Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [51]
After that, he’d decided that the first step was to get rid of the Cold on Earth. There’d been an old OS map of the Berkshire area in the TARDIS systems, so the Doctor had called it up on the scanner. The map had been made in 1952, recent enough for the MoD station to be marked out, though not actually labelled. The Doctor had promptly set the coordinates.
‘We could have just used the receiver to home in on the Cold,’ Kode had pointed out.
The Doctor had patted the console defensively. ‘I don’t want her relying on your technology any more than she has to, thank you,’ he’d said.
Now the four of them were crossing the factory complex, heading for the warehouse from the crippled main gates, where the TARDIS had chosen to land. Long before they reached the building, they could tell there’d been trouble. There were huge furrows in the ground, as if something had crashed here. As they got closer to the warehouse entrance, they could see that the tracks ended halfway across the floor of the building. Some kind of vehicle had fallen out of the sky, the Doctor concluded, but now it had been spirited away again.
There were no people anywhere. There wasn’t any Cold, either.
‘We’re too late,’ said Sarah, once they were inside. ‘They’ve taken the boxes. Llewis must have been and gone.’
The Doctor knelt down, inspecting the furrows a little more closely. ‘Possibly. Tell me something, Kode. Are there any of your vehicles on Earth? Atmosphere vessels, maybe spacecraft?’
Kode said nothing. He was looking dazed, blank-eyed. The Doctor stood, and took a few steps towards him.
‘Doctor,’ said Sarah Jane. It was obviously supposed to be a warning. ‘He’s only been helping us because of the TARDIS, remember? Now we’ve left the ship –’
‘Ah. Yes.’ The Doctor waved his hand in front of Kode’s face. Kode followed the movement, but he didn’t look as though he knew why he was doing it. ‘Retuning yourself, Kode? Reverting to type, maybe?’
Kode shook his head. ‘No. No. It’s just… everything’s changed, you know?’
‘You’re picking up new signals from Anathema, aren’t you?’ the Doctor suggested. ‘New orders from Guest, possibly. What’s happened to the Cold? Did the Earth people take it?’
‘Erm… no. I think it went back. Back to Anathema.’ He started rubbing his ear ‘They’ve been here. The others. They’ve taken everything away. All the wreckage.’
‘Right.’ The Doctor clapped his hands, making Sarah jump and causing the Ogron to rumble ominously. ‘Change of strategy. Back to the TARDIS.’
* * *
Trip Four: Newbury–Esher
He made sure the TARDIS took the long route to Esher. Strictly speaking, conventional distance meant nothing on board the ship, seeing that she had to leave normal space-time to get anywhere. But some routes through the vortex were quicker than others, and yes, he’d told himself not to dawdle, to get on with the business of tracking down Sam. But surely nobody was going to judge him too harshly if he took some (relative) time out? He was very, very tired.
So he spent the journey in the bedroom Sarah had found, lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He remembered Badar, sleeping through most of the day in his cell, simply because there was nothing else to do.
He suddenly became aware that someone else had walked into the room.
Kode was standing in the doorway, hands tucked behind his back. The Doctor couldn’t read the boy’s expression. ‘Neutral’ would probably be the best word for it.
‘Kode,’ said the Doctor, attempting a friendly smile. ‘We’ll be arriving back at the hotel soon. Lost Boy says there’s machinery there. He says you can open up a direct route to Anathema. We’ll need your help, I should think.’
‘No need,’ said Kode, and his voice was as flat as his expression. ‘We can use the receiver to tune in to the media. We can take the TARDIS straight there.’
The Doctor tutted. ‘We’ve already been through all this. I don’t want to expose the TARDIS to your technology. Faction-built equipment has a nasty habit of rebuilding the matter around it. That’s why you’re still picking