Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [78]
‘I think the Doctor’s been taking lessons from an old friend,’ Fitz grinned.
Anji looked quizzical. ‘Oh, we used to know a. . . bus driver,’ he said. ‘But I bet the Doctor’s forgotten her. Come on, let’s get on board.’ And they jogged to meet the bus as fast as their sodden clothes would allow.
The Doctor had stopped the bus and given both Fitz and Anji a huge hug, seemingly oblivious to their wet and muddy state. Anji was shivering now, but it somehow warmed her inside to see just how pleased the Doctor was to see them again. He helped Anji to take her blazer off – somehow it didn’t matter that the Doctor was seeing her like that, he seemed to count in her head as another girl – and gave her his velvet coat to replace it. She huddled inside the soft green fabric, pulling it as tight around herself as she could. He’d then looked around to try to find something new for Fitz to wear, but Fitz said he’d decided now that his coat was lucky and he’d like to keep it on for now, thank you, however wet it was.
‘We’ll go back to the main centre and find some dry clothes for both of you,’
the Doctor said.
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‘But we have to go back in there!’ said Anji, gesturing at the castle outside the window. ‘Xernic’s still in there.’
‘And my daughters,’ said a man’s voice. ‘Are they in there too?’
‘Who are you?’ Anji asked, turning to see a dark-haired, dark-eyed man in a seriously tacky gold-coloured jumpsuit. ‘Oh no, don’t tell me you’re the President of New Jupiter?’
‘I am,’ the man said, frowning.
‘Well, I can only assume you’ve never read the works of Dr Benjamin Spock,’
said Anji, adding, in case Fitz was about to say anything, ‘and no, that’s not the guy from Star Trek – or indeed, anything else on responsible parenting. Did you know that your children are in there terrorising people?’
‘Anji Anji Anji,’ said the Doctor, interrupting, ‘I don’t think this is the time or place. Mr Hoover is terribly sorry his daughters keep killing people, and he’s going to try to do something about it. Now,’ he continued, giving Anji a look that made her swallow the biting put-down she was about to come out with, ‘I still think we should go back to the main centre. You can tell us what’s been going on, and we can work out a plan of campaign. Agreed?’
‘Agreed,’ said Anji, resigned. She pressed herself as far as she could go into the corner of a bus seat, trying to conserve warmth, and settled back for a bumpy ride.
Back at the main centre, the Doctor had sent the President and his guards off to look for clean clothes for Anji and Fitz. Anji noted with interest how the President seemed to meekly obey the Doctor. She saw the guards exchanging looks as well.
Then the Doctor sat his companions down and listened to their stories.
It was a while before Hoover and the guards returned, but that was just as well because Fitz and Anji had a lot to tell. The Doctor occasionally interrupted to ask for more details, or to say a sympathetic word or two, but more or less let them get on with it. When they could think of nothing more to add, he just nodded his head and sat there in silence, obviously pondering it all. Anji was keeping her fingers crossed for a miracle solution. She really, really wanted to leave.
Hoover and the guards dumped armfuls of clothes in front of them. ‘Costumes for those androids,’ one of the guards said, vaguely indicating the direction from which they’d come. Anji shuffled over to the pile, still shivering.
She was not particularly amused at what she found. Fitz held up a leopard-print bikini in a suggestive way, but she ignored him. Not only were there Nights at the Round Table
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no twentieth-century-type clothes in the heap, very little of what there was seemed to be made for