Doctor Who_ Trading Futures - Lance Parkin [43]
Baskerville and Dee were up on deck – she could hear them moving around. She’d finally spotted the East European guy up at the wheelhouse, or whatever it was called. Which meant the coast was clear.
She edged out of her room. Somehow, it didn’t seem to be right doing this in swimwear. On the other hand, she thought, glancing down, if anyone but Dee found her, they wouldn’t be looking at the time detector.
The device was steadfastly refusing to bleep. Anji shook it, wondering if it was on the blink, but it didn’t make any difference.
There were three levels – decks, she corrected herself – one formed the control tower… hell, she didn’t even know what that was called. The bit that was above the main hull bit.
Anyway, she’d got the basics of the layout of the yacht – the lowermost deck had a small hold, but was mostly turbines and engines. The deck above that was the one she was on now – cabins, the galley, a small workshop and laundry. Then there was the main deck, with its control tower, helipad, and area for sunbathing. There was a dining area/lounge there, too.
So there wasn’t too much to search. Her money was on one of the cabins.
She tried the door to one, and was surprised it was open.
Dee’s room, unless Baskerville or the East European guy were keeping something very quiet. Anji inched around the room. If she could hear them up on the deck, there was a very good chance they would hear her if she made enough noise.
The dressing table had a few expensive bottles of perfume on it, a few small items of jewellery. The wardrobe had a variety of changes of clothes, including a very snazzy‐looking velvet catsuit/ballgown thing. There was a small zip‐up bag, which turned out to be a VSCD case with three VSCDs in. There was a very expensive and powerful‐looking laptop propped up against the bedside table.
No sign of any time machines, and nothing registering on the time detector. The way these things worked, it was bound to be in the very last place she looked.
Anji moved on to the next cabin.
* * *
‘The time machine was through here.’
The Doctor held the door open for Malady, who stepped through. ‘Is that it?’
The Doctor followed her in. The time machine was sitting in the middle of the room, the power cables still leading up to it, the lights still blinking on and off.
‘I don’t understand…’
Malady was looking around the room. She pointed through the thick glass window with her gun. ‘What’s through there?’
‘That’s the sending chamber.’
Malady was opening the door.
‘Be careful – there may be time spillage.’
‘I’ll take the risk,’ she told him, witheringly.
‘Why didn’t he take the time machine?’
The Doctor flicked a couple of switches, then remembered Malady was in the sending chamber, and decided things might start to get complicated if he accidentally sent her into the past.
‘It’s a bare room,’ Malady told him.
The Doctor poked his head through. ‘There was a coffee machine in here before.’
‘Well, there isn’t now.’
The Doctor returned to the time machine. ‘I didn’t get much of a chance to examine this before.’ He looked up as Malady came back in. ‘No… I’m sorry, this doesn’t make sense.’
‘The whole time travel thing, or just a bit of it? Come on, Doctor, that’s a metal box with some lights on it, not a time machine. Do you think it looks like a time machine?’
The Doctor moved around it, unsure what Malady expected a time machine to look like.
‘Why take the coffee machine, and not the time machine?’ the Doctor asked again. ‘He knew the tidal wave was coming. He knew to the minute.’
The Doctor looked over to Malady, who was looking up at the door. He turned to see what she’d seen.
Two graceful figures stood in the doorway. There was a middle‐aged woman with long grey hair, and a small boy, probably no older than ten or twelve. They both wore neat purple one‐piece outfits, and had gold circlets on their heads. Both were aiming stubby pistols.
* * *
Anji was in Baskerville’s cabin.
The room was Spartan, virtually empty. Two identical pinstripe suits hung in the