"No, please!"
Found he was pointing the gun through the mesh and right up against the beast"s black shiny head.
"Move away from the control panel, Miss Kapoor," said Sabbath with a mildness that belied the look of fury on his puffy face.
"Or you"ll do what?" Anji retorted, gesturing at the cramped confines of the room. "Come closer and give me claustrophobia?"
"My apes may give you a good deal more," he said gently.
Anji moved reluctantly aside. She saw a red light was blinking at the lower right of the panel. "What have you done with Fitz?"
"Fitz?" Sabbath"s face clouded with puzzled irritation.
"Don"t be silly, Anji, he"ll still be safe in the TARDIS." The Doctor gave her a meaningful look, and she nodded.
"Doctor, answer the signal," Sabbath said impatiently.
The Doctor shrugged and hit a switch.
"Kalic.u.m, the diamonds have transferred successfully," Sabbath reported. "Now get down here. With your gun."
"Understood," purred a smooth, clear voice from some hidden speaker.
"Any other secretarial ch.o.r.es I can help you with?" the Doctor enquired.
Sabbath beckoned with one thick finger. "Stand before me. Here. Now."
"Sorry," the Doctor grinned, keeping his distance. "I"m not very good at taking dictation."
Sabbath didn"t smile. "The arrival of your antiquated, anomalous ship has caused me difficulties, Doctor."
"Antiquated and anomalous?" The Doctor tutted. "People in gla.s.s houses, Sabbath..." He gestured at the glinting angles of the mysterious room next door. "And indeed, crystalline ones, for that matter. What"s this place for?"
"I"ve had Erasmus move his own elemental time ship around the Jonah Jonah," Sabbath announced, ignoring him, "and it seems now its systems will not function effectively."
"Ah, yes, my TARDIS will have caused a gravity bubble, I"m afraid." The Doctor shook his head and blew out through pursed lips. "Dimensional regression will have distorted all systems, main drives will be sluggish... the situation will resolve itself only if I remove my ship."
"Which means you can"t kill us," said Anji with relief.
"So why not release my friends from these crystal cages and we can discuss a way forward?"
"Regrettably, Kalic.u.m has not yet finished with them."
"Talk to me, Sabbath." The Doctor took a step closer, and one of the apes let out a low growl. "Why take Guy? What do you need him for?"
Sabbath shrugged, clearly amused. "Hundreds of years ago we took a random specimen, a Frenchman called D"Amantine, and infected his RNA with a specific protein structure that could be pa.s.sed on hereditarily... Over thirteen generations his chromosomes have been successively mutated to our design."
"Along with his surname," said Anji. Then she whispered to the Doctor: "Augmented DNA. That"s what you picked up when you gave Guy his physical."
But the Doctor ignored her. "Our design?" design?"
"Oh, modesty forbids I take sole credit for such manipulations. I have had help, of course, just as I have been a.s.sisted in the trammelling of random chance so that all my players may be brought together with such elegance, such economy." His eyes gleamed with good humour. "Your misdirected enthusiasm in solving the mystery of Timeless has conveniently manoeuvred everyone I need straight into my arms. Proof that a most bright future is indeed ordained."
"Or proof that you"re just a lazy get," the Doctor retorted.
"Our plan spans the centuries. Now finally I have brought it to pa.s.s."
"But brought what, exactly? What is Guy"s genetic inheritance designed to bring about?"
"Enough of this. Remove your ridiculous ship from the Jonah Jonah and be thankful I let you live on." and be thankful I let you live on."
The Doctor raised his voice. "I"m waiting, Sabbath."
Sabbath sighed wearily, as if vexed by some tiresome child. "D"Amantine"s thirteenth male descendent has been primed to convey a most precious cargo."
Anji glanced over at the glittering mountain of jewels. "The diamonds?"
