Doctor Who_ The Last Dodo - Jacqueline Rayner [61]
Ah. ‘Um…’ I said, trying to run through my most recent conversations with Frank in my head. Surely I hadn’t mentioned it. Or had I? Oh bum, I was fairly sure I had…
‘Martha?’ said the Doctor.
‘Sorry,’ I replied, answering the implication.
We all raced out of the door.
Martha headed the charge from Eve’s office until she realised she had no idea where the infirmary was and therefore fell back to let Rix lead. The others would probably have overtaken her anyway; she was still carrying Dorothea and so speed was not currently her strong point. She wished she hadn’t abandoned the shopping trolley earlier.
What this all meant, though, was that she reached the infirmary a few seconds after the others, and so she was the last to see that they were already too late.
Tommy was lying in a bed, conscious, and hooked up to monitors that were giving out reassuring beeping sounds. These were all good things. What was not good at all, however, was that standing over the recumbent man was Frank, a determined look on his face. There was a great big holdall at the ex‐Earther’s feet, bundles of notes sticking out of the top. His ill‐gotten gains.
‘Tommy!’ shouted Rix, making to rush forwards, but Frank yelled ‘Stop!’ He’d got a new gun from somewhere, and it now swivelled round to point at Rix.
‘Glad you could join us. Tommy doesn’t want to tell me where my pendant is, however much I promise to hurt him. But I reckon he might have second thoughts if I promise to kill all you lot instead.’ Nadya’s hand had been creeping towards her own pendant, but she suddenly screamed as a laser beam shot past her neck, exploding a vase of flowers on a cabinet behind her. ‘Don’t do that, Nadya,’ Frank continued, as chrysanthemum petals rained down on the ward. ‘In fact, it’d be a good plan if you all took off your pendants and threw them over here. And if I see any fingers near buttons, then I shoot, and it won’t be a warning shot.’
The Earthers unhappily did as he instructed, tossing their pendants at Frank’s feet. The gun never wavering, he bent down and gathered them up, pushing them in his pocket. ‘Now, Tommy…?’ he said as he straightened up again.
‘You killed them! The quagga, the bluebuck, everything! And you expect me to help you escape?’ growled Tommy from the bed.
‘Duh!’ said Frank. ‘I’ve just been explaining that. Because if you don’t, I’ll kill all your friends here, one by one.’
‘I’m more a sort of acquaintance, actually,’ put in the Doctor. ‘No offence, Tommy.’
Frank sighed. ‘All right, all your friends and acquaintances here.’
‘And, not that I’m really the one to judge or cast aspersions on anyone’s relationships, but the thing about work is that you get flung together with people out of necessity rather than choice, so I wonder if some of the people here would be better described merely as colleagues rather than friends…’
‘Fine. All your friends and acquaintances and colleagues here.’
The Doctor nodded. Then stopped. ‘Hang on, hang on, my fault, but when you come to think of it, friends and colleagues are by necessity acquaintances too. So really, you could just say “acquaintances” and that covers the lot. Save some time.’
Frank gritted his teeth. ‘Shut up!’
‘Righteo.’ There was a pause, then the Doctor added, ‘Wait a mo, I’ve forgotten what it was you were going to do to the friends and acquaintances and colleagues in the first place.’
‘I was going to kill them!’ yelled Frank.
‘Ah, yes, that was it. Knew it was something like that.’
Martha couldn’t help smiling, despite yet another threat of imminent death. The Doctor really did have a Grade A in Annoying.
But maybe this was her chance: on with the nasty cop, nice cop routine. Or rather, irritating cop, reasonable cop. She put down Dorothea and walked towards Frank with her hands outstretched to show she was no