Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [67]
‘There are ways –’
‘– of forcing me. Yes, yes, I’ve been through this before. I’d be very surprised if you were ingenious enough to think up something I haven’t had tried on me. And I don’t force.’
‘I could kill you.’
‘Oh that would leave you in a nice situation, wouldn’t it?’
‘You want to repair the machine too,’ Chiltern pointed out. ‘Possibly even more than I do.’
‘I don’t think so. I have no personal stake in the matter. This is a silly conversation. If you want to kill me, kill me. I can’t stop you. I daresay you intend to eventually anyway. You can always take the brain tissue then. Not that it will help you.’
‘Help me?’
‘Why are you an alienist, Chiltern? Why did you even want a time machine? What do you think is in the future? An organic solution to madness? Do you think if you sliced me open, you’d find the mind-brain connection sitting there in my inhuman brain, maybe with a little sign pointing to it?’
‘There must be an organic solution! Someone, someday, must find it!’
‘Why do you care? You don’t strike me as an altruist.’
‘You ask too many questions.’
‘And you didn’t ask enough, did you? What about the others? What are they like? And what do they think of the way you botched everything through your carelessness and your arrog‐’
Chiltern grabbed his throat and choked him off. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I wasn’t intending to do this, but I think I may let you meet them.’
‘My pleasure,’ the Doctor gasped.
Chiltern smiled grimly. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I don’t think so.’
* * *
Chapter Fifteen
Anji and Fitz stood looking at the note that Rudy, after ringing the bell insistently, had delivered into their hands. It lay open on the table, and they were reading it for the second time.
Dear Fitz and Anji –
I have been kidnapped by Scale. It would be a good idea to rescue me.
Yours,
The Doctor
PS. – Tell Sabbath to help you.
‘It’s a good effort,’ said Fitz gamely. ‘I mean, he really tried. But it’s not actually very helpful, is it?’
‘No,’ said Anji.
‘Still,’ Fitz turned the note over, ‘he did draw this map for us. I suppose those little boxes are meant to be houses. So this one with the X would be Sabbath’s.’
‘Yes.’
‘What do you suppose these puffy things are? Trees? Gardens, maybe?’
‘Possibly.’
‘I don’t know about this telling Sabbath to help us. I don’t think he’ll go for that.’
‘Well, they’re supposed to be working together. He’ll have to do something.’
‘No he won’t.’
‘Yes,’ she said firmly, ‘he will.’
Anji put on jeans, one of Fitz’s spare coats, and a cap she found in the TARDIS wardrobe. If they were going Doctor-rescuing, she’d be damned if she’d do it in a sari. At night, she could probably pass for a boy, and of course there was no need to dress up for Sabbath.
Fitz checked the map every time they passed under a streetlamp. ‘Might be duck ponds.’
‘They’re jam,’ she snapped. ‘Gigantic pools of jam.’
Fitz glanced at her sideways. ‘Bit tense, are you?’
‘Fitz,’ she said between her teeth, ‘it’s natural to be a bit tense when your friend is in danger and you’re not sure you’ll get him out this time. Also when you’re going to have to work with a posturing ham like Sabbath. If he pulls that sinister, mysterious act on me again –’
‘All right, all right, point taken.’
‘Why does he wear that stupid coat?’
‘He said once it was in a spirit of irony.’
‘Hah! He’s just ashamed to admit he thinks it’s cool. And he should be. It’s embarrassing.’
‘It’s just a coat, Anj.’
‘And that name! “Sabbath.” Like a comic-book villain. He probably thought that sounded cool too. I’ll bet his real name’s Melvin or something. He’s so full of himself. He’s like... like... Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius!’
‘I’m glad you’re getting this out of your system before we actually have to talk to him.’
‘Whereas we’re like... like...’
‘Don’t say the Road Runner.’
‘No. There were two of them.’
‘Not Bugs and Daffy. I mean, Bugs is all right, but Daffy –’
‘No. The two...were they squirrels?’
‘Chipmunks.’
‘No, that was Disney. I think they were squirrels.’
‘I don’t want to be squirrels.’
‘Some sort