Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [83]
‘A bit crude for your taste, I imagine.’ Drew managed to make it sound as though Frith was lacking something important in his make-up.
Frith shrugged a small elegant shrug. ‘Possibly.’
‘I am a fan,’ Drew said.
‘Really, sir?’ He smiled politely. Really, you little psycho, you don’t imagine I don’t know that and that I don’t know about your links with Bardlenor.
‘In fact I may decide to go to Safedown and see the fight first hand. If I do your boss will be standing in for me. He’s not a fight fan either, it seems.’
Frith kept the smile in place. ‘It’s not something we’ve discussed.’
‘You might find it difficult not to take sides,’ Drew said.
‘You and your boss.’ And he dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
Frith left the office aware that Dikero Drew, the charismatic Director of the OIG, still didn’t know whom he could trust. Did that make him leader or led in the conspiracy to overthrow the domination of the First Planet?
The two Monlys stood side by side and listened to the criticisms with swivel-eyed confusion and disbelief.
‘I had to construct him out of what I could find in the main memory so I thought he did quite well. What do you think?’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘I’m hardly an expert.’
Sozerdor strolled in a figure of eight round the two Monlys admiring them. ‘He got a bit carried away with the mad routine. He wasn’t entirely consistent. But then who is? And this place will drive you crazy if you’re not paying attention. It could have been my fault though. Planting the idea that he was a toody weapons technologist was pushing him a bit far I think.’ He poked each Monly in the chest with a chubby finger. ‘You had no idea what you were talking about, did you?’
‘ You are the toody technologist, I take it,’ the Doctor said.
‘Or is there another one running about somewhere?’
‘I am all the things he told you he was. Confusing, isn’t it?’
‘But he was your partner?’ the Doctor suggested.
‘Minder. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on me.’
‘And he really was killed.’
‘Right.’
‘Whereas you really weren’t.’
‘Right again.’ He put his arm round the Doctor’s shoulders and squeezed. ‘Tell me the truth now. I value your opinion more than you know. Were you impressed? Did you believe in him?’ He leaned close to the Doctor’s face. ‘Were you fooled?’ He was like a gleeful child. ‘At least to begin with?’
‘Why shouldn’t I be? I didn’t know him.’
‘You saw his weak spot. You knew he wasn’t a toody.’
‘He knew he wasn’t a toody. That’s why it was a weak spot.’
Sozerdor said, looking the Doctor in the eye, ‘I’ve watched you whenever I’ve had the opportunity and I have to tell you –
’
‘Doctor?’ Leela interrupted from where she was standing in the middle of the central pit.
‘Be quiet,’ Sozerdor said firmly. ‘We’re talking. This is important. This is where I explain it all to him.’
Leela ignored him and said, ‘The light cage is getting smaller.’
‘Force field,’ Sozerdor said. ‘It’s called a force field. She is a bit on the primitive side, isn’t she? Where did you say you found her?’
The Doctor moved down to the edge of the shallow pit.
The circular field no longer filled the area. The brightness remained at the same intensity, but it was shrinking quite perceptibly and continuously inward and downward. Already there was barely enough room for Leela to stand up.
‘Another of your experiments?’ he asked.
‘That’s uncalled for,’ Sozerdor said sadly. ‘That was Monly, not me.’ His chubby middle-aged face broke into a sly, conspiratorial grin. ‘I know what happens. Squelch. Scream, squelch, if you want to be entirely accurate. You remember your experience in the cell? This is a little more shocking but basically it’s the same. From the spectator’s point of view altogether more satisfying. Electrifying, you might say.’
‘Controlled the same way?’ the Doctor asked casualty.
Sozerdor’s face took on an expression of mock surprise.
‘You wouldn’t be trying to trick me into telling you how it works, would you?’
‘I thought you said that’s what you were going to do, before she interrupted. You said you were