Doctor Who - New Adventures - 28 - Blood Harvest by Paul Cornell;Terrance Dicks

Author:Paul Cornell;Terrance Dicks
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780426204176
Publisher: Virgin
Published: 1994-09-14T07:00:00+00:00

She felt the Doctor take the sphere from her hand, the stream of horrifying images faded and she was back in the alcove.

Ace found she was shaking with anger. "It was the smile," she said. "That damned superior smile."

"Yes," agreed the Doctor. "It's the smile that gets you."

"Who was - who is he?"

"It's is, I'm afraid. And not so much who as what. He, or it, is sometimes called Agonal, it's as good a name as any. It's a Greek word, means the agony of death."

"Doctor - "

"Bear with me Ace, this is difficult." The Doctor paused, concentrating his thoughts. "There are beings in the universe, call them elementals, spiritual in essence, but with the power to interact with the physical world. Some are very powerful, some so weak you hardly notice them. Some are what you'd call good, some bad, some completely neutral. With me so far?"

"Not really, but go on." The Doctor sighed. "I told you it was difficult.

Perhaps if I used more familiar names. The good ones might be called gods, or angels or earth spirits; the bad ones devils, or demons or ghouls.

The feeble ones like poltergeists can only manage to smash cups and slam doors in the night."

"And this Agonal is one of the powerful and bad ones?"

"Yes, but in a very odd way. He doesn't cause anything. He just magnifies evil."

"How do you mean?"

"What did you see in the sphere?"

Ace told him and the Doctor nodded.

"The Spanish Inquisition burning heretics, the Terror in the French Revolution, the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea, the First World War . . . Agonal didn't cause any of those events, he just takes advantage of them."

"He caused that charge, and he got those soldiers killed."

"That's right. But the wars were happening already. No doubt he stirred up the Spanish Inquisition to resume religious persecution, and helped whip up revolutionary terror. Don't you see, Ace? He chooses his period in history and intervenes to make bad things worse."

"And he's intervening here, now, in Chicago?"

"It's perfect for him. A turbulent period which ought to be settling down by now. Everyone's getting fed up with the violence, even Capone wants to sell booze not kill people, but one incident after another keeps the pot boiling."

"So he's behind these three murders, the ones we've been investigating?"

"He killed Lingle, the reporter, and Dekker found a witness who saw him kill McSwiggin. I'm pretty sure he machine-gunned Hymie Weiss, and he was certainly behind your kidnapping - which means he knows I'm after him."

"Why are you after him, Doctor? What got you involved?"

"An anonymous message from Gallifrey," said the Doctor. "It suggested Agonal might be likely to be operating in Chicago in this time-period. I decided to establish myself here and trap him."

"Why dump poor Benny on that peculiar planet first?"

The Doctor sighed. "This is where it gets a bit complicated. Just as I got the report from Gallifrey I got another message as well - a telepathic one from a Time Lady who travelled with me for a while.

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