"Not much time," he warned the agent morosely. Then he was springing into action, a.s.sembling a few simple pieces of apparatus on one of the bench-tops. "Melody, be an angel would you and rouse our patients - they need to be ready to move in a short while. Oh and perhaps you could have Leela bring me my coat. I"m going to have to rush this test, but if the results are positive, then I"m going to need to wrap up warm. Very warm."
Melody opened her mouth to speak, but the Doctor wasn"t quite done.
"Oh, and Parker, make yourself useful and pour me a dozen Scotches from the bar. And make it a single malt, will you?"
He smiled. Nothing under 12 years old."
Parker formed a slow frown. "Hey, the world"s about to end, why not? h.e.l.l, I might even join you." His sarcasm soared sharply. "How d"you want yours? On the rocks?"
"No - no. I don"t think so." said the Doctor, having apparently given the matter some thought. "But you might add a splash of water, take the edge off, there"s a good fellow."
Melody turned tail to run her errand. More shots were fired out in the streets, further reminders that if time had ever been on their side, it was fast deserting to the enemy.
Derm"s eyes were impenetrable walls, hiding a sense of hopelessness. They"d been that way since the initial a.s.sault, when the ice rained in over the flames in high arcs of frozen lightning. Most melted in the heat; but enough touched earth inside the barricades. And two hooked into living targets.
Derm saw Kyle, wild-eyed and looking for something to kill, so he gave the nod. The men, already unravelling, burst apart like gla.s.s under a dozen hammers. And the ice raining in converged on the splinters, spinning icicle twine from fragments of the dead.
Derm ordered the squad to fall back, knowing he was buying time at a high premium.
Makenzie had always been a solemn church-goer, but amid the reverent silence of a Sunday morning the Lord might easily prove a good listener. Here, with the gunfire never frequent enough to subside into the background, and everyone besieging him with worries and questions; well.
Makenzie wondered if even the Lord might have given up by now.
He raised his hands for calm one more time and surveyed the faces turned towards him.
Janny Meeks waited expectantly on what he might say. She waited alone.
Amber. G.o.d, he"d been praying so hard for the mother, he"d clean forgotten the child.
"Folks, I have to step outside," he announced. "Look after Martha, here."
Makenzie Shaw turned away from the folks of Melvin Village, just this once. The brisk walk down the aisle seemed endless, and he was still far from free when he made the exit.
Joanna felt curiously revitalised, as though she"d been infused with energy rather than blood, but she was grateful for the support afforded by Leela"s strong shoulders as they followed Melody down to the laboratory.
Her nerves were still a little edgy, and the background rattle and thunder of the small battle outside wasn"t doing her any favours.
"Ah, Leela! And Lieutenant Hmieleski! Good to see you"re doing well!"
The Doctor"s greeting was a welcome dose of warmth, but sounded a little too exuberant for the occasion. Joanna gently shrugged off Leela"s help, thanking her with a nod, before attempting to make sense of everything going on in the laboratory: the covered corpse; Melody helping the Doctor on with his coat; even the sight of the woman"s partner - she a.s.sumed - playing bartender, she noted in her stride. But the Doctor, perched on a stool and working his way along a row of shot-gla.s.ses, was hard on her battered skull.
"Oh, I"m a long way off well," she answered coolly. She was afraid she wasn"t awake yet; this seemed so unlike him. "It sounds bad out there. Doctor."
"And getting worse, I"ve no doubt." The Doctor returned to his mournful slouch, as though to show he plainly wasn"t enjoying himself. "Which is precisely why I"m resorting to such extremes. I"m normally more of a ginger pop man myself."
The agent behind the bar jerked a thumb at his solitary customer. "Don"t mind him, he"s trying for a drunken moment of clarity."
Joanna pushed her way forward, stooping to turn the Doctor around on his stool and peer into his eyes. Beneath the faint alcohol-induced glaze, she wanted to find the same foundations for trust she had discovered there before. If he was lost, then so was everybody here.
"Doctor, tell me this is part of some plan."
The Doctor revolved on his stool, and laid a paternal hand on her, a father who has some bad news to impart.
"Lieutenant Hmieleski, it"s a beastly job but someone has to do it. Melody, tell them how my experiment in electrolysis is going, won"t you?"
Melody patiently crossed the room to the side bench, where twin electrodes had been fed from a small power supply into a beaker full of clear liquid. The woman gingerly lifted one of the electrodes out of the liquid and held it up where everyone could see it: a diamond bud had formed around the electrode stem, so fiery white it hurt the eyes.
"Positive results. Doctor. Very positive," concluded Melody, revealing a degree of surprise. "I guess this means your drinking time hasn"t been wasted."
"No, indeed," agreed the Doctor glumly.
"Doctor, what does this mean?" Poor Leela was more anxious than anyone for answers.
Melody smiled around the room. "It means, I think, we have a way to fight back."
