Doctor Who: Reckless Engineering by Nick Walters

Author:Nick Walters
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563486039
Publisher: Diamond Comic Distributors
Published: 2003-08-22T10:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 14

The Assault

Anji crouched in the ditch, waiting for the signal. Night was falling fast, shadows seeming to seep from the forest behind her. The wall rose to Anji’s left, cool and depressingly solid to the touch. Uphill from Anji, Gottlieb stood silhouetted against the gathering darkness, staring up towards Clifton Lodge.

Conro had hitched a rope‐ladder to the barbed wire fence. He stood at the top, cutting through the wire. The sound of the saw was a dry rasp, the action of Conro’s arm transmitting through his body, making the wooden rungs clack gently against the stone.

Anji looked up. The barbs stood out against the dark blue evening sky like transfixed spiders. Why was it taking him so long? It was only wire.

Not for the first time Anji thought of making a break for it and returning to the city to search for the Doctor and Fitz. But soon it would be night again, and she shrank from the idea of going back into the ruins, with Wildren eyes peering from the dark windows. Like it or not, she was stuck with Gottlieb and his ragged band. If she was lucky, she might get shot by one of Malahyde’s Estate Guards. If she was unlucky, well, there was no mistaking what was behind the furtive glances that Conro, Mary and the others had been sending her way. How long could Gottlieb protect her from them? And what if he changed his mind? Got hungry?

Anji shrank down in the ditch, hoping that maybe, in the heat of the battle, they would forget about her and she’d be able to slip away.

Gottlieb turned to look at her, as if he could read her thoughts. His face was invisible in the gloom. The silver cross caught the fading light and glinted like a winking eye.

There was a twang from up above, which brought to Anji an image of Fitz slouched morosely over his guitar. Two more twangs and they’d be able to climb through the gap.

At least she was out in the open. She’d spent a mostly sleepless night at the inn, and the next day alone in the attic room, except for mealtimes when Gottlieb would bring her more of the bread. She’d passed the time trying not to think of what had happened to the Doctor and Fitz, and in conversation with Gottlieb. As dusk fell she had helped with the preparations for the attack. Aside from herself, Gottlieb and Conro, there were a dozen outlaws crammed into two boats, making them run dangerously low in the water. They were well armed, Anji was surprised to see, with pistols, crossbows – even swords. She began to wonder why they hadn’t attacked Malahyde’s estate before, but she read from the grim looks on their wasted faces that this was no off‐the‐cuff jaunt. This had been planned as a last resort, anticipated for weeks. Some of the outlaws had a hypnotised look as if they knew they weren’t coming back alive.

As for herself, Anji was going along with Gottlieb’s plan because there really wasn’t much choice.

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