The shareholders were nodding, about to vote on Purcell’s motion. Then Miss Sark walked round the table and grabbed Purcell. The other shareholders watched in horror as Stella Sark lifted Purcell off the floor. She flung him across the table, and glasses and bottles and papers went flying.
‘Time, I think, for our investors to see what they have really bought,’ Sir Manning said.
The people from the firm all stood up. There were about eight of them, including Sir Manning, Stella, and Clive. The air around them shimmered and blurred. Then, in place of the people, stood tall winged creatures with long stony faces and sharp claws. Krillitanes.
‘Now,’ the Krillitane that had been Sir Manning Cross snarled, ‘are there any questions before you die?’
The shareholders sat frozen in terror. Purcell was groaning as he pulled himself off the table. Only one person spoke.
‘Um, since you ask, yes. I have a question.’
Henry looked on in horror as the Doctor stood up and walked towards the table.
‘Yes, me again, I’m afraid, and I have another question. I just can’t help myself. It’s how I am. So, I was just wondering…’
The Krillitanes all watched the Doctor.
‘I assume you’re planning to create a race of Super-Krillitane creatures ready to make Earth their first new home world. And from there take over – well, maybe one day – the whole universe. Is that right?’
The air was filled with alien laughter.
‘I shall answer your question, Doctor – your last question,’ the Krillitane Stella Sark said. ‘The answer is yes.’
‘Let me ask you a question,’ Sir Manning said.
The Doctor nodded happily. ‘Oh good, I like a good question. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, definitely. Or was it the chicken? Sorry, what’s the question?’
‘Simply this. We are going to kill all the people in this room, Doctor, starting with you. Then we are going to complete our plan and conquer this world. So, I ask you this: what can you possibly hope to do about it?’
The Doctor stuck his hands into his pockets. He sucked air through his teeth. Finally, he grinned. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I can offer you a crisp.’
Chapter Eight
THE DOCTOR FACED the Krillitanes.
The human shareholders were trapped in their seats. They were too afraid to move. But even if they did, the Krillitanes had them trapped. The people would be cut down before they got to the door to escape.
‘You are a very strange human being, Doctor,’ said the Krillitane Sir Manning.
‘Oh, I’m not a human being at all,’ the Doctor told him. ‘Which means you have a choice to make, because I’m giving you a last chance.’
The Krillitane’s large head dipped slightly as it laughed. ‘You are giving us a last chance?’
‘Better believe it.’ The Doctor was serious. Slowly the alien laughter died away. When there was silence, the Doctor said, ‘One last chance. Leave now. Give up on this daft plan of yours. Be happy with what you’ve got and accept how you are.’
‘Strange and stupid, it would seem,’ Stella Sark said. ‘Do you really expect us to listen to you, whoever you really are?’
The Doctor shook his head sadly. ‘No, not really.’
‘Then I am afraid the party is over,’ Sir Manning said.
‘Oh no,’ the Doctor told him. ‘It’s only just starting. I warned you,’ he said, pointing to the Krillitanes. Then he pointed to the human shareholders cowering in their seats. ‘And you lot – run!’
In his free hand, the Doctor was holding the remote control he had found earlier. He pressed one of the buttons. High above the large glass table, the net full of balloons dropped away. The balloons fell like a multicoloured blanket.
Something else was falling, too – the contents of eighty-three bags of Brainy Crisps. The Doctor and Henry had opened the bags and attached them inside the net before the meeting started. As the net opened, the bags tipped and the crisps fell. They rained down past the slowly falling balloons. Crisps scattered across the table, the floor, the humans and the Krillitanes.
A crisp landed on the leathery arm of one of the Krillitanes. The crisp exploded as the oil in it reacted with the alien’s skin. Crisps burst into flames, filling the room with flashes of light. The Krillitanes shrieked in pain, reeling away from the table as the crisps rained down.
Stella Sark rolled on the floor, frantic to put out the fire burning along her back. Sir Manning Cross’s body was a patchwork of black and orange. Crisps exploded and burned. The room was filled with smoke.
