Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [71]
‘You did very well,’ he told her.
‘Not well enough. Look, did you hear me?’
Ferran reached into the towel bundled under his arm. He felt the hilt of the knife. She was clearly not armed, or wearing armour. Even alone in the women’s quarters with a strange man, her guard was down. It would cost her her life and birthright. He went through his strategy, checked his escape route. A double-blow to the chest, as he had practised so many times, then a swift escape. The blood on the blade would suffice as proof of the kill.
The door swung open. It was a hefty-looking woman in purple loose-fitting clothes, like the man at the reception desk. An employee here.
She was obviously shocked by his presence. ‘What are you doing in here?’ she demanded to know. ‘The men’s changing rooms are next door.’ She turned to the Last One. ‘Is he bothering you?’
‘No,’ the Last One replied, laughing.
‘He’s a friend of yours?’ the woman asked. ‘I don’t care what you get up to at home, but –’
‘I have made a mistake,’ Ferran said, keeping his hand on the concealed knife. ‘It’s my first time here, I took a wrong turning.’
The woman looked him up and down. ‘OK,’ she said eventually. ‘Go now, though.’
Ferran nodded and left. The Last One was grinning at him. Mocking him.
He could not have killed her like that. Her last thought would have been of his humiliation, not of his triumph.
Ferran returned to the men’s changing room, showered, dried himself, dressed. He kept looking at the back wall. Behind that whitewashed brick was the Last One, alone, unarmed, vulnerable. The thought sent a thrill down Ferran’s spine. He could kill her at any time. He had absolute power over her.
* * *
The Doctor was at the door, still searching for a control.
‘It’s solid metal,’ Debbie told him. She’d done it herself, gone round the room, discovered that the room they had been locked in was a metal tank, seemingly cast in one piece. There weren’t joins, welds, or anything of the sort. The room was bare, apart from the old bed, the space-potty thing in the corner, and the chess set she’d been given when she’d asked the Deputy for one.
The Doctor slammed his fists against the door, knowing it was futile.
‘She’s not dead,’ he said.
‘Doctor, I know this isn’t easy for you –’
‘She’s not dead,’ he snarled, ‘or the Deputy would have come in here to tell me. That could happen at any moment, but it hasn’t happened yet, so there is still hope.
‘Come and sit down,’ she said.
‘You look worn out,’ he said, apologetically. ‘I know the last few days haven’t been easy for you.’
Debbie patted the bed, and he sat down next to her.
‘I’m not sad,’ she said. ‘I’m shocked. I saw a man killed, and... well, I’ve seen that before, and it’s upsetting.’
‘Of course it is,’ the Doctor said.
‘But I’m not... in mourning. Is it terrible to admit I’m glad that Barry’s dead?’
The Doctor looked startled. ‘I thought you loved him.’
‘I did. I did, but I don’t think I liked him. All I can think of, really, is that a terrible weight has been lifted.’
The Doctor looked at her for a moment, unsure what to say. ‘I understand,’ he said finally.
Debbie remembered Mr Gibson towering over them, blaming the Doctor for the death of his beloved queen and the death of a whole planet. Physically, the Doctor didn’t look a day older, but he carried that weight with him, she could see that, now.
She held out her hand. ‘All of us carry the weight of the past, even if we don’t know what that past is.’
* * *
Dinah and Miranda walked into the reception area of the swimming baths.
Dinah couldn’t believe what Miranda had just told her. ‘He went into the ladies’ changing room? Did you see him in the shower?’
‘No!’ Miranda laughed.
‘Didn’t you want to? God, if I’d been there I’d have got in with him.’
‘I’ve asked Bob out, now, Dinah. You should be happy with that, not trying to turn me into a bigamist. Besides, you said he looked like a Nazi.’
Dinah smiled.
The young man was sitting in reception, watching them.
Miranda was hesitating. ‘Dinah...’
But Dinah couldn’t believe her luck.