Doctor Who_ Battlefield - Marc Platt [20]
She looked up expectantly as the Doctor and Ace walked in. Ace thought she was listening rather than looking.
‘Can I help you, sir?’ said the friendly-looking man working at the till behind the bar. The woman lowered her head again, reassured.
Pat Rowlinson had not expected customers at all after the storm. Three trees were down in the hotel garden and one chimney pot was lost. He had spent half the morning sizing up damage to the fences and chasing out wallabies from the local woodland colony. Worse than sheep, wallabies. The storm had upset Elizabeth and he hoped that they might have a day off.
‘Yes, thank you,’ said the Doctor, smiling genially. ‘I’d like to book two rooms please. One for myself and another for my young friend.’
‘Yes, sir. I don’t imagine you’ve come far today.’
The Doctor looked thoughtful. ‘Quite a distance, as it happens.’
Ace leaned in. ‘What about a drink. Professor?’
‘Why not?’ The Doctor scrutinized the rows of bottles behind the bar. ‘What have you got?’
Elizabeth Rowlinson smiled as she heard her husband begin his favourite spiel to a new audience.
‘What we have sir, is possibly the finest beer in the area, even if I do say so myself. Perhaps the best in the country.’
‘Really,’ said the Doctor, impressed.
‘He makes it himself,’ said Shou Yuing as she sat down along the bar by Ace. ‘In a converted barn at the end of the garden.’
‘It’s in the CAMRA guide.’ Pat went on. ‘We call it Arthur’s Ale.’
The Doctor considered for a moment and then said,
‘Water please. Straight glass.’
‘It’s made from the finest local organically-grown ingredients,’ insisted Pat.
‘Yes. Glass of water please. What do you want Ace?’
She was about to risk the ale, but she caught the Doctor’s eyebrows furrowing sternly, so she said, ‘I’ll have a lemonade.’
Pat turned away defeated. Ace felt a nudge on the arm.
‘Good choice,’ giggled Shou Yuing.
‘That bad?’
She nodded.
‘Have you got any crisps?’ called Ace.
‘Plain, roasted peanut, onion gravy or cauliflower cheese flavours.’
‘Plain.’
Pat turned back with the drinks and crisps. ‘Hello, Shou Yuing. What’ll it be?’
‘Half a cider.’
Ace and Shou Yuing watched as the Doctor began another of his pocket-slapping sessions. He eventually dumped a disparate selection of coins on the counter.
‘Four pounds ninety-five please, sir.’
Ace’s jaw hit the counter.
‘Inflation,’ muttered the Doctor. They watched as he sorted out Pallistratum Gromits from seven-and-three-eighth Rlarix Sovereigns. Something shaped like a small mechanoid crab sidled out of the pile of coins and headed across the bar.
The Doctor slapped away Shou Yuing’s hand as she tried to poke the object. ‘Do you mind, that’s a very valuable piece of currency!’
He pocketed the little crustacean and paid Pat for the drinks with a 1998 five pound ecucoin.
Chapter 5
As Bambera turned along the road leading to Vortigern’s Lake, her car communicator cracked into life. Things were looking up. She snapped the mike from its cradle and put a direct access to Centcomp.
The line clicked and a woman’s voice said, ‘Centcomp here. State request and authority. Over.’
‘Authorization: Toni-Cade-Sigma. Search subject, male.
The Doctor, reference UNIT UK, Yeti, Cyberman, Auton, Dalek, Lethbridge-Stewart. Over.’
‘Standby Seabird. Over.’
Nine seconds, enough to irritate Bambera, passed before the clipped voice returned. ‘Results: The Doctor.
Registration Doctor Smith, John. Designation Scientific Adviser UNIT UK under Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Over.’
‘Is that it? Over.’
The voice, which might have been a synthvox until then, dropped its formal tone and said apologetically, ‘Just about, Seabird. Looks like it’s a Hot FR/OG. Except that there’s a note that says to look out for a blue police box.
Seventies type... ’
Bambera stared at the blue police box, seventies type, that she was