Doctor Who_ The Dying Days Part 24

'No,' the Martian replied. 'This must be to the death.' He used an unapologetic form.

Benny threw the bottle at him. He caught it, snapped it in half between his pincers. Almost a litre of perfectly good vodka splashed over his claw and ma.s.sive forearm.

'You must die now. I wil not prolong your agony.' the warrior said. His breath wafted over her, cold as the draught under the door on a winter's day. He was being charitable in the circ.u.mstances, considering the pain he must be in. Then again, the scars gave him something to brag about. No doubt in a couple of years there would be legends among the Argyre clan about how he'd ventured to the lair of the Summerfield, b.i.t.c.hqueen of Earth, a mighty twelve-armed, six-breasted harpy and how he had slain her in single unarmed combat.

'Please,' Benny pleaded, 'I don't want to kill you.'

He grunted a laugh and extended his claw, which still dripped with Smirnoff.

Benny dropped the lit match onto it and jumped past him out of the door.

His screams followed her down two flights of stairs and along the hal .

85.***

The room at the top of the house was a giant, flaring ma.s.s.

'What's going on?' Xztaynz was shouting.

'You've lost the other one as well?' Gerayhayvun said.

'Be silent!' Xznaal ordered. 'Respect the fallen warriors.'

'They've kil ed both Martians?' Gerayhayvun said, respect in his voice.

'They have,' Xznaal confirmed. 'The Gallifreyan is a threat to our operation. He must be destroyed.'

'You must deploy more warriors,' Gerayhayvun insisted.

'And watch them die? I respect life, Lord Gerayhayvun.'

'You seemed unconcerned when it was Eve that was at risk,' the human argued.

Xznaal grabbed Gerayhayvun's neck in his claw and pulled him off the floor. The human weighed less than his arm and was easier to lift. 'Terran life,' Xznaal roared, 'is of no concern. Earth crawls with animals. Remember that, my Lord.' He dropped Gerayhayvun to the deck. 'We must use another method.' He tugged at a control. 'Vrgnur, meet me in the Dispersion Chamber. Helmsman, increase alt.i.tude to ten thousand metres.'

Bernice clambered over the remains of the front door.

The Doctor ran over to her and gave her a hug.

'Fire,' she cried. 'Bedroom on fire.'

The Doctor pulled back from her, and pointed up to her window. It was dark up there.

'But I... '

'The house can look after itself,' he a.s.sured her. 'Are you all right?'

She nodded. 'I kil ed him,' she sobbed.

'We had a spot of success down here, too,' the Brigadier said cheerfully. He indicated the warrior's body.

'His disruptor backfired,' Bernice shuddered, her hand over her mouth.

'We can fight the Martians, but not the police,' Lethbridge-Stewart said. 'The wars.h.i.+p might have got here first, but the police and army won't be far behind. Now let's get Bessie out of the garage and move out.'

Xznaal had been silent as he led them through the s.h.i.+p to the Dispersion Chamber. Even the name of the place made Staines nervous. He wondered what was going to be dispersed.

A huge hatch rumbled open. Xznaal stepped in, with Greyhaven close behind. Staines could think of nothing better to do than follow.

The room was large, lined with vast metal drums and cylinders. They looked like grain silos, or huge gas bottles.

A hatch at the other end of the room rattled open. Another Martian stomped in, a metal tube the size of a pillar box cradled in its arms. Staines realised that this was only the second Martian he had seen up close. Although an impressive sight, it was slightly smaller and slimmer than Xznaal. Its shel was a lighter shade of green.

'This is my scientist, Vrgnur,' Xznaal barked.

Vrgnur laid the tube on the deck and beat his claw against his chest - a salute, rather like the ancient Roman style.

That formality completed, the Martian began connecting the metal cylinder up to a network of thick plastic tubes.

Greyhaven leant towards the cylinder.

'What is this?' he asked.

'See for yourself.'

Vrgnur pulled at a hatch about halfway along the tube, which slid open. Greyhaven smiled at Staines and stepped up to the cylinder.

He peered in.

'Nothing,' he informed Staines.

He took another look.

A red claw slammed against the gla.s.s. Involuntarily, he started and fell back.

Xznaal caught him and gave a low, throaty chuckle.

There was a haze hovering in the middle of the tube. It looked like a column of steam from a kettle, but was the colour of rose wine.

'What is it?' Staines asked, genuinely interested.

Xznaal was also regarding the phenomenon with fascination. 'We call it the Red Death. It is an a.s.sa.s.sination weapon, a sentient poison mist. In the Martian atmosphere it is invisible.'

'A cloud with a wil of its own?' Staines asked incredulously.

'If you like.'

