They'd had lunch at a hot dog stand and dinner at their favourite Italian restaurant, where prohibition didn't seem to interfere with the flow of Chianti.
It was evening by the time they got back to Doc's place, and she invited Dekker in for a drink.
"Quite an offer," he said. "You and a bar, all to myself. Any chance Doc'll have an early night?"
"You're out of luck, Dekker. I don't think he sleeps at all."
They went into the half-darkened bar and Luigi appeared from behind the scenes with a note from Doc. Ace read it, shrugged, and turned to Dekker. "Sorry, I have to go to a party."
"Have to?" "I think I'd better. Doc's already there." Dekker looked so crestfallen that she added, "Why don't you come too?"
"I was planning on a smaller party, just the two of us."
"Some other time - maybe. Have your drink while I change."
Dekker sipped his bourbon and picked up a copy of the evening paper lying on the bar. He was still studying it when Ace came back down in one of her snazzy black evening numbers, so absorbed he didn't even notice the dress.
"Take a look at this - things are really busting loose. Seven guys gunned down in a garage on North Clark. Seven! They're calling it the St Valentine's Day Massacre."
Ace studied the story. "They're hinting Capone's behind it."
"Al will have an alibi from here to breakfast. But the guys that got it just happen to be some of his worst enemies." Dekker frowned. "It's not like Al to pull something like this. He must have gone crazy."
"That's nice," said Ace. "We're going to his party, and Doc's already there."
26 FAREWELL PARTY
Looking like a slightly undersized James Bond in his immaculate evening dress, the Doctor stood sipping vintage champagne and observing Al Capone's party. It was a strange affair, he thought, with some very odd undercurrents. It was taking place in a private dining room on the same floor as Capone's suite. There was an elaborate buffet, smoked salmon, cold chicken and caviare, and waiters circulated with glasses of champagne. Most of the guests were men, solidly built, hard-eyed mobsters, though there was a scattering of what were usually referred to as party girls with short skirts, frizzed hair and cupid-bow mouths.
The focus of the affair seemed to be two men sitting at a corner table, one dark and sinisterly handsome, one like a balding middle-aged banker. Scalise and Anselmi, Capone's Sicilian killers. Quite clearly they were the heroes of the hour.
The Doctor became aware of Al Capone's vast bulk looming towards him. There was something strange about Capone tonight. He gave off a feeling of secret excitement, of powerful repressed energy, like a volcano on the point of eruption.
"Having a good time, Doc?" wheezed Capone.
"Yes indeed," said the Doctor politely. "I'd be grateful if we could find a moment to talk though - that little matter you mentioned over the telephone?"
"Later, Doc, later," said Capone vaguely. "We got a little ceremony to take care of first. You'll enjoy it." He raised his hand in a signal, and hard-eyed young men began bustling the small fry out of the room. All the waiters went, all the party girls, and some of the men as well. When only a small select group was left, the doors were closed and locked and two guards stood with their backs to them.
Suddenly the room had gone very quiet. Capone went over to Scalise and Anselmi's table, and stood behind the two seated men.
"I just wanna say a few words about our two guests of honour," he said. "John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. They've done a lot of good work for me in the past. Deany O'Bannion coulda testified to that a while back, or the Gusenberg boys today - only unfortunately they ain't around any more."
There was a ripple of knowing laughter and Capone went on, "I think it's time these two boys got what they deserved, and I'm gonna give it to 'em - with this!"
Capone stretched out his hand and a waiting henchman put a baseball bat in it. Raising the bat high, he smashed it down on Scalise's skull. There was a dreadful cracking sound like someone smashing a coconut on concrete. Anselmi, spattered with his partner's blood, swung round in astonishment - and the bat rose and fell again.
"No!" shouted the Doctor and took a step forward. Something hard and metallic jabbed him in the ribs and Frank Rio's voice growled, "Forget it, Doc!" The Doctor's fingers flashed to Rio's wrist in a nerve-crushing grip. The gun thudded softly to the deep-pile carpet.