While they set the trap with the crisps, the Doctor had told Henry it was his job to help everyone out of the room. As soon as the Doctor pressed the button, Henry ran to open the doors and herd everyone out. The Doctor pushed Purcell and the other shareholders ahead of him. Together with Henry, he bundled them out of the room. Once outside, Henry slammed the doors shut behind them and the Doctor locked them.
‘Get out of here as fast as you can,’ the Doctor said, turning back from the doors. The passage was already empty apart from himself and Henry. ‘Oh, they have. That’s good.’
As the Doctor and Henry ran after everyone else, Gabby hurried up to them.
‘What’s going on?’ Gabby asked. ‘Why are the shareholders leaving the meeting? Where are Sir Manning and Miss Sark?’ She brushed her long blonde hair away from one ear. She was wearing a large earring made from coloured glass twisted into a spiral. The shrieking from behind the doors grew louder.
Henry grabbed Gabby’s arm. ‘There’s no time to explain now. We have to get away from here.’
The three of them set off down the corridor at a run. Gabby was still asking what was going on. From behind them, they all heard wood splinter and tear.
The Krillitanes were breaking through the doors.
‘What about everyone else in the hotel?’ Henry gasped as they reached the reception area. ‘Shouldn’t we warn them? Sound the fire alarm or something?’
‘I don’t think the Krillitanes will reveal themselves just yet. They want to keep everything secret, which is why they had to silence the shareholders.’
‘Haven’t you forced their hand? Or whatever they have instead of hands?’
‘Will you two please tell me what’s going on?’ Gabby said. ‘What was that noise? Why were the shareholders so scared? What’s happened to Sir Manning and Miss Sark and the others?’
‘In a minute,’ the Doctor told her. He led the way out of the hotel and down a side street. ‘I don’t think they’re chasing us, which is good. But I’m not sure that little adventure achieved as much as I’d hoped.’
‘You found out their plan,’ Henry said.
‘Well, some of it,’ the Doctor told him. ‘But I’d like to know how advanced things are and what happens next.’
‘You saved people’s lives,’ Henry insisted. ‘They’d be dead now if we hadn’t been there.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Yes. That’s true, and that’s the most crucial thing of all. Thank you, Henry.’ He turned to Gabby. ‘Now, it’s time for some explanations.’
‘At last,’ Gabby said.
There was silence for a while.
Finally, Gabby said, ‘Well, go on, then – explain.’
‘No, no,’ the Doctor said. ‘That’s not what I meant.’ He pushed his hands into his jacket pockets. ‘Oh, that reminds me. I think this is yours.’ He pulled something from his pocket. It was a small spiral of coloured glass.
‘What is it?’ Henry asked.
‘Part of Gabby’s earring.’ The Doctor reached out and gently brushed Gabby’s hair aside, to show her other earring was missing. ‘See?’
Gabby took the piece of glass. ‘Thank you, Doctor. Where did you find it?’
‘It was clutched in poor Jeff’s dead hand,’ the Doctor told her, ‘which is why I think it’s time you gave us some explanations, Gabby.’
The air shimmered and blurred round Gabby. Her face see
med to go out of focus for a moment. Then it reformed, but in a new shape. It was the long, stony face of an angry Krillitane.
Chapter Nine
WHEN THE KRILLITANE spoke, its voice was Gabby’s, only deeper and more gruff. ‘Is this explanation enough for you, Doctor?’
‘More of a good guess that’s been confirmed.’
The Krillitane sniffed. ‘You are not afraid of us. How strange. I can smell Henry’s fear, but you are something different.’
‘You’re going to kill us,’ Henry said, looking around. The side street led only to the back of the hotel. At the moment it was deserted, so no one would see what happened.
‘Of course,’ Gabby replied. ‘Though in your case it will be no great loss.’
‘Unfair!’ the Doctor protested. ‘You owe Henry a lot, and you know it.’
‘Me? What do they owe me?’ Henry asked. ‘I’ve done nothing for them.’
