"Oh, art?" The Doctor glanced down at the pictures. "Not very good, is it? Violence, pain, injury. The sort of art a five-yearold could do. Where is he?"
Lewis was caught unawares by the sudden change of subject. "What? Who?"
"I imagine for the sake of consistency that I ought to call him Oberon. I don"t doubt for a moment that he"s the one who"s been leading you along your merry path since last October. None of the others would be so reckless."
"Other what?" Lewis asked stiffly, feeling rather like a rabbit caught in the glare of a truck"s headlights.
"The other people involved in this battle," the Doctor said easily. "You know, the ones who aren"t human. The Sidhe." The Doctor straightened, and walked around the room with a slow and deliberate pace. Lewis wasn"t going to let it get under his skin, of course. Even when the Doctor insisted on stopping right in front of his slide projector.
The Doctor was still standing between it and the screen, blocking the projection. Lewis"s protest died before it could make a sound, as he realised that, although the Doctor was standing right in front of the beam, the screen behind him was as bright and unblemished as it would be if he wasn"t there.
The Doctor wasn"t casting a shadow. None at all.
"I was beginning to wonder if you"d see it through your blindness," the Doctor said.
"But... You..."
The Doctor smiled benevolently. "Odd, isn"t it? Still, it"s just one of these things that separate sentient individuals Kovacs has got no hair on his head, I"ve got no shadow..." The smile faded, just for a moment, and Lewis recoiled from the power that suddenly flashed in those pale-blue eyes. "And you"ve got no qualms about dealing with the enemy. Either of them."
Lewis knew he should be calling for guards to arrest the Doctor. He knew he should get rid of him as quickly as possible. Despite that, he found himself unable to make a sound. His conscience, perhaps, had finally outflanked him.
"I don"t imagine," the Doctor went on, "that your superiors would necessarily believe me if I told them that you were making deals with the Sidhe. But they would believe any photos I showed them of you secretly meeting with Sturmbannfuhrer Sturmbannfuhrer Leitz of the SS. I doubt they"d like that very much either, would they?" Leitz of the SS. I doubt they"d like that very much either, would they?"
"No," Lewis squeaked. He began to recover slightly. That the Doctor was still talking at all suggested that he had some sort of deal in mind. That gave Lewis some leverage. "I don"t expect you to believe that I"m not a traitor "
"Oh, on the contrary. I don"t doubt for a moment that you and Leitz are both trying to outbluff each other. I also know that when the war ends, the Allies will have a policy of keeping key n.a.z.i scientists for themselves. Who am I to argue?" The Doctor sat on the corner of Lewis"s desk. "But the men in this town... They might like to argue. To a fairly permanent sort of result, I"d imagine."
"Unless?" Lewis asked. If the Doctor was simply going to turn him in, he"d have done it, not waste time with all these threats. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d was too clever by half.
"Some of my equipment is lost. I need to retrieve it."
"That"s all?"
"That"s all. I need a few men, a way out through the siege in safety, and preferably some kind of engineering vehicle. A bridging tank."
Lewis could hardly believe his luck. The Amadan Amadan wanted rid of this guy, and so did Lewis. And now he came asking to go out to certain doom. Lewis had no reason to stop him, but he wasn"t going to send out any equipment with them to be wasted. "You can have Kovacs; he"s experienced. I"ll arrange for maps and intelligence reports. But no vehicles; we can"t afford them." wanted rid of this guy, and so did Lewis. And now he came asking to go out to certain doom. Lewis had no reason to stop him, but he wasn"t going to send out any equipment with them to be wasted. "You can have Kovacs; he"s experienced. I"ll arrange for maps and intelligence reports. But no vehicles; we can"t afford them."
The Doctor considered this. "All right."
"Doctor," Lewis said, quietly. "The shadow... what happened?"
The Doctor"s face softened a little. "I"m not sure," he confessed. "One more aspect of a loss that"s either already happened or is to come, I should think." He advanced on Lewis. The projector light made his skin seem sickly and pale. "You should look to your own losses, Lewis," he said.
Sam and Galastel were out behind enemy lines again. Although Sam knew that she couldn"t be seen by mortal men, at least not while with Galastel, she didn"t feel any safer.
These men, after all, had killed her.
