Doctor Who_ Psi-Ence Fiction - Chris Boucher [40]
She clung on grimly. The cold became a painful howling hiss, and all around her the voices murmured and gibbered.
Then without warning the chaos ended as suddenly as it had begun. Leela sat up. The wood was simply a wood. The shadows, the sounds, the currents of air were all as she would have expected. The fear and the threat she had sensed had gone. The predators she was expecting were not here. She found herself doubting their existence. The hollow was just a small, tree-fringed depression. The TARDIS was clearly visible and standing exactly where it should be standing.
For a long moment Leela's relief made her want to laugh. It must have been a dream she thought, caused by the bad food - the Doctor had obviously been mistaken: fried breakfast was poisonous. But the relief was brief. Breathe deep and slow, examine what you know. It was not a dream. She was covered in cuts and bruises and her knife was still stuck in the ground.
Chapter Seven
The Doctor's best and most charming smile did not seem to be working its usual magic. 'I take it you have no idea where she went then?'
The campus's security supervisor, a shaven-headed, thickset individual in a quasi-military uniform, was not a happy man and he was in no mood to be charmed. 'That's funny,' he said, showing little sign of amusement, 'I was about to ask you the same thing.'
The Doctor continued to smile in the vain hope of winning him over. He would find Leela a lot more easily with this man's help. 'I'm afraid Leela's rather a headstrong girl.'
The supervisor glared at him. 'She's quite powerful in the arms and legs department too,' he said. 'She thumped a student, trashed the cafeteria and she's done a runner having kicked seven shades of brick-dust out of one of the security staff.'
'Really?' The Doctor stopped smiling and looked suitably concerned.
'Which one?'
'Me as it happens.'
The Doctor nodded sympathetically. 'That would explain the black eye?'
'That would explain the police who are on their way even as we speak.'
The Doctor glanced round the large, well-appointed office with its attached custody suite of two small holding-cells. You're not the police?'
Campus security,' the man said coldly. 'As you well know.'
Well no,' the Doctor said. 'I'm a stranger here.' He noticed for the first time that there was a small bottle of water, the same Clear spring Water Company bottled water that seemed to be everywhere on campus, in among the clutter on the supervisor's desk.
Your purpose on campus being?'
"The pursuit of knowledge?' the Doctor suggested. He nodded at the bottle.
'Do you drink a lot of that designer water?' he asked.
'Don't get lippy with me.' The supervisor leant forward in his chair and pointed a finger at the Doctor's face. 'You're in no position to get lippy with me.'
'That was not my intention,' the Doctor said politely, struck once again by how uniform people's behaviour became when they put on a uniform. 'I was merely answering your question.'
The supervisor looked smugly threatening. 'You do realise that this is private property,' he almost gloated. 'There is no public right of access to the campus and unless you can prove you have legitimate business here you can be arrested.'
'The pursuit of knowledge is not legitimate business?' The Doctor was genuinely taken aback at the idea.
'Depends on the circumstances doesn't it,' the supervisor remarked. Ever hear of competitive advantage investigation?'
No,' the Doctor said. 'Sounds distinctly dull.' He decided it would be sensible to cut his losses and look for Leela without the direct help of campus security. 'Or else it's a convoluted way of describing something distinctly dull.'
It used to be called industrial espionage,' the supervisor persisted.
'Ah,' the