Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [63]
One of the Deputy’s people, but too tall to be the Deputy.
So, he’d managed to get reinforcements into this time zone. Reinforcements and hardware.
The guard hadn’t seen him.
The Doctor looked at the tower block, let his eye travel up to the lights on the top three floors. That guard wouldn’t be the only one: the Doctor may have to get past a squad of them on each of thirty floors to get where he wanted.
He squatted down behind the car, confident they hadn’t seen him yet, and that he was hidden where he was. He needed a plan.
* * *
‘So what’s so great about the Teen Titans?’ Miranda asked Bob.
Bob was a little self-conscious at first, but it was a fair question: after all, he had insisted on walking Miranda home, before realising he wouldn’t be able to get back to LV426, the comic shop, in time, and so he’d contrived a detour for them.
Miranda had been surprisingly good about it, genuinely interested. Now they were back on course for her house.
‘The Perez art,’ he said. ‘Look.’
‘Glossy paper,’ she noted, flicking through.
‘It’s called Baxter paper. It’s so popular they bring it out in two editions. Er... careful with that.’
‘You know the name of the paper it’s printed on?’
‘Er... yes. That’s a bit tragic, isn’t it?’
She smiled at him. ‘No. Having knowledge and enthusiasm is never a bad thing.’
Bob decided not to demonstrate quite how much knowledge he really had about comics. He suspected that Miranda’s admiration might become pity.
‘They live in a big tower, shaped like a T,’ Miranda giggled. ‘T for Titans.’
‘It’s... you’ll have to read it. It’s good.’
‘There are a lot of scantily-clad women in this,’ she noted, a little archly. ‘Apart from this one. “Raven, conceived in another dimension, born on Azarath, died on Earth”.’
‘She’s a sort of witch. That demon’s her dad, but she fought against her evil nature and became a good guy. And she formed the New Teen Titans to fight him. Er... don’t bend it back like that.
‘Why not?’
‘Well, they’re worth more if they’re mint condition.’
Miranda handed the comic back to him, smiling.
‘It’s wish fulfilment, really,’ Bob said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Superheroes and stuff. I mean, everyone wishes at some point that their parents aren’t their real parents.’ He clammed up, realising what he was saying. ‘I didn’t mean...’
Miranda smiled generously. ‘Don’t worry. I know what you mean.’
‘I bet you’ve sat at home wishing you were really a princess from space, with a load of special powers, and the fate of the galaxy in your hands.’
Miranda laughed. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Is that really what you spend your time thinking?’
‘Er, well, no,’ Bob lied.
Miranda looked very knowingly at him. ‘Perhaps I don’t read enough comics.’
‘You can borrow it if you want.’
Miranda thought about it. ‘OK,’ she said, finally. He handed it to her, and she placed it carefully in her bag, keeping it flat in the folds of a textbook.
‘Thanks for coming with me,’ he said, feeling that he ought to. She smiled.
‘Thank you for taking me.’
‘Are you looking forward to the party tomorrow?’
‘I’m not really comfortable at parties,’ she admitted.
‘I’ll look after you,’ he assured her.
Miranda smiled. ‘Thank you, Bob.’
She paused at a set of iron gates. ‘I’m home,’ she said.
Bob laughed and looked through the gates at the perfect driveway, the manicured lawns and the huge house in the middle of it all. ‘Good one. Whoever lives in there must be loaded. Must have millions.’
Miranda said nothing.
‘I wonder if he’s got a daughter,’ Bob joked, oblivious. ‘I’d go after her for her money... I’d keep you as my bit on the side.’
Miranda opened the gates. ‘There wouldn’t be any need to do that,’ she told him.
‘Miranda, what are you doing? There will probably be guard dogs and all sorts. Oh, I see...’
‘Night, Bob!’ she called back, laughing.
* * *
The rough concrete