Doctor Who: Combat Rock (9 page)

Before he could answer, and as if to validate the Doctor’s question, a violent smashing of vegetation came from their left.

The others had all arrived at the same spot now, and they too paused as they heard the noise.

Leaves and vines rustled again. A hand, a brown hand, appeared around the trunk of a bamboo plant taller than two men. Wemus raised his machete. A face followed the hand, peering around the trunk. A bird called, a shrill warning, the white girl put her hand to her mouth, but the scream came anyway, echoing the cry of the jungle bird.

Wemus lowered the machete again and an expansive grin lit up his face. A Papul man clothed in faded T-shirt and khaki trousers stepped out onto the trail and seized Wemus by the arm, returning the guide’s warm and welcoming smile.

They spoke together in the Papul tongue for a moment.

The conversation sounded urgent, the newcomer impressing something important and rather frightening upon Wemus, judging by the guide’s incredulous reaction. The Doctor waited patiently for them to finish, mopping his brow intermittently. Jamie flashed a cheery grin at Wina and Victoria, as if to assure them that he never doubted for a minute the rustling bushes would hide a friend. Santi slapped Drew’s hand away from her buttocks for the third time that day and stepped forward to look at the new arrival.

He was looking at them too now, smiling slightly, carefully, as if to reassure them. He was taller than Wemus, his hair longer, and he had a small beard and moustache. His nose was flat like the guide’s, his face more obviously intelligent. His eyes were wary, and tinged with sadness.

‘This my friend Kepennis,’ Wemus said. ‘He guide too, and he see some terrible things.’

The Doctor stepped forward. ‘And what terrible things has Kepennis seen?’ His face had lost the childlike qualities, replaced now with keen intelligence and gravity.

Wemus paused before answering. He did not want to scare his tourists away, but at the same time he had a duty to warn them of what Kepennis had just told him.

‘It is beyond my understanding,’ he said at last, searching for the words in his broken English that could describe the incredible events.

Kepennis came to his aid. ‘The gods have spoken to their people.’

‘Oh?’ prompted the Doctor. ‘And what did they have to say?’ A bird whistled from the bushes behind him, making Victoria, who was standing next to him, start agitatedly. He gave her a brief and reassuring smile before returning his attention to Wemus and Kepennis.

‘The Mumi come alive, and he kill visitors to his village.’

Kepennis spoke slowly, his English halting and imperfect like Wemus, but the gravity of his voice and the look on his face left the travellers in no doubt that what he was telling them was the truth.

‘Och, you’re tellin’ us a dead thing came to life and scared ye?’ Jamie was obstinately pragmatic as usual, but the Doctor put up a hand to hush his impetuous friend.

‘Do go on,’ he said encouragingly. ‘Tell us everything that happened.’

So Kepennis told them. He told them about the troop of tourists he had led to Akima. He told them about the Mumi spitting snakes at the offworlders – at the Indoni businessman and his wife too. He told them how he had run to hide in the jungle – and here he looked a little shamefaced. Shamefaced enough for Jamie to intervene again.

‘You mean they’re all dead? Every last one? Are you sure?’

Kepennis shrugged. ‘One may have survived. But I in jungle all night and today and not see anything. Only the killers.’

‘The killers?’ The Doctor pressed. ‘And what might they be?’

Kepennis looked wary ‘They come to village today with guns and hate. Aliens like you, paid by Indoni.’

‘Paid? Paid to do what?’ the Doctor asked, frowning.

Kepennis glanced at Wemus, as if unsure how much he should trust this stranger. Wemus nodded. Kepennis hesitated for a moment longer, and then spoke.

‘It is not safe in jungle now Indoni soldiers will come. The killers come. Indoni think we Papul to blame for deaths in Akima. Now all Paputs in danger. Maybe you too.’

Victoria had been trying to concentrate on what the guide was saying, but a rustling, as of some small animal, in the branches just behind her kept pulling at her attention. She glimpsed a flash of vibrant, unearthly plumage, and gasped softly.

Feathers more luxuriantly coloured than anything she had ever seen in her life lifted as a bird the size of a cat hopped from one perch to another. She could just make out a slender, sapphire neck and then the bird had moved, further into the jungle, tantalisingly just out of sight. She turned to nudge Jamie, but he was too far away, standing next to the Doctor. In front of her, Ussman and Budi were concentrating on Kepennis, worried expressions on their faces. She considered briefly what she was about to do, knowing it was foolish: this was dangerous jungle after all. Then decided.

