Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [69]
‘Erm, no thanks.’ Fitz set his snifter carefully back on the table. The warm glow the drink had kindled in his stomach was already moving to his head. ‘Very nice, though.’
‘Yes,’ said Sabbath drily, ‘it is.’
Anji was irritated again. She set down her glass too. ‘The Doctor needs your help.’
‘I’m not surprised. What is it this time?’
She passed him the note. He squinted in puzzlement. ‘What are these puffy shapes?’
‘Other side,’ she said, embarrassed.
Sabbath turned the note over and raised an eyebrow. He smiled slightly. ‘The Doctor is more ahead of the game than I imagined.’
‘He always is,’ she said, ‘but I don’t know what you mean here.’
‘Only that I’ve met Mr Scale and his action doesn’t surprise me.’
‘Why didn’t you stop him?’
‘I didn’t say I knew exactly what he was planning. In any case, I doubt he surprised the Doctor either. He’s a most obvious rascal. How did the Doctor manage to write this note?’
Anji recounted what Rudy had told them about the Doctor’s visit with Hugo and Vera.
‘I see.’ Sabbath handed the note back. ‘So he went with Scale willingly, in the hope he’d take him to the man with the machine. Not a bad plan at all if you can count on someone coming after you. Yes, I have to hand it to him, this is nicely done.’
‘He’ll be thrilled you think so,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Once we find him, that is. How are you going to do that?’
Sabbath took another sip of brandy and savoured it for a moment. ‘Because of the, ah, heart condition,’ he smiled like a shark, ‘the Doctor and I have what he refers to as a biodata connection.’
‘Right,’ said Fitz, abruptly joining the conversation. ‘Like in San Francisco.’
Both Sabbath and Anji stared at him and he subsided.
‘So you can track him.’
‘Not yet.’ Sabbath’s smile this time was lazy and ominous. ‘He tracked me with equipment in his TARDIS. I’ve been putting together a similar device, but I haven’t finished It yet.’
There was a silence. The flames glinted in Sabbath’s glass as he raised it to his lips again, his eyes on Anji.
‘I’m not letting you into the TARDIS,’ she said.
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t trust you.’ The remark sounded childish to her in the face of his urbanity.
‘Clearly, however, the Doctor trusts me. He could hardly have counted on my having finished my own device.’
He watched her with a chess master’s amused detachment. She clenched her fists in her lap.
‘I’m not going to do it. You’re a genius, aren’t you? You must have some other way of finding him.’
‘Alas, no.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
Sabbath shrugged. ‘The Doctor has the most amazing gift for getting himself into unpleasant situations,’ he said casually. ‘I wonder what exactly is happening to him at this moment?’
‘Whatever it is,’ she blurted angrily, ‘I doubt it’s as unpleasant as having his heart ripped out.’
Sabbath’s eyebrow went up. He lifted his glass. ‘Touché.’
‘Look.’ She stood up. ‘I’m sick of all this suave, Vincent Price crap. Are you going to help find him or not?’
‘Certainly I am,’ he said, unruffled. ‘As soon as you bring me to the equipment in the TARDIS.’
‘I won’t do that.’
He spread his hands innocently. ‘Then what can I do?’
She picked up her glass again. ‘This stuff is priceless, right? I’ll bet it’s genuine Napoleon brandy.’ She flung the liquid in the fire, which flared up with a hiss. ‘To hell with you and your pretensions and your luxuries and your bull.’
She grabbed Fitz, who came awake startled, and marched out of the house.
* * *
Sabbath didn’t look after them. He sipped his brandy and stared through half-closed eyes at the fire. In a few minutes, the Angel-Maker touched his shoulder.
‘What is it you’ll be doing now?’
‘Oh, I’ll give them a couple of hours to come to their senses. A very spirited young woman, Miss Kapoor, but not a stupid one. She’ll realise she has no choice.’
‘It’s lovely she is.’
‘Yes.’
‘Is she the Doctor’s woman?’
Sabbath laughed at the idea. ‘The Doctor? He’s practically a monk.’ Then his face darkened. ‘I’ve only known