Doctor Who: Drift (17 page)

‘All due respect, miss, but who the hell are you?’ That was Makenzie’s brother, putting Melody under the microscope now.

Melody smiled pleasantly and produced her ID with a practised flourish. ‘Agent Melody Quartararo. My partner and I have been assigned as supervisors on this investigation.’

Morgan Shaw circled away, then came right back to study her sideways, like a bird looking for a meal to peck. ‘Are you sure you don’t want some other investigation down the road somewhere? Because my last orders were I was taking pole position on this one. Nobody mentioned any supervision.’

The tall hobo sauntered into the melee, clapping a hand on Morgan Shaw’s shoulder. It was plainly not a welcome move.

‘Ah, Captain, you must be delighted. More people to argue with. How do you do. Agent Melody? Welcome aboard. I’m the Doctor.’

He had shaken Melody’s hand before she was entirely ready. Next thing, the Doctor was thrusting out a hand to Martha.

‘And you must be Martha Mailloux, Amber’s mother. She’s told me all about you.’ Martha somehow doubted that. She rated herself as better than Curt, hell yes, but she wasn’t a parent worth boasting about. This Doctor character was pumping her hand though and she’d somehow lost her power to answer back. ‘You know. I’m a lot happier now that we have some of the people from Fort Meade on our side.’ he confided.

‘She’s from Langley.’ Morgan Shaw corrected him pointedly.

‘Really?’ The Doctor was suddenly fascinated with Melody.

‘What’s the weather like down there this time of year?’

A few grains of the agent’s confidence seemed to have slipped behind her shades, ‘Captain Shaw is perfectly aware that the CIA has a vested interest in this project,’ she toughed it out. ‘My partner and I have been in close liaison with the people at Fort Meade from the outset.’

‘Well,

what’s

a

few

miles

between

government

departments?’ The Doctor beamed around at his audience.

‘I’ve heard a lot about the CIA too and I’m sure they have a great deal of experience in dealing with extraterrestrial forces.’

‘Sorry, Doctor, but this is hardly the time or-’

‘The time or place?’ The Doctor cut Melody’s quiet protest dead. In an instant he was swooping in, full of foreboding, the way Amber’s grandpa told his ghost stories at Halloween; too scary for kids, Martha had told him year after year. ‘Agent Quartararo, if you know anything at all about alien menaces, you’ll know that they choose the time and the place. All we can do is have the decency to show up. Now. I’m afraid I can’t be sure what these particular aliens might have come looking for, other than the Stormcore, but I do know there are extraterrestrial forces at work.’ He dispelled the doom and gloom as quickly as he’d cast it. ‘And I think that’s rather a good start, don’t you?’

Martha could only wonder why the CIA or the Army would hire such a lunatic. Melody fidgeted behind an uncertain smile. ‘Um, sorry,’ she said, inspecting her watch, ‘Doctor, Captain. You’ll have to fill me in later. My partner’s been a hell of a long time at the store and I’m sure you won’t want to give your report twice. I’d better go see what’s keeping him.’

She held the door open for a second, then made her exit.

Her departure left the whole room temporarily stunned.

The Doctor’s gaze followed her out through the hall, some time after he could no longer see her.

This Doctor and the CIA Agents were plainly as weird as each other. Probably came with the job. some need to act mysterious and make out they were more complicated than they really were. Hell, her life might be a mess, but she didn’t have the range of hang-ups like some.

Making like the soldiers weren’t there, she pushed her way into the room to fetch Amber.

* * *

‘That Meeks woman has a couple of staff clearing another room now, sir.’

‘Well, go help them. Colgan, Kurzyk, Morgan spoke to his NCOs, a fine-featured brunette and a guy with a hide of tanned leather. ‘Grab some guys and make sure it’s set up within the next thirty minutes, tops.’ Salutes exchanged, he was moving over to intercept Martha. ‘Miss Mailloux, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask that your daughter stays a short while longer. Just to answer a few simple questions, that’s all.’

