Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [85]
It would make her angry to think that he was using her to amuse himself but apart from that it would cost her nothing.
She waited. It only now occurred to her that she no longer felt sick. She waited. Would he ever speak?
„Leela?‟ The voice from outside the curtain was concerned and slightly irritated. „Are you all right? You haven‟t fallen asleep in there have you?‟
„I asked for privacy,‟ Leela said.
„And you got it.‟
„You have turned the microphones back on.‟ She was not entirely sure what they were but the Doctor said a thing was what it did. And she knew what microphones did: they listened.
„I was worried,‟ the pilot said, sounding worried.
Why?‟ Leela asked. She pulled back the curtain and half stepped and half drifted out of the cubicle.
„Space is an unforgiving place.‟ The pilot‟s voice was earnest now. „I‟ve known people who‟ve been fine one minute and the next: kershplatto.‟
Leela asked, „What is kershplatto?‟ She hopped and glided to the other end of the cell.
„Sudden decompression and you‟re looking at Fatpatty gutburgers. Extra large and undercooked. Trust me, mushy meat never looked less appetising.‟
Leela thought she had already spotted three of the glass eye devices by which he watched her but she was sure there must be others. She deliberately did not look at any of the ones she knew about. „But that could not happen without you knowing it?‟ she said as she took food tablets from the feeding station dispenser. It was only the suggestion of a question but as she expected it was all the prompting the pilot needed.
„There are plenty of other things that could have happened while you were in that unit. Heart attack, aneurysm, you could have knocked yourself out, you could have had a pseudo-grav breathing spasm, you could have been sick and choked on your vomit. All that stuff has happened without warning to perfectly fit and healthy people.‟
„Is the unit that dangerous?‟ Leela asked innocently.
„Weightlessness and pseudo-grav are that dangerous.
Space is that dangerous. At least in something as basic as this yacht it is. We didn‟t evolve out here, we‟re not adapted to cope. We survive by being constantly on our guard.‟
It sounded to Leela as though he was quoting his own training. She was fairly sure now that the pilot was only what he seemed to be. She was fairly sure that she could outwit him.
By the time the runner was approaching the Doctor‟s New Way training compound Ronick had bound Sita‟s injuries and they had all done their best to identify and hide any evidence of what had happened. Although the other two were quite confident that there would be no alarm raised and no direct pursuit as a result of the jailbreak, the Doctor was not entirely reassured. It hardly counted as a jailbreak, he thought, if nobody was going to take any notice of it. Surely, he had suggested, somebody would at least be detailed to look for the body.
„Why bother?‟ Ronick had said. „Why waste the manpower?
She‟s going to bleed out and her body will turn up eventually.
Someone will find it and report it.‟
„But it won‟t turn up,‟ the Doctor said. „And they won‟t find it and report it. Are you sure that isn‟t going to register on some computer somewhere?‟
„Trust me,‟ Ronick said. „Nobody gives a scuff about runaways from police lockups. As far as the system is concerned Sita Benovides is dead.‟
Sita looked at the new ID Ronick had furnished her with.
„Long live Sula Baronne,‟ she said and grimaced slightly.
„Pretty downmarket sort of name.‟
„Look on the bright side,‟ he said. „You can keep your monogrammed luggage and jewellery.‟
„Nobody called Sula Baronne would have monogrammed luggage and jewellery,‟ she said with mock disdain.
He shrugged. „So we‟ll get you some tattoos and a nose piercing.‟
The runner slowed as it reached the perimeter of the compound but, unexpectedly, it was not required to stop. The Doctor was puzzled by the empty gatehouse and