Doctor Who_ The Last Dodo - Jacqueline Rayner [57]
‘Look again, you might have missed it!’ said Martha, who had climbed into the dodo pen and was now crawling around on hands and knees, just in case the controls had been hidden on the floor there.
‘I don’t miss things,’ said the Doctor. ‘Well, not that sort of thing. Birthdays, I’m terrible with. Socks! I’m always losing socks. Never have enough socks. If you’re ever trying to think what to get me for Christmas, socks is what I’d suggest. Remote bomb activation controls, on the other hand, I’m good with. If they’re there, I find them.’
The door opened and Eve walked in. The Doctor sprang towards her. ‘Eve! You mustn’t do this!’
She smiled at him. ‘But that’s just it. I must.’
He shook his head. ‘No‐no‐no‐no‐no!’
Eve continued to smile as the Doctor turned to the work bench, flinging circuit boards and test tubes over his shoulders as he searched and discarded. ‘Where are the controls?’ he yelled at her furiously.
‘Oh, they’re near at hand,’ she told him. ‘But you’ll never find them. Don’t waste your energy. And if you try anything, I’ll just detonate the bombs remotely anyway.’
‘I don’t think so,’ the Doctor said – and he pulled a white sphere from his pocket. It was ticking quietly.
Martha yelped. ‘Is that…?’
‘Uh‐huh. If Eve doesn’t deactivate the bombs, bang goes her museum. Well, part of it.’
‘The part with us in,’ Martha felt she had to point out.
The ticking got suddenly louder. Much louder.
‘What’s that?’
‘Countdown,’ replied the Doctor, grimly. ‘We’ve got, ooh, maybe five minutes before all the bombs explode.’
Martha stared. ‘Five minutes. Until the end of the Earth.’
‘Unless Eve intervenes, yes.’
Eve and the Doctor had locked eyes. ‘You’re bluffing,’ she said. ‘You’ve disconnected the charge.’
‘Want to bet on it?’ he replied, not smiling.
‘You wouldn’t destroy her. You wouldn’t risk other people’s lives.’
‘To save a whole planet? I think I might.’
Eve shrugged, but her gaze remained fixed. ‘I leave the room. I lock you in. I teleport back to my office. We’re not near enough the exhibits to damage them. Everything else in here is a clone. I’m not going to deactivate the bombs.’
‘You’re bluffing!’ Martha said suddenly. ‘You don’t want the Doctor dead. Or me, come to that. He’s a Last One, I’m a Last‐One‐to‐be. You must be bluffing.’
Eve didn’t smile. ‘Want to bet on it?’
The Doctor blinked first. He turned away and sighed, as the bomb ticked on, measuring out Earth’s last seconds.
Dodos clustered around Martha’s ankles as she stood in the pen, waiting for the Doctor’s next move. But suddenly she saw a look in his eyes that she’d never had a glimpse of before. A look of defeat. But – they still had minutes! Whole minutes before life on Earth was wiped out! Everything she’d discovered about the Doctor so far had led her to believe that that was plenty of time for him to save the day. In fact, he preferred to leave it that late…
Surely he hadn’t given up now?
‘I think you will deactivate them,’ the Doctor said to Eve, and Martha breathed a sigh of relief. He had a plan!
But in that case, why was he still looking so defeated?
‘I don’t think I will,’ Eve replied.
‘But I’ve got a bargain to offer you.’ The Doctor took a deep breath. ‘If you agree not to destroy the Earth – you can have me.’
‘What?’ yelled Martha, horror‐struck.
The Doctor didn’t look at her, kept his gaze fixed on Eve. ‘I’ll voluntarily become an exhibit. The last of the Time Lords. The most elusive specimen in the universe. Only survivor of an extinct world. The One Cent Magenta. I’ll do that, if you disable your bombs. Don’t destroy the Earth. And then you won’t have to imprison Martha, either. She can go home.’
For a moment, Eve was clearly tempted. But Martha could see the madness rising in her eyes.
‘I need Martha,’ she said. ‘I need both of you.