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.Cursing, Thomas kicked at his horse and galloped off down the glen.He couldn't fail now, not now when he was so close!When he reached the site from which the noise had come he cursed.The glen was empty.He dismounted and went over to a spot where the grass had been trampled down, and still bore the traces of the object which had been there until only a few short seconds ago.It was the shape of a tall blue box.The traveller looked up into the stormy sky and wailed.'How much longer will I have to wait? How much longer?'8889Chapter 10Bloomsbury, London,10.55 p.m., Thursday 22 April AD 1909'I must be mad to let you talk me into this, lady,' growled young Charlie Jackson as he climbed over the small stone wall and into the back yard of Khan's bookshop.'Like it ain't legal!''I didn't talk you into it, Charlie,' Benny reminded the street urchin, as she swung her legs over the wall, cursing her long dress, 'I paid you fifty pounds - enough to help your mother set herself up as a proper dressmaker.And you're not going to tell me this is the first shop you've broken into.''Honest, miss,' said Charlie, with a note of panic in his voice.'I've never done no thieving before!'Benny smiled and ruffled the young lad's mop of untidy black hair.'Don't worry, Charlie, I'm not the police.'She knelt down to the boy's level, and watched as he produced a small wire instrument from his pocket and began expertly working on the lock of the back door.A few seconds' twisting and the door sprang open.Benny stood up and patted Charlie on the back.'Not bad,' she approved and added mischievously, 'for a first-timer! Come on, let's see what's inside.'Silently they slipped into the shop, closing the door behind them.Benny went to the front of the shop to make sure that the blinds were drawn and then went over to Khan's desk to light an oil lamp.She began rifling through the drawers of Khan's desk.'What are you looking for, Benny?' Charlie asked curiously.Benny shrugged.'I'll know when I've found it,' she admitted.'Why don't you start looking for it over there?'There seemed to be few items of interest in Khan's desk drawers, just records of accounts, and customers' orders for books.Nothing which would mark the man out as responsible in 90some way for the Springheel Jack murders, or the killing of Margaret.In the bottom drawer Benny pulled out a dog-eared file containing newspaper clippings from around the world; they were all dated from the previous year, and mentioned the strange climatic changes which had been recorded around the globe.Benny mentioned this to Charlie, who grinned as he recalled the events of last June with relish.'The sky was bright red, see, in the middle of the night, like a thousand fireworks had been let off at the same time,' he said.'Me mam could even do her sewing by its light.People said it were the Second Coming, or the end of the world.No one knew what it was.'Benny grinned.'It was a meteorite, actually,' she said, remembering an article she had once found the Doctor studying in the TARDIS's data files.'A what?''A big rock, thrown out of the sky,' she explained.'It devastated a large area of Siberia.''Where?''Siberia! Don't they teach you geography at school, Charlie?''Don't go to no school.''Oh.Well, Siberia's part of Russia.' she said, and then stopped.Russia.Where Misha comes from.And where his daughter was killed.Obviously uninterested, Charlie wandered over to a large table, creaking under the combined weight of several heavy books.'These look important,' he said.'What are they about?'Charlie shrugged.'Dunno.Can't read, you see … 'Benny came over and sat down by the table to read the titles.'Magic?' Charlie gasped.'Mystical twaddle,' Benny sneered, and then frowned and examined one of the volumes more closely.It was a book purporting to have been written by one Count Cagliostro and concerned the quest for eternal life.Charlie peered over her shoulder.91Benny showed the title page to Charlie, and pointed to the date, carefully spelling out the letters for him.'MDCCLXXXIII? What's that mean then?''Roman numerals, Charlie,' she explained.'This was published in 1783.''You know that just from reading them letters?' said Charlie, amazed.'You ain't half clever, Benny.''No.I'm an archaeologist,' she said and slammed the book shut.'Look at it, Charlie.For a book published over a hundred years ago, it's in perfect condition.Its pages should at least be yellowing, and its binding beginning to crack — but it's as good as brand new! Even a data disk would have started to deteriorate in that time.''So this Khan geezer looks after his books,' shrugged Charlie: he wished Benny wouldn't keep reminding him that he couldn't read.He wandered off and opened a door at the back of the shop, which led down a flight of stairs to the cellar below.'Cor, what's that pong?'' Pong? ' Benny sniffed at the air, and leapt to her feet, knocking the book to the ground, as she recognized the familiar smell of ammonia.'Charlie, come here!'Materializing in front of them was the same kind of creature that had attacked Benny the night before.It had its back turned towards them and Benny could see the creature's third set of legs which it presumably used to leap great distances.As soon as it was fully formed the creature began to examine its surroundings.Slowly it chittered across the room, running its claws along the rows and rows of books and papers.It stopped at the displays of mounted butterflies, examined them curiously for a moment, and then continued its inspection.It looks confused, disorientated, thought Benny.Like a drunk or a very old man.'It's Springheel Jack!' cried the terrified Charlie.Alerted by the sound the creature spun around to face Benny and Charlie.Benny took a step towards it, and it snarled angrily and lashed out at her with a razor-sharp claw.It moved slowly towards her.92Charlie ran over to Khan's desk and grabbed a heavy book which he used to batter at the creature.'Charlie, don't!' cried Benny, but still Charlie pounded away at the creature.The creature tried to protect itself but it was too weak, and as Charlie continued to hit it bits of the creature's exoskeleton began to fall off.Finally, with a groan, it fell to the floor, shattered and dead.Benny bent down to examine the creature's remains, which were quickly turning to dust.She looked up angrily at Charlie.'What the hell did you do that for?' she demanded.Charlie looked bemused, 'I was saving your life, weren't I?'Benny shook her head, uncertain what to think.She let the dust run through her fingers.'You know something?' she said, more gently, 'I don't think it was attacking me at all.''Oh no?' Charlie wasn't convinced.'It looked confused, like a scared rabbit.If anything it was more frightened of you than you were of it.''I weren't frightened,' claimed Charlie sulkily.'Of course not.' Benny smiled indulgently, and examined the dry dust.She was reminded of a movie Ace had once made her sit though in the TARDIS's cinema.The one where the vampire is finally trapped in the light of the sun, and changes to dust in a matter of seconds.Time had finally caught up with him, Ace had told her.And you can't escape time, the Doctor had explained to Benny once.It's the most powerful force in the Universe - all-pervasive, unfathomable, and highly unstable.Even with the protection of a TARDIS, travel through the Time Vortex is like trying to ride the Niagara Falls in a barrel.Rassilon knows what I'd do without the old girl to look after me.She turned to Charlie who was still sulking.'Look, I'm sorry.You thought you were doing the right thing,' she said.'But the thing was intelligent.We could have talked to it.''Talk to a bloomin' overgrown grasshopper?' he jeered.'Go on!'Benny laughed: she supposed the idea did seem a little ridiculous [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]