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Doctor Who_ The City of the Dead - Lloyd Rose [109]

By Root 598 0

Who?'

'Rust. Remember, he called and left a message that Dupre hadn't been home. He said there were newspapers on the porch. That was how he knew.'

'Right.' Fitz regarded her uneasily. Her jaw was set and her eyes unnaturally bright.

'Who cleaned out those cabinets?' she said. 'It wasn't Dupre. He didn't think he was going anywhere. And it was done in a hurry, everything left open.'

I - Oh.'

She was heading for the street. Fitz hurried after her.

'I see where you're going with this, but it's -'

'You were right.' She stopped and turned so abruptly he nearly bumped into her. 'He was feeling guilty about something.'

'No, wait - Rust? Not Rust. For one thing, he's the wrong age -'

'Not for the father.' She was moving again.

"The father's dead!'

'How do you know? Were you there?'

'Anj -'

She had reached the car. She faced him, expressionless. 'I'll drive.'

'To where? No. Anji, hang on. Even if you're right, what are we going to do?

If he is Delesormes, he can snap his fingers and turn us into toads.'

'I'd like to see him try!'

'You will see him try. You'll see him bloody succeed. This is not a good plan.'

'No,' she admitted, deflating. She sagged against the car. Fitz lit a cigarette.

'I wish you smoked.'

'I wish you didn't.'

'You what? You never said.'

'Well, what do you think?' she exploded. 'It's going to give you cancer, only you probably believe it isn't because you think the Doctor probably has something in the TARDIS that cures it but you don't know that, he doesn't have an answer for everything, you know, only you think he does, so it doesn't matter if you want to kill yourself with bloody stinking cigarettes!'

Fitz stood paralysed by this outburst, cigarette halfway to his lips. Anji stared stonily at the ground.

'If you smoked,' he said at last, 'then at least I could offer you a ciggie.'

She sniffed. He darted an anxious glance at her. No tears. 'You liked him, didn't you?'

'Oh,' she said self-contemptuously, 'how much can you like someone after two dates?'

'A lot.'

Neither of them spoke for a minute.

'You want to watch it,' she observed finally. 'I might start thinking you're sensitive.'

'Not me. Coarse-fibred sod.'

'Good. I don't want you to change.'

'No fear of that.'

She nodded. The late-afternoon sun was glaringly bright, and he had to squint to see her. 'Why wasn't it Dupre?' she said quietly. Someone hateful.'

'I don't know.'

'I'm not wrong, am I?'

'Maybe not.' Fitz dropped the hardly smoked cigarette and ground it out with his shoe. 'I don't want it to be him, but you could have a point. Only I don't see what we can do.'

'Get into his house '

'Oh, right. Break into a policeman's house. Also, it's nearly evening. He's likely to be at home.'

'But what if the Doctor's there? What if something's happening to him?' Anji banged the car door with her fist, not hard but loudly. 'I mean, isn't this what he has companions for? So that we can be somewhere else when he gets in trouble and come and rescue him? We're bloody well letting our side down, aren't we?'

'We don't even know he's in there to rescue.'

'No,' she admitted thoughtfully, her face clearing. 'But we might be able to find out.'

Hopeless,' said Fitz.

He and Anji stood at the TARDIS console, staring at the baffling variety of buttons and switches and screens. They'd been fooling with these for hours with no apparent result. Fitz had the TARDIS manual balanced open in front of him, more for moral than practical support since he couldn't understand it.

Even he doesn't know how it works half the time.'

"They're symbiotically linked,' she said stubbornly. 'You're the one who told me that.'

'Yeah, 'cause he mentioned it once. But what the hell does that even mean?'

'It means the TARDIS knows where he is.'

'Well, she's not telling us. I can't even find the screen that says what temperature it is outside.' Fitz lifted the manual to check underneath. 'I think it's moved,' he muttered. He touched a button. 'Oh, here we are.

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