Doctor Who 806 - Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles

Author:Lawrence Miles
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles
Published: 2011-07-13T03:46:41+00:00

***

MR QIXOTL’S STORY

Page 91

24:12; six cans down, getting to that stage in the evening when it becomes impossible to be bored by any topic of conversation, however stupid or pointless it may be.

At the end of the meeting, Qixotl shook hands with Mr Gabriel, but missed. As expected, the price Gabriel set for the demat circuit was extortionate. When my ship’s working again, Qixotl told himself, I’m going to track him down as an embryo and inject something really nasty into his albumen. That’ll show him.

He stopped by the bar again on his way out, wondering if he should maybe take another couple of cans with him. Right now, he needed something to take his mind off his problems. Or to take his mind off this level of reality. Whichever came first.

When he started elbowing his way towards the bar, however, everything changed.

In front of him, making their way through the crowd of black-clad Professionals, were two figures Qixotl recognised. They had their backs turned, thankfully, but their slicked-back hair and cheap designer suits gave them away in an instant. So, for that matter, did the way they were hissing at the girl behind the bar.

Don XaPristi’s men. Old style thugs, probably recruited from the ghetto gangs. Qixotl had seen a lot of them since he’d arrived on Dronid. Neanderthals, mostly, all sharpened teeth and gold medallions.

They were slimy, they were ugly, and they tended to be quite extraordinarily violent.

Mr Qixotl turned, and ran. Which was stupid, bearing in mind how crowded the bar area was. He scattered the Professionals around him, and stumbled towards the exit, knocking aside the various chairs, glasses, and customers in his path.

Behind him, there was a shout, then the sound of scurrying feet. Qixotl swore. All in all, his exit from Shockley’s Den of Almost Limitless Iniquity wasn’t what you could have called subtle.

24:22; still six cans down, but a lot more sober than a few minutes previously.

Qixotl bolted along the backways of Traducersville, tactically knocking over any garbage cans he happened to come across. There probably wasn’t much point in doing that, but it couldn’t hurt. He’d looked over his shoulder once or twice, and he hadn’t seen any sign of the thugs, so he guessed he’d shaken them off back in the slums. But then, it was too dark to see very far, and his vision wasn’t exactly perfect, what with the curse of the Blue Dog upon him and all. So he kept moving, just to be on the safe side.

Don XaPristi would have sent the men to give him a warning. The kind of warning that made you go

“ouch” in lots of unusual places. Qixotl was running out of time, and running out of options. One way or another, he had to get hold of the cash for a demat circuit.

And then what?

Hmm. Funny. He didn’t normally bother with long-term plans. For the last half-hour, though, there’d been something nagging at him. Ever since Mr Gabriel had told him about the Doctor, and the great battle that was supposed to be coming to Dronid.

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.