But it was already too late. The baseball bat was still rising and falling, and Scalise and Anselmi were beyond all help now. They lay slumped forward on the table, their ruined heads turning the white tablecloth scarlet.
The astonished bodyguard snatched up his automatic. Ignoring him, the Doctor stayed where he was.
Capone tossed the blood-stained bat aside. "If you wanna know why they deserved what they got, they took on one assignment too many. That assignment was me. Someone offered them fifty thousand bucks to kill me - well, you saw what it bought them." He glared around the shocked and stunned assembly. "Now I want you to meet tonight's real guest of honour. The man who offered these mugs that fifty grand. The man who came here talking about peace while all the time he was playing us off one against the other, so he could take over." Capone's finger pointed. "My old pal Doc!"
The crowd moved menacingly towards the Doctor.
The Doctor said, "Wait! Listen to me!"
Somehow the authority in his voice stopped the gangsters where they stood. The Doctor stared unflinchingly back at Capone.
"Some of what you said tonight is true. Someone has been manipulating you all, stirring up trouble deliberately. But that someone's been lying to you, about your friends, about your enemies and above all about me! And he's skulking here tonight, revelling in the bloodshed he's caused. I dare him to show himself."
The long drapes billowed in the corner of the room and suddenly a tall, thin man in evening dress was standing there.
"I am here, Doctor," he said. "I have come to savour your death."
"Have you?" The Doctor took a crystal sphere from his pocket, tossing it up and down. "And I have come to see the end of you!"
Up and down, up and down went the crystal sphere, higher and higher, caught in the Doctor's sure fingers and tossed again.
The tall man began walking towards it, hand outstretched, drawn by a yearning he could not control.
Ace and Dekker got into the Lexington easily enough. Ace's name was on the guest list, and when Dekker grabbed the minor thug on the lift by the necktie and growled, "I'm with the lady," the thug decided not to argue. Let them sort it out upstairs.
It was when they got up to Capone's floor that things got tricky. The doors to the dining room were locked and guarded by two Capone thugs. Ace caught Dekker's eye and they marched up to the guards.
"Sorry, sister, private party," said one of them.
Ace gave him a sweet smile, a knee in the groin and a chop to the neck. The other turned his head to look and Dekker's fist caught him neatly under the jaw.
They dragged the bodies aside and listened at the door. Nothing came through it but a sinister silence.
They drew their guns, stepped back, and hurled themselves forward.
One more step, thought the Doctor. One more step and he'll touch the sphere, and I've got him.
The doors crashed open and Dekker and Ace appeared, guns in their hands. The spell broken, the tall man disappeared. The Doctor said something extremely coarse in Old Low Gallifreyan.
The crowd came to life and bodyguards' hands started moving towards their armpits.
Ace sprang across the room and stuck the muzzle of her Browning under Capone's jowly chin. "Okay, we're leaving now. Mr. Capone will see us down to our car."
An ambitious bodyguard tried for a fast draw. Dekker spotted the move from the doorway and shot him in the right shoulder, blasting him to the ground.
As the crash of .45 died away Capone yelled, "Okay, nobody move!" He started walking towards the door, Ace at his side.
The Doctor fol
lowed, they picked up Dekker at the door and made for the lift. It was pretty crowded with four of them inside, especially when one of the four was Al Capone, but they made it, and the lift sank down to the ground floor.
By the time they reached it, Dekker's gun was back in its holster and Ace's was in her bag, but the bag was jammed against Capone's side. They walked across the crowded hotel foyer, Capone's presence causing the usual stir.
Outside on the sidewalk Capone clapped the Doctor on the shoulder, completely ignoring the threat of Ace's gun. "Well, goodbye, Doc, thanks for coming. Swell party, eh? Drop by any time." He nodded affably to Ace and Dekker, turned and went back into the hotel.
Dekker and Ace looked at each other in astonishment.
"It's all right," said the Doctor. "He's back to normal or as normal as he ever is. Well, come on, can't you?"
They made their way back to Dekker's Buick. Dekker got behind the wheel, Ace got in the front passenger seat and the Doctor climbed in the back. He sat grumpily silent as they drove back towards Doc's Place.
