Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [45]
But the driver was not to be discouraged. ‘So what does it all mean then? I mean what does it mean for the noble contest?’
‘What does what mean for what noble contest?’ the Doctor asked without thinking.
‘There you go, you see. You’re not old school are you?
You’re no respecter of tradition are you?’
‘I suppose not,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘I’ve always been a bit of an iconoclast.’
‘What you did back in the Court of Attack, what does it do to the way things are supposed to be, do you know? Do you care?’ He looked at Leela and smiled unconvincingly. ‘You broke a basic rule and you got away with it didn’t you? You broke a fundamental rule. That’s what it comes down to.’
‘No,’ Leela said. ‘I know the rules by which a warrior lives. I broke no rule.’
The Doctor was suddenly aware that for no immediately apparent reason the conversation had taken a minor turn for the tense. ‘The little boss didn’t think that’s what it came down to,’ he said reasonably. ‘He found in our favour remember.’
‘The little boss is old school,’ the driver said. ‘He hasn’t liked the way things have been going for a long time now but he doesn’t know what to do about it. I know for a fact he’s been spitting blood over the Maidenly-Baloch match.’
The Doctor saw an opportunity to avoid the developing confrontation. ‘He doesn’t like the Maidenly-Baloch match?’
he prompted.
‘He’d ban it if he could.’
But as ever Leela was not interested in being diplomatic.
Her general hostility and suspicion had subsided very little despite their release from the lock-up. She fixed the driver with a narrow-eyed stare. ‘Where are you taking us?’
The driver looked slightly uncomfortable. ‘I’ve set it for Central and then I thought you could direct me, Doctor.’
Leela pointedly looked out of each side window and then glanced back to the rear. Finally she leaned forward to peer in the direction they were going.
The Doctor smiled at the driver. ‘So what’s the problem with the Maidenly-Baloch fight?’ he said. ‘Not old school enough I suppose?’
‘Is this the way to Central?’ Leela asked. ‘I do not think it is.’
‘What makes you say that?’ the driver asked indignantly.
The Doctor shot Leela an angry glare. ‘Yes, what makes you say that,’ he said.
‘This does not look like the way to Central,’ she said confidently.
The driver’s indignation had given way to anger. ‘Are you questioning my professionalism?’ he demanded.
‘Are you questioning his professionalism?’ the Doctor asked.
‘I am questioning what he is doing,’ Leela said and began to draw her knife.
‘Pull that thing and I’ll blow your scuffling head off,’ the driver said calmly from behind the handgun that he was resting on the back of the seat.
‘Leela,’ the Doctor warned, putting a restraining hand on her wrist to stop her from drawing the knife anyway. He felt her momentary coiled impulse to attack before she relaxed and sat back.
‘That’s right,’ the driver said. ‘You listen to your agent and just sit back and enjoy the ride.’
‘You’ve made your point,’ the Doctor said. ‘We’ll do as you say. In the meantime perhaps you’d like to point that thing somewhere else.’
The gun never wavered. ‘Now you’re questioning my professionalism,’ the driver said. ‘Both of you put your hands on the arms of the seat, palms down.’
The Orbital Transfer Station’s cheap washrooms were deserted. The law required low-cost facilities to be provided in all public gathering places, but very few people used them.
The feeling was that if you couldn’t afford to pay a private rate to eliminate your bodily wastes the chances were you had unsanitary habits or an uninsured disease.
Circumstances alter cases but they seldom affect prejudices and although travel off planet was denied by law to such low-level deviants the subsidised lavatories were avoided here just the same.
‘You don’t have to do this,’ Keefer said as he floated into the compartment. The stiff-curtained cubicles with their bog-standard electrical suction units were all silent