Doctor Who_ The King of Terror - Keith Topping [20]
‘It is to be expected,’ said Giresse. He turned and signalled to the waitress at the back of the room with a click of his fingers. ‘ Mademoiselle. Pardon, où est mon steak frites? Vite! Vite! ’ The girl scurried off in search of his meal.
‘Progress is slow everywhere,’ Giresse noted with no apparent irony.
‘Did I miss much in Tokyo?’
‘Only another failure,’ replied Giresse. ‘Chung Sen was in a terrible state. In different circumstances it would have been amusing. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. There will be a full meeting of the conglomerate tomorrow morning in Los Angeles as a consequence.’
Luvik raised his eyebrows. ‘Serious?’
‘Sanger seems to think so. He’s been in touch with Jexa.’
Luvik’s face betrayed only a fraction of the terror he felt at this moment, but his voice was unsteady and filled with dread. ‘That’s a place I never thought I’d have to see again.’
Giresse clearly had a similar hope. He turned away from Luvik for a moment and looked out across the river at his beloved Paris. ‘ Je suis désolé, je ne peux rien faire. Je ne suis pas le responsable. Things are bad there they say,’ he noted in a measured, yet slightly high-pitched, tone confirming Luvik’s impression that Giresse, too, would sooner be talking about anything other than their home planet. ‘The league are demanding that we make progress. Time is running out.’
‘For them or for us?’ asked Luvik.
‘For our race,’ replied Giresse starkly.
38
Chapter Four
California
Anywhere else in the world, the appearance out of thin air of a small blue box in a public place may have caused quite a commotion.
But not in downtown Hollywood.
The TARDIS materialised in the street next to Mann’s Chinese Theatre and the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough found themselves the subject of an animated discussion between two young men wearing fashionably baggy leisurewear and bemused expressions.
‘Radical,’ noted one, leaving a space between each of the three syllables to emphasise just how impressed he was.
‘Yeah,’ said his friend. ‘Nice effect. Computer-generated?’
‘Colour separation overlay,’ replied the Doctor dismissively, locking the TARDIS behind him. He raised his white summer hat and left the two boys looking at the blue box. ‘That’s what I love about this city,’ he told Tegan, as he led her across Hollywood Boulevard. ‘They appreciate spectacle. Oh, Turlough,’ he said, turning, ‘watch out for the . . . ’
The squeal of car tyres and the blast of a car horn mixed with Turlough’s yelp of distress, as he threw himself out of the path of the oncoming vehicles.
‘Yes,’ continued the Doctor, thoughtfully. ‘They don’t take prisoners.’
‘This place is a nightmare,’ said Turlough, loosening his tie and looking in horror at the traffic.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ replied the Doctor. ‘It has a certain gaudy charm. I rather like it.’
‘You’ve been here before?’ asked Tegan.
‘A while back,’ noted the Doctor. ‘I was trying to save the world. As usual.
Hopefully this won’t be so drastic.’
His companions both looked dubious. ‘I doubt it,’ said Turlough cynically.
‘We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.’
‘That’s probably true,’ agreed the Doctor as he searched through his pockets for the address of their hotel. ‘We shall find out all in good time, I’m sure.’
‘Time . . . ?’ began Tegan.
‘It’s always about time. Time is relative. What has happened, will happen again. Ah!’ said the Doctor triumphantly as he produced the note from his 39
trouser pocket. ‘We’re booked into the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard which, if my sense of direction hasn’t deserted me, means . . . ’
‘. . . that we’d better start looking for a taxi,’ said Turlough.
‘Yes,’ responded the Doctor positively. That isn’t the worst idea you’ve ever had. What do you think, Tegan?’
There was no reply. Instead, when the Doctor and Turlough turned they saw Tegan thirty yards away marching in the direction of an angry scene in the street.
‘Oh dear,’ said the Doctor, ‘I suppose we’d better intervene before she does something rash.’ They set