Doctor Who_ History 101 - Mags L. Halliday [97]
‘It would make sense, all the anomalies we were researching – Anji was researching – they were always people seeing something they feared. Projecting their own perceptions of their own nightmares on to something. So Eleana saw a firing squad up in the parc, someone with a fear of statues saw them come to life at the Sagrada Família. And so on.’
‘On to something? What kind of something? Enrique?’
The Doctor slowed, still turning the stone over and over in his pocket. ‘I’m not sure. When I was at the exchange, the others didn’t seem to see him at all.’
‘Why not? I mean, why couldn’t they see him and you could?’
‘Ah.’ The Doctor scuffed an empty bullet case out of their path and into the gutter. ‘I think it’s because I’m, well, we actually, aren’t from this time.’
‘No, really why?’
The Doctor stopped and turned, looking Jueves in the eye. ‘We’re not from this time. We’re travellers, dislocated from time and space. Things are different for us. And I’d rather you didn’t put that in your story.’
Jueves was frowning behind his wire-rim glasses, holding the Doctor’s gaze. The Doctor saw various emotions flicker and chase themselves across the man’s face. He even caught a glimpse of envy before it settled on belief. ‘Well, that would explain a lot.’
The Doctor flashed a grin at him. ‘I need Anji and Fitz: they’ll be able to see Enrique as well. Whatever Enrique is connected to, it’s been affecting us as well.’
They were nearing the Hotel Oriente again, walking slowly back up the slope.
‘Doctor!’
Alberto was beckoning them over from a sidestreet, holding his bad arm tight to his chest and glancing about nervously. They walked over, looking casual. The academic was looking very jumpy and utterly miserable. He lead them back into the shadows of the sidestreet, half hidden within a shuttered shop doorway.
‘Doctor, thank goodness. Fitz, Fitz has been arrested.’
‘What?’ The Doctor sensed Jueves tense next to him. It was the first true confirmation they had heard that there was a rout in progress. Combined with the trashed room, the suspicious looks, it could only be a matter of time before they were in trouble. ‘Where? Why?’
‘They were drinking – mourning for some of our comrades who were killed in this stupid squabble – there was a fight. Some People’s Army scum. Then, arrests. Luiz got away but lost Fitz in the fighting. There has been no sign of him since. I tried to find out, I went to them and asked but they denied they had him. I dare not ask more.’
‘Why not?’
‘Doctor, have you not heard? Has no one told you? The POUM is under suspicion, they will be made illegal soon. I will not go back there.’
The Doctor swore under his breath, a word he wasn’t even sure of the meaning of.
‘What was he doing with you, anyway?’ he asked, wondering how Fitz had managed to end up in a bar drinking. He half-smiled: actually, Fitz finding someone to go drinking with wasn’t that surprising.
‘He came to us, looking for his friend. The one he had travelled with? A Russian, I think. I forget the name. I am worried for him. For all of us.’
‘I’ll go.’
The Doctor swung round to look at Jueves. In the dimness of the doorway, the light glinted on his wire-frames. He was looking more resolute than the Doctor had ever seen him, transforming his easy-going face into sharper lines.
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m an independent journalist, they won’t touch me. They’ll show me the side of them they want me to see, they may even give me what I want. Anything to secure a favourable report.’
The Doctor tapped his chin restlessly with his fingers. He wanted to pace, to get his brain firing as his legs moved but he did not dare. Alberto looked so shaken that he was afraid the Catalan would go to ground completely if the Doctor drew any attention to them at all. Or if Alberto thought he was going to. He needed Fitz. He was the only one he could trust absolutely, the only one who could get away with the Doctor’s plan for him. He was taking huge intuitive leaps here. The whole idea was risky, dangerously so.