Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [30]
Perhaps Eeji could try and do a deal with the hire firm. The Monteekan had vanished through the foliage on the far side of the car park. Why the hell had he parked so far away?
‘Eeji! Hey, Eeji hold up.’ Greg began to jog to catch him up. He pushed through the ornamental shrubs, cursing as his bulky bag caught on the branches. He stumbled out from the bushes, almost colliding with his partner.
‘Eeji, what the hell are you doing?’
Eeji Tek was standing stock-still in the middle of the tarmac, his camera bags on the floor.
‘Eeji?’
Greg caught his shoulder and spun him around. ‘Eeji, what... ?’
The Monteekan was white, completely white. Greg suddenly went very cold. He felt his spine tingle. Eeji Tek was staring over his shoulder, Slowly Greg turned.
All around them, shadows were detaching themselves from amongst the parked spinners, closing in in a tight circle.
The moonlight glinted off eyes and teeth and claws. The creatures’ breathing was fast and hoarse, vapour coiling around their black forms.
With frightening speed they surged forward.
Lukos sat back in satisfaction as the image on his monitor became a blur of fur and fang. The screams of the two men were drowned out by the snarling of the Zzinbriizi.
Alongside him Saarl watched in amusement. ‘Critics can be so harsh these days.’
Chapter Eight
Someone tapped softly on Ace’s door. She scrambled from the bed. The Doctor stood on the landing.
‘All ready?’ he whispered.
Ace nodded and swung her rucksack on to her shoulder.
The two of them crept through the silent house to the street. A hovercab waited for them.
‘The local cab firm is going to miss you when we go, Professor’
The Doctor opened the door for her. ‘I’ve got to spend my money somehow.’
Ace grinned and clambered inside.
They sat in silence as the cab raced through the night, the driver’s eyes constantly flickering to the screen on his dashboard. The Doctor stared out of the window, hands clasped over the handle of his umbrella. Ace didn’t disturb him. There were questions that she needed answered, but the Doctor would tell her in his own time.
The cab turned up towards the main gate of the Channel 400 building. The mountain loomed over them.
The Doctor leant forward. ‘Just here, thank you.’
They clambered out on to the street and the cab sped off.
Ace stared up at the perimeter wall. It was less a wall, more an extension of the mountain, the rock machined to a glass finish.
She glanced at the Doctor’s diminutive figure. It was going to be a hell of a climb for him.
‘Are you sure you’re going to be OK with this, Professor
?’
The Doctor nodded. ‘Let’s get on with it, shall we?’
Ace shrugged off her rucksack.
‘Gatti! Gatti, wake up!’
Gatti forced her eyes open to find her younger sister shaking her.
‘Freel? What in Harvest’s name do you want?’
‘Your friends. The Doctor and Ace, They’re on television, come and see.’
Gatti groaned. Ace had already explained that they had nothing to do with the television industry. She rolled over.
‘Go away, Freel, I’m trying to sleep.’
‘No, look!’
Freel snapped on the monitor screen on the foot of the bed.
Gatti suddenly heard the Doctor’s distinctive tones. She scrabbled from under the covers.
The Doctor and Ace were clambering up the perimeter wall of the studio complex; a small ‘Channel 400 Live’ icon blinked in the corner of the screen. Abruptly the picture changed to the leering smile of Roderik Saarl.
‘Will the Doctor and his companion discover what is in store for them? Find out after this short break.’
The flicker of lightning-quick advertisements lit up the room. Gatti threw back the covers and dashed out into the hallway. The Doctor’s room was empty. So was Ace’s.
‘Freel, get my boots.’
‘But I want to watch—’
‘NOW, Freel!’
The little girl scurried off. Gatti began to haul on her clothes.
Ace struggled to the top of the climbing ladder. Biting wind twisted her and she looked down. The gorge had vanished into the blackness underneath her. Below her she could see the Doctor, clinging unsteadily to the ladder.