In some ways it was even more disconcerting to realise that this scalp had once belonged to the monstrous shologgi.
Down in the ruins, Krauzzen and his men watched with fascination.
‘That’s Krelbin?’ one of them said.
Krauzzen nodded. ‘And that weapon he just used is not his own. Damn it, it’s the Doctor’s Obliterator! Which means we’re clear to attack. All of you, now!’
Doctor!’ Andrei said. ‘Our enemy are dosing.’
The Doctor saw hunched figures, photon-rifles levelled as they scuttled across the waste ground.
‘That’s not our only problem,’ Rory said, pointing along the zip-line.
Krelbin had sheathed his knife, shouldered his rifle, and was hanging by his hands and knees as he worked his way across.
‘Not to worry,’ the Doctor said. ‘Amy’s on her way.’
Hopefully none of them noticed that he had his fingers crossed behind his back. She’d listened to his instructions attentively, but learning to fly a TARDIS, even along a pre-programmed route, was not something you generally picked up in two minutes.
After immersion in the blue flare, Harry went spinning through a glittering vortex, during the course of which he became unconscious. When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on the floor in a bare ten-by-ten room, with a foil blanket laid over him.
That had been a quarter of an hour ago. Now he was sitting up, groggy. A tall, severe looking and yet rather handsome Torodon woman watched from the doorway.
She was dressed in a tight-fitting uniform made from shiny, silvery-blue material.
Harry tried to smile at her, but still felt queasy. She didn’t return the smile, and he noticed that she was holding a punch-stick.
He was about to speak, when an older Torodon male entered. He was bald and thickly moustached. He too wore a tight, silver-blue uniform, but didn’t fill it as well.
He folded his arms as he appraised Harry. ‘I apologise that there’s no bed for you to recover on,’ he finally said,
‘but the last creature the Doctor sent here dissolved it.’
Harry felt a jolt of hope. ‘You know the Doctor?’
‘If only I didn’t.’
‘Who are you people?’
The twosome glanced at each other, puzzled.
‘Has he been given a full medical?’ the male asked.
‘The FMO looked him over,’ the female replied. ‘He’s in reasonable shape.’
The male turned back to Harry. ‘Can you stand up?’
Harry levered himself to his feet. He still felt weak and disoriented, but his strength was returning. He didn’t notice how torn and filthy his clothes were, or how many deep gashes had dribbled blood onto them.
But Kobal Zalu did. He bit his lip as the reality of what these people were going through struck him. ‘How is it up there?’ he asked.
‘Up there?’
‘On Gorgoror.’
Harry ran fingers through his damp, dirty hair. ‘Chaos.
We’re being hunted, murdered. The Doctor was trying to help us.’
Zalu looked even more discomforted. He turned and left the room. The female followed ‘Wait!’ Harry lurched dizzily after them. ‘Are you some kind of police force? Hey, you can at least answer my questions.’
The small room opened not into a cell corridor as Harry had expected, but into a large, octagonal chamber.
The room was in fact a tank on a raised dais, with various pipes and insulated cables feeding into it. Another Torodon, a younger male, operated a freestanding bank of controls.
Zalu turned to face Harry. ‘You’re in the LP9 Police HQ. You’re safe here. You can rest, bathe, eat. But you’ve got to keep out of our way, especially mine. I’m too busy to talk to civilians.’
‘I’m not a civilian,’ Harry said. ‘I’m a cop. Like you.’
Again, the police chief glanced at his female colleague.
This time there was clear surprise on their faces - along with something else: uncertainty, concern.
‘You’re here on duty?’ the female asked.
‘Well… no. But I was carrying out an investigation when I was abducted.’
There was a long silence. The woman looked questioningly at her superior. He stiffened, before shaking his head. ‘I’m sorry about that,’ he said. ‘But you’ve no jurisdiction here. And I couldn’t help you, even if I wanted to.’
‘Which means you don’t want to?’ Harry said. ‘Look, what kind of people are you? You call yourselves police, yet there are folk being murdered and you’re just hanging around here in your office?’