She pushed her way through the foliage, stepping as quietly as she could. She had to see that magnificent bird one more time. It truly was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. She could still hear the low murmuring of Kepennis, and as long as she kept the guide in earshot she would be all right.

There it was again: a crimson plume rose from the head, which was cocked, watching her. It danced along a bough, then popped just out of vision again.

Was it playing games with her? She stepped around the twisted bole of some alien tree, and the bird made a series of odd beeping noises at her, followed by a mocking whistle.

She was in a tiny clearing now, and could study the bird closely. She smiled, heart filling with wonder.

And a hand closed over her mouth, stifling her breath, stifling her scream.

The Doctor was frantic.

‘But you must have seen her, Jamie!’ He stumbled around the clearing where they had lost Victoria, while Jamie watched helplessly.

‘Och, I thought
you
were keeping an eye on her,’ he threw back defensively. He glanced anxiously around, searching for any traces of broken branches to indicate which way she might have gone.

Ussman said, ‘She was right behind us for a while. When we were listening to Kepennis’s story. That was the last time I saw her.’

The Doctor bounded forward, searching the spot behind the trader. And sure enough, there was a small area of crushed grass, leading into deeper jungle. Jamie followed him as he ducked into the foliage. Kepennis and Wemus looked at each other. Then the bearded guide moved swiftly to follow.

He was just in time. Jamie’s mouth was open, and he was just about to let loose a highland bellow. Kepennis dapped him hard on the shoulder, pulling him around and placing one finger on his lips.

‘Do not call out,’ he said quietly. ‘There are many you would not like hear us.’

The Doctor looked at him like a child who’s lost his parents. ‘W– well, we can’t simply do nothing.’ Then he pulled himself together. He faced Kepennis with a determined look on his face. ‘How far is the Mumi village from here?’

‘Not far. Ten minutes’ walk.’

‘Then the most logical thing to do would be to go there and look for her. Maybe she got lost and...’

‘Och, we should split up and continue searching,’ Jamie interrupted.

‘No, Jamie. I think for once we should let common sense hold sway over our emotions. Splitting up will only get some or all of us lost.’

‘We have two guides now,’ the Scot argued.

It was probably the only time he could think of in his chequered history with the Doctor when Jamie actually realized it made perfectly logical sense to split up. But the Doctor was determined.

‘We check the village first. If she’s not already there, maybe there will be somebody left alive who can tell us if they’ve seen Victoria. If not,
then
we can split up.’

Jamie looked undecided. But the Doctor was already signalling to Kepennis and Wemus to lead the way.

Reluctantly he followed. When he saw the slinking smirk on Drew’s face he briefly considered smashing it off, but that would only be wasting more time.

Of course, there was no sign of Victoria, and no-one left alive to ask. Akima was a dead village.

The Mumi was still burning.

The flames had reached the preserved corpse’s neck now, the rest of the body an outline of ash against the earth of the village compound.

Kepennis raced forward, hands stretched out to retrieve this relic of revered ancestry from immolation. The Doctor was not far behind.

Budi, Ussman and Santi were staring at the bodies.

There were a lot of bodies. Some merely charred heaps, others relatively unburned, but just as dead. Men, women, children. An entire community. Drew stood back, a little smile on his face, as if he was at a particularly entertaining village fete. Wemus was quiet, standing to one side, not looking at the bodies, not looking at anything. Wina approached him and, without saying a word, put a small hand on his bare shoulder.

The Papul guide turned and there were tears tracking silently down his cheeks. He shook his head and pulled gently away from her.

Wina saw Jamie looking at her, and she smiled a painful, sad smile. He nodded and went to join the Doctor.

‘Now, this is very interesting.’ The Doctor was fiddling with the mummified head, trying to remove something from the base of the skull, just at the point where the head would have joined the spine.

‘We’ve nae time for this now, Doctor,’ Jamie said, ‘We’ve got to look for Victoria’

‘Of course we must, Jamie,’ the Doctor said, as if to a child. ‘And we will, but first I simply have to –’

‘What have you found, Doctor?’ Budi interrupted. The rest of the group had joined them to see what they were looking at.

Like Budi, they all looked aghast and frightened, and were obviously having deep regrets about coming on this trip. Santi pulled a disgusted face as she saw what was in the Doctor’s hands.

