Unnatural History by Jonathan Blum

Author:Jonathan Blum [Blum, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Media Tie-In, Space Opera, Science Fiction; Australian, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character), San Francisco (Calif.)
ISBN: 9780563555766
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Americas
Published: 1999-06-14T07:00:00+00:00

She hung up.

Eldin fell back on the bed, massaging his tingling arm.

She’d known, somehow. She’d sounded scared. Not panicked, but hurried, angry. There was no way they were at Kyra’s: that had been a brush-off.

No point in phoning it in, then.

He closed his eyes, lying diagonally across the bed. It had sounded like a simple favour for a useful source, the sort he did every day. Let him know where he could find someone. First point him to the Basardi, then this Doctor.

But that voice on the phone just now had sounded far too serious about it for comfort.

He pulled himself back upright and groped for the phone, figuring he could call her back, find out what was happening. But he slowed to a halt, as it sank in that he didn’t have any way of reaching them. He didn’t know. He couldn’t know.

What Lies, Behind Us

183

What would have happened if he’d got their location? Would he have followed Mr Griffin when he went to find them, tried to sniff out a story? Or would he not have given it a second thought?

Slowly he sank back into the bed, his thoughts becoming muddy again, feeling more and more lost as he drifted back to sleep. Something big was happening, and he didn’t have the first clue what it was.

Or what he’d done.

‘Another Griffin in sheep’s clothing?’ asked the Doctor from the next payphone over. Sam nodded and fumbled for more change, craning her neck to watch for Hench silhouettes.

She was running out of people from Fitz’s notebook to call. Her first call had been to some bloke called Carl, who’d hung up in fear after hearing the Doctor’s name. When she’d called the Basardi safe house, the phone had just rung and rung.

‘I think he blew the Basardi network,’ she said. ‘They knew where to find the other creatures –’

‘So they’ve been rolled up,’ said the Doctor, almost dancing with impatience at his phone. ‘Probably literally.’

Finally she heard someone answer on the other end of the Doctor’s phone line. ‘Is it ready?’ he asked without preamble. A two-second pause, and he hung up and threw back his head in frustration. ‘Gaaaaargh!’

‘I guess the stabiliser’s not fixed yet,’ she said.

With a sharp sigh the Doctor turned and headed for the Bug. ‘We’ve got the time now – we might as well go and warn the unicorns ourselves.’

‘I ought to drive,’ she said, matching his pace. ‘In case he starts pulling your strings again.’

He shook his head. ‘If he was going to, he would have started long before now. Which is rather worrying, because if he’s not using such a direct weapon his attention must be focused on something else. Something worse.’

‘Worse?’ said Sam. The Doctor nodded. ‘I don’t want to know how he’s going to top that. . . ’

The unnaturalist sat at his desk, writing in his journal in the thin electric light of the storeroom. The distorted gramophone was warbling through a song in several directions at once.

His scientific machines were also at work, grinding and clicking on the workbench.

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