Doctor Who_ Trading Futures - Lance Parkin [15]
‘Oh, right – I remember reading about that. In Ancient Greece all the competitors went naked.’
The Doctor frowned. ‘No, I think this was the future. Something to do with flagging TV ratings, I believe.’
Anji had spotted a scrap piece of paper – the Doctor had written down some plans.
‘“Lax security”,’ she read.
‘What? No – LAX. Los Angeles… er… X. Airport. I was wondering how Fitz would get back from the West Coast of America without the money for a ticket.’
‘And without a valid passport.’
The Doctor nodded.
‘And the answer?’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘You’ve not asked me why I gave the case back to its original owner.’
He waited for her to do just that, until it became obvious he would have to skip that bit and just go straight to answering his own question. He took a small card out of his jacket pocket. ‘This is the invitation to Athens. I wrote out an invitation of my own which has just sent its rightful owner off somewhere else.’
‘Where?’
‘Out of harm’s way.’
‘The implication being that we’re going to be in harm’s way.’
The Doctor nodded happily.
Anji had taken the note from him. ‘It’s a very roundabout way to pass on a message, isn’t it? Why not just send an email?’
‘Because the message is too important. It’s the only explanation. And it’s got something to do with those time particles. There’s a larger picture. We’re being shown tiny bits of it.’
‘Like that Chinese girl.’
‘Ms Chang was American.’
‘Fitz said…’
‘I know what he said. Her ethnic origin is Chinese, but she was American. And that note was meant for a European. The man I took it from had a Scottish accent.’
‘You think it’s got something to do with the war that’s brewing?’
The Doctor looked up, puzzled. ‘No. Do you?’
‘Well, it’s part of the larger picture, isn’t it? If there’s rivalry between the EZ and the Americans, and the EZ are doing something secret that the Americans are interested in, then that’s got to be significant, hasn’t it?’
The Doctor nodded, conceding the point. ‘I wonder how much the two sides know.’
‘I already feel like I ought to be taking notes.’ She tried to keep track. ‘The American woman, Malady… is she going to show up in Athens?’
The Doctor checked his watch, surely nothing more than an affectation. Anji’s own watch was set to… well, she wasn’t sure any more. She set it to 6.30 every time she woke up, because she always woke up at six‐thirty. That seemed like circular logic, but it meant she had some idea of how long it would be before she’d want to eat and sleep.
‘We have to assume that she’ll be on the way.’
‘And she might have backup there?’
The Doctor looked a little uncomfortable. ‘Well, yes, I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘We can’t outrun a phone call, can we?’
‘No.’ His mouth dropped. ‘Well, we could always set the…’ he stopped. ‘No. No, we can’t outrun a phone call.’
Anji was sure she hadn’t had the answer to one of her questions, but she couldn’t remember which one.
‘Where’s Neverland?’ Anji asked finally.
‘Oh come on, Anji, you must know. You must have heard of him.’
The Doctor smiled.
* * *
Well, Fitz had never heard of him.
‘The greatest musical entertainer of the twentieth century’? Fitz doubted it. Granted, his knowledge of the twentieth century fizzled out a bit past the late sixties. But he’d heard some of the music of the eighties and nineties. Half of it seemed to be cover versions of stuff from his day. But, y’know, live and learn. This guy could be good. Seeing as the tour of the house took six hours and covered two thousand seven hundred acres, presumably he’d made enough money from selling records.
Too much money. The first thing the coach passed, once it was through the gates, was a twenty‐foot marble statue of a chimpanzee. In the distance, past the lake full of swans, where giraffes were sipping at the water, he could see what looked like a fairground. The gravel path there was lined with statues of all sizes and shapes. Children, monkeys, fairyland creatures, all playing musical instruments or playing with toys.
Fitz was