Doctor Who_ The Last Dodo - Jacqueline Rayner [28]
Didn’t cross my mind for a moment.
I’m really not much of a detective, am I?
‘Hello,’ said the Doctor, bounding into Eve’s office ahead of the others, ‘solved your mystery for you. Good, eh?’
She looked up, and there was something in her eyes, something close to excitement. Nervousness and anticipation were there too. ‘Good,’ she said, but didn’t seem to be focusing on the matter at hand, didn’t even ask what the solution was. Even when Tommy, Rix and Nadya led in the sullen Frank, her attention was clearly elsewhere.
Frank was given short shrift. No attempts at justification were allowed, no defence, no condemnations of meddling kids. The security guards were summoned at once, and he was led off to a cell to await a full legal investigation.
Eve dismissed the remaining three Earthers. ‘None of you are on shift,’ she said. ‘Better get some rest while you can.’ Nodding their thanks, they all retired.
That left just the Doctor.
‘Thank you,’ Eve said at last.
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I won’t say “my pleasure”,’ he told her. ‘Just because I disliked what Frank was doing more than I dislike what you are doing, doesn’t mean you’re suddenly my favourite person in the universe. In some ways he was almost more admirable: at least he wasn’t trying to pretend he has some great altruistic purpose.’
‘And I am pretending?’
‘Well, I’d call this place pretty selfish overall. You’re hardly doing it for the animals; you’re just a glorified stamp collector.’ He threw up his arms and spun round, taking in the dull functionality of the office. ‘There’s no passion here!’
Eve half‐rose from her seat, then sank back down again. ‘I care!’ she almost spat at him. ‘This place is everything to me!’
The Doctor perched himself on the edge of her desk. ‘I believe you,’ he said. ‘Like I believe getting a British Guiana One Cent Magenta or a Tre Skilling Banco Yellow would mean everything to the stamp collector.’ He leant forward and spoke confidentially. ‘You remember Martha? Course you do, only met her a few hours ago. Well, she and I had a little disagreement over the merits of zoos back on her home planet. And, being exceptionally intelligent and open‐minded as I am, I can see both sides of the argument. Lot of people thinking they’re doing a lot of good. Education, conservation, breeding, a bunch of Noahs in a metaphorical flood. And the thing is, if you were doing something like that here, I might be able to sympathise a bit more. Rescuing two of every animal. Breeding. Even cloning. But you’re not.’
This time Eve did leave her seat. ‘Come with me,’ she said, walking rapidly to the door.
The Doctor, never knowingly nonplussed, followed her. He wasn’t all that surprised to find that they ended up in the Earth section again. ‘You know,’ he remarked, ‘I’m always getting teased about Earth. Keep ending up there, whether I mean to or not. Seems like even when I avoid the planet itself, I can’t escape it.’ He leaned over to examine a minuscule box containing a bright‐green beetle.
Eve kept on walking. ‘Have you ever had a dream?’ she said.
The Doctor, catching up, waved an airy hand around. ‘Well, there’s this one where I’m being chased by a Slitheen on a rocking horse,’ he said, ‘but to be honest I don’t sleep very much so it’s no big deal. Or are you asking if I have visions of a universe united in peace and harmony?’
‘My dream was destroyed,’ Eve told him, ignoring his answer. ‘Destroyed a long time ago. Or… maybe not so long after all. It’s hard to say, even for me. My life’s work could never be complete. Or so I thought.’
‘That elusive One Cent Magenta?’ the Doctor asked, interested.
‘If you like to put it like that. The one planet that eluded me. Destroyed utterly, never to be represented here. The only one, ever.’
‘Well, them’s the breaks,’ the Doctor said. ‘You can hardly expect extinctions to happen at your