Sabbath smiled thinly. "Something more precious still shall be grown inside them. The boy has become a genetic key, one that will unlock the potential incubated within the gemstones..." Sabbath steepled his fingers. "And my employers will have at last succeeded in their ambitions."
"I know why you need the drives of Erasmus"s ship fully operational. And why you need the power of Chloe and Jamais to charge it." The Doctor marched round the casket and squared up to Sabbath. "You"re going back to a point in time before the creation of the universe."
If Sabbath was surprised he"d been rumbled, he didn"t show it. "I instigated the collapse of the multiverse. You wrested a single, finite reality from the resultant chaos. The cosmos has been born anew. The gaps and glitches in the fabric of s.p.a.ce and time watched over by the likes of you and Erasmus have been ironed out in the rebirth." He nodded in satisfaction, unable to keep the zeal from his voice any longer. "And now the people of Earth shall inherit the mantle of your kind. Time and s.p.a.ce must be governed, Doctor, properly regulated. You of all people must understand that."
The Doctor stared at him. He seemed suddenly rattled.
"And you have been the catalyst, Doctor. You"ve made it all possible."
Suddenly a tall, spindly man weaved through the apes and insinuated himself beside Sabbath. His egg-shaped head was so large it seemed to sway about on his shoulders like a smug balloon.
"Mr Kalic.u.m, I presume," said the Doctor darkly.
Kalic.u.m"s eyes narrowed. "Have they meddled, interfered with anything?"
"Our systems are intact," Sabbath said smoothly. "The Doctor is now going to remove his time ship so that we might be on our way. Or you will shoot his companion."
"Harm her in the slightest and I"m not budging at all," said the Doctor firmly. "Release Guy, release Trix, and I"ll leave you well alone, believe me."
"The boy is essential to our plans, you know that," said Sabbath patiently. "You want the old woman?" Anji caught a spark of realisation in his black, beady eyes. "Of course, I should"ve realised. The woman is known to you. If it will expedite your departure then, yes, you may take her."
"He may not," said Kalic.u.m firmly. "I still need her."
Sabbath turned on him. "I know this fool. He will sacrifice himself before he sees the woman come to harm. Your vulgar playing with knives can wait."
"I have convinced you of my inane nature well, I see."
"So come. We have business we must attend to."
"Indeed," said Kalic.u.m. "And I will not tolerate any further delays. I took the woman so that I might dispose of you all the sooner."
So saying he pulled a gun from his pocket and levelled it at Sabbath"s head.
Thirty.
The courage to stand alone Fitz was going to pull the trigger, send the dart smacking through the skull and into Doggy"s brain. It was the only clear course of action. A million voices inside him were begging him to do it. They shot horses, didn"t they?
Why was the little girl screaming louder than anything else?
Then suddenly the animal squirmed within the net, knocked its head up and under the gun like a performing seal and sent it flying. Jamais gave a roar that put Sabbath"s apes to shame, opened his mouth, and started to snap and suck at the wraith-creatures smothering them like steam.
For that was what the mist had become: alive with shadowy creatures. Suddenly Fitz was afraid, his skin was cold and wet like a freezing fog had descended. He curled up into a ball.
When he opened his eyes just a couple of moments later, it seemed to be over. There was an odd reek in the chilly air, a something"s-gone-off-in-the-back-of-the-fridge sort of smell. And Jamais was writhing in the metal net like he"d swallowed a box of tintacks. Chloe was squeezing her arms round his dark neck, tears falling down her face.
"They never attacked like that before," she sobbed.
"They"re desperate," said Erasmus at last. His voice was cracked and hoa.r.s.e, like he"d snaffled one or two of the tintacks himself. "They"ve not just been trying to stop us pa.s.sing through to the Other Places... They"ve been trying to change our course. To stop us doing the bidding of these creatures who hold us now. To lead us from ruination."
Fitz looked at him uncertainly. "By killing you?"
He glared back at Fitz. "It"s their only choice now. You should"ve done as they wished. Killed the animal."
