But Trix knew d.a.m.n well his mind was somewhere else, sorting through the pieces of the puzzle, hoping against hope to make them fit.
The screaming in the shed had stopped now. Phaedra and her team were all dead, but the gas would take a few minutes to clear.
Tinya walked calmly around to the podule escape capsule that now stood at the back of the shed. She keyed in the override code. The silver doors slid open.
A man was inside, slumped over an unmarked crate. In one hand he gripped a phial of water, with a little white pill floating about inside. His high forehead was framed by spidery grey hair. The ghost of a smile sat on his gaunt face.
She crouched down to wait beside him. His body flexed as the comedown kicked in. His grey eyes flickered open, stared about. He put the phial to his spit-flecked mouth, an instinctive, automatic reaction. His breathing was laboured and unsteady, like he was just learning how to do it.
She smoothed back a tangle of hair from his clammy forehead. His eyes focused on her properly. His smile grew stronger.
"I hate waiting," he croaked.
"The waiting"s nearly over," she whispered. "It"s good to see you, Klimt."
Fitz watched as a dozen dancers in next-to-nothing performed a very stren-uous dance routine on the grand Medicean stage, while rubbish s.p.a.ce-age music blared out of house-sized speakers. The girls were swinging sacks of rubbish about their heads. Suddenly a spotlight snapped on, revealing the TARDIS. Fifty screens around the stadium relayed the dramatic image. The blue doors opened. The dancers formed two lines. They took it in turns to hurl in their bags of rubbish, gyrating s.e.xily as they did so. One after another, 156 the girls approached, the rubbish was slung, and off they went to pick up some more.
The TARDIS took it all. She was officially a Revolutionary Concept. Never again would you keep a cupboard in your house you"d keep a house in your cupboard.
"What a load of rubbish," Fitz sighed.
He"d spent most of the rehearsal trying to avoid Sook. She"d been up on stage with Halcyon and Roddle for a lot of the time, organising and helping out with the last-minute arrangements as showtime loomed. From time to time, Roddle would swan up and ask Fitz"s opinion. Fitz would give it, Roddle would shake his head and do the exact opposite. So Fitz had retreated to the cavernous auditorium. His stomach was churning. Halcyon had spent most of the time on stage, fussing over this and that. Why wasn"t he trying to contact Falsh, find out what had happened to Trix and the Doctor? He should collar Sook and ask her.
Except he was avoiding her.
The walk back from seeing Gaws and Mildrid had been horrific. He"d spent the whole time asking inane questions about Callisto to pa.s.s the time, then practically run away the moment they got here.
He"d pa.s.sed the kitchens. They were closed. The crazy chiggocks had been put down. The caterers were trying to get food sent in from outside, but chiggocks were in short supply. The official reason was that the ma.s.sive influx of tourist visitors had eaten them all. But this manager guy reckoned it was more than that; that there was maybe some screw-up in the breeding programme. . .
Fitz felt like a screw-up himself, over this whole business with Sook. She"d told him stuff calculated to win his sympathy. . . but missed out the stuff that made her a monster. Admittedly, it had to be ten, fifteen years ago. She"d been young, mixed up.
But to do that to your own mum and dad. . .
"This is getting ridiculous."
He froze. It was Sook"s voice; there she was, suddenly beside him. "What?
What"s ridiculous?" he said quickly. She knows something"s up. She knows I"ve She knows something"s up. She knows I"ve been avoiding her. been avoiding her.
"Falsh and Tinya. Both of them still missing. Halcyon"s been trying to get hold of them. . . "
"How hard?"
"Hard enough, my trusting one. Haven"t seen much of you this afternoon.
Everything OK?"
Fitz almost snorted. "Fine. Uh, how"s everything shaping up for tonight?"
"I"ve had to promise the network we"ve got something incredible, something 157 spectacular, something that will distract from the fact we"re no longer presenting the greatest show in the galaxy."
"And what have you got?" Fitz smiled wryly. "Roddle"s dance routine and a magic dustbin."
"It"s all pa.s.se for you, Kreiner. Believe me, that box is real magic. Real Real. It"s the most incredible thing. . . "
"People will think it"s just a trick, a big hoax."
Sook shook her head. "Halcyon"s a big star, his name"s good. If he tells them something, they"ll believe it."
"Silly sods," sighed Fitz.
"Especially when we ask up members of the audience to go inside and see it for themselves," she added. "It"s the only one of its kind in the universe just a prototype. But the means to ma.s.s-produce aren"t far away. . . "
Fitz frowned. "You sound like you really believe that. I"ve told you, the Doctor won"t show him how it works any claims he makes tonight will backfire on him worse than this whole moon shebang!"
"I hate to point this out, Kreiner," she said, "but your friend may not be coming back. Falsh isn"t the only big-businessman in the Empire with funding from a new partner we can learn how it works, take it apart "
"Hey!" said Fitz, feeling events were slipping from his control. "You can"t take the TARDIS apart like she"s just some machine, like she"s got no feelings!
No way!"
"Just being practical, Kreiner."
"That"s not not practical, actually. She happens to be indestructible." practical, actually. She happens to be indestructible."
"Indestructible?"
Fitz could practically see the dollar signs revolving in her eyes. "Forget it!"
"Be reasonable! You made this deal to help your friends. If they"re beyond beyond help, then what? Halcyon will still have kept his side of the deal." help, then what? Halcyon will still have kept his side of the deal."
