Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [76]
‘Oh, it’s you,’ said the Doctor. ‘What do you want?’
‘Dr Chiltern says I’m to take your coat.’
‘Well, hard cheese for him, O’Keagh, because I’m keeping it.’
O’Keagh blinked a couple of times, taking this in. ‘He wants it.’
‘We can’t have everything we want. You know that. I’m sure he has lots of coats. What does he need mine for?’
‘He wants to check the pockets, to be sure there’s nothing in them you can use to...’ Uncharacteristically, O’Keagh trailed off.
‘Make away with myself? Rob him of his prize? So nice to be worried about.’
There was a pause.
‘He wants the coat,’ said O’Keagh finally.
‘He can’t have it,’ said the Doctor. ‘Your move.’
O’Keagh thought some more. ‘Just empty the pockets for me, then.’
‘Ha,’ said the Doctor. ‘You know not what you ask. I’m sorry, O’Keagh, it’s not your fault, for you it would be the first time, but I’m not going through the endless emptying-the‐pockets routine with its plethora of whimsical surprises again. I’m just not. The first several dozen times are fine, but after that it gets old. I mean, finally, in the long run, I don’t care how many yo-yos I have. Do you see what I mean?’
O’Keagh didn’t appear to. The Doctor leaned forward.
‘Tell Chiltern that if he’s really worried about my coining to harm, then he shouldn’t have me locked up down here with his mysterious, shuffling, nosy, perfumed monster. You don’t have to remember all of that. Just the monster part. I’ll bet that interests him.’
What a burden always to be right, the Doctor thought a few minutes later when he heard Chiltern rushing down the steps, followed by the heavy tread of O’Keagh. Chiltern gripped the bars. ‘What did you see?’
‘Nothing,’ said the Doctor. ‘You left me in the pitch black, remember? I heard a number of things, however. And felt a few.’
‘Are you... ?’
‘It didn’t hurt me, if that’s what you’re asking.’
Chiltern hurried to the head of the passageway and held up the lamp, peering into the blackness. The Doctor could see the muscles tense in his jaw. ‘When do you think you saw something?’
‘Heard,’ corrected the Doctor. ‘Felt. Also smelled. Did I tell you it was rose-scented? Nice touch. A few hours ago.’
Chiltern looked back at him. His face was ghastly, but perhaps that was because of the way the light fell on it. ‘You’re safe enough in there.’
‘From what? And I disagree.’
Chiltern had turned again to the passage. He removed a revolver from his pocket. ‘You’re armed, I trust, Mr O’Keagh.’
‘Yes sir.’ O’Keagh joined him. The two men hesitated, staring into the dark.
‘See anything?’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s a terrible idea to leave me in here, by the way. Whatever it was tried to get the gate open.’
‘But it didn’t succeed,’ said Chiltern, as if to a child.
‘Not that time, no. What is it, anyway? You can tell me. I can keep a secret. In fact, over the next hundred years I’ll probably forget it altogether.’
Chiltern was speaking to O’Keagh in a low voice. The Doctor only caught a few words: ‘...how... got out... may not be...’
The Doctor kicked the iron gate so that it shuddered and clanged. ‘Give me a hint!’ he roared. ‘Animal, vegetable or mineral?’
Chiltern wheeled on him. ‘Shut up!’ he rasped. ‘Do you ever shut up?’
‘Not when some fool’s endangering my life.’
‘Listen to me!’ Chiltern was suddenly at the gate. ‘You’re as safe in there as you’d be anywhere in the house. Safer. I know.’ The Doctor grabbed his shirt through the bars, yanking him close. ‘What do you know, Chiltern? You made this thing, whatever it may be. Your Frankenstein’s monster. Did it come through accidentally? How many has it killed? Where are the rest of your “brothers”?’
‘Let me go!’
‘Let me out!’
Chiltern stuck the revolver in his throat. ‘Let. Me. Go.’
The Doctor opened his hands. Chiltern stood up. ‘You fool,’ he said. ‘You don’t understand anything.’
‘I understand this much,’ said the Doctor. ‘This is personal