"It"s only a tranquilliser "
"Fired at close range, the metal point will pierce his skull and enter the brain," snapped Erasmus. Chloe burst into tears, and he shut his eyes. "We sought only to help people. Why must there always be consequences? Why is it not enough simply to do good things?"
Fitz couldn"t answer him.
"But we don"t even know what it is we"re going to do that has to be stopped!" said Chloe miserably.
"It will change everything," rasped Erasmus. "Everything. That much we do know."
"I don"t care about everything," wailed Chloe. "I care about the people I love."
"Fetch me the gun," Erasmus told Fitz shakily, "and I will do the job myself."
"No!" squealed Chloe.
"Fetch me the gun!"
"I"m with her," Fitz told him. "If we can get the Doctor out of there, he might still be able to sort out this mess..." But did he really think that was true? He"d seen the Doctor win sometimes by the most terrible means. When it came down to it, that stark choice between ending a life and saving billions more, he had never shirked from b.l.o.o.d.ying his hands. Now everyone in the room was crying, everything depended on Fitz, and he was paralysed with doubt. Why? It was the life of some overgrown Labrador against the entire universe.
"The wraith creatures are exhausted and spent," whispered Erasmus. "I felt it. They will not come again. It is over. And it is over for us too, Chloe, and our pilgrimage. Our dreams of making a difference. The Blessed Destroyer of our world had the courage of his convictions and the strength to act, and... and so must we."
"If I can just get you out of there," Fitz almost pleaded, "we could go and get the Doctor, ask him what to do!"
"We can never be free of these ties," Erasmus insisted, and strained uselessly against the mesh as if to prove it. "There is no time remaining to us, human. I... I must do this."
Fitz got the full sense of the man"s emotion, even if he could only catch the gist of the actual meaning. A brick-sized lump in his throat, he crawled over and retrieved the dart gun.
"No!" bawled Chloe, kicking her feet against Erasmus, laying herself over Jamais as if trying to protect his sleeping bulk.
Erasmus reached his fingers through the pulsating blue mesh for the weapon.
Fitz closed his eyes and pa.s.sed it over. He turned away as Chloe screamed still louder.
He would never come down hard on the Doctor again.
"Forgive me," he heard Erasmus mutter.
Then there was a click and the dull thunk of metal on bone. The low, eerie whine of the little girl as she built up to tears.
"No," she was muttering over and over. "No, no, no, no."
Fitz turned and saw Erasmus had his eyes closed. The gun had fallen from his limp hand.
The short shaft of the dart was embedded deep in his temple.
"The strength to act," muttered Fitz, "and the weakness to wimp out when you can"t make the choice."
That was the last dart.
Now they were all defenceless.
Anji gaped as Kalic.u.m jammed the stubby gun up against Sabbath"s neck. The Doctor looked between Sabbath and Kalic.u.m in turn as if following the progress of an invisible ball that batted between them.
"You presume to turn on me?" scoffed Sabbath, but nevertheless holding himself dead still. "There"s not fullness enough in the sleeve-top."
"Your diction"s as outmoded as your ideals," sneered Kalic.u.m. "It"s been so pathetically simple to dupe you."
One of the gorillas lunged forwards, reaching out for Kalic.u.m, but as it crossed over the barrier into the sectioned area it staggered to a stop, clutching its head and barking in alarm. Kalic.u.m put the gun to the beast"s chest and fired. The bolt of energy seared straight through it, the animal slumped down in a gory puddle, and Kalic.u.m"s skinny arm was straight back up jabbing the gun under Sabbath"s jaw.
Sabbath"s face reddened, he held up his palm to the other ape, presumably ordering no similar heroics. "Kalic.u.m," he said in a voice that made Anji shiver, "your explanation for this behaviour had better be good."
"My people no longer need you," said Kalic.u.m simply. "You have played your part just as all the others have."
"I have willingly given myself to the service of your people."
"That service is no longer required."