Millennium Shock by Justin Richards

Author:Justin Richards [Richards, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563555865
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1999-05-22T22:00:00+00:00

10

Differences of Opinion

It was a crystal-clear winter’s day and the leafless trees were perfectly delineated against the blue of the sky. But Harry had no time to appreciate such things as he ran towards his car. He fumbled in his pocket for the key. There were two small buttons built into the plastic body of the key. One to open the car, the other to lock it. He had no idea what the effective range was, so he held his thumb down on the open button as he ran.

He was fairly sure she wasn’t following. It seemed unlikely she would risk being seen with her face in tatters, but anything was possible. He could see his car now, parked in perfect alignment with the kerb between a battered Volkswagen Beetle and a new Ford Focus.

Harry slowed to a walk, taking deep breaths. When the car unlocked, the courtesy light would come on. In the bright sunshine he could not tell if it was on or not. He released the pressure on the key button, then pressed it again, listening for the sound of the locking mechanism.

If he had been any closer, he would have been dead. The moment his thumb pressed the button, he heard the thunk of the lock. It was followed immediately by another sound, a quiet click like a camera shutter. Then the car exploded.

The fireball that erupted inside the passenger compartment burst out through the windscreen and windows at the same moment, blowing glass across the road. The force of the blast knocked Harry backwards off his feet and he felt the heat wash over him. The cars either side of Harry’s were blackened, the paint peeling back. Between them the metal skeleton of Harry’s car was almost hidden inside the flames that licked round it.

Up and down the street, people were coming out of houses to see what had happened. Curtains tweaked to reveal curious eyes. Harry staggered to his feet, dusted himself down. He watched the burning wreckage for a moment, then turned and walked away. A cloud of black oily smoke rose lazily into the blue sky.

‘It’s good of you to come,’ she said.

‘I am always happy to help.’ James Bryant pushed his coffee cup slightly further away from him on the other side of the desk, as if he found the smell distracting or unpleasant.

‘I’ve been thinking.’ Jennifer Hamilton said. She finished her coffee and set the cup back in the saucer on her desk.

Bryant’s coffee, she noticed, was untouched. ‘Really?’ There was no expression in his voice. His face was blank.

‘Yes.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I don’t think I can go through with it,’ she said. ‘I agree totally about the ends,’ she went on quickly. ‘But the means…’ She shook her head.

‘Some innocent people will take the blame for something they didn’t do.’

‘As you said, the ends are the important thing.’

‘People may die, Jim.’ She looked at him, trying to fathom out his feelings from the lack of expression. ‘I can’t – I won’t have that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.