Doctor Who_ Wetworld - Mark Michalowski [69]
Without looking round, he reached out to his side and found Martha’s hand. If this was how it ended, then it would be like this.
The two of them. Together.
‘It’s been fun,’ he whispered, looking down at her.
He felt her fingers tighten in his.
‘The best,’ Martha said without a trace of sadness. ‘Smith and Jones.’
‘Smith and Jones.’
There wasn’t anything else to say.
In silence, they waited.
And waited.
And, just for good measure, they waited a bit more.
‘Maybe it’s still falling,’ Martha ventured.
‘Maybe it is.’
So they waited just a bit more. Until the end of the cable – the end that, really, should have been plugged into a little box with a great big handle on the top – flicked into sight like a snake’s tongue – and vanished down the hole after the bomb.
‘You know,’ said the Doctor slowly, as if trying not to be too pre-sumptuous, ‘I always said the Chinese did the best fireworks displays.’
He glanced at Martha. ‘This one’s rubbish, isn’t it?’
And before she could say anything, he grabbed her in a whopping great hug and lifted her off her feet, swinging her round in the air a full three turns, before plonking her back on the ground, still laughing.
‘Like I always say,’ he grinned like a loon. ‘Technology – it’s all rubbish in the end!’ ‘What happened?’ Martha said eventually, as dizzy from the hug as she was from the realisation that the bomb hadn’t gone off – and wasn’t going to.
‘At a guess, I’d say our moist little friend forgot to plug something in. Either that, or –’
He stopped as the sound of an elephant crashing through the forest broke the silence. Both of them jumped as Ty and Orlo stumbled out of the bushes. With a huge grin, he gave them both a hug – but not, thought Martha, as big as the hug he’d given her. Instantly, she felt cheap for even noticing.
‘Candy,’ Orlo panted.
‘It’s just food, food, food with you, isn’t it?’ said the Doctor, rolling his eyes. ‘Hang on – I might have a biscuit here somewh–’
Orlo shook his head, catching his breath. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Candy.
Candy.’
‘Candice? What about her?’
‘She. . . she did it.’ Orlo pointed a trembling hand towards the drill site.
‘Candice did what. . . ?’ Realisation suddenly dawned on him. ‘Candice did that? She sabotaged the bomb?’
And as if Candy had heard him, a little face appeared around the side of the building, peering cautiously up at them.
‘Candice Kane!’ bellowed the Doctor. ‘Get yourself up here! Now!
There’s a serious hugging waiting for you!’
Ty couldn’t believe it – somehow Candy had stopped the bomb. And with just seconds to spare. She watched as the girl raced up the slope towards them.
But she wasn’t alone: seconds later, she was followed by a tiny, scampering procession of otters. For a moment, Ty froze, wondering whether the Doctor’s sonic doohickey had recharged. But then she noticed something about one of the otters: the grey, smudgy patch on one ear. These were her otters.
Candy skidded and slipped a few times in her haste, but soon she was with them and they threw their arms around her, squeezing her until she squealed. The otters lined up a few yards away, holding each other’s paws like well-behaved junior school kids.
Orlo gave her an embarrassed hug too. ‘Your spelling’s terrible,’ he said with a grin.
Candy pulled a uh? face.
‘Your Morse code,’ Orlo explained. ‘How d’you spell “sabotage”
again?’
She punched him playfully on the arm.
‘What did you do, though?’ asked the Doctor, clearly still puzzled, his eyes flicking to the silent line of otters, all looking up at them expectantly.
‘Common sense,’ grinned Candy.
‘Like you said.
I thought it
through. Whatever that thing was dropping down the drill shaft had to be bad, didn’t it? And when I saw the cable it was trailing, I tried to unplug it. Only it was locked in – and then these guys turned up.’
She turned and smiled at the otters, which made appreciative squeeing noises, dancing from one foot to the other at the attention they were getting. ‘I thought I’d had it – that they were going to attack me or something. And then. . . ’ She