Doctor Who: To the Slaughter by Stephen Cole

Author:Stephen Cole
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563486251
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2005-04-27T10:00:00+00:00

‘What is it?’

‘Those encrypted notes we took from the Institute. I’m trying to translate them.’

Trix frowned. ‘What’s wrong with the Polar Lights’s computers?’

‘Billion-bit encryption doesn’t break easily.’ He grinned sheepishly. ‘But sadly the Polar Lights’s computers did while I was cracking the first part of the key. So I thought I’d better finish the job on the builders’ computer. But it’s very slow.’

‘Its owners are builders, what did you expect? It’ll probably start working on it next Wednesday.’

‘Quicker to do it myself,’ he grumbled, pulling a pen and a scrap of paper from his trouser pocket. But a test scribble proved the pen a dud. He threw it into the pile of crumpled plastic. ‘Do you have a pen?’

Trix felt inside her borrowed jacket. ‘I have a pencil.’ She passed it to him.

‘Now, it’s an asymmetric key cipher. . . ’ Absentmindedly the Doctor started knocking it against his knuckles. ‘Assuming the private key is. . . ’ He trailed off, still tapping the pencil. Then he held his knuckles to his ear, and tapped again.

‘What are you doing now?’ Trix sighed.

‘Shh.’ He scowled at her, kept tapping, kept listening. Then he smiled. ‘It’s a good solid lead. A fine pencil.’

‘Bit of an anachronism for the twenty-fifth century, isn’t it?’ said Trix. ‘A pencil?’

The Doctor chomped on the blunt end. ‘Probably denotes a certain senior-ity on the part of the owner, as well as an individual streak. I imagine pencils like this are very valuable.’ He snapped the pencil in two. ‘But not indestructible. . . ’

‘I think you’re the one who’s snapped,’ said Trix.

‘Probably.’ Shrugging, he started scrawling on his piece of paper with the stub. ‘Now, assuming this is the key word. . . ’

Trix leaned back against the wall and slowly slumped to the floor. Her bum had barely rested for a moment when the Doctor’s jubilant shout sent her jumping back up.

‘P. . . A. . . I. . . N. Pain.’

‘You certainly are,’ she muttered.

‘That’s the word on this encrypted fragment.’

‘I suppose the ultimate weapon’s bound to cause a bit of pain, isn’t it?

Comes with the job description.’

Suddenly a powerful vibration shook the floor beneath them. Trix flattened herself against the wall in alarm. ‘Not again!’ she cried. ‘What was that?

Someone softening up this place for vaporisation?’

124

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