The Year of Intelligent Tigers by Kate Orman

Author:Kate Orman [Orman, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Science Fiction; Australian, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character), Tigers, Doctor Who (Television Program : 1963-1989)
ISBN: 9780563538318
Publisher: BBC Pubns
Published: 2001-06-03T07:00:00+00:00

‘Do they know where the bomb is right now?’ said Ann.

Fitz shook his head. ‘Don’t think so. I think they’re just going to attack the city. Everyone. We have to get everyone to safety. But we have to stop it, we have to stop the bomb.’

‘What?’

‘Anji’s wrong about the storehouse. The Doctor says it’s not what made the tigers smart after all. It’s just a library.’

‘Fitz,’ said Maria, ‘Quick has gone to launch the bomb.’

‘What!’ Fitz wheezed, ‘Already! We’ve got to stop him. Where is he?’

‘We don’t know! Anji and he worked it all out between them.’

Fitz said, ‘Where’s Anji now?’

‘I think she’s resting.’

‘At her flat?’

‘I think so.’

Fitz ran.

Fitz limped the last quarter of a mile to the flats. Groaning, he staggered up the stairs and hammered on Anji’s door.

172

The seconds ticked by. He leaned heavily against the door. What if she wasn’t here?

He almost fell in when she opened the door. ‘God, Anji, you have to stop him!’ he wheezed.

‘What’s going on?’ she said. She was wearing a bathrobe, her fine hair dangling down wet. Her eyes were red.

‘You were wrong.’ He sank down in the doorway. His lungs felt as if someone were trying to peel them.

‘What?’

‘The Doctor says. . . it’s a library. . . stop them. Stop them from blowing it up.’

‘What?’ said Anji again. She put a hand on the wall, as if steadying herself.

‘Told Quick. He’s going to blow. . . blow it up right now.’

‘Right now? But it’s –’

‘And maybe the. . . the Doctor with it.’ He shifted, trying to relieve the stitch stabbing into his side. ‘Stop them, Anji!’

Anji dashed into the bedroom, and emerged pulling on her hemp jeans.

‘You spoke to the Doctor? How?’

‘The metal things. He calls them Nodes. They’re like phones or something.’

Some part of Fitz’s mind registered that Anji was topless. ‘The tigers are going to attack the city. To stop us.’

She grabbed a shirt from the back of the door and dragged it on. ‘Then we’d better stop us,’ she said. ‘We can still use the bomb as a negotiating point.

Hide it somewhere in the south. I’ll talk to Quick.’

She snatched up her shoes and sat down, shoving them on without undoing the laces first.

Fitz lay against the wall until it stopped hurting to breathe. His legs and chest had that funny, pleasant feeling you get when you stop exercising, and your muscles feel relaxed and calm.

He thought, Maybe I’ll just stay here, sitting in Anji’s apartment. She can handle this. It was her idea, after all. If they blow up the Doctor, we’ll never get off this planet. We’ll be stuck here with whoever’s left.

He thought, Maybe I’ll start running again. I can run right out of the city, right out of this mess. I won’t have to be here when they all kill one another.

I’ll run south. I’ll run for days, right past the farms, right into the empty grasslands by the sea where there’s nothing at all and no one will ever find me.

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