Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [50]
He hadn’t seen his face in so long that it actually came as a surprise. As with the TARDIS, he’d almost been expecting to see an earlier model. There were no scars, but he could see burst blood vessels under the skin, making his features look beaten and blotchy. One of his cheeks was scraped raw, where he’d rubbed himself against the cell wall in a desperate attempt to get his hands on more blood.
Faced with all this, he completely forgot to check out his new costume. He just stuffed the James Stewart mask into one of the overcoat’s pockets, then walked out of the wardrobe.
When he finally reached the console room, the only person there was the boy Sarah had told him was called Kode. She’d visited him a second time while he’d been in bed, and told him everything she knew. Kode was acting on the instructions of the TARDIS, according to Sarah, although personally the Doctor doubted the ship would descend to that level of communication.
Kode certainly had a puzzled look on his face, though. When the Doctor walked into the room, the boy was flipping through an old hardbacked novel, which had been resting on a chair in a quiet corner of the room for about, oh, seven years now.
‘The Time Machine?’ asked Kode.
‘I try to read it at least once in every regeneration,’ the Doctor told him. ‘After all, it is where everything started. It’s amazing how different it looks each time. Where’s Sarah, by the way?’
Kode seemed to be listening to something as he answered. ‘She said she was going exploring,’ he said. ‘To find someone called Kim Novak. She took the Ogron with her.’
‘Good.’ The Doctor crossed over to the console and started tapping at the navigational systems. ‘I wouldn’t want Sarah to see this,’ he said, under his breath. ‘I’ve no idea whether she’d approve. There’s an etiquette to time travel, you know. Most of the rules are only there for the sake of decorum. That’s what I’d like to think, anyway. Do you know why the Time Lords don’t interfere with the causal nexus more often?’
‘Er… no.’
‘Because it’d be rude.’ Then he stopped tapping, and looked up. ‘Have we met?’ he asked Kode. ‘Before, I mean?’
The boy looked startled. ‘No.’
The Doctor shook his head, then turned his attention back to the keypad. ‘No. Well, you must have one of those faces.’
‘Yeah, maybe. So where are we going?’
The Doctor finished keying in the sequence. ‘Shoreditch,’ he announced. ‘I’ve got promises to keep.’
* * *
Trip Three: Shoreditch–Newbury
He’d stepped back into the TARDIS at almost exactly the same moment that Sarah and the Ogron had walked into the console room. The Doctor had quickly closed the doors and punched the dematerialisation switch, sending the ship into the vortex before he’d even laid in a new course. Sarah had looked puzzled, but hadn’t asked any questions. She’d probably thought he was just going mad.
With everyone assembled in the console room, the Doctor had asked Kode about Guest. Kode hadn’t tried to hide anything.
‘You mean, you never really cared what happened on Earth?’ Sarah had asked.
Kode had shaken his head. ‘We just wanted… I mean, Guest just wanted the Time Lords to notice us. Or a Time Lord, anyway. To get hold of a TARDIS. We knew they wouldn’t risk blowing up the planet this time, so…’
‘So you tried to cause a massive wrinkle in space-time,’ the Doctor had muttered. ‘You can tell who taught the Remote about time travel. It’s a typical Faction Paradox tactic. It doesn’t matter how much damage you do, as long as you get results. And expecting the Time Lords to get involved might have