Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [49]
‘How does it work?’ Sarah asked.
The Doctor stared at her for a moment or two. ‘Ah. You mean the mask? It’s made from an intelligent memory polymer. Quite clever, really. More the Master’s kind of thing than mine, though. Zoe picked it up from the Grand Festival of Zymymys Midamor. A bit out of character for her, I always thought. I think I’ve got a Kim Novak somewhere as well.’ He shook his head, but gently. ‘I have no idea why ape descendants are so obsessed with pretending to be other people. Speaking as someone who’s been plenty of other people, I’d say the whole thing’s overrated.’
Sarah smiled, one of those little childish smiles she was so good at. It very nearly broke the Doctor’s heart. ‘You know what I think? I think you don’t really regenerate at all. I think you just keep taking off masks.’
‘Are you speaking figuratively?’
‘No. And I may be an ape descendant, but we’ve all got to start somewhere.’
‘Time Lords aren’t descended from anything even remotely embarrassing. That may be why we’re so arrogant, I suppose. How long have I been asleep?’
‘A couple of hours,’ said Sarah. ‘Doctor… do you know where we’re going? When you set the controls –’
‘Nowhere,’ the Doctor told her. ‘Or everywhere. The vortex. I’ve set the ship adrift. I just wanted to get away from… you know.’
Sarah nodded. ‘They hurt you, didn’t they? Badly, I mean.’
The Doctor did his best to flash her a smile, and Sarah did her best to look as though she believed it. ‘It’s good to be tortured once in every lifetime. It gives you a sense of perspective. Can I ask how you found me? Steering the TARDIS…’
‘Look in your left pocket,’ said Sarah.
So he did, digging his hand into the folds of his trousers until he felt something cold and plastic-smooth against his fingertips. He held the object up in front of his eyes, and tried to focus on it.
‘Receiver,’ he announced. ‘How did that get there?’
‘When you… did whatever it was you did. When you got us both to that room with the fountain. I slipped it in your pocket when you started fading out. I thought it’d help.’
‘You should have said! If I’d known I’d had this on me, I could have used it to build an implicate sonar waveloop, and –’
‘Doctor!’
‘Yes?’
‘Relax. Please.’
The Doctor let his head sink back on to the pillow. ‘You’re right. I need rest. We’ve got work to do.’
Sarah nodded, turned and moved out of range of the Doctor’s eyes. He heard her shoes tapping away across the floor.
As they reached what he guessed was the doorway, she stopped.
‘Just one thing, though,’ she said.
‘Yes?’
‘What you said. About recovering from a mental illness…’
‘Oh. Just a joke. I’ve been under a lot of stress recently.’
A pause. ‘You don’t remember what you said when we rescued you?’
The Doctor grimaced. ‘I’m afraid not.’
‘We knocked out the guards. We tried to pick you up off the floor. And then you looked up at us, and you said, “I’m afraid you’re too late. I’ve already gone quite mad.”’
The Doctor mulled this over.
‘A figure of speech,’ he said.
There was another pause, before Sarah stepped out of the room and walked away down the corridor.
* * *
Trip Two: the Vortex–Shoreditch
He stopped off in the wardrobe room – in one of the wardrobe rooms – before he headed back to the master console. His legs were moving properly now, but he was still feeling numb and itchy, as if his skin wasn’t quite the right size for his body. Really, he needed more rest. Time being relative, he could have spent whole months in the vortex before going back to Earth to rescue Sam, but that felt… wrong, somehow. Even apart from the fact that it breached at least six of the minor time-travel etiquettes. It’d feel as though he were putting his own convenience before his principles.
Principles, thought the Doctor. Yes, I’m sure I’ve still got those.
The clothes in the wardrobe room were filed alphabetically, although the TARDIS often seemed to change its mind about which alphabet it was supposed to use. Finding the ‘Earth’ section wasn’t difficult, but narrowing