‘Well... well, I’m not altogether sure...’ the Doctor said pensively. ‘Yes. Very interesting indeed... I wonder...’ He noticed Kepennis bending over him anxiously ‘Oh, I don’t think we’re in any danger from our friend here any more,’ he reassured the guide. ‘Ahh, that’s got it.’ He raised something from the back of the shrivelled head, scrutinising it curiously.

It was a waxen horn of purple-coloured soft material, the size of a snail. ‘Now what have we here? Looks like a fungus of some variety.’

Kepennis said nothing, his eyes large with fear. Wemus was the one who answered the Doctor, his face grave and hard, the ubiquitous grin long gone.

‘From swamps.’ the usually amiable guide said slowly ‘I never see, but hear of it. From south coast swamps...’ he paused and gazed meaningfully into the Doctor’s eyes. ‘Where weird things grow.’

The headman grumpily tied his penis gourd into position, the jeans he’d been wearing a few minutes before slung into a corner of his hut. He was tired, and although tourists meant money, it also meant more soldiers. Since yesterday there had been a constant military presence in and around the small village whenever offworlders turned up.

What were they scared of?

He left the hut still fiddling with his gourd and glanced at the group of tourists huddled just inside the compound. As he had expected, a squad of Indoni soldiers had accompanied them. The commander barked something at him in Indoni which he didn’t understand. He stepped forward humbly. He was scared of these soldiers. Of course he was; he was an intelligent man.

The commander barked again, and this time he guessed what the man was saying. He gestured to Etna the husband of his sister, and together they entered the sacred hut.

The hut was dark, but they knew what they were looking for. Jikora was the most tourist-frequented village in Papul, thanks to its proximity to the popular market town of Wameen. As a result, the headman and his brother-in-law were required to enter this hut and collect its occupant many times a week.

The Mumi was waiting for them on its sawn-off tree trunk pedestal. Without speaking, they bent and picked it up.

Outside, the commander was waiting for them with three soldiers. All their weapons were, if not exactly levelled, then not far from it. The commander was saying something in Indoni, staring at the headman with narrow eyes and a stern expression, the green cap pulled low over his brow giving him an even fiercer countenance. The headman and Emul put the Mumi down for a moment.

It was Emul who answered the soldier, in halting Indoni.

He sounded a little puzzled and there was a grin on his face.

The headman asked his brother-in-law what had been said.

Emul turned to him, shaking his head as if he didn’t really understand. ‘He wants to know if our Mumi has been acting strangely.’ Well, what could the headman do but laugh? It was such an absurd suggestion.

He regretted it instantly. The commander pistol-whipped him savagely. He almost fell, the blue, blue sky whorling above him for a second before tilting back into place. He touched his brow where the barrel of the pulse Luger had struck him. Blood daubed his fingers. He stared at the commander guardedly, but said nothing. The commander said something else in an abrupt tone. Emul nudged the headman and stooped to pick up the Mumi on its tree trunk pedestal.

They carried it over to the centre of the circular village compound. There were more soldiers around the gate, pulse rifles at the ready. The headman really didn’t understand what was going on, but knew it must be some ploy by the evil president of Indoni. Still, what did he care as long as he got more moolah out of the sheepish crowd, who were gaping at the Mumi with holocameras as omnipresent as the soldiers’

guns.

The headman watched the tourists in their gaudy clothes and silly hats. There were about ten of them, and they all looked as puzzled and uneasy about the army’s presence as the villagers of Jikora themselves. One or two of them had gasped when the commander struck him, and he knew that had been a rash error of judgement on the Indoni’s part. They could not afford to lose offworld goodwill. He heard Juma, one of the younger and more aggressive men of the village, muttering to his friend about stories of Indoni craft attacking Papul villages deep in the jungle interior. He shouted to him in Papul to shut up. These were dangerous times, and they could not afford to stir Indoni wrath. Jikora was a nice little money-maker, and while Sabit took the majority of the proceeds, there were many ways for the villagers to cream away some of the profits without being discovered. A thought struck him, and he didn’t like it: perhaps that was why the soldiers were here – to prevent any more ‘fraud’. Fraud! It was
their
village and
their
Mumi. They had a right to make all the money out of it for themselves. But even thinking like that had a habit of getting Papul men killed, so he concentrated instead on providing a good pose for the tourists’ holocameras.