Doctor Who_ Foreign Devils - Andrew Cartmel [5]
Upcott snatched up the ledger and turned to flee.
'Yes, do take it,' said his host as Upcott turned for the door. 'I have
made a copy and the customers who are named in it will soon be
suffering most unpleasant fates.'
Upcott lunged through the door.
'Why run off?' called the Chief Astrologer. 'I have no intention of killing you. Your fate will be more far reaching and much worse!' He began to laugh.
His mockery pursued Upcott all the way through the bird-adorned garden, to the brass studded door, and out into the street. Gasping for breath, he gripped his pistols and turned and fled, pursued by the sound of laughter and the ripe sweet stench of roasting meat.
Chapter One
The three of them stood in the control room, peering up at the small screen tucked away high on the wall. They were trying to make out a mist-shrouded image.
Zoe squinted in irritation. 'Don't you have a screen that's a bit bigger?'
'Bigger?' the Doctor seemed puzzled, as if the concept had never occurred to him before. Then, almost as if caused by this puzzlement, a wave of interference passed over the image on the screen, blotting it out altogether. 'Well, it's completely gone now,' said Jamie.
'Yes,' said Zoe. She looked at the Doctor. 'Can't you replace it with something bigger? Bigger and more reliable and with more resolution.'
'Aye. More resolution,' said Jamie. 'That's something any man could do with. I could do with having a bit more resolution myself.' The Doctor's mercurial attention shifted to the young man. 'Oh I don't know.' He smiled warmly at Jamie. 'I think you've shown considerable resolve when the situation warranted it.'
Zoe was beginning to feel her temper fray. She started casting about for something to throw at the screen. 'I can tell you, we had better equipment than this on the Wheel.'
'You know, come to think of it, I do have a bigger screen,' said the Doctor. 'I took it down for repair one day then somehow forgot to put it back up.'
He pressed a button and suddenly one entire wall of the control room blossomed into a massive glowing screen, displaying an image of pin-sharp clarity. Jamie gawped while Zoe watched with cynical detachment; she was accustomed to sophisticated technology. The screen revealed a long stone building. It stood two stories high with tall dark recesses of windows and a slanted roof with odd curling tiles. At both ends of the building it was joined by a twin building set perpendicularly to it. The image on the screen roved slowly around, and by the time it settled back to its original point of view, Zoe had a clear idea of the building's structure. It consisted of four long wings joined to form a square. The empty centre of the square was occupied by a large gravelled garden in the centre of which stood the TARDIS. The walls of the building were slick with rain and gleaming in the early morning sunlight. In the centre of the screen, just outside the TARDIS, stood a flowering cherry tree. Pink petals drifted down onto the gravel.
On the far side of the garden stood a flagpole with a flag flapping on it.
Jamie evidently recognised the flag. 'English,' he said. 'Just my luck.'
'Actually, we're in China, December 1800,' declared the Doctor, reading a string of luminous green hieroglyphics that wormed their way across the top of the screen in a continuous parade. Zoe tried to read the strange symbols but despite her extensive knowledge of languages, she could make nothing of them. The text, if it was text, resembled some kind of primitive cuneiform.
The peaceful image on the screen began to fade away, the courtyard
disappearing under a swirl of misty white. 'Picture's going again,' said
Jamie.
'Oh Doctor,' said Zoe petulantly.
The Doctor frowned. 'No. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not the screen. What we're seeing is actually out there.' The cherry trees
and buildings were