Silence fell. I could hear her panting for breath. Even Helen had stopped shouting. For a few seconds, no one moved at all and then I could hear footsteps coming up the ramp.
Another black figure walked slowly into the pod and looked around him.
Dr Foster surged forwards and was immediately restrained. That didn’t stop her. ‘I protest. This is an emergency medical area. There are sick people here. Dr Bairstow –’
‘Is under arrest,’ he said quietly. ‘St Mary’s is under my jurisdiction now.’
His gaze travelled around the pod.
‘A merry dance,’ he said. ‘But I have you at last.’
I stiffened, ready to resist to the best of my ability. I was tethered to the bed by tubes, wires, and other medical stuff. Even so, I wasn’t going to go quietly.
Leon jumped to his feet, ready to defend me but we’d got it all wrong. It wasn’t me they wanted.
Words fell into the silence.
‘Leon Farrell, you are under arrest for …’
He got no further.
Leon took three long strides across the pod, shouted, ‘Door’, and literally vanished.
I couldn’t help myself. I don’t know what sort of weapons they were wielding, but very little hardware responds well to having a jug of water thrown at it. Especially if you follow up with the jug itself. It only bounced harmlessly off his helmet, but it gave Leon a valuable second or two. I felt the pressure change as his pod jumped.
Given their current record, I was surprised they didn’t shoot me where I lay.
Both Dr Foster and Nurse Hunter tore free of their captors and literally hurled themselves between them and me. For a second or so, it all hung in the balance, but the Time Police had more important things to do.
The officer who had tried to arrest Leon barked a series of orders into some sort of com device. His men scattered. I could hear running footsteps and then everything went very quiet. I could hear him breathing. He stared at me. For a very long time. I braced myself for what was to come. His com squawked and after a long moment, he strode from the pod.
I realised I’d been holding my breath.
They searched all night for Leon, ransacking St Mary’s from top to bottom. Initially, I wondered why, but when three guards turned up, two outside and one inside, I realised they expected him to come back for me. I was a hostage.
Obviously, they didn’t find him. I would have been surprised if they had. Even if he had still been here – which he wasn’t – St Mary’s would have placed every obstacle possible in the path of his pursuers. Doors would have been inadvertently locked. No one would know the keypad combinations. People would have blocked corridors and been slow to move out of the way.
I lay all night, listening to shouted instructions up and down the building and then outside in the grounds. Dawn came and they hadn’t found him. Of course they hadn’t. He was long gone and they had no way of tracking him. They’d never catch him now. I wondered where he would go.
I wondered if he’d ever come back.
Chapter Nine
I suppose I’d been lulled by the familiarity of this world. There really seemed very little difference between this one and my own. Yes, obviously in this world, they had the Time Police. And yes, in this world, I was dead, but apart from that, everything seemed normal. The History was pretty much the same, along with the language, the food, the clothes … And then, suddenly, everything was different.
I won’t go so far as to say I thought I could just pick things up from where I left off, but I was unprepared, completely unprepared, for the suspicion and the downright hostility which I encountered at St Mary’s and it hurt. Far more than the physical pain I’d encountered so far, this rejection cut me to the core. It shouldn’t have, but it did. I was more vulnerable than I knew.
And I was alone. Leon was gone and I had to meet it on my own.
I awoke to sunlight and shadows. They’d moved me. I was in Sick Bay. It doesn’t matter in which world I lived – some things never change. I was still waking up in Sick Bay. The walls were cream instead of green, but it still smelled just the same – disinfectant, the burnt paper smell from the incinerator, floor polish … I turned my head. They’d put me in Isolation. Possibly because it was more comfortable, being designed for long-stay patients who might be incubating something unpleasant, but more likely because they could lock the door.
I lay very still and listened. I could hear breathing and the odd rustle of clothing. Once, a chair scraped. Of course, they’d left a guard. I was their only link with Leon Farrell. They were waiting for him to come back for me. Although if he ever did anything that stupid, the Time Police would be the least of his problems.
I opened my eyes.
An officer sat on a chair by the door, his leg stretched stiffly in front of him.