Finally Dekker said, "So don't go all mushy on us, Doc. I mean, I know it was pretty heroic of us to bust into Al Capone's HQ, rescue you and shoot our way out again, but you don't have to overwhelm us with gratitude this way."
"Gratitude!" said the Doctor. "You ruined everything! I almost had him. Then you two came bursting in and broke the link and he got away."
Ace wasn't in the mood for any nonsense. "That's tough, Doctor. You may have had him but Capone had you! All we knew was that Capone had gone on some kind of killing spree, and you were locked up in his hotel. Maybe we should have gone out for a few drinks and talked things over, but it seemed better to take some action."
"Didn't I see two guys with their heads bashed in at a corner table?" said Dekker. "Looked like what was left of Anselmi and Scalise. If Al's turning on his old friends like that, he could have gone back to bat, with your head as the ball."
There was a moment of silence.
"You're absolutely right, both of you," said the Doctor. "My apologies, Mr. Dekker. Let me make amends by offering you a nightcap."
Dekker grinned at Ace. "Hey, maybe the evening's back on course."
They pulled up outside Doc's Place and went inside. Even Happy and Luigi had gone home by now, and Doc went behind the bar and served the drinks himself, two bourbons and a scotch.
"I think I'm getting a taste for this stuff," he said gloomily. He picked up the paper which was still on the bar and read the account of the St Valentine's Day Massacre.
"One of the killers was described as being particularly tall and thin. Well, we know who that was, don't we? He's winning every move, Ace. If I don't find him soon..."
"I thought you said he'd come and find us?"
As if in answer to her words, there came a thunderous knocking at the door. "Open up - in the name of the law!"
"Oh no," said the Doctor wearily. He rose to go to the door.
Dekker grabbed his arm. "Take it easy, Doc." He tapped the newspaper. "There's been one lot of fake cops operating today at that garage massacre - if they were fakes, that is. Some people think they were real cops, paid by Capone."
The hammering came again. "Open up, or we'll bust it down!"
"There's something familiar about that voice," said Dekker.
"Let's take a look from upstairs," said the Doctor. They went up to the gaming room on the first floor and looked out. It was quite a sight. Doc's Place was ringed with armed police. The front of the place was lit up by a police searchlight. In front of the ring of police stood Captain Reilly, resplendent in his police overcoat and cap. Beside him was a tall thin man in civilian clothes. His overcoat was open to reveal evening dress.
Reilly was yelling through a police megaphone: "We've got the place surrounded, front and back. Come out with your hands up, or we come in shooting. We know who you really are now, and we'll be taking no chances."
The Doctor opened the window a crack and yelled, "Who am I?"
"You're Doc McCoy, wanted for bank robbery in three states. We know you're armed and dangerous. Come out with your hands up, or we come in shooting."
Dekker couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Reilly's lost his marbles!"
"He's being influenced," said the Doctor. "Our thin friend tells a very convincing yarn."
"He's nuts," said Dekker. He stuck his head out of the window. "Hey, Reilly, it's me, Dekker!"
There was the harsh chatter of a machine-gun and the window shattered into fragments.
"Hit the deck!" yelled Dekker, and they threw themselves down.
"He must have thought you said Dillinger," said Ace. She had her gun out and was taking careful aim at the machine-gunner.
Dekker pushed down her arm. "We're in a bad spot, Doc. There's too many to shoot our way out - and even if we did we'd be branded cop-killers. If we surrender..."
"We'd probably be shot trying to escape," said the Doctor. "They don't mean to take us alive, not if our thin friend has anything to do with it."
"Well, in that case," said Ace.
"Yes, I know. Mr. Dekker, we're going to escape and you'll have to come with us. I apologize in advance for the shocks in store."
The Doctor wriggled away from the window, got up and unlocked a door in the corner, revealing an empty storeroom. In the middle of the room stood a square blue box.
Dekker looked at it in amazement. "What's that?"
"Our way out," said the Doctor. "Questions later, Mr. Dekker. Ace, could you fire out of the window without hitting anyone?"
