Chapter Eleven

Xznaal caught him and gave a low, throaty chuckle.

There was a haze hovering in the middle of the tube. It looked like a column of steam from a kettle, but was the colour of rosé wine.

'What is it?' Staines asked, genuinely interested.

Xznaal was also regarding the phenomenon with fascination. 'We call it the Red Death. It is an assassination weapon, a sentient poison mist. In the Martian atmosphere it is invisible.'

'A cloud with a will of its own?' Staines asked incredulously.

'If you like.'

'How does it work?' Greyhaven asked.

'A simple technique combining molecular re-engineering and artificial intelligence etherware. It has merely an animal intellect.'

'But you can program it to kill?'

'Yes. This specimen has been programmed with the Doctor's DNA profile. Traces of his blood were discovered in the reception chamber, when he was cut by falling glass. The Red Death will hunt him down and kill him.'

'Will it know where to look?'

Vrgnur lurched to a control panel. 'We will unleash the Death here, at an altitude of ten kilometres. The mist will disperse throughout the immediate area. When it locates the Doctor it will gather and feed. Once the Doctor is dead, the Red Death will instantly decompose into its natural elements.'

Xznaal twisted a great wheel, and the mist hissed out of the chamber, out of the warship.

'Now we will watch and wait.'

Birds were falling from the sky. Owls and sparrows, gulls and thrushes. They were dropping like stones.