Chapter 4
Dead Man Walking
Dr Eve Hoffman lay on the cold tiled floor, a scalpel stuck deep into her heart and spurts of blood seeping into her scrubs. Her dying eyes stared reproachfully at the sneering face of Captain Jack Harkness.
"Why?" she mouthed with her last breath.
"These new arms," the Master mused, "I like them. Strong. And merciless."
Contemptuously, he stepped over the body of the woman he had murdered, not sparing her a second glance. As he walked unhurriedly towards the door, a throaty laugh escaped his mouth. He paused in his tracks.
"Oh," he frowned, "don't like the laugh. Definitely don't like the laugh. I'm never laughing in this body again!"
You didn't have to kill her, said a loud voice in his head.
"Handsome Jack," sighed the Master. "You're still in my new body, I see."
He continued to walk through the autopsy room door into the morgue, unimpeded by the freezing air dancing on his naked flesh.
How have you done this? Jack asked. You were killed on the Valiant.
"So were you, Jack," the Master quipped, "many times. And yet here you are. My methods of survival may be quite unnatural in some people's eyes, but you are the true freak."
As he exited the morgue, he turned left down an empty corridor and continued walking at a leisurely pace towards the car park.
Thanks a lot, came Jack's bitter voice. What are you trying to do exactly?
"Oh," taunted the Master, "why don't we stop and have a nice little chat where I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me? I don't think!"
I'm inside your head, no, my head! Jack reminded him. You can't hide your plans from me forever. I can hear your thoughts. And I can hear the drumming, too.
"Not for much longer," the Master declared conclusively, pushing open the double doors and emerging into the chilly Vegas night. He could hear the sirens of police cars reverberating from the other side of the hospital.
"Seems those nurses have found the body," he smiled. "You think I didn't have to kill her, Jack? You're wrong. I did have to. It's all part of the plan."
Does this plan of yours somehow involve me being naked? Jack asked mockingly.
"No," the Master chuckled, approaching a man he could see in the distance, "which is why I'll have to kill him, too."