Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [65]
An equal desire not to tamper with or destroy what they were exploring.’
Mr Mintz opened his mouth, but she held up a hand for silence. ‘I was wrong. This society of time explorers I imagined, this honourable society, doesn’t exist. There are only isolated renegades, out for themselves.’
Mr Mintz’s mouth had turned down at both corners. He looked at the floor.
Ashamed or resigned?
‘Therefore,’ Penelope went on, ‘I renounce my imagined society.’ She knelt down and opened her bag. ‘I brought the plans for my time machine, though I was obliged to leave the real thing behind. Present me to this Gufuu-sama.
If I have no choice but to remain in this situation, I must make the best of it.’ He was looking at her in astonishment. ‘And perhaps someday – we will create a fully functioning version of my time conveyance. And then I’m going to leave.’
Everyone was running in the opposite direction to Chris. He fought his way through the blackened, shouting crowd, back towards the inn, into the smoke and panic.
He didn’t stop to think. Running on instinct.
131
The building opposite the inn, some kind of gambling parlour, was roaring with sooty flame. The fire had spread to three houses already. Terrified-looking men were throwing water into the blaze, uselessly.
Chris waved his arms as a great puff of smoke billowed down on to him, blinking the stinging heat out of his eyes. There was a figure lying in the street, halfway between the two houses, covered in dust and ash. He made a beeline for it without even thinking.
He grabbed the Doctor and turned him over. There was an impressive sear mark on the left shoulder of his jacket.
‘Wooden buildings and energy weapons,’ Chris muttered. ‘Bad combination.’
The Doctor coughed, shouted something about the world dissolving, and came to, brushing soot from his eyes. ‘Chris,’ he said.
‘Let’s get you out of here,’ said the Adjudicator, lifting him up.
‘Let’s get the pod out of here,’ he said. ‘There’s a Caxtarid agent running about. Probably a slaver.’
‘A woman with copper hair?’ said Chris, helping the Doctor out of the smoke.
‘Metallic red, yes. And very unpleasant. She wants that pod badly enough to kill for it. She thought she’d done just that.’ The Doctor looked back at the raging fire. ‘She may well have killed someone. Blast! I should have had more sense than to bring the thing to a population centre, especially after what happened to Hekison.’
The Time Lord was striding towards the blacksmith’s, looking left and right.
Chris said, ‘Here’s hoping she split when the fire started. I’m just glad you didn’t go off and leave me.’
The Doctor clapped his hand on Chris’s arm. ‘You’ll be fine. I’m not sure how much the Caxtarid cares about publicity.’ He scowled, wiping soot from his nose. ‘We can’t waste any more time. We have to collect the cart, the horses and the pod, and drive as hard as we can for Doa-no-naiheya Monastery.’
‘Leaving a trail of destruction behind us,’ sighed Chris.
‘That’s what I’m hoping to avoid,’ said the Doctor.
That was when the troop of samurai came out of the smoke.
132
15
Cat and mouse
Wednesday 22 May 1996, subjective time
Probably March 1560, local time
Dear Diary,
I refer you to the entry for 30 December 1999
Dear Diary,
I knew I should have listened to the Doctor, whose advice always makes good sense. Besides, I knew that messing about with history was a Bad Thing. So thank goodness I didn’t decide to go ahead with whatever it was I was planning.
As I suppose you know, dear Diary, I didn’t write that.
*gulp*
There were at least a dozen samurai, driving wildly out of the smoke. Chris caught flashes amongst the motion, frightened faces, purple banners.
A flurry of energy bolts punctured the black smoke, searing pink light like loosed arrows, following perfectly straight trails up into the sky, or smashing into buildings with a puff of flame. A horse screamed, nearly throwing its rider. Chris grabbed the Doctor by the collar and pulled him out of the way of the panicked animal’s hooves.
The Caxtarid ran barefoot