The officers again exchanged discomforted looks, before Zalu spun around and strode for a slide-door, which shot open to admit him.
‘We respect that you’re police officer,’ the woman said.
‘But you’re from Earth. You can’t understand the political dimensions we have to cope with here.’
‘Politics!’ Harry laughed. ‘Are you kidding? I know all about politics. It’s turned the job upside down. On Earth, we had to fight crime with one hand tied behind our back.
We still fought it, though. What’s your chief’s name?’
‘That was Chief Officer of Police Zalu, and he’s very busy.’
Before she could stop him, Harry ran for the same slide-door. It shot open, and beyond it there was a small compartment.
‘Top floor!’ he shouted, more by instinct than logic The door slid closed before the woman could step in with him, and he ascended, coming to a halt again in a high-tech office filled with plasma screens on which images and data played rapidly. Numerous Torodon police officers moved around. Harry pressed through them, until he saw his target in mid-discussion with someone.
‘Chief Zalu!’ Harry shouted.
Heads switched towards him, astonished. Zalu raised a bushy white eyebrow.
‘Whatever evidence you need, you’ve got it,’ Harry said, approaching. ‘I’m a walking, talking witness statement I’m not scared of this guy Krauzzen. I’ll stand up in court, testify against him. I won’t crack under the interrogation of some mob lawyer.’
‘If only it was that simple,’ Zalu said gruffly.
‘Hey, we have a phrase on Earth. Not everyone likes it, but it was pretty universal when I joined the job. It goes: “We’re the cops; we can do anything.”’
‘Congratulations,’ Zalu replied. ‘When you finally return to this police state you call home, give mv condolences to the law-abiding citizens who have to suffer under it’ And he strode away, vanishing through another slide-door.
Harry noticed that the tall female officer had joined them.
‘Is he a law officer or not?’ he asked.
Of course he’s a law officer,’ she retorted. ‘He’s one
of the best.’
‘Did he not understand what I just said?’
‘He understood. But while you have to fight crime with one hand tied behind your back, there are times when we have both tied behind ours.’
‘Even when it comes to murder, kidnapping?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘You Torodon have got some pretty strange ideas.’
‘You ‘re telling me that?’ she said. ‘I’m a woman.’
Harry bustled on through the room, entered a narrow passage, which gave through to various other offices. He heard the female calling for him to stop, but for some reason she didn’t follow him. At the end of the passage, he found a smaller office in which three male officers were seated behind consoles. Zalu was disappearing through a door on the other side.
‘Yo!’ Harry shouted, again dashing through before anyone could stop him.
Zalu had just slumped behind his desk. He looked thoroughly exasperated by the ongoing intrusion.
‘Listen,’ Harry said, ‘there was a time when I was a lazy cop, too.’
Zalu’s eyebrows arched. ‘What’s that?’
‘I admit I made a hash of my police career. I got bored, I got silly. I was ta
king the perks and not delivering the service, you know what I mean?’
‘I’ve tried to tell you that I’m too busy-‘
‘Look, if you’ve been posted to this…’ Harry’s words faltered as he glanced through the panoramic window at the crowded, rain-soaked streets of LP9, and the dingy, garish palaces providing its buildings. ‘If you’ve been posted here as some kind of punishment gig, I understand.
I don’t know, maybe you fouled up for good reasons.
Maybe you were once an honest cop—’
Zalu jumped to his feet, shouting. ‘Sergeant Xelos, get this alien out of here!’
‘All I’m saying is that, if there was ever a time when you were a real cop - you know, someone who didn’t neglect his duty - now’s your chance to resurrect him.’
‘Sergeant Xelos!’
‘You won’t regret it.’
‘Anybody!’ Zalu bellowed. ‘ Get this lunatic out of my office!’
Two of the male officers appeared with punch-sticks, and began to hustle Harry.
‘Once a cop, always a cop,’ Harry said. ‘Don’t let anyone tell you different.’
The female officer now appeared.
‘Xelos!’ Zalu said. ‘Where have you been?’
‘You two, wait,’ she said, stopping the arresting officers.