The Doctor stood, swirling the remnants of another Scotch around in its gla.s.s and watching the whirlpool motions. "Yes, all we need now is for some poor fool to venture into the nucleus of the storm and entice it down the mountain for a swim."
A motion flashed in her eye: Melody tossed the crystal gem towards her. Joanna nearly choked on a rise of panic, and she fumbled the catch. The Doctor dipped expertly down and the jewel fell neatly into his palm.
"b.u.t.terfingers," he said, kindly, flipping the crystal between his fingers. "But you needn"t be nervous. This is our invader in its purest form - and the good news is, it"s perfectly inert.
It"s as if the creature can"t multiply without its chosen vector, its building block here in our dimension. Something with a suitably crystalline structure, like ice."
Joanna stared, all but hypnotised by the crystal. Leela approached slowly for a closer view.
"It was the fish tank, you see," the Doctor gazed deep into the impossibly white facets. "Not the temperature of the water, so much as the fact that it"s rendered inactive in solution. Which is exactly where it needs to be if we"re to stand any chance of fighting it."
The Doctor planted the jewel in Joanna"s hand. To her, it felt as cold and lethal as ever.
"While it"s inert and defenceless, it"s really a very simple matter to decompose the electrolyte, separate the alien crystals from its earthly - or rather, watery - host, so to speak. After that, it"s just a matter of making sure your Captain stores it somewhere safe, where it can"t recombine with water and re-freeze."
He examined his hand and flexed the fingers experimentally. "Hm. still reasonably good co-ordination.
Perhaps a couple more for the road? Parker, if you please?"
While the man, Parker obliged, Joanna frowned. She was scared - scared of the thing in her hand, and just as scared of the funereal chords playing in the Doctor"s voice.
"Doc," Parker poured a Scotch and tipped in a splash of water, "don"t get me wrong, we all appreciate your scientific brilliance, but as far as I understand this thing is encircling the town. So unless you"re expecting to fit the entire nucleus of this thing into that beaker, I don"t see how electrolysis amounts to much of a master plan."
"Hm?" The Doctor absently registered the extra drinks being lined up for him. "Oh, trust me. Agent Theroux, this is no storm in a teacup. No, we need a much larger receptacle.
Which is why I"m doubly glad you"re here. Lieutenant Hmieleski."
The Doctor patted her heartily, before returning to his perch on the barstool. "There are a few details of this operation I"ll need you to pa.s.s on to your Captain. For one thing, I"ll need one of his vehicles; and you can have him prepare a supply of timed explosives. I don"t very much trust my demolitions skills under the influence, you know. Which reminds me, I"ll drink while we talk, if you don"t mind. I have a few more of these to get through before our enemy calls time."
Joanna regarded the diminishing row of Scotches and wondered if she was watching a man bracing himself for a suicide mission.
One premature whoop of victory and Ray Landers realised he"d be paying for the rest of his short life. The ice monster is out to get him, the Captain d.a.m.n near blows his head off, he"s d.a.m.n near showered in lethal crystals; and now, to cap it off, the Captain"s shouting at them to fall back and he catches sight of two comrades fenced in by buildings and monster ice.
He didn"t stop to check his own escape route. He swung the grenade launcher and popped a sh.e.l.l into the house where the ice had broken through. It lit up beautifully - and the stretch of thicket went into spasms. It was still an obstacle, only now it was thrashing insanely.
Ray swore and thumped the nearest trashcan. The garbage hadn"t been collected lately.
Ray pulled and primed an incendiary, flipped the lid and dropped the grenade in the trashcan. He threw himself on his back and kicked the can hard at the lashing thicket of ice.
It went flying into the tangled ma.s.s, belching superheat out of one end. Ray was up on his feet and charging forward, giving it everything for the vault of his life. The heat and the frost were on him in different places, but he hit the ground roughly, rolling onto his back.
G.o.dzinski was there, helping him up. Zabala was there too, eyes so wide she looked little more than a kid. Neither of them looked too impressed with Ray"s rescue bid.
The walls of their arena were the only enemy. And they were closing in fast.
Leela was crestfallen. The Doctor was continually forbidding her to follow him into battle, and on this occasion the blow to her pride was especially hurtful: the enemy that had driven Kristal"s spirit from her body was the same one the Doctor was intending to fight alone.
"I want you to stay with Parker and Melody here," he commanded her sharply, gesturing with an arm thrown wide.
Then he cuffed her chin affectionately. "You came out of that last encounter rather well, I think. A frosty expression and a few grey hairs."
At that, he left her to brood, a slight sway to his stance as he turned to the agents. "Now, is everyone clear on their role in this? I"m sure you took the opportunity to search my coat pockets, Melody, but I"m afraid the item you were after is safely tucked away here." He patted one side of his waistcoat.
His face sank - until he patted the opposite side. "Here," he looked relieved. Then he shoved his hands in his coat pockets and mastered the most serious of expressions. "You"d best find Corporal Pydych and brief him on what"s required."
