Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [27]
‘Where are you going?’ Mr Cosmo asked.
‘To talk to them,’ the Doctor said firmly.
* * *
‘This is hopeless. We can’t just expect the Last One to –’
‘Hello there,’ the Doctor said. ‘I’m the Doctor.’
The strange man and woman looked nervously at each other.
‘Hello,’ they chorused back, finally.
The strange man stood up, the strange woman stayed where she was.
‘Don’t you have names?’ the Doctor asked.
The woman’s smile flickered. ‘That’s Rum.’
The man waved weakly at him. ‘This is Thélash.’
‘Delighted to meet you,’ the Doctor said. He looked Rum up and down. ‘Are you waiting for someone?’ he asked.
‘Just enjoying the view,’ the man assured him, digging his hands in his trouser pockets and circling round the Doctor.
The Doctor turned his back on Rum and faced his partner. ‘Have you come far to be here?’ he asked.
Rum couldn’t help sniggering, until a glare from Thélash silenced him.
‘Not really,’ she replied curtly. ‘Yourself?’
The Doctor’s expression didn’t change for a moment, then he broke into a smile. ‘You tell me.’
‘We’re just seeing the sights,’ Rum told him.
The Doctor waved his hand at Rum’s camera. ‘And taking some pictures?’
‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Can we take yours?’
The Doctor straightened up, turned his head. ‘This is my best side,’ he told them. ‘You know, on some places on this planet, the people think that taking a photograph captures someone’s soul.’
‘Is that right?’ Thélash asked.
There was a flash of light, and a whirr as the instant camera expelled the picture.
Rum shook the picture to dry it. ‘An excellent likeness,’ he declared, flashing it at the Doctor.
The Doctor checked his pocket watch. ‘I’m afraid I’ve got to be going.’
‘I hope we’ll see each other again soon,’ Thélash said, holding out her hand.
‘Thank you.’ The Doctor shook her hand, but watched her suspiciously.
‘I told you it was him,’ Rum hissed when the Doctor had gone. ‘He’s rumbled us. I’m sure he recognised us.’
‘I knew it was,’ Thélash agreed. ‘This changes things.’
He gave a nervous moan.
‘There’s no need to be such a coward,’ she announced. ‘He didn’t try to stop us.’
‘You still think it’s a coincidence he’s here?’
Thélash considered her answer. ‘Yes. Perhaps he’s just following up the UFO reports.’
‘But what do we do?’
‘We’ll have to tell the Prefect.’
Rum thought for a moment. ‘We could just send Mr Gibson after the Doctor. He’s dying to kill him, you can tell.’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘Why not?’
Thélash spelled it out slowly, as if she was talking to a stupid child. ‘Because Mr Gibson is not subtle in his methods. He’s going to kill the Doctor for what he did, and there’s bound to be collateral damage.’
‘What did the Doctor do?’
‘It doesn’t matter – but we have to keep those two apart.’
‘Whatever you say.’ Rum broke into a grin.
‘I don’t know what you’ve got to smile about,’ she told him.
He rooted in his trouser pocket and pulled out a small plastic case. He opened it up. Inside were three cubes, each a little bit bigger than a sugar cube, with space for another.
‘These,’ he announced, ‘are nukes.’
Thélash’s eyes were wide open.
‘Relax,’ he said, stretching the word out. ‘They’re only little nukes. Mini-nukes. Enough to atomise a building, but that’s all. Not that it matters to us, but there would only be minimal fallout.’
He turned the plastic case over and tapped the back.
A display panel lit up, a network of red circuitry with a large red dot in the middle.
‘Press this, and boom! It’s so clever – the bomb reads out the five-second countdown, but there’s nothing you can do if you hear it, unless you’ve got this box. It’s war surplus. Genuine antiques. I forget the name of the race that used them. Those chaps with all the tentacles.’
‘Ingenious, I’m sure. What has this got to do with the Doctor?’
Rum smiled. ‘Well, while you were dazzling him with your charms and sparkling conversation, I slipped one of the nukes into his coat pocket.’
Thélash looked over at the receding figure of the Doctor.
‘Press it!’ she ordered.