Doctor Who_ Trading Futures - Lance Parkin [87]
The inside of the hangar was lit by the tanks and the aliens firing their weapons at each other. Every so often, a stray shot would speed out of the hangar door.
The Doctor and Anji were bent over the coffee machine like it was the most important thing on Earth.
‘I enjoy my coffee,’ Fitz said. ‘But this is silly.’
‘The time machine must be in here,’ Anji explained.
The Doctor was more interested in the coffee jug. He sloshed the coffee around experimentally.
‘Anji… it’s odd for Baskerville to pay so much attention to a coffee machine in the first place. But this jug is half‐full. Or half‐empty, of course, depending on your outlook. The point is that it’s still got the coffee in it.’
Anji looked up. That was odd. ‘The first thing you’d do would be to empty the jug.’
‘Indeed.’
The Doctor sniffed the coffee.
‘So what does that mean?’
‘It means the coffee’s the important thing.’
‘It’s time‐travelling coffee?’
The Doctor frowned. ‘I doubt it, somehow. Jaxa and Roja couldn’t pick up any signs there had been time travel. They thought it was because Baskerville was using good shielding, but – have you still got that time detector?’
Anji handed it over. The Doctor waved it over the coffee machine, but there were no unusual readings.
‘Doctor, I travelled in time. Cosgrove travelled in time.’
‘But is there any physical evidence of that?’
Anji flashed her eyes at him triumphantly. ‘What about the arrowhead?’
‘Arrowhead?’
‘In the case, there was that eleventh‐century arrowhead. When Cosgrove went to the eleventh century, he picked up an arrowhead and brought it back.’
The Doctor thought for a moment. ‘Simple enough to acquire – either it’s a very well‐preserved original, or a modern reconstruction. Because it’s metal, it’s impossible to carbon date. If I was going to plant evidence, I couldn’t pick a better thing to use.’
Anji’s head was spinning. ‘But I was there. I was in Brussels.’
‘You had those side effects,’ the Doctor reminded her.
‘Yeah… it was disorientating. But I was there.’
‘You thought you were.’
‘I was there.’
‘They convinced you that you were.’
‘In a bare room? They took me into a bare room, then I was in Brussels. I didn’t move from the room, but I was in Brussels.’
‘Which is easier? Making someone a time traveller, or conning someone to think they’ve time travelled?’
‘How, though? You might be able to do it with, I don’t know, holograms, or something. But that’s hi‐tech, too – they had a holographic TV on the plane to Athens and it was… well, it was rubbish. Blue and flickering. It’s still future technology, so it’s still evidence of time travel. I went into the sending chamber, then I was in Brussels.’
The Doctor tapped his lip. ‘You’ve missed something.’ He looked down at the coffee machine, just for a second.
‘I had a cup of coffee.’
‘You did.’
‘OK… I’ve had plenty of cups of coffee in the past. None of them ever made me time travel.’
‘No.’
‘So why would this one?’
‘Good question. What’s the answer?’
Anji looked down at the coffee jug.
‘There’s something in the coffee that makes people who drink it travel in time?’
It seemed unlikely. But, frankly, running away from dinosaurs, talking to tigers and protecting the President of the United States from alien rhinoceroses seemed unlikely.
‘No,’ the Doctor said, ‘time travelling coffee? That’s utterly ridiculous. Think, Anji, think. What do you remember?’
‘I was in Brussels. Right by the Manakin Pis. I remember seeing the Atomium, and –’
‘Wait. You were looking at the statue, but could also see the Atomium?’
‘Er… yes.’
‘Which isn’t possible.’
‘Well… no. And I sent my text message to Dave, and I was looking up at the Atomium, and thinking it looked like something out of Gerry Anderson, and suddenly the Atomium parted down the middle, the pavement was rolling slowly back, and there was a hangar below.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘A hangar. Right. Then?’
‘Hang on…’ Anji said. ‘There was a crack, like thunder, and then a rocket launched from the depths. That’s… er… not possible, is it?’
‘It’s certainly a clue,’ the Doctor said gently.