Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [73]
Trix shifted away a little, took some more of the sheets.
Fitz eased himself out of the bed and his bare feet planted themselves in deep carpet. He unhooked the complimentary dressing gown from the back of the bathroom door and put it on.
If this was life after the TARDIS, then it seemed like a good deal. Even if they were fugitives.
Even if he didn’t know her real name.
He hadn’t asked her about it. Not for the hour on the tube to Heathrow, not for the two hours at the airport, not for any of the seven-hour flight, not for the hour of the taxi ride to the hotel. Even he had not recognised her when she’d first emerged from the cloakroom at King’s Cross. They’d slipped through security so easily it was faintly unnerving, her with a fake passport that she just happened to have with her, him with one that wouldn’t be issued for a few years. They’d been fingerprinted and photographed at JFK, and Fitz had thought the game was up, but apparently they did that with everyone now.
He took a cigarette out of the packet, then saw the big No Smoking sign.
You couldn’t smoke in bars in New York now. He’d found that out last night.
153
Fitz tiptoed over to the TV, switched it on and quickly turned the volume down.
He’d been too slow. Trix was stirring.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I didn’t mean to wake you. I was just seeing if there’s anything about us.’
‘It’s New York. Foreign news here is what’s happening in Newark.’
‘That’s Big Ben. London,’ he said, looking at the screen. He listened.
‘. . . and coming up: what’s the connection between the Vore attack and. . .
Hillary Clinton? You won’t believe the answer, only here on Fox News.’
They went to a commercial break. Fitz pressed a control on the remote, and pressed a couple more until he found a news channel.
‘. . . follows the sudden appearance of a second moon in the sky, in front of the moon. . . the original moon. Coastal areas in many parts of the world have been devastated.’
‘. . . According to scientists, Stacey, the tides are caused by the moon’s gravity. Having two moons in the sky clearly means there’s more gravity around.’
‘Thanks for that, Sir Isaac Newton,’ Trix sighed, going over to the window.
‘I don’t see one moon, let alone two of them.’
‘We can’t leave him alone for five minutes.’
‘You think this has something to do with the. . . What am I saying? Of course it does.’
Fitz had just noticed that there were words, fractured sentences like headlines, running along the bottom of the screen. The one that caught his eye ended:
‘. . . that UNIT have designated “the Vore” / Devastation immense / Mayor of London “eaten” reports.’
‘Hang on, what’s that?’
A woman was reading the actual headlines.
‘. . . at the bottom of the hour: giant insects devastate Europe. I’m Sienna DeLorean.’
‘I don’t care what your name is, tell me about the monsters,’ Fitz yelled at the television.
‘. . . Europe has been attacked by what one eyewitness describes as, quote, a swarm of giant locusts that walk like men, unquote. Amid reports of millions of deaths, the White House has issued a statement saying it is monitoring the situation. Scientists say there may be a connection with Tuesday’s unprecedented appearance of a second moon. In California, celebrity lawyer Wim McBrit today declared the latest allegations made against his client to be a physical as well as ethical impossibility. More of that in a moment. A car bomb went off in Baghdad Tuesday killing thirty. And, as you can see from these pictures, the residents of a town in Ohio are taking part in their annual 154
Throw A Potato Day. I’m Sienna DeLorean, and I’ll be back at the top of the hour.’
An advertisement break started.
Fitz found another news channel. There were certainly enough of them.
‘. . . SWAT teams have been readied to tackle the giant locusts.’
‘Swat. Like you would do with insects, I suppose,’ Fitz observed.
‘Special Weapons and Tactics.’
‘Ah.’
‘. . . Not locusts,