Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [64]
he said beaming at her widely, ‘how nice to see you.’ He leaned in closer to her and said in a theatrical whisper.
‘Though I have been told to forget I ever met you. Why is that do you think?’
Sita drew back slightly and smiled a carefully cool smile.
‘Perhaps whoever said it thinks I don’t like you,’ she said.
‘What would give them that idea?’
She shrugged. ‘Me?’
The Doctor laughed. ‘I’m very charming when you get to know me,’ he said.
‘I’ll try not to then,’ Sita said.
The Doctor laughed again. ‘Where is that nice young man who is arranging my new ID?’ he said, looking around, and as if on cue both the assistants came into the anteroom.
‘If you’d follow me, Doctor,’ the man said.
As he followed the man out of the anteroom the Doctor heard the woman say to Sita Benovides. ‘The minister apologises. He’ll try not to keep you waiting much longer.’
Sita sat in front of the desk, keeping her expression neutral.
She was furious with herself. It had been a mistake. Not the fact of it but mentioning the fact of it, especially to the State Security Minister. Sita couldn’t believe she had been naive enough to trust the man.
‘Your father has been at pains to point out,’ he was saying,
‘that there is no substantial evidence against you.’
It was that word ‘substantial’ that was the killer. It was a politician’s word. Shifting and shifty: nothing real to confront, nothing substantial. Sita knew there was no evidence against her at all but that wasn’t going to matter. Somebody didn’t like her asking questions about the ‘Space Main incident. It was the only explanation; there was nothing else. She was too ambitious to have taken any stupid risks: any other stupid risks. And now she’d blown everything on a whim. The brief official inquiry, remarkably brief as it turned out, had reached its conclusion, blame had been apportioned and the matter was closed. It was no concern of hers that the conclusion was incorrect. What did it matter? What mattered was that she had come out of the whole sorry mess with her career intact. She knew how the game was played: she’d been born to it. The youngest major in the security services, an undercover expert. Keeping quiet was like breathing. She stared at the minister, wondering whether letting him sleep with her would make any difference now. ‘My father shouldn’t have become involved,’ she said.
The minister nodded. ‘I’ll do my best to protect him. I owe him that. It would have been better if he hadn’t tried to lie but I suppose that was to be expected.’
Her father had lied? About what? And when? When had he been interrogated exactly? ‘I’m sorry?’
‘It’s too late for apologies I’m afraid. Far too late.’
‘When you say my father tried to lie... about what?’
For a moment he seemed genuinely irritated. ‘Oh come now, the evidence against you isn’t just substantial, it’s overwhelming.’ Then, as quickly, his expression changed and he sighed with professional regret. ‘I can save your father: you I can do nothing for.’
‘I’m facing a demotion...?’ Sita suggested.
‘I think the matter is rather more serious than that, Major Benovides,’ the minister said coldly.
‘Is it?’ How serious could it be? What was she facing here?
The minister said, ‘Corruption and murder? I think so don’t you?’
Corruption and murder? She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Corruption and murder? That was way out of proportion. They couldn’t make that stick. Not even the best interrogation controller could make her guilty of corruption and murder. She was almost relieved. She had been stupid, truly career-endingly stupid. But what mattered now was that whoever was behind this frame-up had been stupider and one day soon she was going to find them and make them eat it...
‘Have you nothing to say for yourself?’ the minister asked.
‘Would you listen?’ she asked.
The minister touched the antique button on his desk. ‘No,’
he said as two uniformed guards came into the office and stood behind her chair. ‘There is nothing you can