Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [106]
Sabbath watched him keenly. ‘What?’
A blank, almost frightened look, had crept into the Doctor’s eyes. He shook his head abruptly, and the expression was gone. ‘You’re simply wrong, that’s all. Fairy tales and myths, that’s what those stories are. Things that happened to others of my kind, already exaggerated, applied to me. We both know exactly how unreliable those legends are. There aren’t even primary texts, just fifth-and sixth-hand accounts in histories of actual, non-legendary civilisations. You might just as accurately say that I’m the model for Tom Thumb.’
Sabbath got to his feet. ‘You seem agitated.’
‘Well, of course I’m agitated. The universe is about to end and we’re wasting time discussing old wives’ tales.’
‘A few minutes ago you were content merely to wait for Chiltern to come to us.’
‘And you pointed out that it’s possible he has some other hiding place. I want to go back to the TARDIS and see if I can modify my sensors to find the machine even in its off-state. Probably I can’t, but it’s worth trying. You should do the same with your equipment on the Jonah. Just in case.’
‘So you’ll return to London.’
‘Yes.’
Sabbath regarded him, black eyes expressionless. ‘Doctor,’ he said softly, ‘is there something you’re not telling me?’
‘Nuts,’ said the Doctor. ‘Caught out again. Yes, I confess: I know where the machine really is and I plan to keep the fun of destroying it all for myself. You don’t get to play.’
Sabbath flushed. ‘Your frivolity verges on the idiotic.’
‘Unlike your pomposity, which has left the verge and jumped right to the centre.’
‘Want me to hold your coats?’ said Fitz, jauntily emerging from the trees.
They turned, and Fitz was suddenly cautious. He could feel the exhausted anger coming off each man, and though he couldn’t conceive of their actually coming to blows, the last thing he wanted was to be around any sort of altercation they would engage in. He didn’t even want to imagine it.
‘Anj is right behind me,’ he said casually. ‘And Miss Kelly’s around somewhere. We’ve pretty much combed the area. Guess Chiltern isn’t here yet.’
‘No,’ said the Doctor. He shoved his hands in his pockets and toed a pebble into the stream. Sabbath turned and stepped back up on to the bank. Fitz smiled brightly.
‘So,’ he said, ‘what’s the plan?’
* * *
‘I used to like trains,’ said Anji.
The Doctor smiled, but she didn’t think he’d really heard her. His eyes had that thinking-of‐something-else vagueness and he was rolling half a crown back and forth between his fingers across the back of his hand. She watched this for a few seconds.
‘You should have been a magician.’
‘Maybe I was.’ He pocketed the coin. ‘Maybe I will be.’ He glanced out of the compartment window, but night had fallen and there was nothing to see except the reflection of the three of them, floating outside on the darkness: he and Anji sitting beside each other, Fitz asleep on the seat across from them. The Doctor seemed mesmerised by this simple illusion. ‘Do you think I’m lucky?’
‘Lucky?’
‘Unusually lucky. Coincidences. Last minute escapes. Things like that.’
Anji considered the question.
‘Well,’ she said doubtfully, ‘I suppose you do have an awfully high survival rate considering the situations you throw yourself into –’
‘– but I’d say, from what I’ve seen anyway, that it’s something else.’ He looked at her sharply. ‘Something else that’s odd, I mean.’
‘What?’
His intense gaze unnerved her; she wasn’t used to this sort of focus from him. ‘Uh, well, it’s hard to put into words.’ She turned away from his eyes, her own gaze falling on Fitz, sleeping peacefully, his mouth slightly open. She wished he were awake to help her out here. She was certain he’d noticed the same... what was it, exactly? ‘When we arrive somewhere,’ she said carefully, feeling her way, ‘often it’s as if everything there – the place we’ve come to, I mean – was suspended, in a state of balance, waiting to