Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [37]
‘I can’t see any secret exits,’ said Xernic, after a few minutes.
‘They wouldn’t be secret if you could, would they?’ said Beezee, sarcastically.
‘Perhaps I’m wrong,’ said Anji. ‘This might be all there is. In which case, we can either wait till the fighting’s died down outside and hope the dinosaurs have got sick of looking for us and left, or we could try to creep out now in the confusion, and hope they’re too distracted by that sphinx to notice.’
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EarthWorld
‘But how do we get out again?’ asked Xernic.
Beezee rolled his eyes. ‘The same way we got in. Poor little Xernic, doesn’t understand doors –’
‘The door’s gone,’ Zequathon interrupted. ‘It ain’t there any more.’
Anji looked. The stone door had slid back into place after them. And now there was no sign that it had ever been there. The wall fitted together perfectly, no hint of a join; no lever, no handle, nothing. Four people, fifty cubic feet, no doors.
Those cats would be meaning bad luck, then, after all.
The Doctor had made it down three corridors and two flights of stairs before he was caught.
Now, flanked by guards, he was standing in front of another throne. Upon it sat a dark-eyed man wearing a golden jumpsuit with a heavy-looking bejewelled crown on his dark head. The Doctor held out a hand. ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘I’m the Doctor. It’s very nice to make your acquaintance; we didn’t meet last time I was arrested.’
‘Silence!’ yelled a guard.
‘Why?’ asked the Doctor. ‘Do you have a headache? I’m so sorry, maybe there’s something I can do to h-’
‘Si- lence!’ yelled the guard again. The Doctor was silent.
A blond man, probably in his late thirties, stepped out from the shadows of the throne. He was tall and slim, and wore robes of deep-green velvet that clashed with his bright-blue irises. ‘So, you’re the Doctor,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ the Doctor answered. ‘I said so a minute ago. I hope you don’t mind my saying so, but I do like your dress.’
The man ignored him. ‘You are a known terrorist –’
(‘No I’m not,’ muttered the Doctor.)
‘– and have already been condemned to death. You have now added escaping lawful custody to the charges against you.’
‘Oh dear,’ said the Doctor, ‘does that mean I’ll have to be executed twice? I didn’t meet you last time I was sentenced – in fact I didn’t meet anyone last time I was sentenced – in fact, I wasn’t actually aware I had been sentenced: some men just shouted at me for a bit and then threw me in a cell. Not a very sophisticated system. Earth would be ashamed of you. Trials on Earth take months, sometimes. Anyway, I take it you –’ to the man on the throne – ‘are the President, Mr John F Hoover, which means you –’ to the blond man – ‘are probably Hanstrum. Am I right?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Now, before A Man is the Sum of His [False] Memories 69
you sentence me to death again, could I just point out that there are some enraged prehistoric monsters rampaging around your star attraction, and all the barriers have gone down – irretrievably, I’m afraid. I was just on my way to sort it all out, but maybe you’d like to do it instead?’
‘What lies are these?’ asked the man who was almost certainly Hanstrum.
‘Undoubtedly this is some saboteur’s trick.’
‘No, it isn’t,’ the Doctor said, patiently. ‘There are a lot of mad androids in your theme park that are probably killing people. Or they undoubtedly will be soon, if they’re not already. And there’s nothing holding them back. I was just off to the centre to attempt to shut them down.’
The President spoke for the first time. ‘Impossible. Hundreds of off-worlders will be arriving for the opening ceremony any day now.’
‘I don’t think you mean “impossible”,’ the Doctor corrected him. ‘It’s perfectly possible I’m sure; you just don’t want me to do it. You