The elevator heaved up from the Underground and a shrill beeping signalled the doors to open. The jostling crowd hectored Stacy along, through the barriers and out on to Holland Park Avenue. It was crowded and uncomfortable taking the subway, but less freaky than a trip by police box.
It was a little after nine-thirty, and Stacy felt she"d trekked round every private drinking club in low-down London. But by dropping the right names in the right places, just as Trix had told her to, she reckoned she"d cracked it. Basalt was due to see "one of his girls" tonight. A bored rich-chick named Jacqui, a flimsy thing who hosted his parties. Stacy figured that was where she"d find him bullying some poor female. When she"d been trailing round New York trying to find trace of him she"d uncovered a whole bevy of downtrodden plain-Janes in posh pads dotted round the state. They were as much his victims as the others, in a way except that he"d settled for killing just a part of them.
She soon found the address; it was one floor of a town house set back from the wide tree-lined street. Her finger wavered over the bell. She"d told the Doctor she was only going to keep tabs on Basalt. Once he looked like he"d settled in somewhere she was supposed to call the Doctor on Anji"s number and he"d be with her "in five seconds". Then they could keep Basalt covered more effectively with some flashy gadget he had on board his TARDIS.
She guessed pretty much anywhere was a stone"s throw away for him in that crazy box of tricks. But he"d told her he couldn"t go back in time, of course, and stop Basalt killing anyone at all. He couldn"t use the thing to put right bad stuff in the past. That would break rules, he said. Rules it was dangerous to mess with. And that was that, subject closed. The others had all looked at her like she was some sweet kid who meant well, but who didn"t get the realities of the situation.
Well maybe she didn"t. But she was who she was. And maybe she had to do this for herself.
Stacy rang the doorbell.
A dyspeptic minute crawled by before a mousy looking woman in a short-sleeved dress opened the door. Her make-up was slathered on thick as a brick.
"Jacqui?" Stacy enquired.
"Yes?"
"Is Daniel in?"
Jacqui"s seventies p.o.r.n-star eyes narrowed and she made to close the door. "No, he"s not."
Stacy placed her foot in the doorway. "You sure?"
"Positive, thanks." The girl put a hand on her skinny hip and scowled like she meant business.
"I"m a friend," said Stacy. She noticed a livld bruise on the woman"s arm. "And clearly Daniel"s been here not long ago. He did that to you, right?"
"Who are you?"
"I imagine he treats you pretty much like s.h.i.t, period, am I right?" Stacy nodded, looked at her appraisingly. "And let me guess, you keep thinking that you can change him, that all he needs is someone who"ll love him and thaw that black, cold heart of his."
Jacqui"s eyes narrowed further to pasty blue slits. "How dare you "
"But you know that"s bull, honey, don"t you? Let me in. We can talk about it."
"Just get out of here. He"ll be back soon," said Jacqui. "He"s seeing me tonight."
"Lucky you. Maybe he"ll black your eye to match your arm, huh?" Jacqui put all her weight against the door and tried to push it closed, but Stacy held firm. "You know deep down he"s using you and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with your head and really, that"s fine with you. You don"t want to change him "cause you"re a victim, sweetheart. That"s all."
"Who are you?" Jacqui demanded.
"Stacy Phillips," she snapped. "And you can tell him..."
Jacqui"s face had turned the colour of chalk, and her eyes were twice the size they"d been a moment ago. "Stacy who?"
"Phillips." Stacy nodded in satisfaction. "So he"s mentioned me, huh?"
"You"re a liar," Jacqui spat at her, and finally managed to shut Stacy out.
"You go, girl!" whooped Stacy, banging on the door. "Yeah, you sure dealt with me! Now let"s see you do the same to that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, huh?" She yelled through the letterbox. "Get him out of your life, sweetheart! And tell him I called, right? Stacy Phillips! We"ll see who the liar is!"
She was shaking, and had to bite her lip to stop her teeth chattering. Curtains were twitching in neighbouring windows, and Stacy flashed them a finger before stalking off back on to the avenue.
"That didn"t go quite as well as it could"ve," she muttered to herself. But she had some consolation. Daniel would have to pa.s.s her to get into Jacqui"s place.
