Doctor Who_ The King of Terror - Keith Topping [22]
We normally go to the Lakes.’
41
‘It’s a surprising country,’ noted the Doctor. ‘Big and absorbing.’
‘Absolutely. But a bit queer. Do you know,’ said Julia, leaning forward and speaking in a hushed whisper as though terrified that their conversation may be overheard by embittered locals. ‘that they drive on the wrong side of the road?’
‘I can’t say that I’d noticed.’
Julia paused for a moment as if still unsure about whether her next ‘amazing fact’ was completely accurate. ‘And tonight,’ she eventually continued, ‘we’re going to a tandoori house for dinner. Can you believe that? I didn’t even know they had them in America. I mean, I know there’s an Indian character in The Simpson, but that’s just a cartoon, isn’t it?’
The Doctor nodded sympathetically. ‘I imagine there will be a few more things that will surprise you before you get back to England.’
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ said Julia. ‘But that’s part of the reason why we all travel, isn’t it? You take old Mr Shearer, our gardener. Never been ten miles outside the village in his entire life and he’s eighty-three –’ She was interrupted by the arrival of her husband, a tall, powerful-looking middle-aged man with dark hair and a rugged, weather-beaten face. A policeman, the Doctor decided. Confirmation came when he glanced down at the man’s size fourteen shoes.
Definitely a policeman.
‘Our taxi’s here,’ said Mr Franklin.
‘Cab Robert,’ corrected Julia pointedly. ‘And a lift’s an elevator. Remember?!
When in Rome . . . ’
‘Yes dear.’
‘Did you get the postcards?’ she asked.
Robert held them out for his wife to inspect.
‘Marvellous,’ she replied cheerfully. ‘We’ll need a couple for Mrs Speed, and Miss Barton from the off-licence. And the Dyers. How could we forget them?
We’ve got to tell them about all these bombs going off.’
The Doctor was suddenly interested but before he could get a word in edge-ways the couple had left the hotel, still excitedly chattering about trivialities.
He briefly wondered whether Tegan and Turlough had finished checking in.
Another man was sitting in the lobby, sipping a coffee.
‘Good evening,’ said the Doctor with a bright smile. ‘Lovely weather.’
‘You got that right,’ said the guest. This one, at least, was an American. ‘Too damn hot though. I’m from Minnesota. The climate’s more civilised up there!’
‘I’m sure,’ noted the Doctor. ‘It’s a nice hotel.’
‘Last time I was here the bar was full of drunken Englishmen singing “Perfect Day”.’
42
‘I wonder if you could help me,’ asked the Doctor. ‘My companions and I have just arrived. We noticed something very strange in Hollywood today.’
The man snorted derisively and put down his coffee cup. ‘If you go through a day and don’t see something strange in Tinseltown, be extremely afraid my friend,’ he said. ‘Hell may just have frozen right over!’
‘A police officer was arresting a man.’
This clearly didn’t surprise the man in the slightest. ‘Pusher? Pimp? You don’t get those things in Europe?!’
‘Nothing like that,’ replied the Doctor. ‘He said this man was involved in terrorism . . . ’
‘Oh,’ said the American. ‘I got ya. The Sons of Nostradamus.’
‘The what?!’ asked the Doctor incredulously.
‘They’re like your IRA boys,’ continued the man. ‘A bunch of fanatics who like blowing things up with nail bombs. They’ve been around for a few months.’
The Doctor’s interest was now intense. ‘The name? I have to ask.’
‘You know who Nostradamus was?’
‘Yes,’ replied the Doctor. ‘A sixteenth-century French doctor, writer and . . . ’
‘A seer.’
‘Allegedly,’ corrected the Doctor. ‘I’m not entirely sure I believe in mystical visions, personally. At least not those sort of mystical visions.’
‘That don’t stop folks who do believe in that sort of thing from believing in that sort of thing, if you see what I mean?’
‘Interesting.’
The man leaned forward towards the Doctor: as with Julia he was seemingly afraid that their conversation could be overheard. Though for vastly