‘Xelos, I asked you a question!’ Zalu barked.
Unruffled, she turned to face him. ‘Message for you, sir. From Central Despatch.’
‘Put it through the appropriate channels.’
‘It’s for you personally, sir. From the Doctor.’
Zalu remained blank-faced, but Harry grinned as he looked from one to the other.
‘Apparently,’ she said, ‘Xorg Krauzzen is holding a Torodon national against his will, with a view to liquidating him.’ She clamped her mouth shut and waited.
‘That’s all there is?’ Zalu asked.
‘With all respect, sir, do we need any more?’
Zalu turned stiffly to the window, his hands knotted behind his back. Xelos nodded to the two other officers that Harry could be released.
They did as she said and backed from the room.
‘Look…’ Harry said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. T don’t really know what’s going on here. But I can tell good cops when I see them. And I reckon I’m in the presence of two right now.’
‘Sergeant Xelos,’ Zalu said slowly, ‘are you Alisted for Operation Response?’
‘I am, sir.’
‘Be so good as to call one.’
‘Yes, sir.’ She clicked her heels before leaving.
Zalu glanced around at Harry. ‘Am I to understand that you too are hoping to someday resurrect the good officer you once were?’
Harry straightened up. ‘Very much so.’
‘Then this is your chance too.’
The TARDIS arrived on the viewing deck with its familiar fanfare of trumpet calls. And Amy bounced out of it with a fanfare of her own.
T did it,’ she shouted excitedly. T did it.’
Rory barely had a chance to compliment her on her ‘retro Eighties’ style, before she grabbed him and kissed him triumphantly.
‘Sorry, no time for that,’ the Doctor shouted, ushering forward a bunch of people she didn’t know. They were bedraggled and sallow-faced. Two of them - a woman and teenage girl - hugged each other, weeping inconsolably.
But the Doctor was impervious to such emotion. ‘Into the TARDIS everyone, chop, chop!’
‘But Doctor, I did it—’ Amy began.
‘Yes, well done. We can celebrate later. Who’s this, by the way?’
Xorax had stepped out from the TARDIS and was staring around as if he couldn’t quite believe that he
wasn’t still on board the Ellipsis.
‘The prisoner I was telling you about,’ she said.
‘Good, good… Mr Xorax, you’re extremely valuable to us.’
‘I am?’ Xorax replied, dazed.
‘You are, and you’d be equally valuable dead, though I’m sure you wouldn’t see it that way. So just step back inside the TARDIS.’
‘How did… how did we get here?’
‘Just do as I say.’
‘I’ve got an even better idea!’ came an echoing voice. ‘Everyone do as I say, and you might live a few milliseconds longer!’
They whirled around.
About twenty metres from the tower, hovering silently, was a craft the Doctor knew could only be Zagardoz Xaaael’s Raptor-Bird. It was built from gleaming black metal, and shaped like a falcon with its wings spread.
The voice, clearly that of Xaaael himself, spoke again: ‘Nobody move, or I shall reduce this tower and everything on it to burning scrap, and that includes you, Doctor, and your precious machine.’
The Doctor glanced around. Only Xorax was near to the TARDIS, but he’d stepped outside and allowed its door to close, which meant it would need to be unlocked.
The Doctor looked back at the Raptor-Bird. The double-barrels of two rapid-fire howitzers had emerged on the ridges of its wings. Even making a dash for it, no one would get into the TARDIS in time.
The other fugitives were frozen in place. Sophie and Dora had stopped sniffling, fear having overcome their sorrow.
A panel now slid open in the craft’s hull, and a figure perambulated onto the starboard wing. It was Xaaael, clad in his exoskeleton of body armour. Two lesser gangsters followed him. All were armed with photon-rifles. An aluminium walkway extruded, pushing across the gulf between the craft and the tower. Xaaael sauntered across it almost casually. At the same time another figure swept up into view. It was no surprise to the Doctor to see Krauzzen himself, balanced expertly on his hover-plate. He too stepped onto the viewing deck, photon-rifle levelled. From the stairway below came grunts and clattering feet as his henchmen ascended by the tougher route.
