Doctor Who_ Trading Futures - Lance Parkin [26]
The good‐looking girl he was with caught up with them by the time Cosgrove had given Fitz a couple of good kicks to the ribs. ‘Oh no,’ Fitz said, ‘I bet you know martial arts, don’t you? Go on, then, get on with it.’
‘I’m a quantum physicist,’ she assured him, in an impossibly posh accent. ‘Who is he?’ she asked Cosgrove.
‘Good question.’ Together they dragged Fitz back up to his feet. ‘Who are you? Why were you watching us?’
‘I’m just a touris–’ He didn’t get a chance to finish, because Cosgrove punched him in the stomach.
‘No you aren’t. Now, lad, tell me who you are, and I’ll stop hurting you. That’s not too complicated for you to grasp, is it?’
‘No,’ Fitz agreed.
‘It’s not here, is it?’ Cosgrove growled. ‘The rendezvous isn’t here. So where is it?’
He grabbed hold of Fitz, started shaking him.
‘Athens,’ Fitz admitted.
‘Athens? Athens, Greece?’
‘No Athens the fourth stop down from Kings Cross on the Northern Line. Of course Athens Gree–’
Cosgrove punched him in the stomach again.
‘Leave him, Jonah,’ the blonde said. ‘You’re really hurting him.’
‘Leave him to me, Penny.’
Cosgrove let him drop back down. Fitz stood, glad that his ribs seemed to be roughly where he expected them to be.
‘There’s no need to worry,’ the old man told the young woman, turning to reassure her.
While he was looking the other way, Fitz scarpered.
It wasn’t the best plan in the world, in all probability, but it was the best plan he could come up with, and at least it delayed him being punched again.
Cosgrove twisted back round, tried to grab him, but slipped on the grass and fell over.
Fitz would have laughed out loud if he could spare the breath.
The girl was helping him up, rather than coming after him. He hadn’t bought much time, but his luck had definitely changed. He could get lost here at the circus – it was full of visitors and performers, and was a maze of tents and caravans.
He rounded the corner of the main tent, and came face to face with the two blokes in trenchcoats.
They looked very familiar. It was then that Fitz remembered seeing them back in the Mediterranean. They’d been after Malady. They were doing well to get here so quickly.
‘Halt. You are the time traveller. You are the one known as the Doctor.’
‘Er…’
‘Are you sure it is the Doctor, leader?’
The shorter of the two held up a device about the size of a packet of cigarettes, setting off a whole new round of cravings. There was a sickly‐sweet smell.
‘The control box indicates that the Doctor has one heart,’ the alien says.
‘Er… he’s got two,’ Fitz began. ‘Oh no, hang on, as you were. Blimey, you keep your records up to date, don’t you?’
‘If you have one heart, then you must be the Doctor,’ the man told him.
‘Look, sorry to have bothered you, but I really need to get going. Places to go, people to get punched by, you know how it is.’
The man placed his hand on Fitz’s shoulder.
‘You don’t understand. You are coming with us.’
And Fitz was rather alarmed as the whole universe disintegrated around him.
* * *
Roja stood still, watching the window through his spyglass.
All four of them in there – the Doctor, his companion, Baskerville and Dee Gordon – were looking out of the window. That meant the spyglass could read their lips without difficulty. He’d put the speaker on, so Jaxa could hear, too. All the voices sounded the same, of course, but it was easy enough to work out who was speaking.
‘– surely you can see how it would benefit the whole of mankind?’
‘Perhaps she can see how it’s a Pandora’s box.’
‘Doctor? As a man of science, the possibilities of time travel must intrigue you, surely?’
‘It is him,’ Roja said.
‘We knew that,’ Jaxa said irritably.
‘We’ve caught him red‐handed. We should get authorisation for a purge and destroy operation.’
‘Not until we know all the details.’
‘One thing, Baskerville, is that you’ve not named your price yet.’
‘My price? Surely whatever price I asked, it would