Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [59]
the point where the authorities had nothing to lose and went in hard. Just out of sight, an armed response unit was already drawing up plans and checking automatic rifles. If it came, the assault would be over in seconds.
The Doctor was telling Marnal all this while reading one of the books he’d brought from the cellar.
‘I’ve often thought about writing a novel,’ the Doctor confessed. ‘Never seem to find the time. I suppose that when I retire, I’ll give it a go.’
‘They say everyone has a novel in them,’ Rachel said. ‘I don’t think I do, though.’
‘Perhaps that will change after tonight,’ the Doctor said.
Marnal was pacing around the garage. He had the gun back in his hand, but knew he couldn’t fire it without provoking a police response.
‘You could always put the telly on,’ the Doctor suggested, indicating the glass bottle.
Marnal snarled at him, then – to the Doctor’s surprise – followed this suggestion and turned on the device. After it had warmed up for a little while he tuned it into their surroundings. Outside the garage there were dozens of police, almost all of them kitted out with body armour and guns. Marnal panned around, looking for a way out that he’d missed, but it was a small garage with only one entrance. It wasn’t that difficult for the police to cover every angle. There were armed men kneeling behind every garden wall and waiting round every corner.
‘Why don’t we just leave in the TARDIS?’ Rachel asked Marnal.
‘The recalibration won’t be complete for hours, possibly not until this time tomorrow.’
‘Recalibration?’ the Doctor spluttered, finally putting the novel down. ‘What are you doing to her?’
‘Fixing her, Doctor. You’ve neglected even basic maintenance work.’
‘If it isn’t broken, you don’t fix it.’
‘Less than 10 per cent of the ship’s systems are working as they should.
Everything else is either malfunctioning, barely working or entirely missing.’
‘Piffle. It may be missing a cupholder here and an optional extra there, but the TARDIS is fine. Name one thing that’s important that’s not working.’
‘The absence detectors, all of the aesthetics gauges, the ahistorical contex-tualiser, the ambiguous resolver, the animal-language translation circuits, the aprioritron, the art device, the assimilation contrastor, the axiomator, the –’
The Doctor waved his hand. ‘All I really need is something that gets me from A to B.’
‘WE KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE. WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU.’
The glass bottle showed a middle-aged inspector holding up a loudhailer.
124
‘We’re going to be here for a little while,’ the Doctor said. ‘Why don’t we try to work out what happened on the Edifice after the events we saw? Or what’s behind the back wall. The answer’s on the tip of my tongue.’
‘Perhaps you’ve got Gallifrey behind there,’ Marnal sneered.
‘Perhaps I have,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘If I did, it would have a bearing on my case, yes?’
Rachel was looking glumly at the bottle. ‘I don’t think I want to know my future right now.’
‘You can tell the future with that thing?’ the Doctor asked.
‘Come, Doctor, surely you recognise a –’
‘Oh, give it a rest, will you? I thought it just showed repeats.’
The Doctor moved over to the bottle. ‘We could use this to see how the siege ends,’ he suggested, twiddling away at the knobs and dials.
A quiet beeping noise started up from one of the components.
‘Oh, I see how you tune this in now,’ the Doctor said. ‘This is really rather clever.’
‘Can anyone else hear that sound?’ Rachel asked.
‘Nothing to worry about, I’m sure,’ the Doctor said dismissively.
‘It’s coming from the fusion reactor,’ Marnal said.
‘The what?’ The Doctor twisted round to look