Read Online Doctor Who: Drift by Simon A. Forward - Free Book Online

now. He could tell from the lie of that western slope. Question was, who‟d fired all those shots.
    Our guys? They knew the Army were crawling all over this hill, but Mitch didn‟t think they‟d be nuts enough to get into a shooting match with the military. Least ways, not while GI Jane was out here with him.
    „Slow it up, Lagoy!‟
    Mitch glanced ahead, saw her easing off the pace. Little hills of broken snow gathered around her shins. The prize described a grotesque shape inside her pack. Something much more than just another chunk of aircraft.
    Great, so now we get to slow it up. When I‟m half dead.
    Mitch forced himself the last few yards before bending over to catch his breath.
     
    „Someone‟s coming,‟ she said.
    „Huh?‟ Mitch ducked down as he scanned the hillside.
    „They‟ve seen us already.‟ Jacks slid the AK into her hands.
    Mitch rubbed the hard bristles on his jaw and worked the Mossberg from his shoulder. He pumped the first shell into position and prayed it wouldn‟t be needed. He wasn‟t afraid, exactly. He just knew these things got awful messy. They did in banks anyway, and it couldn‟t be any different in the great outdoors.
    He narrowed his eyes at the figure sprinting and tumbling down the slope. The snow wasn‟t falling too bad for the moment but this runner sure as hell was. Colliding with trees even.
    „He‟s panicked,‟ Jacks noted contemptuously.
    Yeah, fire one of these at your tail, see how fast you run, thought Mitch. But he was feeling a shade happier that the figure didn‟t look dangerous. He held the shotgun nice and easy.
    He screwed up his eyes a notch. „Hey, is that-?‟
    „It‟s Crayford,‟ said Jacks, and for once she sounded shaken.
    No, not Crayford. Not running like that. Not the great man himself.
     
    Leela was accustomed to confusion. Usually it was a feeling inside, a devoted companion on her travels with the Doctor.
    From the moment she left the chill confines of the house, it was a living force, manifested all around her.
    „Coming through, miss!‟ Leela dodged aside as another pair of soldiers emerged from the house carrying a curled leaf of metal. In her eagerness to keep out of the way, she realised, she had strayed too close to the main doorway.
    For the present the heavens had stopped shedding their cold ashes, and the chaos was confined to the ground. She saw the Doctor over by the vehicles, unmoving, except for the steady bounce of his yo-yo. He stayed leaning against one of the trucks, even as the dark-haired woman, Hmieleski, hurried up to speak to him.
     
    Leela wandered over, avoiding the lines of men tramping back and forth, and training a wary eye on the vehicles they were loading: four large white crates on ungainly metal tracks, heavy carts tethered behind; two fat squashed trucks with large wheels; and a pack of squat but powerful beasts on tracks and skids. Many of those strange dwarf-vehicles were being unloaded when she had come out with the others to meet Captain Shaw.
    He had been busy ever since, issuing rapid orders in every direction. Leela had started to feel lost and unwanted. And now she could see the Doctor was in a bad mood, sulking, so she felt less sure about asking all her half-formed questions.
    „Doctor,‟ Hmieleski was saying, „the Captain wants me to stay here, tear up the floorboards and anything else we didn‟t cover. He‟s taking you down to the town, help set up a lab.
    But I‟m sure if you put up a fight you could convince him you‟re needed here, we can continue our conversation.‟
    „You know,‟ said the Doctor at length, following the yo-yo in its rise and fall, „I‟m grateful for the invitation, but I think I‟ll take the ride. I‟d really like to find out what attracted the cult to the pieces of a broken aeroplane. Your good Captain politely declined my help in the search for your Stormcore, but I can always find other fish to fry.‟
    The Doctor was one toothy grin, and Leela caught a