She would see him, then.
Her phone kicked in her pants pocket. She pulled out the trembling handset and pressed it to her ear. "Who"s this?"
"Fitz. How"re you doing?"
Stacy relaxed. No magic box coming to the rescue and taking things out of her hands just yet then. "I"m cool. Hanging outside Jacqui"s place."
"Ah, charming Jacqui," said Fitz. "Any sign of Basalt?"
"Uh... not yet. He"s due to call later, but hey, who knows?"
"Well, be careful. Stay right out of his way, OK?"
She smiled to hear his concern. He seemed a pretty sweet guy. "How about you? Find anything?" Before he could answer Stacy-heard a babble of voices in the background. "h.e.l.lo?"
"Stop press," Fitz reported. "Trix has found details for two approved firms that specialise in turning out these snazzy coffins..."
He trailed off and Stacy could hear Trix again in the background "Tomorrow, we can call them up, make up some official Fisheries business and find out if they"ve had any bulk orders in the last few months."
"Did you catch that?" Fitz sounded close in her ear.
"Yeah, that"s cool," said Stacy.
"Looks like there"s sod all else we can do tonight."
"How about those licences? Did they check out?"
"Guy can"t find any link between the names you gave us and the names on Mike"s computer."
Stacy closed her eyes. "Can you get a printout? I"d just like to see them for myself."
"Sure," said Fitz. "Meantime, I guess you"ll be calling the Doctor pretty soon, right?"
"I guess. Goodnight, Fitz."
"See you later."
Stacy glanced around the quiet neighbourhood. Night was drawing in fast and she shivered. Something about the way Jacqui had stared when she heard who"d come round to call was spooking her out... Maybe having the Doctor and Anji around wouldn"t be such a bad thing after all.
She called Anji"s number on her cellphone.
There was no response.
The TARDIS had landed in the concrete vault of a Fulham car park. Pale fluorescents set into the dark stained roof gave a seedy light to the lines of cars parked there. Anji looked around in dismay. "From the sublime to the wholly c.r.a.p," she said sourly. "What are we doing here?"
"I don"t know," said the Doctor, looking round cautiously. "I thought about what you said, about the TARDIS not being unique. And I asked her to find something she might recognise in herself."
"A car park?"
"More likely something close by," suggested the Doctor. "Perhaps the old girl"s frightened. Perhaps their ship is bigger than she is." He paused, looked down at the oily ground. "She"s not met her own kind before."
Anji felt goosepimples p.r.i.c.kle her arms. "So you think your own people might be involved?"
The Doctor didn"t say any more. He just started walking for the exit. When he realised his footsteps were echoing, he started walking more eccentrically, varying the pattern. Then he launched into a full blown Riverdance, the clips and clops resounding round the car park.
Typical, she thought. Deflection tactics, stopping himself from thinking about it. But suddenly the Doctor stopped dead in the middle of a pas de basque pas de basque.
He pointed to a building across the street. An ordinary, quite dull building really, its only notable features the three large round windows on the top floor.
She trotted over to join him, to get a better look.
"No!" he yelled. He was still pointing. "Anji, stay back. Don"t you see it?"
"See what?"
"The mist. Thicker than ever."
"I can"t see a..." She trailed off as she realised this cold concrete car park was starting to get as steamy as a mangrove swamp.
The Doctor screamed and clutched at his stomach like he"d been run through by an invisible sword. "Communicate," he gasped, falling to his knees. "Too much power. Two time-ships, Anji, amplifying the power. And we"re caught in the middle. Get back, save yourself!"
Anji reached out to support him, to help him get back to the TARDIS. The mist seemed to be all around them. And now Anji could discern darker shapes forming in the cold air. Nightmarish wraiths spun and cartwheeled past, their nebulous forms gaining depth and darkness. And from within each of the swirling shapes more and more creatures were bursting forth, spiralling outwards, masking the real world and reaching out for her.
She couldn"t even see the Doctor now, nor feel the ground beneath her feet. Time seemed to thicken and curdle; she was sinking into the stone in slow motion, the mist filling her lungs. Anji was unable to breathe or think or do anything at all except let these monsters destroy her.
