Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [36]
Ace and Gatti huddled under one of the huge stairways that climbed the cavernous interior of the Channel 400 building.
The commissionaires had pursued them into the maze of corridors, but the lumbering middle-aged men had been no match for two agile young women.
Ace peered out into the hallway. No one. Not that that meant anything of course. From what Gatti had said they had cameras everywhere, but Ace had figured that under the stairs had got to be safe. What sort of crazy company would have cameras under the stairs?
She ducked back under cover. Gatti was shivering. Ace shrugged out of her jacket and draped it over her companion’s shoulders. The girl wasn’t cold, she was frightened. Ace smiled at her.
‘It’s OK. The coast’s clear.’
‘But as soon as we get out of here we’re going to be picked up on cameras again.’
Ace nodded. ‘We can’t go out the way we came in, they’re bound to have that covered.’
‘What are we going to do, Ace? We can’t stay under here for ever, someone is bound to see us eventually.’
Ace peered back into the corridor. Still no sign of their pursuers. She tried to orientate herself, struggling to remember where the main entrance was.
A noise from above her made her start. Giggling and screaming filled the air and the stairs started to vibrate as a crowd began to descend from the level above. Soon the hallway was full of hundreds of teenage Blinnati girls with irritated commissionaires trying to keep order.
Ace grinned at Gatti. ‘I think somebody likes us.’
Gatti nodded. ‘It must be one of the late-night music show audiences. They’ll all be ushered back to the main gate. I came with my sister once – hated it.’
‘Well, come on then!’
Ace snatched up her rucksack, grabbed Gatti by the hand and hauled her into the throng, pushing towards the centre of the crowd to get as far from the commissionaires as possible.
With gruff barking commands the chattering crowd was herded down the hallway heading for the main door.
Lukos flicked from the under-stair camera to one mounted in the hallway ceiling and watched as Ace and Gatti were swallowed up in the crowds, a smile flickering around his mouth.
‘She seems very resourceful. I think she will be ideal.’ He leered at Saarl,‘One for the dads, eh, Roderik?’
Saarl nodded. ‘I do hope that you are going to let me interview her.’
Lukos gave a look of mock surprise. ‘Why, my dear boy, who else could possibly handle such a difficult assignment?
With any luck Trasker will find all sorts of juicy gossip. The graphic designers are getting quite giddy with the possibilities that she is suggesting.’
+MRLUKOS+
‘Yes, Auntie?’
+YOUR SEARCH TEAMS REPORT THAT THEY
HAVE STILL NOT LOCATED THE TIME LORD’S
VEHICLE+
Lukos nodded. ‘I’m rather hoping that they might be redundant very soon. Tell them to keep searching though, Auntie.’
+VERY GOOD, MR LUKOS+
Lukos spun round and gripped Saarl by the cheeks. ‘It’s all playing out, Roderik, it’s all playing right into my hands.’
Saarl shook himself free.
‘I don’t understand, Lukos. You say that you want the Doctor’s TARDIS, but this Master that you are using, surely his ship is a TARDIS as well? What do you need two for?’
Lukos slumped back into a chair with a sigh.
‘Oh, my boy, you are an excellent interviewer and presenter, and you are very decorative, but you really haven’t been blessed with a proportionately high intelligence, have you?’
Saarl scowled at him, saying nothing.
Lukos swirled champagne around in his glass. ‘The Doctor’s TARDIS will be ideal, as I have already explained, for getting me exclusive programming from any point in time or space, but we can hardly just contact the local cable-service provider and get a link to the distant past, can we?’
He closed his eyes, dreaming of his