A few seconds later, the viewing deck was crammed with personnel. The fugitives huddled together in the middle, hemmed in from all sides.
‘Well, Doctor,’ Krauzzen said. ‘Run to ground at last. Though you’ve provided us with better sport than usual.’
‘Don’t kill that turncoat, Krauzzen!’ someone shouted.
Krauzzen’s men shifted aside to reveal Colonel Krelbin, flushed and sweating as he clambered over the safety barrier, his weapon slung on his broad back. He was soaked with sweat and his shoulders heaved, but his ice-blue stare was fixed on the Doctor with malign intensity.
The Doctor pursed his lips. ‘Congratulations on surviving the shologgi, Colonel.’
‘I didn’t just survive it,’ Krelbin snarled. ‘I waited for it and ambushed it. Killed it bare-handed.’
‘You’re quite a man.’
‘You won’t talk your way out of this one.’
‘Nor you, I fear,’ the Doctor said. ‘Wondering where your friends are yet?’
Krelbin looked puzzled, suddenly seeming to realise that no other members of the hunting party were present.
‘Oh… try using your head,’ the Doctor said. ‘Krauzzen’s finished on the Outer Rim. He’s cleaning house before he leaves.’
Krelbin glanced distractedly from face to face, but perhaps it was Krauzzen and his men’s chilling silence that made him snatch the weapon from his back and level it on the encircling crowd. ‘Back off!’ he shouted. ‘All of you! You saw what this did to that Earthling on the roof over there!’
The Doctor gazed in fascination at the transmat-rifle that he’d thought lost.
‘That’s right, Doctor,’ Krelbin sneered, retreating to the barrier. ‘It’s your own weapon. I found it while I was tracking you. It was hanging by its strap - too much of a risk for you to retrieve it, clearly, but no trouble for me.
Now back off! That goes for you too, my lord! Are you so sure you want to side against me?’
‘Well…’ Krauzzen shrugged. ‘Your tirades when you thought no one could hear were becoming a tad tiresome.’
‘Hah! You want to hear me when I’m really angry. You
know I’m not some playboy adventurer, Krauzzen! There isn’t one of you here I’m not a match for…’
Krelbin choked on his final words.
He hadn’t seen the figure glide up behind him on a hover-plate, pull the scalping-knife from its sheath,
and jam it into his lower spine. He tottered forward, eyes goggling, blood frothing from his mouth. With his nervous system severed, his legs gave at the knees and he slumped down, falling hard onto his face.
His killer, Zarbotan, stepped awkwardly over the safety barrier.
He was in a gruesome condition. His clothes were charred tatters and much of his ectoderm, both real and synthetic, had melted away, revealing a cybernetic rib-work beneath, and a web of flexible plastic tubing, through which pumped his bodily fluids. Gelatinous organs pulsed inside plastic containers held by tensioned springs. Rotating sprockets and high tensile cord provided musculature.
Krauzzen raised an eyebrow. ‘Better late than never, I suppose.’
‘Forgive me, my lord,’ Zarbotan replied. ‘I got caught in the rain.’
Now that he no longer had a fleshy throat, his vocal cords, no more than a row of taut wires running vertically down into his chest cavity, visibly vibrated, creating an eerie, fluting echo. More than half his face was also missing, and a skullish steel mask was exposed. There was a low hum as his eyes irised to knife-points; he had focused through the crowd on Amy, who shrank back in horror.
‘Well, isn’t the party complete!’ the Doctor said, clapping his hands. ‘The hunters finally hook up with the hunted. Only this time it’s the predators who’ve suffered the greater losses. Whatever happens next, I call that a result.’
Krauzzen pivoted to face him. ‘You fascinate me,
Doctor. You’ve deceived me, betrayed me, humiliated me, you’ve cost me a significant income stream. And yet here you are, unafraid of my retaliation.’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Perhaps because I suspect you’re the sort of materialistic rogue who usually looks to more lucrative solutions than mere vengeance.’
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