Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [20]
"Thirtyseven years before their sellby date!' He stuck one in his mouth, then put on his hat at a rakish angle and leaned back in the chair, swinging his feet up on to the desk. 'Letsh shee what comesh crawling out of the woodwoik, blue eyesh.'
The chair began to slide backward and the Doctor dropped slowly towards the floor until he touched the ground, his feet still on the desk. He pulled the sweet cigarette from between his lips. 'This obviously isn't as easy as it looks.'
Ace had finished her doughboy and was halfway through McBride's when Sharkey slithered back to their table. If possible he was jumpier than ever. His wet hair stuck slickly to the top of his head and he looked constantly back at the door. He spoke quickly and quietly to McBride.
'I'm taking you to see someone. Deals in scientific stuff, anything crooked.
Clever though. Calls himself the Professor.'
Ace spluttered, nearly choking on her food.
'What's up with her?'
McBride was pounding her on the back. 'I don't know.'
Ace took a long swig of her Coke. 'I'm OK. Don't mind me.' McBride turned back to Sharkey, but Ace's mind was racing. She'd been calling the Doctor by the nickname
'Professor' ever since she'd been travelling with him. Was it possible that this, or some later regeneration, had set himself up in wartime London as some kind of seedy underworld adviser?,
The thought faded as she listened to Sharkey. The Professor was an old man by the name of George Limb. The Doctor had used many aliases over the years, but this didn't have his style at all. Had this man been called John Smith, then she might have been worried. The Doctor seemed to think that John Smith was nicely inconspicuous but Ace cringed every time he used it she would have to talk to him about finding another name.
She pulled her chair in closer to catch what Sharkey was saying.
'He used to be some kind of adviser to the government, until they dropped him. I don't know all the details. Now he tries to make a living like the rest of us. If you want scientific knowhow, scientific gear, he can get it. That heist over in Acton last year? Word on the street was that the Professor planned every step of that. I don't know who his contacts are, but they're powerful. If anyone is going to know where your blessed sphere is, then it's him.'
McBride gulped down the last of his beer. 'OK, let's do it.'
Sharkey looked suspiciously at Ace. 'You takin' her?'
Ace bristled. 'Yes, he is taking her, ratbag. And don't start giving me any of that "it'stoodangerousforgirls" crap. Tell him, McBride.'
McBride's heart sank. He had been hoping that he could leave Ace under the watchful gaze of Mama while he and Sharkey tracked down the sphere, but it was obvious that if he didn't take her with them then she would just sneak off and follow them anyway. At least he could keep an eye on her if she came along.
'Of course she's coming, Sharkey. Just think of her as my junior partner.'
Ace tipped McBride's hat back on her head at a rakish angle, swung her feet up on to the table and tipped her chair back with, practised ease.
'Wicked!'
The Doctor was pacing restlessly around McBride's office. He hadn't expected to get any instant results, but rather thought that his reactivation of the homing beacon would result in some reaction from whoever had provided it.
He had sat at McBride's desk for a long time, clearing his mind for the battle to come. Eventually, he had got bored and started poking around the office for things to do. There was a time when he would have just sat and waited. Some of his older regenerations would have settled themselves down with a plate of cheese and a bottle of wine, or a good book, patiently waiting for the enemy to show their hand. He, on the other hand, had taken McBride's typewriter to pieces and reassembled all the letters in a different order, rummaged through the