Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [25]
„this a particularly fine fedora.‟ He put it back on top of his untidy mop of hair. „It has been admired across the galaxies.
Universally admired.‟
„The court could take it as an insult. You really do not want them to take anything about you as an insult.‟
The Doctor smiled broadly. „Don‟t tell me, let me guess. It would be a legal justification for killing me right there, right then?‟
„It could lead to a challenge that you might find it difficult to avoid,‟ Fanson explained patiently, obviously stating the obvious.
This is madness, the Doctor thought. I‟ve let myself be talked into accepting this primitive nonsense as if it were normal and now I am actually trying to fit in with it. I‟m trying to work my way through a system devised by homicidal maniacs to accommodate their insanity. But before he could voice any of this, the rehearsal was abruptly interrupted by a proximity speaker. „Subject Jerro Fanson will attend a final assessment in Interrogation Suite Seven,‟ it whispered with chilling clarity. „The Interrogation Controller will be in attendance momentarily.‟
Fanson got to his feet. The colour was draining from his face and for a moment he looked unsteady. „That was quick,‟
he said forcing a smile. „They must have sorted out the glitch.‟
„What happens if you refuse to attend?‟ the Doctor asked.
Fanson rubbed the wrist bands. „There‟s a time limit on these now.‟ He was still pale but he was steady now. „They‟ll have sorted out that scuffling glitch.‟ He started to walk away. „I‟ll be out before you are,‟ he said without looking back.
Chapter Five
In the Aerospace Main‟s surveillance suite the Shift Controller watched Sita Benovides out of the corner of his eye and wondered idly what pulling rank would do to his chances. He had made a couple of jokey references to her prospects in „port security if she „got close to the right people and made the... right connections‟ but she didn‟t seem to understand or else she chose not to.
She was younger than the other squad leaders and there was something about her cropped, black hair and slim, almost boyish figure that he found particularly appealing.
Skin like cream satin, he thought, picturing it taut over supple swells and curves... He shifted in his chair. Perhaps it was time to make her understand.
What the Shift Controller did not understand was that Sita was already close to the right people, if not quite in the way he had in mind. In fact she comfortably outranked him. Any trouble and his prospects in „port security were not promising. As it happened his prospects for walking were not good either since she planned to break both his legs if he ever got up the nerve to put a hand on her.
The first warning light, indicating a possible intruder crossing the edge of the outer scan zone in Sector 4 Grid 4 by 3, did not interrupt the Shift Controller‟s reverie. Normally this would not have been important. Almost invariably the alarm sequences were triggered by animals, feral dogs and cats mainly, and the computer usually identified and discounted such targets as they moved further into the zone and presented more reliable data. This one was the correct height and moving in the right way to register a high probability that it was just such a false alarm.
Nevertheless the Shift Controller should have keyed his acknowledgement of the first warning, thus recording his awareness and vigilance. In the subsequent enquiry into the perimeter security procedures at Aerospace Main his failure to do so, the Commission decided quite unfairly, was what caused all the problems that followed.
Keefer had watched the dog in the distance quartering the firebreaks as it hunted mice and other small prey, and he had immediately added it to his strategy. Security would probably be used to the animals, he realised, and while the system was operating on crude data he could use that familiarity to move closer in and get a better line on the scanners without setting off major