She knew that the best way to conquer her fears and troubles was to face them, but she hadn"t expected to feel quite so calm about it. She was doing what she felt she had to, and that was that. She wasn"t running away, or following another"s lead: she had identified the problem and was getting on with it.
The problem in this case being why did the Schnee Eifel have a breach in reality. It hadn"t taken long to persuade Galastel to take her out to do some detective work. Now she wished fervently she hadn"t bothered.
Several months ago, on Earth in 1963, she had seen the horror caused by a flood of parasitic beings that fed invisibly on humans. They were harmless in themselves, but hideously overwhelming.
Sam tried not to throw up, as all the revulsion she had felt for the Beast before came rushing back. There was a tremendous glowing crack in the sky, running along the Eifel for miles. And churning in the midst of it all was a sp.a.w.ning ground, streamers of Bealsch energy signatures flowing up and down, dissipating to the sides as the unfortunate creatures were torn apart by dimensional shift beyond their capacity to withstand.
"The Beast," she murmured.
"You know these creatures?" Galastel asked, surprised.
"Yes. Come on. Let"s go and tell the Doctor." Forgetting herself, she turned to start walking back to Bastogne, but then reality shifted around her and she was back in the hospital.
"Where did you go?" the Doctor asked, hurrying in.
"Yeah," Fitz agreed, "you"ll turn back into a pumpkin if you keep going out this late. Without me, anyway."
Sam didn"t smile. "I went out to see what was causing the tear between us and the Sidhe. It"s what Galastel calls the Bealsch. The Beast. From 1963."
"The Beast?" the Doctor echoed.
"Oh yes," she said. Her hands were still shaking. "Mind you, the tear"s not exactly good for them either. Some kind of anomaly, it must be. They"re attracted to it, and as they keep breeding, and more fall in, the crack widens but the pressures at the edges kill them."
"Good," said Fitz. "Can"t we just kill them all and seal the thing up?"
The Doctor looked dismayed at him. "Even if that were an acceptable solution, it wouldn"t work. The rift would still be open."
"Exactly," said Sam. "Somehow we have to close the rift. Those Bealsch trapped inside will be killed, but the others will be freed."
"Yeah," Fitz said sourly, turning away in disgust. "And we all know what happens to them then. They get my mum killed."
Chapter Nine.
The Best Form of Defence The night pa.s.sed slowly, and Fitz was on the prowl looking for some breakfast when he ran into Garcia in the hotel"s kitchen. "Are you another one of them?" Garcia asked.
"One of what?"
"That"s what I"d like to know." Fitz saw that there were a couple of empty red-wine bottles on the worktop. Uh-huh. That explained a lot.
"Sam, it seems, has been... hybridised. By some creatures that aren"t part of G.o.d"s scheme." Garcia shook his head. "And as for the Doctor... I was brought up to believe that G.o.d created man on Earth in his own image. The Doctor has the same image but it seems he isn"t from this Earth... And as for where these Sidhe fit in... What are they? Angels or demons?"
Fitz had never been much of a churchgoer. He"d gone with his mum as a kid, but the services were just on too early on a Sunday he always enjoyed a good kip after a Sat.u.r.day night out. "I dunno either. But... Earth"s just another word for dirt, soil... Maybe G.o.d created all of it, on every planet." He had no idea whether that would make any sense to Garcia. He would"ve told the guy to stop being such a boring sod, but the Doctor"s influence seemed to be rubbing off on him. He didn"t want to offend someone whose help they would need to get the TARDIS back.
"Good answer," Garcia murmured. "Doesn"t explain the Sidhe, though."
Fitz shrugged. "Maybe they"re just people too."
Garcia smiled. "Thanks." He stood, and stretched. "I"d better go. I think the Doctor needs me to help out."
Fitz watched him go. "That was easy... He must must have been p.i.s.sed." have been p.i.s.sed."
Jeff Kovacs was sitting alone in the brothel. The local girls were too sensible to come to work while under fire, so the only thing he"d been caressing over the past night was a bottle of Jack he"d been keeping under the bar for times like this.
At least his arrangement with the locals meant he could get some sleep here while off duty. Even if that was all he was getting, it was still an improvement on being bunked with a dozen other guys from the division in some stinking hole. How they envied him... Only the free handouts kept them in line. Still, he guessed accommodation was a big deal to them. The furniture here might be a bit rococo and dusty, but at least it was soft and reasonably private.
