Doctor How and the Deadly Anemones (24 page)

“
Move
, laddie!”

Knowing that his suit camouflaged him didn’t help because he knew they’d hear his splashes. He had to get as far as he could into the pipe before the Americans oriented themselves.

With his Con-Bat in his right hand, and using his left for balance, he ran along the pipe.

“Keep going,” said the Doctor.

“I bleedin’ well
am
!” said Kevin.

“Keep quiet!”

“
You
keep quiet! And don’t shout at me!”

From behind Kevin there was a flash of reflected light. The pipe was slightly curved, so he couldn’t tell how far behind the source was.

“Try to run with your feet out of the water so that you don’t splash.”

“Doc, it’s not like I joined the Royal Marines, you know. I ain’t up for no assault course.” He tried to run for a few steps with his feet pushing off either side of the pipe. It made him hunch over. He gave up and planted a foot back into the water, slipped and fell backwards into the sewage.

“Aw,
man
! I’m
covered
!”

“Well, you might have to crawl a bit later, so at least you’re over it. And none of it would have got through the suit, so stop complaining.”

Kevin got onto his knees and started to get up. “You’ve got no –”

A bright light flashed from behind him, and a thin red beam of light played through the wisps of gas and hit the concrete piping as a red dot. The curve of the pipe meant that a shadow of his head was cast onto it twenty feet in front. The light steadied, the dot moved towards the shadow and disappeared.

Kevin ducked. Two bullets cracked into the pipe where his head’s shadow had been. He heard them ricocheting down the pipe. He lay flat, his left side and legs in the water so that he didn’t present much of a profile for the light that was probing ahead. He could hear voices behind him now, American. There was more than one light, and at least two red dots played against the pipe’s sides.

“Double-tap,” he muttered under his breath, his mouth inches from the filthy water. “These are special forces. What the hell do I do?”

“Well done for lying flat. That was Tim you slipped on. And those are anti-slip boots you’re wearing.”

“Jeez, you mean?”

“Tim are the slipperiest characters you’ll ever meet.”

Two more bullets splashed into the water a foot ahead and to his left. They ricocheted down the pipe.

“I’m not liking this, Doc.”

“Relax, you’re bulletproof.”

“It might stop a bullet, but I bet it’ll still hurt. And it’s my arse that’s on the line – literally.”

He heard loud splashes and then the muffled voices again. His back felt exposed and vulnerable.

Suddenly there were two loud splashes and gunfire. Bullets ricocheted down the tunnel.

“Run! Tim slipped them up, but they can’t hold on much longer with the gas.”

Kevin sprinted up the pipe. There was the crackle of gunfire again and he felt a spent bullet bounce off his suit.

“Bear right!”

Kevin took a right turn into another tunnel.

“Watch out for –”

A manhole opened up ten yards ahead of him, filling the space with light. A couple of objects dropped into the water and the manhole was closed again. A second later there was a blinding flash and a deafening roar. Kevin was blown backwards into the water by the blast. His head bounced off the concrete.

He shook his head and checked his extremities.

“Stun grenades,” said the Doctor. “Are you alright?”

“I’d be dead if it wasn’t for this gear, man.”

“Get going again, but be ready! You’re only about twenty yards from the building now.”

Kevin ran forward, Con-Bat in both hands. He’d got the hang of running fast in sewers now. The manhole opened and a metal ladder banged down into place ahead of him. Two black-booted feet banged onto the rungs just as he reached it. He swung his Con-Bat at the ladder, feeling his suit powering up the blow as the weapon arced towards its target. The ladder buckled like tinfoil with a loud band and the special forces soldier fell into the pipe. Kevin pushed the destroyed ladder aside. The man grabbed at Kevin’s weapon with a gloved hand, screamed and fell back unconscious into the twisted metal of the ladder.

He ran on towards the embassy itself and heard a couple of loud splashes as two more combatants entered through the manhole.

“Now, up!” said the Doctor.

Kevin looked up. There was a vertical pipe three feet wide above him. There was only a trickle of water, for reasons Kevin understood all too well. “You have
got
to be kidding me, Doc!”

“Sense of humour failure at the moment. I mean it: up!”

“But –”

“For photon’s sake, you’re in a power-assisted suit with super-grip boots and gloves on. Will you just give it a go, laddie?”

“Wrong time to tell you about the vertigo too?”

“Vertigo is dizziness. You mean acrophobia – fear of heights.”

“I know what I mean.” He put his Con-Bat in its holster. “I feel like a total idiot for even trying this, but …” He jumped up and slapped his hands onto the side of the pipe above him. To his amazement, the gloves gripped onto the surface and he dangled in mid-air. Then he realised that he was slipping slowly down. The gloves lost their grip and he landed back on his feet in the sewer.

“Stop dilly-dallying, will you?”

Kevin glanced behind him. Two soldiers were below the manhole, helping extract their colleague. Their comrades who’d shot at him earlier had just reached them and were shining their flashlights in his direction.

He jumped with more force, slapped his gloves and boots against the side of the pipe and realised what he’d managed to do. With his suit providing the superhuman effort, he shimmied further up the pipe. A crackle of bullets whizzed past below and ricocheted. A second later there was swearing.

“One of them got hit by his own ricochet,” said the Doctor. “Serves him right.”

“But they’re going to shoot up here, right? A blind man couldn’t miss.” Kevin glanced down. He’d already climbed ten feet without breaking a sweat. This was what it felt like to be Spiderman. He knew this was banned technology, but longed to take it back to his neighbourhood for just one day.

“In all probability, yes.”

“Great. Thanks for that.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“How come?”

“You’re going to drop the polyp on them.”

