Doctor Who_ The Sea-Devils - Malcolm Hulke [10]
‘Not really,’ said the Doctor without turning. ‘He’s defeated, and knowledge of its location is the only thing he’s got to cling on to.’
‘Then why,’ she asked, ‘did we come all the way down here?’
The Doctor was evasive. ‘I thought a trip to the seaside might do us both good.’
‘You’re really sorry for him, aren’t you?’ she said. ‘You wanted to be sure he was being treated properly.’
‘We used to be great friends,’ said the Doctor. ‘Hundreds of years ago, when we were both young Time Lords, we were inseparable. After all, we had a lot in common.’
‘What, for instance?’
He turned to her. ‘You know the Golden Rule of the Time Lords—just to sit and watch, but never actually do anything? He and I are different. We wanted to get out into the Universe, to meet other species, to explore.’
‘One for good and the other for evil?’ said Jo.
‘Yes, you could say that.’
The door opened and Trenchard marched in, all smiles, removing his little pork-pie hat. ‘Ready for off then? I’d better stamp the passes.’
Jo produced their passes and Trenchard read them all again as though he had never seen them before, then produced a rubber stamp and an ink pad and stamped them. ‘Satisfied with how we look after him?’
The Doctor was buried in thought again, but even so turned. ‘What? Oh, yes. Just one thing, though, that made me curious...’
Trenchard was handing the stamped passes back to Jo, and avoided the Doctor’s eyes as he spoke. ‘Oh? What’s that?’
‘The prison officer whom we saw on the monitor screen,’ said the Doctor, ‘he asked if the Master was ready to change his book yet.’
For the first time Trenchard did not seem completely at ease. ‘Well, a prisoner has a right to have something to read, you know.’ He seemed to have a sudden idea, one that might take them off the subject of the Master. ‘They deprived Sir Thomas More of his books when he was a prisoner of King Henry in the Tower, you know! That was jolly cruel of them. They were a lot of savages in those days.’
But the Doctor was not to be deflected on to a general conversation about the treatment of prisoners. ‘Since he has wall-to-wall carpeting and coloured television, why doesn’t he have a library of books down there in his room?’
Trenchard was momentarily thrown by this question. Then he rallied. ‘Prison regulations, old chap! Got to keep to the rules, you know.’
‘I agree,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s just that the two things don’t seem to fit.’
‘If you really want to know,’ said Trenchard, as though taking both the Doctor and Jo into a great confidence, ‘when they gave me this job I read the rule book from cover to cover. You see, there’s nothing to say that a prisoner mustn’t have the little comforts that we’ve provided. Therefore I used my own discretion. But there is a rule laid down by the Prison Department about the issue of books to prisoners, so I had to keep to it.’
‘Very crafty of you,’ said the Doctor with a smile. ‘Well, we shall be on our way. It’s been most pleasant to meet you, Mr. Trenchard.’
Trenchard summoned the Minimoke to the front door of the chateau, and within a few minutes the Doctor and Jo were being slowly driven back to the main gates by Prison Officer Snellgrove.
Jo asked, ‘What was all that about books?’
Out of Snellgrove’s vision, the Doctor put his fingers to his lips to keep Jo quiet. He said, loud enough for Snellgrove to hear: ‘I was just glad that they gave him plenty to read, to keep his mind occupied.’
Once outside the big gates, and back on the road leading to the quayside, Jo tried again. ‘I still didn’t understand your interest in the Master getting books to read.’
‘I think Mr. Trenchard may have misread the prison rules,’ explained the Doctor. ‘A prisoner is allowed three books per fortnight, not one at a time.’
‘Does it matter?’ asked Jo, hurrying to keep up with the Doctor’s long strides.
‘I’ve no idea,’ said the Doctor. ‘It just struck me as being strange.’
Meanwhile Trenchard was talking to the Master about the incident of Prison Officer Wilson and the book.
‘I think we fooled them nicely,’ said Trenchard.