Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [60]
‘I want you with me at all times,’ said White.
‘I doubt it’ll happen again,’ said the Doctor. He was pacing back and forth in Dot’s office — White’s office, now —
trying to get the circulation back into his limbs.
White almost laughed. ‘I’m worried about how you’ve been spending your time, not whether random colonists try to shoot you. You’re an obvious target, of course — a collaborator. But I don’t think it’ll happen again. Not when they saw how close Yellow came to shooting that boy. They know next time it will really happen.’
‘I told you,’ said the little man, ‘if you kill anyone, you’ll answer to me for it.’
‘Doctor,’ said White, ‘you’ve been making yourself very useful, acting as a liaison between the colonists and my troopers. Coordinating things in the infirmary. But I—’
‘Oh, don’t give me the “your usefulness could soon be at an end” speech,’ snapped the Doctor irritably. He leaned over the desk, glaring down at White. ‘While you still believe there’s a reasonable chance of getting into my head, you’re not going to shoot me. Or anyone else.’
‘I’ve met aliens before. Part of the job.’
‘But not like me. And you’ve never had one all to yourself.’
White stared at him.
‘And don’t do that while I’m talking to you,’ said the Doctor.
White’s mind snapped at him like a snake striking, leaving Black hanging somewhere else in the dome, halfway through a sentence.
The Time Lord dodged easily. He raised an eyebrow at White. ‘You’re trying my patience,’ said the Colonel, with great control.
‘Not as much as you’re trying mine,’ said the Doctor. Out of the corner of his eye he could see CONNECTICUT’s icon flashing on the screen, trapped behind the glass, wanting to communicate. ‘You’ve been here for two days. You’ve tested all the colonists. You know who’s got what power. And yet you’re continuing to keep these people captive — and, worse, to separate them from their children. What is it you’re waiting for?’
White very slowly smiled.
‘Oh no,’ said the Doctor. ‘I am not for sale.’
‘And yet you changed sides so easily. Tell me,’ said White, getting up from his chair, ‘where are you from?’
‘Nowhere you’ve heard of.’
‘And why did you come to this planet?’
‘I told you. I travel. I stayed to try to help.’
‘And where have your friends Summerfield and Forrester got to?’
The Doctor said, ‘Aren’t they in the common area?’
‘They seem to have disappeared,’ said White. ‘My troopers have searched the immediate area for them. I was hoping you could shed some light on the situation...’
The Time Lord shook his head irritably. ‘I can’t keep track of everything that goes on here.’
‘You’re just playing for time.’
‘Always.’ A grin flashed across the Doctor’s face and was gone. ‘Right at the moment, the best odds the colonists have of surviving is to cooperate with you. I’m trying to stop any of them doing anything to attract your attention.’
‘Such as shooting you.’
‘You’re just playing for time,’ said the Doctor suddenly.
‘You’re waiting for instructions from Dione-Kisumu.’
White didn’t say anything. ‘You have no more idea what’s going on here than we did,’ the Doctor went on. ‘You’re not in control at all — you’re just marking time until the Company tells you what to do.’
‘And what do you think that might be?’
The Doctor recoiled in horror. ‘You can’t be serious.’
‘It’s entirely possible,’ said White, ‘that I’ll be ordered to kill everyone here and sterilize the colony site.’
‘You can’t conceivably have the authority to do that,’
whispered the Doctor.
White turned Dot’s laptop to face him and tapped idly at its keys.
‘What if—’ said the Doctor, leaning across the desk,
‘what if I could provide you with a cure for the virus?’
White ignored him.
‘Eliminate it from the system of everyone here. Destroy every record we made of its DNA. What if I could do that?’
‘What if you could?’ said White.
‘If you harm one person here,’ said the Doctor, his voice quiet with rage. ‘Just one person—’
‘I have work to do,’ said White. ‘Trooper, put him in the room next door. If he tries anything...’
‘Shall I shoot