"If you insist." Ace fired a few shots out of the window, one of which knocked Reilly's cap off. There came a fusillade of shots in reply.
The Doctor flung open the window and yelled, "Come and get me copper!" He left the window, went back and added, "You dirty rat!" Then he returned to the others. "I've always wanted to do that," he said happily. "Come along!" He bustled them into the TARDIS.
After repeated shouts and threats produced no reply, Reilly's men broke open the door and piled nervously inside brandishing their weapons. They searched the place from attic to cellars, but there was no one there.
"It's impossible," said Reilly. He looked round for the tall man who'd revealed the Doc's true identity but he'd faded away.
"There's just one thing," said a nervous young recruit.
"Well?"
"I was in the front as we came in and I thought I heard a strange kind of sound from upstairs."
"What sort of a sound?"
"It's hard to describe, Captain. It was kind of, I dunno, a sort of wheezing, groaning sound."
"Get away with you," said Reilly in frustration. "Wheezing and groaning ... What kind of an eejit would make up a description like that?"
27 ESCAPE TO DANGER
Romana and Bernice were in a dungeon.
It wasn't too bad, as dungeons go. It was light, clean and dry rather than dark, slimy and rat-ridden. There was a table and two wooden chairs. There was a wooden bed to sit on, a window to the outside world (small, high and barred), and an adjoining cell with basic sanitary facilities.
Nor were they being starved. Delicious meals from Lord Sargon's kitchen were brought to them with embarrassing regularity.
"Compared to some of the dungeons I've been in," said Romana, pushing aside her plate, "this is positively luxurious. The food is really rather good."
Bernice, who had lost her appetite for once, was stretched out on the bed, hands behind her head. "Suspiciously good if you ask me. I think we're being fattened up, and you know what for."
After their capture by Sargon they had been marched off by the castle servants, locked up and more or less ignored.
Bernice took out the Doctor's signalling device. "I wonder if this thing is still working? Maybe the batteries have run down."
"It'll have an eternal power pack," said Romana, who could be literal-minded at times. Bernice gave the signalling device an irritable shake. "They took my blaster when they sear
ched us. I wonder why Sargon didn't take this away from me?"
"Perhaps he didn't know what it was?"
"With the technology he's got in that laboratory? No, if I've still got it, it must be because he wants me to have it. Maybe we should shut it off?"
"We can't. Once it's activated it stays on till it's deactivated from the TARDIS. And those things are practically indestructible."
"Didn't you say you'd contacted the Doctor by telepathy? Can you do it again?"
"I tried. There was some kind of barrier."
"Then if this thing's still transmitting," said Bernice, "and we can't stop it, we're leading the Doctor into a trap."
When they got inside the TARDIS, the Doctor reacted swiftly and dramatically to a flashing light on the many-sided control console. "Good grief, poor Bernice. Poor Romana too, come to that. I should have checked earlier. Well, that settles our destination."
Ignoring the others, the Doctor became busy at the console.
Ace tried to explain things to Dekker, who had spotted the hatstand and hung up his trenchcoat and hat. Now he was looking around him with the mild interest of an American tourist in yet another European cathedral.
"It's bigger on the inside than on the outside, you see."
Dekker nodded. "Sure is."
"That's because it's dimensionally transcendental," Ace persevered. "You see, it's really a sort of disguised ship. We're travelling through time and space."
"That right?"
"We're going to help some friends of ours who are in trouble. They're on another planet in another time."
"Okay by me, I need a vacation. Chicago's been bad for my health recently. Too much lead in the air."
"What does it take to impress you, Dekker?" said Ace. "The TARDIS is one of the wonders of the universe. Not too many people from Earth get to travel in it. The ones that do usually fall about in respectful amazement."
"Yeah? Maybe they weren't from Chicago. Is there a drink on this ship of yours?"
"A drink?" Ace grinned. "Dekker, we've got a whole swimming pool full of beer!"
Doctor Who - [New Adventure 29] - [Vampire Trilogy 2] - Blood Harvest Page 22