"Hey, just one thing you overlooked. Doc," the man, Parker, a.s.sumed the posture of a male contesting leadership, "I don"t do menial labour. I investigate." investigate."
The Doctor stood straight and gave the man a patronising slap on the arm. "Then I suggest you investigate your versatility, there"s a good fellow. Good luck, everybody! And remember. Leela. Stay close to Parker and Melody here. They need constant guarding."
With that direst warning - and a gentle collision with the doorframe - he made his exit. Leela regarded her two charges uncertainly.
Only a couple of the guys from Morgan"s HQ squad had managed to follow him up the main street, tossing a grenade or two and letting rip with burst after burst of automatic fire; covering their retreat and shoring up their shaken morale at the same time. He just hoped the others could find a way out round the back of the houses.
"Little bro!" Makenzie came running out of the churchyard to intercept him. Morgan could tell he had a problem on his mind, but he said, "How bad is it?"
"Getting worse." No sense in dressing it up. "You have to get those folks moving now."
"I can"t. Not yet." There was a hesitation, as if Makenzie had a bullet to bite. "I have to find Amber. She upped and ran."
Morgan bit a magazine full of bullets. He badly needed to yell, but he didn"t know quite where to start.
"Captain!" Joanna Hmieleski came to his rescue. He guessed she must have emerged from the hotel. She looked a little dazed, but was holding it together - probably better than he was, give her credit. "Captain," she halted in front of him.
puffed out a breath or two, "the Doctor"s got a plan together.
We need to get some things set up for him."
Morgan held up a hand to wall off his brother for the present. "Give it to me."
He listened intently while Joanna parcelled up the list of wants concisely and took him through the various components of the operation. "And he wants a gap broken open at least a half mile wide in that ice."
"He wants what?" Far as he knew, he hadn"t been wounded, but Morgan felt the blood draining out of him all the same.
"What the h.e.l.l does he think I am? The Moses of the North?
I"ve just been praying that ice can support a convoy. Eight inches! There"s no way in h.e.l.l we"re going to blow that much of it open!"
While there was garbage in there to burn, Ray Landers gave the trashcan a shove with the b.u.t.t of his rifle, sent it rolling into the other icicle thicket. Give that side something to think about, while he checked out the two buildings walling them in here.
There was only one window, and that was in the side of the house he"d torched. h.e.l.l, least ways it would be warm in there.
Head down, he charged into a headlong dive through the window. Layers of armour saved him from the gla.s.s and padded out the worst of the impacts as he crashed over the sink unit. Burning timbers collapsed overhead and hit the kitchen floor about the same time as he did.
"Come on in, ladies!" He kicked the timbers away and ducked clear of the window.
Flames were crawling all over the woodwork in livid streams. They"d have to get back out into the snow pretty d.a.m.n soon.
White Shadow"s demolitions maestro had been Ben McKim: one more option Morgan Shaw didn"t have. Still, the two guys he"d brought with him could handle it, and O"Neill knew more electronics than just comms and sensors. He set them on the modest production line in the second Snowcat. Which left him to concentrate on coming up with a miracle.
Makenzie was still hanging like a spare limb, and Morgan was grateful when the Doctor burst out of the hotel, looking up and down the street and not really focusing on anything.
"Doc," he motioned him over, "I can give you six pounds of C4, timed detonators and a remote trigger. We"re going to need the rest for the lake."
"And then some, I should imagine," the Doc commented sagaciously. There was something unnervingly mystical about the guy"s gaze right now, more so than usual.
Morgan let it go. "Just let me worry about that."
"I will. And your first priority should be evacuating the town."
Makenzie, predictably, barged in: "I can"t supervise all of that until I"ve found Amber. I know she picks her times, but she"s gone missing again."
The Doc fixed Makenzie with an omniscient stare. "Oh, I doubt she"s run away this time. Trust me, I"ll find her. And don"t worry, Makenzie. She"s safer than any of us right now."
Makenzie took his time reading the Doc. Morgan alerted him with an upward nod. "Hey, bro, you heard the man. Best get those people moving. Okay?"
He softened the last word considerably. He"d never seen his brother looking so lost.
Orders from the Doctor were one thing, but when Parker had instructed her to wait right here - alone with the dead, in the middle of the room - Leela was inclined to be suspicious, as well as disobedient. She crept towards the door and pressed her ear to it.
She could hear the two conferring in hushed, insistent tones.
"This is the Prism we"re talking about here, Melody! Even if this nutball scheme of his blows up in his face, our ticket out of here is probably going to get fritzed!"
"Sure, I take your point, but I don"t see how your going after him is going to-"
"Well, honeybun, I would nominate you, but he"s a guy and he"s twice your size. No, you"re better off sitting on Pydych and doing what you can to fix things from your end."
"Parker, I"m just not sure-"
"Shush."
Leela backed away from the door. She knew now what the Doctor had meant when he had told her these two needed guarding.