Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [57]
‘It’s real.’
‘You’re from. . . the past?’
She laughed. ‘Yes, I’m from the past!’
‘But I thought – well, you’re not very primitive. I mean,’ he said hurriedly,
‘you’re not primitive at all.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment. And not give you a student-union talk about how my world was primitive in many ways, in its attitudes to race, and women, and might making right.’ She smiled. ‘You don’t deserve that.’
Xernic probably didn’t understand, but he smiled back.
‘Let’s get on and find Fitz. Now, he really is from a primitive time. The 1960s,’ she added, in response to Xernic’s look. ‘Free love, racial intolerance and bad haircuts.’ She sighed. ‘At least we’re not whispering any more.’ She gestured at a nearby frozen gladiator. ‘It’s not as if any of these things can –
Aaaaaaaaagh! ’ She grabbed Xernic’s arm. ‘Something moved!’
The boy frowned. ‘I didn’t see anything. They’re all switched off now, really.’
Standing on a London street, surrounded by statue-like men and beasts, back to back with a teenage boy, frightened of her own shadow. Not an image she’d wish to promote. If the guys at the office could see her now. . . cool, collected Anji, never a hair out of place, as unflappable as they come, the biggest ball-breaker of them all. Why was this happening to her, of all people? But then she realised. They’d laugh at her now, the men in the office: poor Anji, little girl lost, crying ’cos the nasty world was mean to her. But imagine them here.
104
EarthWorld
Every single one of them relied on something, whether it was their Porsche or their corporate charge account or their Old-school-tie network or their coke or their pulling power with cute young trainees. Whereas what Anji relied on was herself. She didn’t like what was happening to her now but she was dealing with it, and they wouldn’t be able to. Because they knew only one world and that’s all they were equipped for, and she – she’d had to work to fit in, and so she could do it again. She was – Aaaaaaaaagh! ‘It moved! Over there, something definitely moved!’
Xernic was whispering again. ‘I thought I saw it too – Oh.’ Because someone had stepped out from behind an elephant, and it was that guy who’d been with them back at the reception centre: Hanstrum.
‘What on Earth do you think you’re doing?’ Anji cried angrily. ‘Were you trying to scare us to death or something? Do you get off on lurking around mysteriously?’
Hanstrum snorted derisively, walking towards them. ‘I’d be careful what you say to me,’ he said. ‘Two convicted saboteurs insulting the President’s chief technician – not a sensible move.’
Anji opened her mouth to tell him where to go, but Xernic’s fingernails were pressing agitatedly into her arm. He was right. It probably wasn’t a sensible move. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked instead. ‘I thought you’d left.’
‘Did you?’ he said. That was all.
Anji turned to Xernic. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s leave Mr Mysterious to his little games. We’ve got to find Fitz.’
Hanstrum was suddenly in front of them. ‘I think you’re going my way. We might as well all go together.’ He smiled. ‘That’s not a problem, is it?’
‘N-n-no,’ squeaked Xernic.
‘I suppose not,’ said Anji. ‘As long as you don’t slow us down. What do you want with Fitz, anyway?’
‘My dear young lady,’ said Hanstrum (how patronising could you get?), ‘I don’t want anything with Fitz. Why should I? I didn’t even know of his existence until half an hour ago.’
‘So. . . ?’
He gave her a scornful look. ‘The princesses, on the other hand, I have known for thirteen years; I am the chief technician to the President, and it is my duty to protect the heirs to the throne. I am, of course, perfectly capable of finding them on my own, having been here many times, whereas you, as far as I am aware, have only skulked around in the shadows for a few hours. My offer was, therefore, entirely for your benefit.’
Several Singalongs
105
‘Oh,’ said Anji. Then, ‘Thank you.’ The first words that had entered her head had been ‘sod off’, but loath as