Doctor How and the Deadly Anemones Read Online Free PDF Page B

Rindan life-death thing to take that risk, I guess. And if you’re not an experienced grower of these things, and you don’t have the right equipment – well, you’re just asking for trouble. Just bad luck for the Plenscas that some of theirs morphed. Trini thinks three.”
    “What happened to the others?”
    “Eaten by the ones that morphed. Carnivores don’t tend to be fussy. Especially if they’re below a certain level of sentience. And if the environment had been a little more conducive in here they’d have stayed to eat the Plenscas’ bones too.” The Doctor stroked his chin and sighed. “They’re water-based, and would have squeezed down the toilet to escape. The ones that survived are now on the loose in the sewers of London. And someone’s going to have to go after them.”
    “Doc, if you think I’m going to go up to my neck in sewage you’ve got another thing coming.”
    “I wouldn’t worry about that, lad. Help is always at hand.” He paused and looked down at Trinity. “Isn’t it, Trin?”
    She stared back at him, her look inscrutable to Kevin. He felt a pang of envy at this close relationship between Trinity and the Doctor. It was almost symbiotic, and he wondered – not for the first time – how it had developed. All he recalled was that the Doctor had once saved her life.
    “She likes the taste of those things. Or at least she did when they were young and tender and made just a couple of mouthfuls. Nothing like a bit of live game, eh old girl? The reward at the end of a hunt. Trouble is that we just don’t know how far they can travel in a day. Trin reckons these two have been dead a few hours – maybe half a day.”
    “But when did you get the alarm? Is that not when they got attacked?”
    “No, the alarm relay was tampered with last week. Never quite got to the bottom of that. Anyway, the polyps aren’t that stupid. They’re not like your terrestrial ones. According to the articles I’ve just digested they can do an easy half-mile a day. London’s sewers are a warren. They could easily ride the currents in the buried rivers too.”
    “Buried rivers?”
    “Shame on your lack of local knowledge, lad. Over your way there’s the Effra. The artist John Ruskin said the first painting of any merit was of a bridge over the Effra near Herne Hill. In King Canute’s time you could sail up it to where Brixton stands now.”
    “Wow. Unreal.”
    “All a sewer now, of course. Covered over as London grew. The river Falcon comes off springs in Streatham Hill, down the sewers and through Balham. If they catch that current they’ll be off down to the Thames and away. Not that I think they’d like the salinity, but it does mean they can travel. If food’s scarce, which it probably is, they’ll go their separate ways. They could be just about anywhere now. We are, quite literally, in a world of shit – if you’ll pardon my expression.”
    “Like, I think it’s justified.”
    “Luckily, I know a chap who can help. In the meantime, I’ll have to call the Cleaners.”
    “The Cleaners?”
    “Yes, get these bodies cleaned up.” The Doctor sighed and stroked his chin. “I could do without all this bother. Eaten by your own lunch. What a way to go.” He caught a look from Trinity. “She says that’s the way of the universe – you either make lunch, or you are lunch. Hard to think of anyone making lunch of you, Trin.”
    Trinity’s head bobbed in laughter.
     
    The Cleaners had arrived just half an hour after Doctor How had called. Trinity had gone back to his house with When in the Spectrel. Kevin suspected it simplified things somewhat – no explanation of Trinity, or of Walter’s Spectrel, would be required. No rumours would leak into the out-of-town community about How’s Spectrel not being present, so no alarm would be raised. This was the tragic death of a diplomat and her husband, at which the relationship between food and eater had been unfortunately reversed.
    Kevin had