Secret Histories 10: Dr. DOA (5 page)

“Terrific . . .”

The Monk lunged forward. His hands came up and he went for my throat, and just like that, we were going head to head and hand to hand. Throwing punches and wrestling each other back and forth across the uneven steel deck. Molly held back, not wanting to get in my way. The Monk was almost inhumanly strong and fast, and driven by a terrible fury, but he didn’t have my fighting skills or experience. Drilled into me by the old Sarjeant-at-Arms when I was a lot younger, over many painful lessons, just so I’d be able to defend myself if I didn’t have my armour. I avoided the Monk’s grasping hands, ducked and dodged his punches, and hit him whenever I felt like it. He didn’t even try to defend himself; he just kept coming at me.

I hit him in the head and ribs so often and so hard, I hurt my hands, but he never made a sound. So I darted back out of his reach, waited for him to come after me, and then stepped inside his defences and caught him with a perfectly timed left uppercut to the jaw. His head snapped right back, but he still didn’t fall. His cowl fell away, revealing his face at last. His eyes were wild and unblinking, and he snarled at me like an animal frustrated in its rage. I backed away. There’s no point in fighting a man who doesn’t care how hard you hit him. He came after me, because only getting his hands on me could calm the rage burning inside him. I ducked to one side and kicked his legs out from under him, so that he fell forward onto his face. And then I dropped onto his back with both knees, driving all the breath out of him in one explosive grunt. And still the Monk struggled to throw me off. I couldn’t believe it. I twisted one arm up behind his back and put all my weight into holding it there. I put my head down beside his so I could yell into his ear.

“You thought you couldn’t lose, because you’re always in the right!
So the fact that you’re losing now should tell you something! I’m not the bad guy here. Really, I’m not. So call this off, stand down, and we’ll talk. There must be some way we can sort this out. We don’t have to do this! Stop fighting me and listen, dammit. We’re both on the side of the angels!”

“You have to die!” said the Monk, throwing all his strength against me. “Drood! Murderer!”

I weighed down on his twisted arm, ready to break the bone if I had to, but he reared up so strongly, I couldn’t hold him. He threw me off, and I rolled away across the deck. What was it going to take to stop this man? By the time I’d got my feet under me again, he was off and running, straight at Molly. She gestured quickly, but her magics didn’t work. Her small hands closed into fists, but he was already upon her. She punched him hard in the mouth, and he didn’t even feel it. He buried his fist in her gut, bending her right over. I cried out in fury at seeing her hurt, and ran to them.

The Monk grabbed hold of Molly as she struggled to get her breath back, and hauled her over to the edge of the deck. She fought him fiercely, but couldn’t break his grip. His hand closed tightly around her throat till she was gasping for air. He looked down at the long drop and then looked meaningfully at me. I slowed to a halt, some distance away. I didn’t want to panic the Monk into doing something stupid. Or even deliberate. I held my hands up placatingly.

“Take it easy, Monk.”

“I could jump,” said the Monk, breathing hard. “Just step over the edge and take your woman with me. Or you could save her.”

“All right!” I said. “I’m listening. Tell me what to do. Just don’t hurt her.”

“I want you to jump,” said the Manichean Monk. “Jump off this ship and fall to your death, Drood. Your armour will return, once you’re out of my range of influence, but not even Drood armour can save you after a
fall from this height. You’ll have a long time to think about dying, all the way down. To suffer, as your family made me suffer. It’s up to you, Drood! Either you agree to jump over the side, or I jump and take her with me!”

“Why?” I said. “Why are you doing this? I haven’t done anything to you. I don’t even know you! And Molly was your friend!”

“Jump, Drood. Or watch her die for your family’s sins.”

I called desperately for my armour, but it didn’t come. I was on my own. I couldn’t rush the Monk; he was too far away. And already far too close to the edge for my liking. I had a gun, tucked away in my pocket dimension, but I didn’t dare draw it. Just the sight of it might provoke him into jumping. I stood very still, trying to work out what my options were. I’d got too used to relying on the advantages my armour gave me. Now it was down to me . . .