Twenty-four The breakthrough Not even Stacy"s jangling nerves could keep her awake all night. She was slumped beside a tree, half-dozing, jumping awake every time a car growled by, or some late-night party-types staggered noisily past.
Her watch said 3.15 a.m. Her a.s.s said, bring me a pillow you b.i.t.c.h bring me a pillow you b.i.t.c.h, and her body was screaming, Jesus! Get me home to bed right now before I die Jesus! Get me home to bed right now before I die. She was great company.
Fitz, Guy and Trix would be happily asleep by now. Why hadn"t she taken Fitz up on his offer of company? She"d been trying to kid herself she was such a lone wolf, that this was her affair to sort out, that Basalt had made it personal and that was the way it had to stay. But that was back when no one was listening to her crazy story. The Doctor and his odd little posse had plenty to tell that was stranger still.
And Stacy reminded herself that she"d expected the Doctor and Anji to be joining her on this stakeout. She"d tried Anji"s phone practically every ten minutes and had got the answering service every time.
Obviously they"d been delayed in Florence. Equally obviously, Basalt wasn"t coming back to Jacqui tonight. Up on her floor, the bedroom light still burned in the window. It looked kind of sad. Poor, lonely victim Jacqui.
At least she"s got a soft bed to lie in, her a.s.s pointed out bitterly.
Stacy got up and b.u.mped her b.u.t.t against the tree to try to knock some feeling back into it and tried calling Anji again. "Oh! Big surprise!"
No response.
She yawned and stretched and decided to make her way back to Anji"s place. The dark roads were quiet and she wondered where all the red cabs were. She"d thought they ran all through the night. Or was that buses? She"d visited London on vacation when she was a student, but the memories seemed so hazy now.
Whatever, it looked like it might be a long walk back.
Anji couldn"t say how long she"d been trapped, paralysed in her own body while the wraiths gloated and glided all around. Unable to blink, anaesthetised yet conscious she took in the creatures" intricate and unlikely dance. She felt detached from everything; wondered vaguely if she was dead and these things were h.e.l.l"s birds of prey, circling impatiently, waiting for some unknown signal when they would swoop and tear the unfeeling flesh from her bones.
And it was weird, she could only tell it was suddenly all over when her legs began to buzz and twitch with pins and needles. Her heart was sinking into her stomach as if she were rising headlong upwards in some sudden flight.
Then she was slumped on her knees. Probably there would be oil marks on her clothes from the filthy car park floor. They would be h.e.l.l to shift.
But it wasn"t concrete beneath her. It was smooth and polished wood.
She opened her eyes, and saw her palms splayed out on floorboards. When she raised her head, she let out a short shriek. A dark, fat, glistening shape was hovering towards her.
Carried by a small girl with long blonde hair and wonky blue eyes.
"It"s all right, Mum," whispered Chloe. "We"re here."
Chloe knelt beside her, and awkwardly lay down the grey-black shape of her big dog to the floor. Except it wasn"t a dog. It wasn"t any animal she"d ever seen before.
"What the h.e.l.l is that thing?" Anji said, recoiling.
"Jamais, in his real form," whispered Chloe. "My best friend. He saved you."
The time-travelling animal, she realised. "Saved me from what?"
"The mist things." She sighed. "They were never around at first. Then they started spying on us. Then they started to try and hurt us."
Memories gushed back into Anji"s mind, dark and awful. She opened her mouth to scream again without even knowing why, but Chloe clamped a small hand against her lips.
"Don"t," she hissed. "Erasmus is asleep. He mustn"t wake up. He mustn"t find us."
Anji felt she was recovering some of her scattered wits. But some great spectral truth or realisation hung back as if hoping to stay forgotten. She rubbed her eyes, realised there were great, fat, relieved tears in them, and gave a snotty giggle of joy just to be alive. "Thank you, Chloe. You said you"d watch out for me."
"It was Jamais, really. He eats the mist things."
"Eats them?"
"Absorbs them or something."
Anji frowned suddenly. "Where am I, anyway?"
"I brought you in from outside."