Doctor Who_ Blue Box - Kate Orman [76]
‘Won’t she get mad and land Bob in hot water?’
‘I can’t let her hold that over us. I mustn’t.
‘But –’
‘I have no intention of letting her harm Bob,’ said the Doctor. ‘I must make her see that’s she’s helpless. As soon as she accepts that she needs my help, this miniature catastrophe will be over.’
‘What about the Savant’s grip on her mind?’ I asked. ‘Can she get past that?’
‘Swan’s an intelligent woman; said the Doctoe. ‘Single-minded and malicious with a dash of megalomania, butintelligent. She must be aware of what’s happening to her.
In a way, her demand for an instruction book is a cry for help.’
He looked up at his companion. ‘We’re almost there, Peri.
We’re this close.’
My phone rang. I hit ‘answer’ and told the speakerphone,
‘Shoot, it’s your dime.’ Then I flinched, expecting Mr Salmon.
Christ help me, it was she. ‘Mr Peters,’ she said, sounding a little hoarse. ‘This is Sarah Swan. I’d like your help with something.’
‘Uhhhhhhh,’ I said. It was the plummeting moment of stage fright when your lines are just gone.
‘I don’t trust the phone right now.’ It should have sounded like knowing cynicism, but instead, it sounded like weary fright. ‘Let’s meet.’
The Doctor opened his mouth, and Peri just about shoved her fist into it. He subsided onto the couch. Swan had no idea they were there. I said, ‘Uh, at your house?’
‘No!’ She named a shop at ‘Tyson’s Corner. ‘Right now,’
she said. ‘I’ll be waiting for you.’
‘I’ll be there.’
I hung up the phone. The Doctor exhaled loudly. ‘I’ll go,’
he said.
‘You know, I think it might be better if I go,’ I said. The Doctor put his hands on his hips. ‘She still thinks I’m neutral in all this.’
‘And are you neutral, Mr Peters?’ said the Doctor, looming over me. ‘After everything you’ve seen?’
‘I guess I am.’ I lit up, obliging him to get out of my face.
‘I’m still an observer.’ The Doctor always looks grouchy, but Peri’s disappointed glance cut to the quick. ‘Someone has to be,’ I insisted. ‘Or there wouldn’t be any meeting with Swan.
I’ll see what I can get out of her.’
Mr Salmon dropped Bob off at my apartment, and Peri let him in. She said, ‘How was your dad?’
Bob blew out a combination sigh and whistle and rolled his eyes. ‘I think he’ll let us live.’ The Doctor showed Bob the email he’d received from an unknowing Swan. ‘The more cautious she becomes, the more information she’ll give away.’
He insisted on waiting until they heard from me, but the lack of action was driving the Doctor buggy. He straightened out the papers on my desk (wrecking my filing system), played a couple of games of chess with Bob (substituting pennies for the pawns missing from my set), inspected my fridge (a bottle of ketchup, half a lemon,a packet of cornflakes), scratched Stray Cat’s rump while she dragged herself about on the carpet with her claws, and finally went back to the Apple, to try to trace Luis based on the information he’d given away during the MUD session.
Peri tried to comfort a depressed Bob. ‘You could come with us, you know.’
Bob’s eyes got very big. ‘Really?’
‘I don’t think the Doctor would take much persuading.
We’ve got plenty of room.’
‘You know, he asked me,’ said Bob. ‘Back in ‘77. He asked if I wanted to travel with him. It was a crazy question.
My mom would have had kittens.’ Peri had to grin. Bob said,
‘So he told me he’d return for me in a few years and ask again.
When you turned up at my office, I thought it was because he’d come back for me.’
Peri’s grin softened into a smile. ‘So how about it?’
‘I don’t want to miss the next ten years of computing!’
Peri thought about that. Ten years of living in the same place, watching it change around you a day at a time. She had never had ten years in a row like that. ‘History is happening right now, and I’ve got my hands on it.’ He mimed typing at a keyboard. ‘It’s too exciting to go right now. Maybe in ten years?’
‘Maybe,’ said Peri. She gave him a pat on the arm.
Bob hovered at the Doctor’s elbow until he came out of his computer trance. ‘Er,’ said Bob. ‘I drew this