"I Look, how about we just wait and see what happens "
Sook wasn"t about to let up. "You can"t even make it work."
"If you"d only give me some mercury "
"Why? It"s not like you can fly it anywhere, is it?"
"Maybe I"ll learn! She"s kind of telepathic, she can help me out. . . If she ever forgives me for letting you lot fill her full of bin bags!"
"Oh, fine. And I suppose we should let you stay rent-free on board the Rapier Rapier until that golden day comes to pa.s.s." Sook rubbed her fingers together. "That box can help you out financially. Right now. We until that golden day comes to pa.s.s." Sook rubbed her fingers together. "That box can help you out financially. Right now. We will will look after you, Kreiner." look after you, Kreiner."
"My name is Fitz," he said angrily. "Will you stop with this whole Kreiner thing? Why the h.e.l.l should I trust you, anyway? You shopped in your own parents to the law, just "cause they thought being different was a good thing!"
She stared at him, shocked into silence.
158.
"Well didn"t you, when you graduated? Huh?"
The c.r.a.p blare of the s.p.a.ce music kept on. An insistent thud, like something had got stuck somewhere. Their conversation maybe. Whatever was between the two of them.
Sook turned quickly and walked away.
"Hey, wait," Fitz began, wishing he"d kept his big mouth shut. "Listen. . . "
She ignored him. The music cut out. Fitz watched as Roddle burst from the wings and laid into the dancers, tried to show them how it should be done.
Two hours till showtime.
Falsh kept a surly eye on the scarred and cratered world looming ever larger outside the c.o.c.kpit windows.
"We"re approaching Callisto now," the Doctor announced. "Would you like to try Phaedra again, Falsh?"
Falsh inclined his head. Calmly. Slowly.
"You"re an optimist, aren"t you?" the girl observed. "No one"s answered the last twenty times, why should they now?"
She was right, of course. No way would Phaedra not answer unless something serious had happened. Something he needed to know about.
"Let me call Tinya," he said.
"You don"t want to waste your time on her," the girl said. "She"s a spy."
He didn"t grace that comment with a response.
"She was going through your things on the Polar Lights Polar Lights. And while you were schmoozing with Halcyon, she got your secretary out of the way so she could rifle through your desk." She slapped him on the shoulder. "You ought to thank us. If I hadn"t thwacked her on the head she"d have gone through everything like a dose of salts."
"What are you talking about?" Falsh grumbled. "Tinya isn"t. . . "
But the Doctor had placed a file into the computer. A bubblescreen blew up.
There was Tinya. On board the Polar Lights Polar Lights like the girl had said, rummag-ing through his private stuff. like the girl had said, rummag-ing through his private stuff.
"She excised the footage from the security cameras," the Doctor explained.
"She"s very well-trained. Can"t trust anyone these days, can you?"
Falsh felt sick.
"What do you think she was after?" said the girl. "We thought maybe the same things as us evidence."
"But evidence for whom?" The Doctor half smiled. "You can call Tinya, Falsh.
So long as we can eavesdrop."
"Contact Tinya," Falsh snapped. The computer dialled her code.
An endless pause.
"No response," came the soft, synthesised reply.
159.
"When is the vidcast supposed to be starting?" asked the girl.
"Two hours," Falsh replied tersely.
"And you don"t even know if it"s going ahead! Must be kind of nerve-racking."
He didn"t say a thing.
"Let"s see the latest news," suggested the Doctor. "Acquaint ourselves with the facts before we arrive. Would you oblige us, Mr Falsh?"
"Screen ten-one-one," Falsh growled.
". . . rages over the nature of the creatures" true habitat. . . "
There was the image of some s.p.a.cesuited guys floating around some rock gathering up slugs in boxes.
"Start of item," Falsh ordered.
"Back in the solar system, doubts are still hanging over the planned demolition of Jupiter"s moons," came the newscaster"s voice. "With a four-hour spectacular just hours away, network bosses a.s.sured viewers and the million people holding tickets to the live event, hosted from Callisto"s Medicean Stadium that presidential darling Aristotle Halcyon will will be going ahead with the vidcast. However, they would give no indication of changes to planned content. . . " be going ahead with the vidcast. However, they would give no indication of changes to planned content. . . "
And they won"t either, thought Falsh. thought Falsh. Because there will Because there will be be no changes. no changes.
We"re going ahead.
The screen blurred just a little. He must have something in his eyes.
We"re going ahead. ahead.
Tinya and Klimt stood among the bodies in the shed, watching the bulletin"s end.
". . . the debate still rages over the nature of the creatures" true habitat. The Empire Trust is lobbying for the preservation of all Jovian moons as potential livings.p.a.ce for the so-called "s.p.a.ce slugs". . . "
s.p.a.cesuited Pent Cent types bounced balletically over Leda"s surface, teasing the fat, wrist-thick slugs into metal boxes.
". . . whereas many in the scientific community point to the plainly artificial origins of the species, and dismiss their deposition on Leda as a publicity stunt. . . "
"It doesn"t matter what they say," said Klimt, quietly. He turned, and walked into the sterile tent, looked down at the twitching body in the tray.
"Are you certain all the Pent Central specimens will be held here?" she asked.
Klimt nodded. "It"s procedure. When a level-seven first contact is made, specimens must be transferred to the nearest inhabitable outpost for a.n.a.lysis.
In this case, Callisto."