I moved slowly forward and stood on the edge of the deck, carefully maintaining my safe distance from the Monk. He studied me closely, his hand still closed around Molly’s throat. She’d stopped trying to fight him, watching me with worried eyes. I looked down, over the edge. I couldn’t even see the ground; the clouds were in the way. I wondered what it would feel like to fall through them, knowing my death was waiting on the other side. And just that thought showed me I’d already made my decision. The only one I could make. I looked back at Molly, who was helpless in the Monk’s grip, and did my best to smile reassuringly at her.

“Take it easy, Molly,” I said. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

Molly saw the look on my face, and her eyes widened with horror. “No! No, Eddie, you can’t! You mustn’t! Don’t you give this bastard what he wants! Don’t you do it, Eddie!”

“I have to,” I said. “Because if it’s down to you or me, that’s no choice at all.”

She struggled fiercely to break free. The Monk almost broke her arm, holding her in place. She cried out, her face twisted in agony, and
fought him anyway. There was nothing I could do. The Monk could take them both over the side in a moment. Molly finally subsided, breathing harshly and staring miserably at me with tear-filled eyes.

“Hush,” the Monk said to her. “It will all be over soon.”

“Why are you doing this?” said Molly. “You know this isn’t right. It can’t be what God wants!”

“It’s what I want,” said the Monk. “Do it, Drood. Jump. Or I go, and she goes with me.”

I believed him. I nodded to the Monk, and stepped right up to the edge. I felt strangely calm, now all other choices had been taken away from me. There was just what I had to do, to save Molly. I took a deep breath. I didn’t look down. There was nothing there I wanted to see. I looked at Molly so I could take the memory of her face with me. I wanted her to be the last thing I ever saw.

“Please, Eddie,” she said. “Please; I’m begging you! Don’t do this . . .”

“I have to,” I said. “It’s all right, Molly. I’ve always known you were worth ten of me.”

She screamed then, in rage and horror, and slammed her heel down hard on the Monk’s bare foot. The sudden pain distracted him, catching him off balance, and Molly bent sharply forward, putting all her strength into the judo throw that sent the Monk flying forward over her shoulder. The pain to her arm must have been unbearable, but she never hesitated. The Monk shot right over her, unable to stop himself. He lost hold of her arm and crashed to the steel deck at her feet. Molly kicked him savagely in the ribs. The Monk shot out a hand and grabbed hold of her ankle.

I was already off and running, the moment Molly freed herself from the Monk. I knew I had only one chance to get this right. The Monk saw me coming, let go of Molly’s ankle, and scrambled up onto his feet again. Molly beat at his head and shoulders with both fists, but he didn’t seem to feel the blows. He grabbed one of her flailing arms
and dragged her back to the edge of the ship. She fought him every step of the way, slowing him down and buying me time to get to them.

The Monk realised I was going to reach them before he could jump. He threw Molly to the deck and turned to face me. He struck out at me with vicious strength. I ducked under the blow and hit him hard with a lowered shoulder. I hit him square on, and the impact sent him staggering back. Towards the edge. He tried to grab hold of me, to take me with him, and then he was over the edge and gone.

Molly ran to me and hugged me tightly, and I held her as close to me as I could. After a while, we walked over to the edge and looked down. There was no sign of the Monk. I hadn’t even heard him scream. Molly spat after him.

“Bastard.”

“Yes,” I said. “But that’s not a good enough reason to kill someone.”

“Eddie?”

“I’ve killed again, Molly. After I swore I never would.”

“You had no choice! He was out of his mind . . . Everyone will understand. You have no reason to feel guilty!”

“But I do,” I said. “I should have known; God does love to make a man break his word.”

“You would have jumped to save me, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Then I wish the Monk were back here so I could kill him for you.”

“You knew him,” I said. “Was he a good man then?”

“The man we just met wasn’t the man I knew,” said Molly. She frowned. “There was something wrong with him. I could feel it. Maybe something happened to him, in the Nightside . . . If he’d been in his right mind, following his duty, he couldn’t have lost. Hey, my magics are coming back! Is your torc . . . ?”

“Yes,” I said. “Come on; we still have a mission here. And it had better turn out to be worth it.”

*   *   *

By the time we reached the entrance point marked on my map, the cold was back and the wind was rising again. It turned out to be a single square hatch, securely bolted on the inside. I knelt down beside it, and Molly craned over my shoulder.