“
What
?”

“Just up there. Five feet. See that grey-ish green thing?”

“Yep.”

“That’s it. Hunkering down, protecting itself. Being heavier than air, the gas won’t reach up there. Not in any great concentration, anyway.”

“But… Won’t…?”

“You’ll be fine. Just touch it with your Con-Bat.”

“It can’t be that easy.”

“Sometimes, things are just easy, Kevin.”

“But shouldn’t I give it a really big whack?”

“Your Con-Bat won’t let you, in case you bring the entire pipe down on yourself.”

“You mean…?”

“Yes, of
course
your Con-Bat has artificial intelligence. Now just get on with it!”

“Whatever.” Kevin took a couple more steps up the pipe. He splayed his feet out and let go with his hands. He unholstered his Con-Bat and reached towards the polyp.

“Wait just a second,” said the Doctor.

“But you said –”

“Wait!”

Kevin glanced below. He saw a flashlight reach the bottom of the pipe.

“Okay, go!”

Kevin tapped the polyp. It sprang into a tree shape, its tentacles splayed out, and dropped. A couple of tentacles bounced off him as it fell past.

The flashlight caught him in its glare and he saw the red laser light beam in the white gas. He waited for the bullets to strike his nether regions.

There was a blood-curdling scream from below.

Kevin looked down to see a couple of soldiers in the polyp’s grasp. One of them had had his gas mask dislodged for a second and was spluttering. The polyp was obviously in some discomfort too and seemed to want to get past the men and away. A third, unseen man, took a couple of shots. The polyp’s body wobbled as the bullets passed through. It swung its tentacles wildly and appeared to jump towards the third soldier. There was a strangled scream.

“Okay,” said the Doctor. “You’re safe to go down now. They’ve got bigger worries.”

Kevin looked at the chasm beneath him and his head swam.

“Just let go. Power-assisted suit – remember? Bend your knees.”

Kevin pulled his feet in off the side of the pipe and fell. A second later he felt his feet hit the bottom. The suit took the strain as his knees bent and restored him to a standing position.

An injured soldier was being carried back towards the manhole by a comrade, leaving one either side of the polyp. The man on the upstream side, towards the embassy, stepped back – a smart move on the soldier’s part to put an enemy in place of himself. He’d been the one whose gas mask had been dislodged. He had it back on but was coughing and catching his breath.

A tentacle swished, struck Kevin around the head and pulled him. He took out his Con-Bat to deal with it but the tentacle couldn’t grip his gear, and slipped off. He was aware that to the soldiers his suit must make him look like a mirage because he was so well camouflaged.

An arm went around his neck in a stranglehold and he was pulled backwards. A strong hand grabbed his wrist and twisted to release the Con-Bat from his grasp. Just as part of him freaked out at being in one-to-one unarmed combat with a special forces soldier, another part of him remembered that his suit was power-assisted. He pulled forwards and threw the hapless soldier head-first at the polyp. The screams were horrific as the creature swathed him in its tentacles and bit into his left arm.

Behind the polyp Kevin could see the other soldier raise his carbine. Without thinking, he swung his Con-Bat at the foot of the polyp, knocking it clean off the bottom of the pipe. Soldier and polyp collapsed. The one with the carbine followed the polyp down and pumped two sets of two rounds into it. The creature let go of its victim and lashed out, knocking the weapon from the soldier’s hands. Kevin stepped forward and deliver th
e
coup de grâce
to the polyp’s head and then elbow-jabbed the soldier in the solar plexus. The massive force of Kevin’s blow sent the man sprawling backwards, gasping for breath.

“Good work!” said the Doctor. “Now grab the polyp and get the hell out of there.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, Doc.” He peeled the dead polyp’s tentacles off the unconscious casualty, gathered the grey-green blubbery mess up in his arms and turned around.

In the instant he turned around he realised that the polyp would be visible. He looked up to see that the soldier who’d taken the casualty to the manhole had dropped to one knee and was taking aim. The laser beam flashed into his eyes and he winced as he heard the double-tap of the bullets and a scream.

The bullets hit the side of the pipe and ricocheted.

He opened his eyes to see the soldier struggling in the water.

“Thanks, Tim!” he muttered.

As he stepped over the man he’d elbowed, he felt his ankle being clasped, but shook off the hand and trod on the fingers. He jogged down past the soldier who’d shot at him. The man was just getting to his feet, and Kevin gave him a knee to the head as he passed. He followed the curve of the pipe and heard the rattle of a couple of stun grenades being tossed in his direction. He was well ahead when they detonated and was able to stay on his feet through the double blast wave. A few bullets ricocheted their way past him.

“Keep going, lad – you’re nearly there.”

“Thanks, Doc. You must be exhausted.”

“I’m doing pretty well, thank you.”

“Glad to hear it. It’s been one hell of an afternoon.”

“So far, yes.”

“What the hell do you mean
so far
, Doc?”

“You’re not out of the woods yet. Or sewers.”

“Tell me you’re going to pick me up in the Spectrel. You gotta!” Kevin kept jogging, splashing through the foul water.

“Well… you know I don’t like germs.”

“Jeez, Doc! You can’t just dump me in a sewer, cover me in poo and leave me here!”

“I’m not ‘just leaving you’ there.”

“Sure as hell sounds like it to me.”

“I’m going to get Tim to decontaminate you.”

“How long’s that going to take?”

“I think that’s the least of your worries at the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

The mouth of the pipe was just ten yards ahead and Kevin could see moving lights. He heard what was by now the familiar rattle of a couple of stun grenades bouncing his way. They landed a few feet ahead of him and it was too late to stop.