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'You're talking about murder and dissection, about heinous
crimes against life.'
Stabfield ignored him. 'The brains remained robotic, but
organic subsystems were slaved to them the lobes grafted on
as extra storage and intuitive processing regulated by the
central positronics. Because of the nature of the brain graft,
parts of the front of the head were replaced with at least some
of the organic physiognomy. Since native Vorellan
determination and will seemed to transcend the brain and
permeate their whole being, other organic elements were also
introduced, largely at random and as they became available.'
The Doctor snorted. 'Became available? You sit there, the
unspeakable remnants of an abominable failed experiment, and
you talk about organs and limbs from an intelligent life form
becoming available.' The Doctor advanced on Stabfield.
'Voracia failed before, and you will fail here.' He turned to
Sarah. 'So there,' he said.
The Voracians were silent, perhaps considering the Doctor's
outburst. Sarah took the opportunity to whisper to the Doctor.
'What have you done?' she asked as Cairo faded to red.
'I've redefined the local area network throughout the
Hubway building,' the Doctor replied quietly. 'For example, the
main reception desk thinks its New York and the kitchen is
Paris.'
'You mean ... ?'
The Doctor nodded. 'Voractyll is only converting the
systems within this building. Systems they already control.
That's why they're so far ahead of schedule.'
Sarah looked over to the Voracians. They were watching the
world map fade to red, oblivious to its actual significance.
'Won't they notice?' Sarah asked.
The Doctor chuckled. 'Not unless I've done something very
silly,' he whispered back.
229
Stabfield turned from the map. 'The world awaits our
protocol,' he said. 'What makes you so sure we shall fail,
Doctor?'
'Because I'm going to stop you.'
The technician leaned slightly forward, double-checking a
reading before reporting: 'Rockall.'
Stabfield's eyes narrowed, the hint of a frown creasing one
side of his smooth forehead.
'Whoops,' said the Doctor.
Stabfield stood motionless for a second. 'Recheck,' he
snapped at the technician.
The technician tapped at the keyboard. 'Rockall node
converted.'
'That's very interesting, isn't it Doctor?' Stabfield stepped
forward, and the Doctor backed away.
'Is it?' he asked innocently, turning his hat over and over in
his hands.
'There isn't a Rockall node,' Johanna said quietly from
behind Stabfield.
'Are you sure?' The Doctor was against the wall now, his
back pressed into the unyielding surface of Turner's Thames.
'Maybe they just set one up?'
'No Doctor,' Stabfield said, his head swinging gently from
side to side, his voice tight and over-controlled. 'I don't think
so.' Then he lashed out, his gloved claw catching the Doctor
across the side of the head and sending him sprawling into the
equipment he had used to project the images on to the wall.
The painting skewed and blurred, a nightmare of colour and
curve more like Munch than Turner. Then it disappeared,
leaving the wall bare and empty.
The Doctor picked himself up and shook his head. Sarah
helped him to a seat as Stabfield and the Voracians turned their
attention to the main network systems.
It took only a few minutes for the technician to run a
diagnostic, locate the problem, and reroute the systems to an
external network node.
'You have caused us some considerable delay, Doctor.'
Stabfield stood stiffly in front of the Doctor. 'You have wasted
valuable time.'
230
'I never waste time,' the Doctor told him. 'I appreciate its
true worth.'
'Be quiet,' Stabfield hissed.
'Losing our cool, are we? Not quite the machine you thought
you were, eh?'
Stabfield stood still, facing the Doctor eye to eye. His head
was shaking, vibrating as if with rage. For a moment Sarah
thought he was going to hit the Doctor again. But then he
seemed to calm slightly. His shoulders relaxed and his head
stopped shaking so violently.
'Voractyll is running,' the technician announced. 'Now
entering the highway. Highway integrity and veracity double-
checked.'
'Our plans are now at phase five,' Stabfield said, his voice
quiet and apparently calm. 'We are entering a non-return
sequence. Voractyll is running and has begun to access the
nodes on the superhighway, has begun to convert systems
across the world. I have the CD that your friends took from us,
and I hold your life on a knife-edge. The Voracian experiment
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