‘Not on purpose,’ the Doctor assured him. ‘But I’ve seen the computer files. I’ve seen what your department does, as well as running the systems.’
‘We needed a human,’ Gabby growled. ‘Someone to shield us from the day-to-day tasks and the tricky questions.’
‘Me?’
‘You, Henry,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘They used you right from the start. They used you to handle the health and safety inspectors, the VAT men, and any other officials who came snooping.’
‘Why me? Why not someone else?’
‘You were ideal,’ Gabby said. ‘You had no imagination to ask questions of your own. You were so bungling and lacking in skill that anyone could see there was no point asking anything difficult.’
‘And of course,’ the Doctor added, ‘you didn’t really know anything useful. The perfect front man. Or if it all went wrong, the perfect fall guy.’
Henry looked down at the ground. ‘I always knew I was rubbish at my job,’ he said, ‘but I never guessed that was why I was given the job in the first place.’
‘Humans are so stupid,’ Gabby told him.
‘No,’ the Doctor said. ‘No, I won’t have that. You used Henry, you played on his character. But he’s not stupid. You got him wrong. Humans are clever and imaginative. You just wait. Henry will show you.’
The Krillitane laughed. ‘Henry will die. There is nothing clever about that.’ Gabby drew herself up to her full height. Her claws glinted in the morning sun as she prepared to strike.
‘She’s right, Doctor.’ Henry sounded defeated and tired. ‘There’s nothing clever about me. I have no imagination. We’re going to die, right here and right now. Look,’ he went on, pointing past the Krillitane towards the other end of the street. ‘Here come the rest of her alien friends to gloat at us.’
Without thinking, Gabby the Krillitane turned to look where Henry was pointing, but the Doctor could see that the street was empty. There were no Krillitanes coming.
As soon as the creature turned, Henry leaped forward and shoved it hard in the back. The Krillitane staggered forwards, slipping off the kerb. It struggled to retain its balance.
That gave the Doctor and Henry time to run the other way down the street, towards the main road.
‘Well done, Henry,’ the Doctor said. ‘Clever and imaginative. I knew you could do it.’
‘We’re not safe yet,’ Henry pointed out. ‘She’ll be after us in a minute.’
They had reached the main road. There was lots of traffic there. The morning rush hour was in full swing. The Doctor waved down a cab and they both got inside. The Doctor gave the address of the Brainy Crisps firm.
‘Now they know we’re on the loose, they’ll bring the project forward,’ the Doctor explained. ‘They’ll be using all the computer power they can. They’ll want to finish as soon as possible, before we can cause trouble.’
‘But that computer power is mostly on the internet,’ Henry said.
The Doctor nodded. ‘The more power they hijack, the less there will be to do other internet tasks. The whole system will start to collapse as the Krillitanes divert power to their own project.’
‘And this project is building a creature, right? You said they were designing themselves again.’
‘Yes, they are probably building a whole bunch of creatures to their new, improved design. The Krillitanes must have a facility somewhere with huge nutrient tanks where they grow the new creatures. The last stage will be to add intelligence and character, race memories and aggression.’
‘Then we don’t want to go to the office. There’s nowhere there they could do all that.’
‘So, where?’ the Doctor wondered.
‘The crisp factory,’ Henry said, realising. ‘There’s a whole secret area at the Brainy Crisps factory where they research and develop new snacks.’
‘New snacks?’ the Doctor said. ‘New life! Well done, Henry. I hope you know where this factory is.’
Henry gave the address of the factory to the cab driver. ‘How long will it take?’ he asked.
‘No idea, I’m afraid.’ The driver gave his sat-nav a thump. ‘This thing’s supposed to give me the latest traffic details, but it’s gone crazy. It says Tower Bridge is staying open all day, and Oxford Street’s closed because of a plague of locusts!’
‘It gets the traffic news from the internet,’ Henry told the Doctor. ‘It’s starting: the systems are breaking down.’
‘I can get you there all right,’ the driver assured them. ‘I know the way. I just don’t know what the traffic will be like.’