He knew that the rest of the men appreciated his absence, anyway. Their spirits would be more buoyed by his trusting them to look after themselves for a night without his breathing down their necks all the time. Sometimes you had to cut them some slack.
He was almost dozing off on the reclining chair in the Madam"s little office, when he heard someone come in the front door. He could tell it was a GI from the sound of the boots; whoever it was was going to be severely disappointed. Sighing, Kovacs stood and went out into the bar area. "Oh, it"s you."
"I"m afraid so," Captain Garcia agreed. "Nice little billet."
"It has its moments. You come to make good on our little deal?"
Garcia nodded. "A few of us have a little excursion planned, and we need an experienced combat man to get us through the lines."
"Yeah?" Kovacs was immediately interested. Although some reinforcements had arrived, he didn"t much like being stuck in a city under siege.
"Up to the Schnee Eifel."
Kovacs almost laughed at the absurdity of it. "What, just walk through the German lines into their new territory, and waltz back up the Skyline Drive? How many units are we talking about here?"
"One. You, me, the Doctor and his aide, Bearclaw and Wiesniewski."
"Six of us? What the h.e.l.l do you think six of us can do up there, even if you could get there in one piece?"
"Solve a problem."
"Try cutting your wrists it"ll solve your problems just as well and a h.e.l.l of a lot faster." He made to leave, rather than listen to any more of this nonsense.
Garcia caught the door with his heel, and slammed it before Kovacs could leave. "I don"t think you"re quite following me, Sergeant," he said. "You owe me a favour, and I"m here to collect."
Kovacs blinked. "A favour....?"
"You remember what we discussed about your... entrepreneurial activities? I let it slide, in return for some recompense yet to be decided. Well I"m calling it in."
"That"s your idea of payback? To lead five men Christ knows where behind the lines? Haven"t you noticed we"re under siege?"
"That"s my choice. Look, we got two civilians, two walking wounded, and a medic me. We need a good combat vet, and since you"re conveniently familiar with the people in question and know some of what"s going on..."
"As well as owing you a favour," Kovacs finished.
"That"s right."
"Great plan," Kovacs agreed finally. "Suicidally reckless, but predictable. When do we go?"
"Dawn, like the Doctor said. What will you need?"
"Need?" Kovacs sighed. "I need a bottle of Jack, I need a night in a real bed, and I need to get laid before I forget what it feels like. But, if you"re offering supplies for this mission of yours, I want six Thompsons, two boxes of hand grenades, enough rations and ammo to last a field party two or three days... And a sit-rep about Noville."
"You ain"t gonna be selling this stuff, are you?"
"No, I ain"t selling them," Kovacs said. "Smart a.s.s," he added under his breath.
Sam was marking the details of the rift on an intelligence photo of the Eifel. "Closing the rift will stop the damage to the world we were in?"
"Yes," Galastel confirmed. "It"s unfortunate that our home is in such a vulnerable place."
"Your home is here? But I thought you were nomadic..."
"We are."
"Then you have many homes?"
"Just one, but it is always here."
"Then you take it with you?" Elven tortoises; there was an image for you.
"No." He sighed, and Sam got the impression that he was feeling the way she might feel if she tried to explain the theory of relativity to a goldfish. He pointed at the ground between his feet. "This is here."
"OK..."
He walked a couple of yards, then did the same thing. "This is here."
"Ah," Sam understood. "Wherever you are is "here"."
"All is here, Samanthajones. There is only one here. Between the first ato-second after the world began, and the last ato-second before its final electron fades. That is Here."
Kovacs had finally joined them, and been informed of their rather strange allies. To Garcia"s immense surprise, it didn"t faze him at all. "Elves," he had muttered. "What the h.e.l.l else will they think of?" And the Doctor had said Kovacs ought to be sober for this. Yeah, right.
He went over to Galastel. "I don"t know if you are who you claim to be, and I don"t want to know. All I want to know is what"s in it for me."
Galastel seemed disappointed. "How human." He tossed a pouch, which jingled when Kovacs caught it. "Pure gold. And ten more bags when we are done."
Kovacs weighed it thoughtfully, and tossed it back. "I"m not a mercenary. Not in that way. These guys tell me you can take people anywhere instantly."
"That is so."