“What is it, Eddie? A fire exit, or maybe an inspection hatch?”

“It’s our way in.”

“If Cassandra really can predict the future, there’s probably a whole army of security guards down there waiting for us.”

“Good,” I said. “I feel like hitting a whole bunch of people.”

I armoured up one arm and ripped the steel plate away. The closed bolts sheared clean through, the hinges flew away like shrapnel, and the steel plate crumpled in my grip like tinfoil. I tossed it to one side, and it clattered loudly away across the desk. I barely heard it over the rising wind. I peered down through the opening, couldn’t see anything, and dropped down into the corridor below. I landed easily and looked quickly around, but there was no one waiting. I wasn’t sure whether I felt relieved or disappointed. Molly dropped down, landing as lightly as a cat beside me. I armoured down my arm, not wanting to draw unwanted attention, and considered my new surroundings.

Steel bulkheads everywhere, with all kinds of pipes and conduits, but no frills or fancies. Just a loud background hum of straining machinery, as though only a constant effort from the hidden alien technology held the Secret Headquarters this high in the air. I set off along the corridor, following the map in my head and moving deeper into the flying ship. Molly strode along beside me, looking happily around like a tourist on a day out. I was glad she could still enjoy the game; the mission had gone sour for me. I just wanted it over and done with.

“Do you need to call up your armour again to check the map?” said Molly after a while. “Only we do seem to have taken rather a lot of turns without actually getting anywhere.”

“I know where I’m going,” I said. “I memorized the route.”

“You always say that, and I always end up having to ask people for directions.”

“Only because you don’t have my sense of direction.”

“Oh come on! You can get lost trying to find the bathroom in the middle of the night!”

She was trying to cheer me up. I played along as best I could.

“So, how far is it now?” said Molly. “To wherever it is we’re going?”

“You didn’t read the briefing notes on the plane, did you?”

Molly sniffed. “I have you for that. I had some important beauty sleep to be getting on with.”

“According to the map, there should be a communications centre up ahead. That’s why we came in through that particular hatch. We can use their computers to find the source of Cassandra’s predictions.”

I stopped abruptly, and Molly stopped with me. A large group of uniformed people were bustling down the corridor, straight at us, chatting loudly together. Molly looked at me.

“Do you want me to whip up some kind of invisibility spell? My magics are only just returning, but I should be able to manage something basic.”

“No need,” I said. “Just look confident. If we act like we belong here, they’ll assume we do. On a ship this big, they can’t know everyone.”

“What if somebody does challenge us?”

“Then I get to hit a whole bunch of people after all.”

“Suits me,” said Molly.

Sure enough, when the uniformed technical people finally reached us, they were too wrapped up in their own conversations to pay us any attention at all. I walked straight at them, Molly stuck close to my side, and the crowd just parted automatically to let us through. I nodded briefly to anyone who glanced in our direction, and they nodded back and kept going. Sometimes confidence is the best weapon a spy has.

The communications centre turned out to be just a few minutes away. There was even a helpful sign on the door. No one standing guard, no obvious security. Some people don’t deserve to have secrets. I kicked the door open and barged in, Molly right behind me. Half a dozen technical staff looked up, startled. I was about to armour up, when Molly barked out the single word “Sleep!” and they all fell fast asleep at their posts. A few of them even snored gently. Molly looked at me suddenly.

“Oh I’m sorry, Eddie! Did you still need to hit someone? I could always wake them up again.”

“Thanks for the thought,” I said, “but the moment’s passed. Stand by the door and keep an ear out while I check this place over.”

That she didn’t give me any grief for giving her orders was a sign of how concerned she still was about me. She just nodded and looked out into the corridor while I examined the communications equipment. It all seemed standard enough. I chose a likely looking terminal, armoured up my hand, and sent tendrils of golden strange matter sneaking into the system to override its restrictions and corrupt its programming. My armour can do many amazing things, and I don’t understand half of them. Mind you, I feel the same way about most of the cars I drive. The ship’s main computer couldn’t have been more helpful, answering questions almost before I could ask them. It still took a while to dig out the information I needed. Long enough for Molly to get bored at her post and wander back to join me.