away to join the army. I am Xavier Simmons!'

'Memories taken from the real Xavier Simmons.'

'Memories implanted into your mind.'

'You were the first of us to take human form.'

'You had to blend in with these primitives, become one of them.'

'You were our agent among the natives.'

'But you have been among them too long.'

'You have forgotten yourself.'

The Xhinn that had been Simmons kept shaking its head.

'No, you're wrong. I'm Father Xavier Simmons, of the parish of St Luke's.'

'You are Xhinn.'

'If you cannot accept that, you are no use to us.'

'Xavier Simmons died six years ago.'

'You replaced him.'

'You became him.'

'But you went too far.'

'Now, you must come back to us.'

'Or else...'

'Never! I could never be like you. I may be one of you, but I could never be like you! Never!'

'So be it.'

The triumvirate gestured at the Xhinn that had embraced its false humanity too well. White light engulfed the rebel Xhinn, tearing it apart. Energy surged outwards, released from the disintegrating being. It was soon absorbed by the triumvirate.

They glowed brighter, enhanced by the fresh life-force.

'More humans are gathering above us.'

'They expect the priest to see them.'

'A surprise awaits.'

Sarah had been surprised by how easily she and Mrs Ramsey had found the journey to St Luke's. Old Street was deserted. The evacuations had obviously moved on to other parts of the East End. Something was nagging at the back of Sarah's thoughts but she couldn't seem to focus on it.

Mrs Ramsey stopped on the steps of the church to gossip with another member of the congregation. A group of twenty paris.h.i.+oners were waiting for Father Simmons to open the church. 'This smog is terrible, isn't it?' said one of the elderly ladies. 'Never seen anything like it all my days. Don't seem natural.'

Mrs Ramsey shook her head vigorously. 'You do talk a lot of nonsense, Edith Cartwright! Next you'll be telling us the tea leaves warned you not to come out this morning.'

'Well, now that you mention it...'

'Superst.i.tious nonsense! I'm sure Father Simmons wouldn't approve of such notions. We should be looking to him for guidance from our Saviour.'

The doors of the church swung inwards. A warm glow emanated from inside the building, friendly and welcoming.

'Shall we go inside?' Sarah asked. 'I don't want to be out in this smog any longer than I have to. Who knows what it's doing to our lungs, being out in this...'

'You're probably right, dear. In we go!' Mrs Ramsey led the congregation inside, leading from the front as always. The doors swung closed behind them, seemingly of their own volition...

Tommy looked at his watch. It was ten o'clock. They had waited long enough. The calls from Fingers Blake and Stratford Simon never came, but that was no surprise. Tommy planned to make their lives very difficult if he got through the next twenty-four hours in one piece.

'Alright, let's go,' he announced, rousing the men. 'Now we don't know what we're going to be up against. It could be more of these monsters, could be the old bill could be anything. So I want you to stay sharp and keep in touch with one another.

Make sure you can always see the man next to you and you won't get lost in the smog. Everybody got that?'

There was a nodding of heads.

'Jack, I want you to stay here.' The second-in-command began to protest but Tommy was having none of it. 'I don't care what you think. I need you here to keep watch on the house and keep everything running smoothly.' Jack reluctantly agreed to Tommy's ruling.

'Alright. Norman, I want you to take ten men and head south towards the City Road. Brick and me will be going the other way with the rest.' He looked around the room. 'So what are you all waiting for? Move it!'

The remains of the Ramsey Mob filed out of the door and downstairs to the street, Page leading the way. Brick and Tommy brought up the rear. The gang boss locked the front door after himself. 'I remember a time when you could leave your door on the latch. Not any more.'

Page had already taken his men and disappeared off into the smog. Brick called the others to him and then led them away from number 15. Tommy was the last to leave, clutching his sword in his hand. It might not have stopped Callum but it would certainly make any copper with a brain think twice.

Tommy smiled to himself Probably not very effective then!

Across the road Jean Mills watched the men disappearing into the smog. 'Mum, Tommy Ramsey and his men are out on the street with guns!'

'About time somebody did something,' Mary replied. She was sitting in front of the fireplace. Rita had now taken Bette's place on the sick bed. The child was wheezing and coughing, her face pale and grey. Mary didn't think she could stand to lose another daughter to this smog.

Jean closed the curtains, trying to keep the mist out. But the front room was slowly filling with the insidious mist, despite the roaring fire in the grate. The elder daughter took the family photo down from the mantelpiece. n.o.body wanted to be reminded of the dead girl lying next door on the kitchen table, a crisp white bed sheet laid over the body.

'Mum, is Rita going to be alright?' she asked.

'I hope so, love,' Mary replied. She had run out of tears to cry. Her face was now drawn and tired from exhaustion. If only the girls had been older, they might have been strong enough to survive this silent killer.

Tommy's group encountered no resistance until they reached the northern end of Tabernacle Street. There a Black Maria was unloading a dozen policemen on to the road, all armed with truncheons. They stared at Tommy and his men with gla.s.sy eyes, as if in a trance.

One of the policemen stepped forward and pointed at Tommy with his truncheon. 'We're evacuating everyone from the local area, due to the inclement weather...'

'Don't shoot them unless you have to!' Tommy yelled over the policeman's mantra. 'Put your man down, but don't kill them.'