Doctor Who: Drift by Simon A. Forward Page A

everywhere, many of them toppled, and DIY
    holy relics, like that mutated star-sculpture made out of copper wire, either hanging on the wall or mounted on tall stands draped with dark cloth. Heavy drapes blocked out the windows and there were more of the same leftovers from the unholy battle that had erupted throughout this crazy house.
    The major difference was in the sheets, spars and lumps of metal; scorched, buckled and broken, and laid out with lunatic reverence over the floor. Metal victims of some unnatural disaster.
    „Do we even have half an aircraft yet?‟
    „Possibly, Captain, with the sections we recovered already.‟
    Morgan shook his head, displeased. „Well, I‟ll have Ben bring up the trucks for loading. Other than that, maybe we should let the crazies do our work for us.‟
    „Sir?‟
    „Kristal and Marotta reported two rust-heaps out the back.
    A cult like this, stuck in the New Hampshire backwoods, they‟ll have more wheels than that to their name. My guess, there are a few more search parties out there, running down every last piece of our property. And sooner or later, they‟re going to be bringing it home.‟
    Hopeful, sure, but Morgan Shaw needed something to smile about.
     
    „White Shadow? Is that your winter name? Do you have a different one for warmer climes?‟
    „No, Doctor, I think it‟s meant to convey that we‟re stealthy and we‟re the good guys.‟
    Joanna Hmieleski was, in some respects, enjoying her betrayal, offering up state secrets to this self-pronounced Scientific Adviser. Mainly, she guessed, because they hadn‟t got very far into it, and she took care to murmur her responses under cover of the renewed activity taking over the house: soldiers everywhere. They‟d moved on from the dining room when Pydych had come through with the detection gear: so far nothing. Thankfully he‟d kept it short and quiet, let them off lightly with just the one wisecrack about a lovers‟
    tryst.
    „Anyway, our mission here is ostensibly a Search and Rescue.‟
    „Ostensibly, as in, it’s something else entirely?’
    „No. As in, it is now. There‟s a pilot we‟re hoping is very much alive. And - the aircraft was, well, special: a Raven EF111B - with some modifications.‟ Joanna glanced below as she took the stairs two at a time after the Doctor. She didn‟t want to fall behind him and have to raise her voice. „We found some sections on the mountain, but the Captain had Kristal divine the whereabouts of the other fragments and she traced some of them here. A backwoods cult with an interest in United States Air Force debris.‟
    The Doctor fixed her with a stare from the landing. „Do you know, the trouble with answers like those, they leave me with too many questions to know which one to ask next.‟
    Hmieleski drew a cool breath. „Doctor, I‟m risking a lot to tell you any of this. Trust me, I want to help you,‟ she kept her voice low but sharp, „but there‟s a lot of stuff they don‟t even tell me. I told you, we‟re not UNIT. We‟re not about fighting aliens. White Shadow is about - recovery and research into the useful application of extraterrestrial artefacts.‟
    „Oh, wonderfully recited,‟ the Doctor‟s stinging praise was unexpected. „Military applications, of course. What artefacts?
    What modifications, Lieutenant? What was that expensive aircraft doing flying through a blizzard?‟
    „Extreme conditions were key to the exercise.‟ Joanna hated the hole she was in here, but she couldn‟t bring herself to deceive the Doctor. Ridiculous, she didn‟t even know the guy, but she couldn‟t figure him as an enemy of the state. An excuse she would save for her court martial. She followed him along the upstairs hall, and paused while he examined the splintered rail. „A conventional Raven is a two-seater electronic warfare jet. As the test platform for Operation Afterburn, our aircraft was fitted with a device, situated in the cockpit, adjacent to the