Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [71]
Dorothée hurriedly crouched at the edge and reached down into the impression of the lake. She felt something solid and pul ed out a black globe. It wasn't wet.
'You want this delivered, right?'
Romana glanced back towards the bridge. Ferain was moving down towards them.
'I shall deal with him now,' said Leela.
'No,' snapped Romana. 'Dorothée, please take the Doctor this dispatch. I've had the TARDIS's coordinates fed into your motorcycle's temporal guidance system.'
'The House of Lungbarrow?'
'No... not exactly. The coordinates are directly below where the House should be. Inside Mount Lung.'
'Inside?' said Dorothée.
'And when you give the dispatch to him, say Fred sent you.'
'Madam President,' called the man in black. He was waiting on the edge of the glade.
'Please just go,' urged Romana.
'I am going too,' said Leela.
'You will stay with Andred,' Romana insisted. 'His position is already in danger. And there's your status to think of.'
Leela scowled. 'That is my business.'
'Of course,' said the President with a knowing look. 'And that's why I can't let you go.'
The lake of light and clouds dissolved. Dorothée found herself back in the room in the Capitol. She still had the dispatch globe. The K9s were gone. Leela was picking irritably at her robe.
A door slid open and another secretary appeared. 'Dorothée McShane, please come this way,' he said urgently.
'We have very little time.'
Leela turned away without a word.
104
Encounters and Exits
'How did you get in here?' said Romana. She was walking through the garden with Lord Ferain. He of the black robes and black hearts.
'The same way that you are not here, Madam President.' He was smiling. 'We're both ghosts, are we not?' He reached for her hand and their fingers slid through each other like mist. 'Your ruse with Almoner Crest Yeux almost worked. Very convincing if you were there, I'm sure. But your projected image did not transfer wel to the small screen...'
'...when transmitted by your spy optics,' said Romana.
Ferain scanned the hazy Arcadian vistas. 'You must come home, Madam. The whole of Gallifrey is waiting for you.'
'When I'm ready,' she said.
'Which will be?'
'When I'm ready.' Her tone was suddenly icy.
He sighed. 'Consorting with unGallifreyans - who, incidentally, will not get very far. Ignoring your duties. Flaunting your office. There is a lot to answer. But rest assured, Madam, we have the Capitol under secure control.'
She stopped walking and turned to him. 'No, you be assured, Ferain. When I return, your Agency, my Agency, will be carpeted so fast, you won't ... you won't see the trees for dust! Things are changing, my Lord. Gallifrey will never be the same again. The tortoises are about to stampede.'
She watched the garden and Lord Ferain dissolve before her.
'What do I do now?' she said in desperation. 'I didn't want to give the Doctor that "mission" in the first place. And now it's all going wrong.' She turned to the woman with the silver face. 'Have I done the right thing?'
'Oh, yes,' said the woman.
'But the CIA will try anything, any way at all to find out about the Doctor. We can't lose him.'
The woman nodded. She had the composure and certainty of a priestess of older times. 'It is foreseen.'
Romana blenched at the thought. 'As long as the Doctor doesn't know that,' she said.
The secretary showed Dorothée out into a long cloister. Her bike was parked at one end, the bags of groceries still in place. She managed to force the black globe into one of them and then strapped on her helmet and mounted up.
The secretary seemed unduly nervous, his eyes darting everywhere. 'Please hurry,' he said. 'The coordinates are set.'
It was only then that she noticed he was carrying a gun. She heard running footsteps and saw two grey guards round the corner halfway along the passage.
The secretary raised his gun to fire.
A bolt of painful light hit him squarely in the chest. He crumpled.
Dorothée started the bike. It snarled into readiness.
The guards were running towards her, guns raised. She lowered her head