Doctor Who: Drift Read Online Free PDF Page B

each of us as much in the dark as the other. And I don‟t very much care for the dark, do you?‟
    Kristal read a signal in the corner of her eye and she glanced down to see that Hmieleski had finished dressing her arm. She stood along with the lieutenant and reached down for her parka. In that time, the Captain was busy puzzling over his find.
    „UNIT.‟ He shook his head. „I don‟t know. Doctor. Seems to me UNIT would most likely be investigating you instead of hiring you.‟
    But the Captain had already been won over. And this Doctor had started work, confidently extending his hand, while his eyes conducted a grim survey of the dining room.
    „Ah well, genius is rarely understood, you know,‟ the Doctor shook the Captain‟s hand absently. Kristal could almost feel his mind appraising every detail in the room, prioritising every fragment for closer attention.
    His gaze fell for a moment on his companion, who waited dutifully for her own assignment.
     
    „You know, Captain, perhaps you could see about getting my assistant some better clothing, something more appropriate for the time of year.‟
    „Sir, I can help with that,‟ volunteered Kristal before the Captain could offer his protest. „I‟ll see what they have lying around the house.‟
    Morgan Shaw took a moment, then nodded. The message in his gaze was clear: he had no problem being railroaded as long as things were headed the way he wanted. He spun about ready to get everything moving again. Kristal stepped over quickly to usher Leela out of harm‟s way.
     
    Amber kicked and thrashed for the first few seconds, and then started to realise she was making matters worse.
    Forcing herself to calm down, she thought about the games she‟d played, making tents of her bed-sheets sometimes long after Mom had kissed her goodnight. She had no idea where this particular sheet had come from, but it was shiny and smooth like Mom‟s favourite linen. And as she probed her way out from under it, she kept a hold of it to prevent the wind from blowing it any further. It flapped madly for escape, the way she‟d done a moment before.
    Surfacing for air, she flipped herself over and took a good look at what she had. She started to pull it together over her lap. It was huge and the strings attached seemed to trail for miles.
    She wasn‟t happy with the way she‟d panicked, but at least she could be pleased with her find. A parachute, it had to be.
    Wow. How cool was that?
    The trace of a frown found its way to her forehead. Of course the chute had to belong to somebody, and that made her take a long look around.
    Nobody. And the lines of the chute ended in thin air.
    It was hers. Way too big to cart into town, but she should be able to stow it easy enough. She could go tell some of the other kids maybe, save the show for later. Amber scrabbled to a crouch and started raking in her find.
     
    A touch of nervous excitement kept her glancing about, that was all.
     
    „So the bed finally coughed you up?‟
    „Hey, I couldn‟t in all conscience leave you to mess up this surveillance all by yourself,‟ Parker Theroux teased his partner mercilessly as he trudged through the snow to join her.
    She rolled her eyes, lowering the binoculars. „When have you ever known me to mess up any operation?‟
    She had a point and Parker had expected an answer something like that. He stuffed his hands deep in his coat pockets and completed the rest of the walk with something of a sheepish gait. „Well, never, but if you were ever going to, I know it‟d be some time I wasn‟t around to see it happen. It‟s not in your make-up to give me that kind of ammunition.‟
    The mist was sinking heavily between the trees and the scent of pine and birch rode towards him on ethereal waves.
    Personally, he could take it or leave it, but the view - the view was a different matter. Because there was no view.
    Everything ended in white.
    He‟d heard artist-types talking about the vanishing point,