Doctor Who_ Nightshade - Mark Gatiss [61]
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
Albert licked a pencil and pulled out a note pad. ‘And you He took Medway by the arm and led him outside. Albert are?’
leaned over the desk towards one of the young constables.
Medway puffed out his cheeks. ‘My name’s Tim Medway.
‘Peter, get over to the York road, will you? Report of an I’m a BBC reporter. I’m here to interview Mr Edmund accident.’
Trevithick...’
The Doctor rubbed his fingers across weary eyes. The Lowcock raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you now? Well, laddie, print on the books before him was beginning to swim and you stick with me and I’ll take you to him. Mind you, after centuries of reading in diverse libraries across the galaxies what we’ve all been through I doubt he’ll be in any state...’
told him it was time to call a halt. He slammed shut the Medway frowned. ‘What d’you mean?’
massive tome before him.
‘Never mind now. This coach...?’
‘I think we’ve found out as much as we can from here,’ he Medway leaned against the desk and shrugged. ‘They said, glancing over at Ace. She looked at her watch. Just were heading for York. Miss Mason said they were after midday and still a while until Robin would arrive. She overcome by some sort of sickness and the driver lost smiled at her companion.
control.’
‘Look, Doctor. I’m sorry if I haven’t been much help so far.
‘Sickness,’ said Lowcock thoughtfully.
What with everything we talked about before...’
‘Think it’s the same thing, George?’ said Albert, pushing The Doctor cast his eyes downwards. Ace continued, ‘I the pencil behind his ear.
had a pretty rough day yesterday. Finding that stiff...’
Lowcock pouted his lower lip. ‘Could be, could be.’ He
‘I know,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’m sorry.’
looked Albert in the eye. ‘Do you remember that pollution
‘I just want you to know that even if I’m not with you, I scare a few years back?’
am... in spirit.’
‘Oh aye,’ said Albert brightly.
The Doctor gazed at her sadly. ‘I understand. Thank you.’
Medway was getting interested, his journalistic nose How many times had he been here before? With Victoria sensing a story. ‘Pollution?’
on the gas platform. Jo in Llanfairfach. Tegan in London.
‘Oh, nowt much,’ said Lowcock dismissively. ‘There was She’d grown up before his eyes; this funny misfit, a fire at a chemical plant a few miles off. I was just changing from a little bundle of venom with more chips wondering whether it could be something like that.’
than a Monte Carlo casino into a confident, maturing adult.
‘That doesn’t explain Mrs Yeadon, George. And what It had been a struggle though. He had hated the lies and the about Jack Prudhoe and Dr Shearsmith?’
half-truths he’d felt compelled to create in order to protect
‘Mmm. You’re right. “It is fatal to theorise without facts”, her from the future. After Fenric and more recently their eh Watson?’
adventures battling the Timewyrm, he’d hoped to have put Lowcock turned to Medway. ‘Come along then, I’ll all that behind them. But now there were other introduce you to Professor Nightshade.’
considerations...
172
173
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
Ace jumped as the walkie-talkie in the Doctor’s pocket The Doctor approached Jill. ‘Hello again. What happened squawked into life. He produced it with some relief.
here?’
‘Doctor?’ It was Cooper’s voice, distorted by static.
Jill sighed, pushing the annoying curl of hair from her
‘Yes, Dr Cooper? Over.’
eyes. ‘We had an accident out on the moor. All very
‘Bloody hell. It works! Erm... We’re monitoring a slow peculiar.’
build-up. I’d like you here. Over.’
The Doctor mumbled something sympathetic and then
‘On my way. Over and out.’
reeled as a small shambling figure almost knocked him off He stuffed the black box into his coat and picked up a pile his feet. Billy Coote glanced at him for a moment, biscuit-of selected books which he’d tied together with string.
brown teeth protruding aggressively, then shuffled towards
‘Coming?’
the twisting stone steps which led to the tower.
Ace shuffled uncomfortably. ‘I thought I might hang Jill explained what had happened,