Doctor Who by Robert Shearman

Author:Robert Shearman [Shearman, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473532199
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

7

‘Everything in the museum is electronically tagged, so we can see the Dalek here. It’s already reached level 50.’

Goddard was showing the Doctor the schematic of the base on the computer. The Doctor wondered whether she had realised how quietly and effectively she had taken control. He wondered whether Van Statten had either – and decided he probably hadn’t. ‘Are there any alien weapons in the collection?’ he asked.

‘Oh, plenty!’ said Van Statten, and laughed.

‘The trouble is,’ Goddard said tersely, ‘the Dalek happens to be between us and them.’

The Doctor pointed out a large blank area on the screen. ‘And here, what’s this at level 46?’

‘Weapons testing area.’

‘The Dalek will have to pass through it. It’s the perfect place for an ambush. Give guns to everyone – the soldiers, the technicians, the lawyers. It’s the only chance we have to take it out.’

Goddard nodded. ‘I’m on it.’

Van Statten said lazily, ‘I think you’re going about this whole thing the wrong way.’

‘And why is that?’ the Doctor asked absently, as he continued to study the screen.

‘My father was a businessman. Smartest one I ever knew. He taught me that the only way to overcome insuperable odds is to make them work for you. If you can’t defeat the enemy, do a merger.’

Goddard said, ‘You’ve been torturing it for years. Do you think you can negotiate with it now?’

Van Statten stroked his neat, trim beard. ‘I’ve had business rivals who would happily have seen me killed a hundred times over. But revenge is only ever a single motivating factor, and as soon as you get around the conference table, you’ll always find there are better ones. All we need to do is find out what the Dalek wants. Everything wants something. That’s its weakness.’

‘Oh, Van Statten,’ said the Doctor. ‘You are so right. It wants something, yeah.’

‘Then tell me what. You’re the great expert. Prove your worth.’

‘I wish it were revenge. Revenge would be so simple. We’d be laughing, if it were just revenge.’

‘How so?’

‘Because then,’ said the Doctor, ‘we’d all die, and once it had killed us, the Dalek might stop. But the Dalek won’t stop. Not ever. What’s the nearest city?’

Van Statten looked thrown. ‘Salt Lake City.’

‘Population?’

‘A quarter million.’

‘All dead. Every last one of them. When the Dalek gets out, it’ll murder every living creature. That’s what it wants. Try getting that discussed around your conference table.’

Unnerved at last, Van Statten snapped, ‘But why would it do that?’

‘Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and different is wrong. It’s the ultimate in racial cleansing, and you, Van Statten, have let it loose!’

Van Statten said uneasily, ‘I refuse to believe that.’

‘You still think there’s a way out of this, don’t you? You’re finished. We’re all finished. This is what you’ve done. You’ve killed us all. And the most we can do, the best we can hope for, is that we don’t take the rest of the world with us.’

Goddard looked up from the comms unit. She said,

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