‘The beginning of the end of the world,’ the Doctor said, ‘and I’m stuck in a traffic jam. Typical.’
‘But we can stop the Krillitanes, can’t we, Doctor?’
‘They’re no match for you and me, Henry. We can stop them, but only if we get there in time. We must prevent a new race of even more deadly Krillitanes from hatching. I have a nasty feeling that nothing will stop those creatures once they get out.’
Chapter Ten
THE TAXI DROPPED the Doctor and Henry at the gates to the crisp factory. It was a large building that looked like an aircraft hangar, but with tall chimneys at one end. The Doctor had his ‘Access All Areas’ badge. He and Henry showed their badges to the guard at the gate.
‘Are you here for the meeting with all those bigwigs from the firm?’ asked the guard.
‘Probably,’ the Doctor said. ‘Tell me more.’
‘Oh, just that you know something’s going on when Sir Manning and Miss Sark and most of the rest of the firm’s directors turn up with no warning.’
‘And they headed for the research area, right?’
The guard said that this was indeed where they had gone. ‘You’ll need written consent from Sir Manning to get in there. They won’t let you in without it.’
Henry looked worried, but the Doctor patted the pocket where he kept his psychic paper. ‘No problem.’
‘They got here before us,’ Henry said as they walked up to the factory.
‘They can fly. That solves the traffic problem.’
‘Right. Yes. I still have a bit of a problem with this whole alien thing,’ Henry said.
‘You’ll get used to it.’
They reached the door that Henry said led into the research area. It was locked, and there was no sign of a guard.
‘There should be someone,’ Henry said. ‘At the main gate they said we needed Sir Manning’s permission to get in.’
The Doctor agreed, and set to work with his sonic screwdriver. Soon he had the door open.
Once inside, they saw why there was no guard. Half a dozen men in dark uniforms lay sprawled across the floor. From their wounds, the Doctor could tell they had been killed by the Krillitanes.
‘They don’t care any more,’ the Doctor said sadly. ‘The project must be even closer to completion than I thought.’
‘But where are they?’ Henry whispered.
The research area took up only a small part of the huge factory, but there were a few offices as well as the main workshop spac
e. Massive metal tanks rose to the high ceiling. The Doctor tapped the side of one, and checked the displays on the pipes and tubes.
‘It’s full,’ he told Henry. ‘Nutrients and acids. The stuff of life. This is where it all happens – inside this tank.’
‘Are we too late, then?’
‘Oh no. The new Krillitane bodies must be nearly ready, but they will still need to program the creatures’ brains. They need to load character and behaviour, the way the creatures think and how they act.’ The Doctor grinned and explained his plan.
Henry led the way to one of the small offices, and turned on the computer. ‘I don’t know if I can get into the systems we need. This is the firm’s internal website.’ He pointed to the screen. ‘It’s already going haywire as the internet breaks down under the pressure of the Krillitane code. Look, the canteen menu says it’s serving DNA with Custard for pudding today.’
The firm’s online diaries were scrolling pages of Krillitane code. The Brainy_Crisps site didn’t have the test any more. Now it showed the weather forecast for the Shetland Isles.
Finally, between them, they got access to the factory’s own online systems. If it all worked, then Henry could control the whole output of the factory. He could change the amount of salt and oil in the crisps. He could get the systems to slice the potatoes thicker or thinner. He could even change the ingredients.
‘Apple crisps might be nice,’ the Doctor said. ‘Or turnip. What do you think, turnip? Maybe not. Just do what you can,’ the Doctor told Henry. ‘I’m relying on you, Henry. The world is relying on you.’
‘No pressure, then,’ Henry muttered.
They both ducked down below the window as a shadow crossed it. A Krillitane was standing outside the office. They waited, then Henry breathed a long sigh of relief as the creature moved away at last. The Doctor let himself out of the room. He had another job to do.
The Doctor saw several Krillitanes as he crept through the factory. They were no longer in their human forms. That made them easier to spot, of course, but it was a worry that they were so confident.
Doctor Who: Code of the Krillitanes Page 4
