Doctor Who_ The Banquo Legacy - Andy Lane [109]
‘Time?’ Stratford asked.
‘Before they get here. Before we lose her completely. Before whatever cancellation field she’s able to project folds up and disappears.’ He spoke as if we should all understand what he was saying. But Stratford and I stared blankly at one another and Susan shook her head in plain and evident incredulity.
Only Kreiner seemed to grasp the meaning of the Doctor’s urgency, or perhaps he was humouring the man. ‘Where do we start?’ he asked.
‘Where does a butler spend his time?’ the Doctor countered.
‘In the butler’s pantry,’ Stratford immediately responded.
The Doctor clicked his fingers. ‘Exactly. No time to lose, then.’ And he was off.
Kreiner followed him immediately. The rest of us – Susan, Stratford and I – exchanged another confused look, and then set off after them.
The Doctor and Kreiner were already rummaging through the bits and pieces on the wide shelf when we joined them.
‘I wouldn’t have thought he’d leave it unlocked,’ Fitz was saying.
‘No Artron energy for the timonics,’ the Doctor muttered to himself as he leafed through a pile of outstanding bills and invoices. Neither of them seemed to notice us crowded into the doorway. So partly to draw their attention and partly to escape the crush, I went and lifted the bottle of port that I had been holding when Simpson had found me trespassing in his domain before. I didn’t care whether it was crusted or not, I was going to drink it.
Kreiner was looking about himself now, his eyes searching high and low for… something. ‘You know, Doctor,’ he said. ‘this place is bigger inside than out.’ He said it as if this was a significant discovery.
I laughed at his naïveté. ‘Of course it is,’ I told him. ‘All butlers’ pantries are like that.’
‘Mmm,’ the Doctor said. He did not sound convinced. Then he saw me holding the bottle and his whole attitude changed. ‘Ancillary generator, of course!’ he declared and fairly leaped across the room. ‘May I?’ He lifted the bottle carefully from my grip without waiting for an answer.
‘Oh, be my guest,’ I said as I watched him pull the cork.
‘It’ll be quantum-field generation or some such non-Artron source,’ he said. The cork emerged from the bottle with a pop and the Doctor swung round to survey the room.
We all looked round. Nobody said anything for several moments. I cleared my throat. It seemed to me that several objects I had previously seen in the room were no longer there. But I put this down to my memory of my last visit and being somewhat tired. ‘What are you looking for?’ I asked.
‘If we knew, we could help,’ Susan offered. She still looked pale and I was irritated to see that she and Stratford seemed to be supporting each other in the doorway.
‘You don’t know?’ the Doctor asked. He was worried now.
She shook her head and gave a short, high, nervous laugh. ‘I really have no idea.’
The Doctor’s mouth worked soundlessly for a few seconds. ‘I don’t know what to say,’ he eventually managed.
‘Bugger?’ suggested Kreiner.
‘Could be,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Could be.’ He shook his head. ‘I thought, I really thought… Never mind,’ he decided. ‘Must have its own power source.’
My mind floated back to the weird conversation between the Doctor and the dying Simpson. ‘Something Simpson hid from you?’ I asked.
‘Indeed.’
‘Well, if it isn’t in here…’ I looked round again. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t read any… what was his name?’
The Doctor’s palm slapped into his forehead. ‘Of course. Where would you hide a tree?’
I stared at him.
‘In a wood,’ Stratford said from behind me.
‘Or a forest. Exactly.’ The Doctor was wandering round the small room again now. Was it my imagination or was it even smaller now than it had been when we came in. Somehow we all seemed to be standing closer together. ‘The trouble is,’ the Doctor said, ‘we don’t really know