Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book One - Lawrence Miles [123]
‘Have there been a lot of offworlders in that time?’ the Doctor asked. Magdelana shook her head. ‘Can’t think of many. I told you. Nobody comes here.’
‘Except for the Remote.’
‘They crashed.’
‘But they had to have a reason for being in this part of the galaxy. We’re a long way from any other inhabited systems, I’d say.’
It was a good point. Magdelana had to admit that. So good, in fact, that she very nearly found herself caring about it.
‘You want some coffee?’ she asked the Doctor.
‘I’d rather you put that gun away.’
‘Nope. But you can have coffee.’
‘Then coffee will have to do,’ said the Doctor. ‘Thank you.’
* * *
At five o’clock in the afternoon, the Remote’s probe finally reached the spot where the man in the blindfold had appeared, and scanned the area for signs of Gallifreyan hardware. The probe lasted for only a few minutes after that, before the satellite that was tethered to the town’s clock tower crashed into it, presumably acting on some half‐corrupted homing instinct that had been programmed into its old memory core. Both of the satellites were rendered inoperable, but the vital data was transmitted back to the Remote anyway.
The probe revealed that, just outside the town, there were indeed traces of time technology that seemed to be Gallifreyan in origin, and in all there were thirteen – yes, thirteen – Gallifreyan life forms in the area. However, this technology didn’t seem to be TARDIS‐related, nor did it seem to have been engineered by the Gallifreyan military. The Remote consulted the files they’d inherited from Faction Paradox, but the things the probe had located didn’t seem to match anything on record.
The last visual signal the probe had recorded was an image of the blind man, standing in the desert near the town gate, ‘looking’ up into the sky and waving at the camera. Not at all put out by this, the oldest of the Remote announced that they’d just been presented with a way of getting off this planet, and began to put his battle plans into effect.
* * *
‘What’s a geek, anyway?’ said Magdelana.
The Doctor looked up from the tin cup that Magdelana had poured his coffee into. She could tell he wasn’t enjoying it, but at least he knew how to be diplomatic. ‘I’m sorry?’
She nodded at the poster on the desk. ‘Says there. “Mohandas the Geek”.’
‘Oh yes. It’s an old Earth term – long before your time, of course. It dates from the nineteenth century. It’s the name given to a side show performer who bites the heads from live animals. Or eats them. It took on quite a different meaning in the twentieth century, though.’
‘Mmm‐hm,’ said Magdelana.
Nothing else was said for a good minute or so. The Doctor gently sipped at his coffee, not even complaining about the lumps of grit that were floating on the surface, while Magdelana rocked backward and forward on her chair with the shotgun still balanced on the desk. The sun had almost vanished over the horizon now, and there were smears of lamplight spreading into the room from the square outside.
‘Now,’ the Doctor said, once he’d drunk enough of the coffee to make himself look polite. ‘There weren’t alien visitors when you were younger. Whatever’s attracting people here, it must be a fairly recent occurrence. That’s a start, anyway.’
‘I said I couldn’t think of any,’ Magdelana told him. ‘Doesn’t mean there weren’t any. Things were different, when I was growing up. All of this was Clan land.’
The Doctor looked puzzled. ‘I’m sorry. Clan land?’
Magdelana found her eyes drifting over to the window again, watching the last of the ragged little person shapes passing through the square down below. Word had it that the show was due to start at half past eight. Any second now, she thought. Whatever’s going to happen, it’s going to happen soon.
‘I’m the first line of defence in this town,’ she said. ‘Anything turns up here, it goes through me before anyone else. That’s my job. Has been ever