Makenzie wanted to go to Martha’s rescue. His brother could be a pain in the ass, most especially when he was trying to take charge of everything. Makenzie had enjoyed seeing him lose it when the CIA woman showed up.

Ideally, he should rescue Martha and take her and Amber out to the hall at least. But in the first place, he’d made a deal with Morgan for those men. And in the second place, he wanted to stay and hear more talk about aliens and psychic assaults, precisely because of how nuts it all sounded. The more fantastic the threat, the less real the danger seemed to Laurie and those other folks.

Martha had a hold of Amber’s hand. She dared Morgan to stop her.

Makenzie stepped forward, but the Doctor guy interrupted him. ‘Actually, Captain Shaw, that really won’t be necessary.

Amber told me the full story and she might even be able to show us where to find the parachute if you have a map handy.’

Martha looked surprised to hear support coming from that angle. She used it to shore up her stance against Morgan.

‘Right. And even that won’t be necessary, because those CIA people brought your precious chute with them. It’s out in their car. Maybe you want to go talk to them, because Amber has to meet her Daddy.’

‘He’s here? Daddy’s here? Mom?’

Martha started towing Amber across the room and she almost reached Makenzie before the news had fully congealed He barred Martha’s exit with his arm. ‘Curt’s in town? Well, that means-’ Christ, he didn’t know what it meant. ‘He can’t be.’

‘What’re you talking about, he can’t be?’ Martha planted her free hand on her hip, her features trembling with the promise of tears. ‘Mak, he called me. I spoke with him on the phone. He’s going to see Amber and go. Now you can be with me on this, or you can-’

‘Martha, listen.’ Makenzie was acutely aware of Amber following every word, but it had to be said. ‘The - guy drove his car into a tree. But he wasn’t there. He vanished. Martha, like those other folks. Like-’ But he couldn’t say the name.

The Doctor slipped into view beside Amber. ‘What other folks exactly?’

Makenzie sounded hoarse as he said, ‘Out on 109.’ He gave a summarised account of everything he and Laurie had found, and everything they had not. The Doctor kept a hand on Amber’s shoulder, as though to cushion her from what she was hearing. The little girl looked lost, unsure of what face she should show. Makenzie focused on Martha, watching her trying to get her head round it. He finished up, adding, ‘All the other cars were just parked up in the road.

But he’d been drinking. Martha. He was drinking and he drove himself into a tree.’

That set Martha ablaze. ‘Take the moral high ground. Mak.

but I don’t think my baby girl needs to hear that kind of stuff about her Daddy.’

Amber’s eyes darkened as they fell. Makenzie felt like a heel. ‘It’s the truth,’ he said.

As he led Martha and Amber outside, he noted that the Doctor had left the family group to sort out their own problems. The guy clearly wasn’t as crazy as he made out.

Melody hurried her pace along the street, taking care not to slip in the snow, and wondering if she was being unnecessarily paranoid. Not over Parker: she could picture her partner trapped in a dilemma over whether to buy Recce’s Peanut Butter Bars or a couple of Twinkles. No. that had just been the best feint she could think of to get herself out of there.

Her real concerns were about the Doctor.

She’d spent months down at Fort Meade running psych evaluations on graduates of the Agency’s Grill Flame programme; not so long ago that she’d forgotten how to recognise a higher intelligence when she met one.

More significantly, she was sure she had read a file or several on a character going by that same alias. Parker was a wizard at remembering the most obscure bets and she needed to consult him before she was a hundred percent sure. Ninety-nine simply wouldn’t do.

Besides, if her suspicions about this Doctor held water, she would need her partner’s backup as well as his input in deciding what to do next.

Those thoughts carried her up the steps to the store. They were replaced by a whole new set from the instant she turned the handle on the door.

Her partner was standing with his hands up, looking along the back aisle.

Melody eased the door open and reached inside her coat.

The bell rang above the door. She swore silently.

‘Who’s there? Who the hell’s just come in?’ a man’s voice demanded, spitting its words.