'How does it work?' Greyhaven asked.

'A simple technique combining molecular re-engineering and artificial intelligence etherware. It has merely an animal intellect.'

'But you can program it to kil ?'

'Yes. This specimen has been programmed with the Doctor's DNA profile. Traces of his blood were discovered in the reception chamber, when he was cut by falling gla.s.s. The Red Death wil hunt him down and kill him.'

'Will it know where to look?'

86.Vrgnur lurched to a control panel. 'We will unleash the Death here, at an alt.i.tude of ten kilometres. The mist will disperse throughout the immediate area. When it locates the Doctor it will gather and feed. Once the Doctor is dead, the Red Death wil instantly decompose into its natural elements.'

Xznaal twisted a great wheel, and the mist hissed out of the chamber, out of the wars.h.i.+p.

'Now we will watch and wait.'

Birds were falling from the sky. Owls and sparrows, gulls and thrushes. They were dropping like stones.

The Doctor stopped the car.

There was hail too, or so Benny thought at first. They she realised that the droplets were dead insects of every kind.

'Everything's dying,' the Doctor was muttering.

'It's some sort of poison gas,' Lethbridge-Stewart said, staring up into the dark sky.

Benny looked up, holding her hand up to shelter her face from the steady pelting of tiny bug carca.s.ses. There was a storm cloud above them, growing larger with every instant.

'It's descending.'

'We can't hang around,' the Brigadier said.

The cloud was drifting over the rooftops of Adisham like thick smoke. It was almost invisible in the darkness, but in the pools of light underneath the street lamps it bil owed like volcanic ash.

'All those people,' the Doctor cried out. 'All those poor people.' He jumped from of the car and began running back down the road towards the village.

'Doctor! What are you doing?' Benny screamed.

He whirled around, now he was jogging backwards. 'I have to save them if I can. Whatever you do, don't follow me. Alistair, get Bernice to safety.'

'Doctor!' Benny screamed, 'Come back! You'll be killed.'

'Goodbye!' the Doctor called.

The Brigadier grabbed her arm, prevented her from leaving the car. 'You heard what he said.'

'Do you agree with him?'

'No,' he admitted grimly as he slid across to the driver's seat. 'But I trust him. Come on!'

As Bessie sped away up the hill, Benny turned back, watching the Doctor recede into the distance. The thick cloud was engulfing the buildings now. The screaming had started.

'Vrgnur, report!'

The scientist was hunched over his instruments. 'My Lord, the Red Death is reacting with the increased levels of oxygen and biological activity in the Terran atmosphere. It has entered a feeding frenzy and is multiplying at an astonis.h.i.+ng rate.'

Gerayhayvun was on his feet. 'It's attacking that village. Can't you control it?' he squealed in his own language.

Xznaal narrowed his eyes. The Death was a thick fog now, bil owing down the hil side.

'It is operating on instinct, sir, I can't restrain it.'

'Show me what it sees.'

The hologlobe switched its image, showing a disjointed view of the human settlement. It was like a compound eye: hundreds of circles, each containing a different viewpoint. Every single one was filled by images of humans and their animals running in the streets, terrified. Xznaal watched as the cloud picked them off, swirling around their heads, grasping their nostrils, forcing itself into their mouths and lungs.

'This is horrible,' Xztaynz was crying.

'It is unavoidable,' Xznaal said calmly.

He ran down over the village green, past the Bull's Head, keeping control of his breathing. The red mist was everywhere: hanging around the police station, wafting over the cottages on Donkey Lane and around the roof of Mrs Darling's corner shop. The Doctor shooed the ducks from the duckpond as he hurried past them.

A car had smashed into a row of cottages. The Doctor ran over, but the driver had died of suffocation long before the crash. Through the windows of every cottage the Doctor could see men and women, their dead faces lit by the flickering of their television screens. Al around him he could hear the screams of men and women, the cries of children, the barking of dogs. From the direction of Pond Hil , humans were cal ing out for help, mourning their loved ones or simply cursing the thing that had brought death to their little village. The cloud was picking them off one by one, not even letting them finish their lament.

Adisham was almost silent.

What could he do?

The Doctor stood there, listening to a whole town die. He stared up at the sky, at the red fog and the dark shape of the Martian wars.h.i.+p far above them. Tendrils of vapour curled around walls, licked around the ground, searching with bloodhound devotion. It was a sentient gas, programmed for one purpose.

Hunting him.

It was meant for him and wouldn't stop its kil ing until he was dead.

87.That meant that there was only one thing he could do to stop it.

'There's the Doctor,' Greyhaven announced, clearly affected by the carnage he was watching.

'Where?' Xznaal snapped hungrily.