Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [24]
Beaming at the simplicity of his plan the Doctor tucked his umbrella under his arm and set off at a trot. ‘Come along, Ace!’
Shaking her head, Ace sprinted after him.
High above them, hunched over his desk, Vogol Lukos watched as the diminutive figure of the Doctor joined the ever-growing queue. Auntie’s tracking software had alerted him as soon as the Doctor had got near the studios. Lukos was living in his office at the moment, not wanting to miss a moment of the drama as it unfolded.
‘Oh, no, no, my dear Doctor. My viewers are hardly going to be excited if we just let you walk in, are they?’
He punched at a control stud. ‘Security? We have unwelcome guests at the gate. Please remove them.’
Turning back to his screen, Lukos zoomed the camera in on Ace. A frown crossed his brow. He leant back in his seat, fingers steepled, staring at the face on the screen.
‘Auntie?’
+ YES, MR LUKOS+
‘Locate Rennie Trasker.’
+MISS TRASKER IS IN THE NEWSROOM+
‘Send her to me, as soon as she is free. I have a little job for her.’
The Doctor and Ace were just inside the main gate, heading up the steps towards the main studio block, when a huge gnarled hand clamped down on the Doctor’s shoulder.
‘Well well well. If it isn’t my old friend who wanted a guided tour.’
Groaning, the Doctor turned.
‘Good morning, Commissionaire Gurney. How nice to see you again. This is my friend Ace. We were just going in to watch a show being recorded.’
‘Really, and just how did you manage to turn back time since yesterday?’
The Doctor frowned. ‘I’m sorry?’
Gurney smiled unpleasantly. ‘ Music Time is a show for girls of fifteen and under. Now forgive me, but even if I was guessing your age wrong, I don’t think that you’re a girl.’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘I could be, one day.’
Ace stifled a giggle.
Gurney nodded at the other guards. ‘Throw them out.’
The guards began to bundle them towards the gate. Ace pushed one of them away. ‘Hey, keep your hands off, you ape!’
Gurney pulled the gun from his holster. ‘We can do this the hard way if you like.’
The Doctor waved his hands at the angry commissionaire.
‘I’m sure that there is no need for violence, Mr Gurney. Ace and I were just leaving.’
Steering a protesting Ace by the arm, the Doctor scurried out of the gate.
Back on the street Ace shook herself free. ‘We could have made a run for it, Professor. Got into the main building before they’d have stopped us.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘No, Ace, I need time to look around properly.’
He turned and looked up at the perimeter wall, his lips pursed, then he crossed to the edge of the roadway and looked tentatively into the gorge below. It was steep. Impassable some would say – no doubt what the designers had wanted. He turned to Ace, his grey eyes twinkling in the morning light.
‘Did I hear you and young Gatti discussing rock climbing?’
Ace grinned.
The door of Lukos’s office swung open with a soft hiss and a tall elegant figure entered the room. Lukos swung around to greet her.
‘Ah, my dear Rennie. How lovely to see you.’
He hauled himself from his seat and reached for the woman, kissing her on both cheeks, letting his grip get just a little tighter and a little lower than was decent. Trasker pulled herself free.
‘Nice to see you again too, Mr Lukos.’
Lukos could hear the distaste in her voice.
‘I understand you have a job for me.’
Lukos settled back behind his desk, his eyes never straying from her.
‘Yes, my dear. A little research assignment. Do have a seat.’
Trasker sat down opposite him. Lukos slid a data pad across the desk.
‘Do you recognise the man?’
Trasker glanced at the picture on the pad and nodded. ‘The Doctor. Causing quite a stir in the newsroom at the moment.’
‘Well you’re going to be seeing quite a bit more of him over the next few weeks. But I have a problem.’
Lukos lowered the lights in the room and activated his holoscreen. A picture of the Doctor filled the screen, a slight girl with a tangle of red hair alongside him.
‘It would seem