Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [73]
The knight laughed humourlessly. ‘Do not try to fool me with your sorcerous words, cur.’
‘I thought none of the androids were working!’ Anji hissed at Fitz.
Nights at the Round Table
133
‘They weren’t!’ he whispered back. How did she expect him to know what was going on? ‘Africa and Antarctica must have fixed him somehow.’ Fitz jumped as another knight appeared in the doorway. ‘And him,’ he added. ‘Oh. . .
and them.’
Three more knights came into the room.
‘We know their own robots were on separate circuits,’ Xernic murmured.
‘Maybe they’ve fitted these up, too.’
‘Then why haven’t they done that before?’ said Fitz. ‘I’m sure they would have if they could.’
‘Maybe they didn’t have any more of the circuits,’ suggested Anji.
‘So where exactly have they got them from now?’
‘Perhaps. . . ’ That was Xernic. ‘Perhaps they’ve cannibalised their working robots.’
As one, they turned to look at the golden humanoid in the doorway.
‘It’s not moving,’ whispered Anji.
‘Not making a sound,’ said Xernic.
‘Run for it!’ yelled Fitz, and the three of them were on their feet and through the door in a split second.
They heard Asia’s shouts from behind them: ‘Get them! Kill them! They’re sorcerers too!’ And then the clank of metal footsteps running after them as the knights started in pursuit.
‘They won’t be able to run fast in that armour,’ panted Anji. ‘We’ve just got to keep outdistancing them until we find a way out!’
‘And your plan for that is. . . ?’ asked Fitz, who was wondering if taking the escape initiative had been such a wise move after all.
‘Just keep running!’
‘Here we are!’ beamed the Doctor, gesturing behind him with a flourish. Not that he needed to point anyone in the right direction: Hoover and the two guards were already staring open-mouthed at the bright-red double-decker bus that the Doctor was standing beside.
‘You expect us to travel in that. . . relic?’ Hoover said, incredulously.
‘Yes!’ said the Doctor, jumping on board and giving two sharp tugs to a bell pull. ‘All aboard. Any more fares, please, any more fares?’ He leaned forward and addressed one of the guards confidentially. ‘I’ve always wanted to do this.’
With some trepidation, Hoover and the guards climbed on board. ‘Room for three upstairs!’ called the Doctor, adding, ‘You’ll get a better view from up there.’
134
EarthWorld
‘No, thank you,’ said the President, perching gingerly on a side seat, ‘we’re fine down here.’
‘Fair enough,’ the Doctor grinned, sliding himself into the driver’s seat. He rubbed his hands together happily. ‘Suddenly the day seems so much brighter!’
he said.
Anji, Fitz and Xernic were outpacing the knights, but Anji was breathing heavily now and knew she couldn’t keep going for much longer – even with the benefit of Elastoplast – whereas the androids, of course, would be able to keep running indefinitely. And presumably their feet would be pain-free as well. Not fair.
She wondered if her life was going to be one long string of running away from things until she got back to Earth. At this rate, she’d have had enough practice to enter in the 2004 Olympics. She was also writing up a mental list of The Rules: no high heels, carry spare clothes (or at least a ball of string), always make sure of an escape route. Possibly also, if she wanted to be plagiaristic,
‘Trust No One’. Well, almost no one. What she wouldn’t give to see the Doctor right now.
They’d turned the wrong way out of the round-table room and couldn’t retrace the route to the Twentieth-Century London Zone, and although Xernic had suggested hiding behind a curtain, waiting for the guards to pass and doubling back, no such curtain had presented itself. Now they’d gone up a long flight of stairs, and Anji was fairly sure they were on ground level rather than beneath it. Surely there had to be another exit – it would be ridiculous to expect the general EarthWorld tourists to enter a medieval castle by way of the back stage of a theatre. Though quite why they’d want to come here she didn’t know; all it seemed to consist