Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [31]
The robot let go of his wrist and held the sweet up in front of its eyes, turning it slowly through 360 degrees. That done, it waited for a moment and then it reached out and took hold of the Doctor’s wrist again. ‘It is allowed,’ it said and put the jelly baby back into the Doctor’s hand.
‘I’m not sure I want it now,’ the Doctor said. ‘Are your hands clean?’ He leaned in close to the robot’s face. ‘How much longer do I have to wait?’ he demanded. ‘Be so kind as to ask whoever’s in charge why I am being held here.’ He waved a hand in front of the robot’s eyes. ‘Hullo? I know you’re there. Don’t force me to complain to head office - you know how much trouble that causes.’
As if responding, the robot shuffled away from the door which immediately soughed open. Uvanov bustled in and gestured at the robot. ‘You can go,’ he said and the Voc obediently shuffled out. As the door closed behind it he said,
‘Standard operating procedure. It can only touch you if it thinks you might be in some kind of danger. We don’t want anyone hurting themselves.’ He smiled. ‘That’s our job.’
The Doctor did not smile.
‘Joke,’ Uvanov said. ‘That was a joke.’
‘What am I doing here?’ the Doctor demanded.
‘Exactly.’ Uvanov sat down on one side of the small table and gestured for the Doctor to sit down at the other.
The Doctor ignored the seat and instead stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered round in circles in the small room.
‘It’s interesting,’ he said finally. ‘No matter where you go, these places are all very similar. Is that because they’re effective, do you think, or because policemen lack imagination?’
‘I’m not a policeman,’ Uvanov protested.
‘What are you then?’
‘I’m an executive, a topmaster with the Company.’
‘Well,’ said the Doctor, ‘whatever it is you’re selling, I don’t want any and I’d like to leave. I have places to go.’
Uvanov scowled. ‘Highly restricted places, possibly?’ he asked. ‘I want to know what you were doing in the hatchling dome, Doctor.’
‘Trying to get out,’ the Doctor said. ‘I still am, it seems.’
Before Uvanov could react, the door to the cell opened again and Cailio Techlan hurried in looking slightly distracted and making no attempt to walk in her fashionable robot gait.
‘Where did you disappear to?’ Uvanov snapped at her. She shrugged. ‘I needed a break.’
‘A break?’ he ranted. ‘A break? I say when you take a break!
You don’t go skulking off in the middle of everything to take a break!’
‘If you want an assistant who never needs to empty their bladder then you should get a Supervoc,’ she remarked.
‘Don’t imagine that it hasn’t occurred to me,’ he snarled.
‘They’re cheaper and more reliable, I expect,’ she agreed in her usual casual monotone. ‘Not as stylish though. Not as prestigious.’
‘That’s why you and your friends work so hard to copy them, is it?’
‘I meant from your point of view, Kiy,’ she said. ‘Abusing a robot doesn’t have the same cachet as shouting at a human.
Especially one from a family.’
Uvanov looked up at her in mild surprise and then said,
‘And firing you is going to be an even greater pleasure.’
The Doctor sat down on the edge of the table. ‘She didn’t say you enjoyed shouting at her,’ he observed thoughtfully. ‘She said it was a question of prestige.’ He smiled a bright-eyed beaming smile at her. ‘That was what you said, wasn’t it? I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced. I’m the Doctor and you are. .
?’ ‘Not interested in talking to you,’ she said, managing to make the monotone coldly hostile.
The Doctor continued to smile at her. ‘As you wish. But an exchange of names hardly constitutes a conversation,’ he said.
She glared at him with what looked like genuine hatred. ‘You don’t fool me,’ she said. ‘I know you’re dangerous.’
‘Go and arrange for a flier to take us back,’ Uvanov ordered.
‘When do you want it?’ she asked without any sign of rancour.
‘Have it standing by.’
She used a small remote control to operate the door and then shuffled out robot style, her composure fully restored.