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.Two shots cracked out and the Russian fell to his knees.He looked up in pain.Millington emerged from the shadows and stared at him.‘But then, you were never really our allies, were you?Your country will always be the enemy.’‘See you in hell!’ spat Vershinin.‘I doubt it.’ A final shot cracked out.Vershinin fell dead to the floor.Millington looked up.Bates stood in the doorway, his pistol pointing at the commander.Millington stared at him.‘Are you going to use that gun?’Bates hesitated.Millington stepped towards him.‘You know your problem, Captain Bates? You don’t know who the enemy is.A traitor is someone who doesn’t know who the enemy is.’Millington slowly raised his pistol.Two more shots cracked out, and Bates fell to the ground gasping.Millington strode over him and left him.Cautiously, Ace went into the laboratory.‘Who’s there?’ hissed a voice.Is that you, Time Lord?’Ace froze.Fenric was crouched over the chess board as though his body had lost some of its strength.‘Tell me the solution, Time Lord.The contest is too much for this weak human body.Tell me!’ He looked up at Ace.‘I don’t know the solution.’‘Tell me! You must tell me!’His head fell back down to stare at the board.Ace backed out in fear.Ingiger carried the large flasks of toxin down to the cellar beneath the old pit head building, and made for the entrance to the old mine tunnel.‘I’ve been waiting.’ The Doctor stepped out of the shadows.Ingiger looked at him.‘You know me?’ asked the part-woman’s voice.The Doctor nodded.‘Thousands of years in the future, when the Earth is dying – the surface rotting in a chemical slime.Half a million years of industrial progress.’‘I am the last – the last living creature on Earth.’Ingiger’s voice was full of sadness.‘I watched my world dying in the acid mists.I saw my children die in the chemicals.I could do nothing.’‘And then, at your moment of pain, you’re carried back tens of thousands of years in a time storm to Transylvania.And made to wait a thousand years more.’‘He brought me back in time.Without the flask I was trapped.’‘Ah yes, the flask.I imprisoned him like an evil genie.’‘Only he can return me to the future.’‘So, like a faithful servant, you followed the flask across Europe.Followed the merchant who brought it from Constantinople.Followed the Viking pirates who stole it.Followed it here.’‘My waiting is over.Once I have completed my task, he will return me to my time.’‘Another of Fenric’s games.The Butterfly Effect.At a crucial point in the Earth’s climatic pattern, a butterfly beats its wing.This tiny disturbance upsets the delicate balance in the atmosphere.The turbulence multiplies, until finally violent storms erupt on the other side of the globe.All from a butterfly’s wing.’ The Doctor looked at Ingiger.‘Think of those chemicals you’re carrying.Which will be the droplet that finally overloads the Earth’s fragile balance? Which will be the molecule that kills your children?’The Mosin-Nagant 7.62mm bolt-action repeating rifle gave a series of loud metallic clicks as Sorin snapped the bolt forward and locked a fresh cartridge into the chamber.The Mosin-Nagant bolt-action repeater was less fashionable than the Tokarev semi-automatic – it was older and much less sophisticated – but it was reliable.And a single bullet was all that Sorin needed now.‘It’s time to die, Fenric.’Fenric looked up.His body was dying, and he barely had the strength to hold himself up.His eyes were no more than a feeble red glow.‘Where have you been?’ Fenric’s voice was weak.He saw Sorin’s rifle pointing at him.‘You still don’t understand, do you? Why do you think you were selected for this mission?’Sorin’s voice was steady.‘Because I speak English.My grandmother was English.’‘Yes, Miss Emily Wilson, granddaughter of Joseph Sundvik.You are touched by the curse of Fenric.I selected you! You are one of the wolves of Fenric!’Sorin squeezed the trigger.A flash of lightning flooded the decryption room with stark monochrome, and Ace’s heart stopped.Lying on the ground she saw the dead body of Vershinin; next to him lay Bates.She hardly dared think.A movement caught her eye, and she heard a sound from Bates.Ace knelt beside him and took his hand.‘What happened?’ she asked.The captain opened his eyes and looked at her.He was close to death, and his voice was barely a whisper.‘War.a game played by politicians.We were just pawns in a game.’Then the faint trace of a smile crossed his lips.‘But the pawns are fighting together now, eh?’ he struggled.‘We’re fighting tog–’He didn’t finish the word.Ace felt his hand go limp, and she saw his face was empty.She put his hand down, and wept.Now she understood.The winning move in the game.Time passed, and the rain beat down outside.Finally, Ace left the dead bodies and turned to go.But she was tired and worn down.The deaths had no meaning, no significance.Bates and Vershinin, lying dead where they fell.Jean and Phyllis – only kids, and all they wanted was to be loved for what they were.But there was nothing but emptiness for them.Ace walked through the rain.Mud-soaked bodies lay everywhere.How many did it take?The laboratory was quiet.Sorin was standing over the dead body of Fenric.Or was it the dead body of Dr Judson?What was the difference? It was dead.The chess-pieces stood unmoved on the board.An end-game without conclusion.Ace looked at Sorin.He stood over Judson’s body with his eyes closed, as though waiting.‘Fenric would never have guessed the solution anyway.’Her voice was empty.‘Tell me, tavarisch.’‘A simple move.The black and white pawns don’t fight each other.They join forces.’‘Thank you – child.’The sudden realization gripped Ace’s heart.‘Ace! Don’t!’ screamed the Doctor, bursting through the door.But it was too late.The Russian captain raised his head and opened his eyes.In horror, Ace saw Fenric’s evil blazing red in the Russian captain’s eyes.Sorin was dead, and Fenric now controlled his body!Fenric reached out to the chess board.He move one of the white pawns and knocked down the white king with it.‘Black wins, Time Lord!’A massive bolt of lightning ripped through the heavens, and smashed through the laboratory roof.A blinding livid-white light pierced the air and instantly carbonized the chess figures.White-hot sparks flew out, setting fire to wooden benches and crates.Ace backed away from Fenric.‘What’s happened?’Fenric smiled.‘The wolves of Fenric – descendants of the Viking who first buried the flask.All pawns in my game.Dr Judson, Commander Millington, Captain Sorin, the ancient haemovore and now you.’‘Me? You can’t.How?’‘The baby.In thirty years, the baby will be grown.She will have a daughter.That daughter will be you [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]