Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [85]
Leela nodded watchfully. In the background Tani stood waiting just as watchfully.
‘You haven’t aged at all,’ Toos said. ‘Either of you. How do you manage that and is it for sale?’
‘Accidentally and it’s one of the few things that isn’t.’ The Doctor took the battered paper bag from his pocket and proffered it.
Toos took a jel y baby. ‘I saw Poul lurking about earlier. He looked worse than I feel. All we need is Uvanov and a few more killer robots and it would be just like old times.’
‘Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?’ He offered the bag towards Tani who shook his head. ‘Old times?’
‘The story is that you are Taren Capel,’ Toos said.
‘I heard that one,’ the Doctor said.
Toos looked at Tani, acknowledging his presence for the first time. ‘He isn’t,’ she said flatly. ‘Now if you’re satisfied I’d like to get back to my life in general and my money in particular.’
Tani ignored her and said to the Doctor, ‘I’m Mor Tani. I was Captain Toos’s pilot on her last tour.’
Toos snorted. ‘Not your main occupation, as it turns out.’
Tani went on, ‘I heard what you said in there about the killer robot.’
‘Eavesdropping comes naturally to him, you understand,’
Toos murmured.
‘We had a run-in with one ourselves. It was trying to kill her.’
‘Really?’ the Doctor said thoughtfully. ‘Why was it trying to kill you, Toos?’
‘I didn’t stop to ask.’
The Doctor began to pace. ‘Poul says one, at least one, tried to kill him. One tried to kill me but I think that was because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ He looked at Lerela.
‘No robots have attacked you, have they?’
Leela shook her head. ‘I have seen few of the creepy metal men since we arrived, Doctor. Plenty of creepy people though.’
Was there a plan to it all? the Doctor thought. ‘I wonder if Uvanov has been attacked.’
‘Ask him,’ Toos said bitterly at Tani.
Tani smiled his sour smile. ‘If you’ll excuse me,’ he said, heading for the door, ‘I want to go and help with Sarl.’
‘Hungry?’ Toos challenged.
‘Will you be here when I get back?’
‘I don’t think so,’ she said.
Tani paused in the doorway. ‘As it happens, Sarl was my brother,’ he said. ‘I bet you feel terrible now, don’t you?’
‘No,’ Toos said. ‘I don’t.’
Tani sighed. ‘No, neither do I. I never liked him and he always hated me. But he was my brother and that’s got to count for something, I suppose.’
He went out and Toos stared at the empty doorway, frowning slightly. Finally she shook her head and said, ‘Why are they picking on me, Doctor?’
‘I thought it might be because you were a survivor from before,’ the Doctor said.
Leela had gone to the door, making no secret she was checking that Tani was not returning with a weapon. ‘Sarl was not a survivor,’ she said.
‘Exactly,’ the Doctor said. ‘And why wouldn’t he listen to me? He of all people should have recognised a robot when it was pointed out to him. Why did he still think it was a man?’
‘Maybe he’d seen it cross the so-called boundary,’ Toos suggested. ‘The one that was chasing me followed us right in here. It barely hesitated.’
For a moment the Doctor thought he saw the glimmerings of a plan. Had they developed these new robots to clear out the notorious Sewerpits? No, that wouldn’t make sense. They wouldn’t risk destroying the world just to get at some undesirables and criminals. Besides, looked at from the other side of the boundary, the Sewerpits were a convenient arrangement for them. It was the ever-present threat. How else could they handle people who they thought did not deserve a fair share of what the working robots were producing? No - clearing the Sewerpits wasn’t what was happening. It followed that robots coming and going was not intentional. So what was it?
‘Can you show me where you crossed?’ he said to Toos.
With no orders to the contrary, Uvanov’s personal tech team were still working on the TARDIS when the robot came