Doctor Who_ Relative Dementias - Mark Michalowski [38]
‘This afternoon, you never got round to telling me why you’re here.’
‘What’s to tell? Just a camping trip.’
Ace snorted. ‘Yeah, and the rest. How come when I mentioned we were friends of Joyce’s you went all funny on me?’
‘Did I?’
Ace took a gulp of her tea. Staring away into the night, she casually said: ‘Why should you be so suspicious of Joyce’s friends, then?’
‘You’ve lost me,’ he said, but Ace could sense an awkwardness in his voice. ‘I don’t know who this Joyce woman is.’
‘Really? Well that’s weird, ‘cos her mother’s got a photo of you and her by the side of her bed.’
She saw Michael’s shoulders slump, slightly, in defeat.
‘So you’ve come looking for your mum. Big deal. what’s the big secret?’
‘How do you know Mum?’
‘It’s the Doctor that knows her – he said something about how she was a friend of someone called Liz Shaw. That mean anything to you? He got a postcard from your mum, saying something was going on here, and asked him to come and help.’
Michael looked away, eyes narrowing, that same clenching of the jaw she’d noticed earlier that day. She wasn’t sure whether it was the Doctor or Liz Shaw that had struck a nerve.
‘Do you know the Doctor, then?’ she asked, suddenly not so sure that she wanted to know the answer. There was something in Michael’s eyes, something in the set of his body that told her that she might be about to hear something uncomfortable.
‘I know of him. Everyone knows of him.’
‘Everyone? I know he likes to get about a bit, but that’s pushing it a bit.’
‘I mean everyone at UNIT.’
‘United Nations Intelligence Taskforce UNIT?’
‘Saving the Earth from invasion by aliens UNIT,’ he smiled.
‘Are you sure you should be telling me that? Isn’t it a national secret or something?’
‘You tell me – you seem to know enough about it. I’m sure the Doctor’s filled you in on it. So, what else do you know about UNIT?’ He leaned back, the firelight catching his eyes.
‘For a start, I know you work for them,’ Ace said. ‘In the photo that your gran’s got by her bed, you’re in a UNIT
uniform, and when I saw you this afternoon, you said you were shopping for rations. Not a word that people usually use when they’ve just bought some bread and milk.’
‘So you’re here to spy on me, are you? Is that it?’
‘Hey, don’t have a go at me! I don’t know what’s gone on between you and the Doctor, but I’m not from UNIT. And from what the Doctor’s told me, neither is he: he just helps them out when they’re busy.’
‘Oh, little Miss Innocent, are you?’
‘I haven’t got time for this.’ Ace got to her feet and picked up her rucksack. She was cold, wet and tired, and the last thing she wanted was a round of verbal sparring. ‘What are you so defensive about? The Doctor came here ‘cos your mum asked for help –’
‘Have you seen her?’ Michael cut in.
Ace looked down at him, wanting to say no, wanting to walk away and leave him no wiser. But she couldn’t. ‘I think something happened to her up at Graystairs,’ she said reluctantly, and quickly related the pitiful amount that she and the Doctor had discovered so far. He chewed the back of his hand thoughtfully, as Ace watched him. She couldn’t pinpoint it, but there was still something he was holding back. All she could see was a man whose mother had disappeared, and who had some sort of unresolved grudge with the Doctor. She sat down again. He pulled out a battered packet of fags and offered her one.
‘No thanks – tried ‘em once. They don’t quite go with high explosives. Anyway,’ she continued hastily, forestalling his next question, ‘how long have you been up here?’
‘Just a couple of days.’
‘So how come you haven’t found her yet? Been to Graystairs? The B&B?’
He shook his head slowly. ‘It’s not that simple,’ he said.
‘You come all this way, and then don’t finish the job?’
‘It’s more complicated than that,’ he said, clearly struggling with whether he should tell her something or other. Ace shivered, despite the fire, feeling her patience draining