Melody executed a quick scan, looking up towards where the walls met the ceiling. There: over in the middle of the right wall, just above the pet foods and cleaning products. No CCTV camera here. Only a security mirror.

And in it: Parker’s most immediate problem.

The figure’s back was hunched and distorted in the mirror, but Melody could see the pistol, an automatic, and she could even recognise the label on the bottle. The hint of another figure curled around the edge of the mirror. The question occurred to her. was the drunk helpfully debilitated, or was he experiencing one of those moments of clarity?

It could, she decided as she drew her own gun. make all the difference.

Now that he had the Doc pretty much all to himself. Morgan was hopeful of getting a rein on his famous good mood.

Chaos was okay; he could handle chaos, hut only as long as it eventually learned to do what it was told.

‘All right. Doc, what’s the something important we’re missing? Other than the flight recorder and a million other pieces of my aircraft?’

The Doc snapped out of whatever deep thoughts he’d been having and answered with a scowl. ‘Do you have to keep shortening a perfectly good name? How would you like it if I started shortening all your precious codenames or addressing you as
Cap,
hmm?’

Morgan stared. This was not going to plan.

‘Information. Captain Shaw,’ the Doc regarded him at a curious angle. ‘Perhaps you can fill in more of the blanks than you realise. For instance, tell me what happened from your point of view. Presumably your team must have been monitoring the flight from the ground.’

Morgan took a moment to realise they were back on track again. ‘Absolutely. Constantly. Right up until we lost radio contact, radar contact and - everything.’

‘Everything?’

‘Everything.’ Morgan sighed. The Doc wasn’t going to settle for scraps. ‘Kristal was in direct psychic - I don’t know -

communion
with the Stormcore. Theory was, by manipulating the device’s emissions, she manipulated the weather system.

It was her directed Psi waves that kept it active. She was our co-pilot on the ground, if you like.’

‘I don’t like, but do go on.’

Morgan couldn’t help wondering what Derm was thinking, seeing his ‘Cap’ put on the spot like this. What the hell, he needed to fed they were getting somewhere.

‘All right. The Stormcore allowed for the transmission and reception of commands or data, what the Grill Flame techs termed psychosensation. Or what Kristal calls clairvoyance.

You ask me, the name doesn’t matter. What matters is, she was getting all kinds of data hack from the device - visual. IR, radar, the whole spectrum - seeing through every one of its senses. Then,’ he made a cutting motion with his hand, ‘zip.’

‘Well there you are,’ concluded the Doc. as if that solved it.

‘There I am what?’

The Doctor held his gaze for a heartbeat. ‘If the Stormcore was kept active by Kristal’s directed psychic energies, and then it suddenly cut out, I think we can safely assume her psychic link was cut. Or jammed ‘

‘That’s one hell of an assumption.’

‘Well,’ considered the Doctor at length, ‘it would be. But then again, I have the benefit of some additional insight .’

‘Which is?’ He wasn’t going to stand for the Doc holding out on him now.

‘Let’s just say, I know how she feels’

Curt listened intently for footsteps after the door had closed.

The clerk’s face in front of him was a stone mask. The man who’d introduced himself as Parker had instructed whoever it was to leave before Curt had thought of how he wanted to play it. He was furious with the guy for stealing the initiative.

‘You bastard. They’ll go and call the cops.’

‘Well, maybe, but I think the cops in this town are busy, you know.’ The man called Parker shrugged an apology.

‘Anyway, I don’t think that old lady saw anything too suspicious. Me with my hands up, is all. And I’m pretty sure she couldn’t have seen Mr Byers here ‘

Curt made a face like he was in pain, although he couldn’t feel much of anything. Nothing distinct anyway. Only the threads of cold running through him and the sweat all over, making him shiver. It was getting to be the gun was the steadiest part of him.

Curt concentrated. No, there was nothing. The old lady must have gone like the guy said. Nobody could move that quietly, not on these old boards. And yet, he could swear he felt another presence in the room.