PERILS
Chapter Seven
Not up to turning around again without something to hold onto, the Doctor backed up on the girder, keeping his eyes on the Master. He moved one foot behind the other the way he had previously moved one foot in front of the other. He had no sense of how far he needed to go so he kept going until his back was against some framework. He leaned lightly against it. It swayed slightly so he straightened up and began to put one foot in front of the other, then stopped and backed up to the framework again. He was safe enough where he was unless the Master shot him with the eliminator, or – the Doctor dreaded to think – began to swing the girder. As if reading his thoughts, that's exactly what the Master did. The Doctor fell to his knees and gripped the girder as securely as he could, as it began to sway, at first slightly and then more and more widely.
The deja vu was making his head spin more than the height; he'd caught another glimpse of what was below him and jerked his head back up, but he was unable to look directly at anything or anyone (even the Master) because he was swaying with the girder; that was dizzying him too. Too soon, he kept thinking; I'm not done. He felt himself drifting back to Pharos and the immediacy of that was loosening his fingers. It had already happened, so it had to happen. As he let go, he was hoisted up and over someone's shoulders. How could that be? Who could balance on a girder, lift a full-grown man and still skywalk? Two skywalkers: A.J. and one of the men who had defended him at lunchtime, kept each other balanced as they carried the Doctor to safety. How had they even got past the Master?
The Doctor's rescuers set him down in the hoist he'd been about to use when he'd found A.J.'s lunch bag, and A.J. rode all the way down with him; the Doctor was standing up by the time they reached the bottom, short trip though it was. "Are you okay?" asked the Doctor, breathlessly. A.J., clearly not okay, nodded. Two steps off the hoist, A.J. fell and the Doctor caught him before he hit the ground. "What did he do to you?"
"He conked me with a mallet," groaned A.J. "He had this little stick-looking thing aimed at me. I figured it was some kind of weapon so I knocked it out of his hand. He went diving after it but I got it first. I guess there was a mallet nearby because he sapped me in the head with it. He got my clothes."
"Do you know where he is now?"
"I think they got him. He must still be up there…."
"Wait," interrupted the Doctor. "You have his tissue compression eliminator?"
"His what?"
"The stick thing!" The Doctor was excited. This was a break indeed! He held his hand out and A.J. took the eliminator from his pocket and placed it in the Doctor's hand. The Doctor examined it briefly, not knowing quite how it worked but wanting to make sure it wouldn't accidentally go off, then pocketed it, grinning. "You did a very good thing, A.J., apart from saving my life, and if I haven't said it already, thank you for that!"
"Ioh," said A.J.
*0*0*0*
The Doctor wanted to know what had happened to the Master but he felt that A.J. needed his help more urgently, so he picked up his own pay, in cash, for which he had to wait, as the amount was adjusted for his leaving early; A.J. was paid weekly and, this being Thursday, there was no check for him. The Doctor walked A.J. home in the light drizzle that was just starting, got him up to his room and examined the bump on his head. "I think you're concussed, but the skin isn't even broken. You'll have a fine bump! Have you got a torch? I mean, a flashlight?" A.J. produced an Ever-Ready Flashlight from a night table drawer. The Doctor shone it in A.J.'s eyes obliquely, from the outer corners, and his pupils constricted pretty rapidly. "So far, so good," declared the Doctor. He then asked A.J. to follow the movements of his finger, which he then moved quickly back and forth before his eyes. "Still good. Does your head hurt, apart from where he hit you?"
"You mean like a headache? No."
"Do you feel sick? Dizzy?"
"No. Just mad."
"Can you remember everything that happened today?"
"Vividly! You really are a doctor, aren't you!"
The Doctor laughed. "Well, I'm the Doctor. Let's just leave it at that." He frowned. "But I can't stay here. The Master will find me."
It was A.J.'s turn to frown. "Um, slavery was abolished quite some time ago, in case you hadn't heard."
"No, that's what he calls himself."
"Is he the guy who hit me?"
"Yes. He is an old enemy of mine and I have been trying to lose him. I thought I had lost him. Apparently not. He probably knows I am here, which puts you in further danger as well, now." He sighed. "I was hoping to stay long enough… well, it's hard to explain."
"Try."
As agitated as he now was, the Doctor did try: "I left something important by some railroad tracks near Hoboken. The Master knows I did, and will expect me to try to find it, but even so, I must find it. It's important to me. I need to find it before he finds me, and he could turn up here at any moment, so I do need to get moving." He was pacing now.
A.J. had been sitting in the chair that had served as the Doctor's bed the night before. He rose now and said, "Come on. There's another rooming house a block from here. I have a friend there who will put you up for the night. You'll be all right there."