Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [35]
Rose took a deep breath, and stood up. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Let’s go.’
* * *
ELEVEN
They decided on a cover story. Not the best cover story in the world, but better than just turning up on someone’s doorstep and demanding they give you their games console.
Rose announced she was going to pass herself off as a trading standards official, come to collect up the dangerous games which had been known to catch fire and burn down people’s flats. She would tie back her hair and call herself ‘Susan’, or ‘Pamela’, or something equally sensible and trustworthy.
The Doctor pointed out that her face had been on ‘Missing’ posters around the estate and the surrounding areas for a year, a lot of people either knew her or knew her by sight, and anyway, why would they be less likely to trust an honest‐looking, loose‐haired nineteen‐year‐old called Rose than someone who was obviously pretending to be something she wasn’t?
Rose conceded the point.
‘But,’ said the Doctor, ‘the fire idea’s a good one. We’ll tell ’em that.’
And so they began. Rose knocked at the first door, and after a few minutes a young woman opened it. Rose had seen her around occasionally, struggling with a pushchair, but didn’t know her name. The woman was carrying a crying toddler, and didn’t look particularly happy at being called to the door.
‘Sorry to disturb you,’ Rose said, ‘but we were wondering if you’d won a games console in this Percy Porcupine promotion.’
The woman stared at them. ‘Do I look like I’ve got time for playing games? Oh, shut up, Danny.’ The toddler bawled even louder.
‘It’s just that there’s been an accident,’ the Doctor interjected. ‘So if you did have one…’
‘Well, I don’t,’ said the woman. ‘Like I told the last one.’
She slammed the door in their faces. Rose and the Doctor exchanged glances. ‘The last one?’ they said simultaneously.
They moved on the next flat. An old lady kept the door on a chain and peered through the tiny gap at them. It took some time for them to get her to understand the general idea of what they were after. She turned out not to have a games console, but did still have a set of snakes and ladders from when her children were small, and a pack of ancient playing cards with cigarette advertising on the backs. She – possibly still not entirely clear as to why the Doctor and Rose were at her door – suggested they came in for a game, and Rose felt quite guilty when the Doctor gently refused.
The third flat brought another young mother to the door. They could see into the sitting room behind her, where two little girls were watching The Tweenies on television. She listened to the Doctor’s spiel with her arms crossed, and a hard expression on her face that Rose found rather intimidating. When the Doctor had finished, the woman gave a great snort. ‘A fire, you say?’ she said, in what would have been a pleasant Scottish accent had she not sounded so scornful.
‘Earlier this afternoon,’ said the Doctor. ‘Did you not hear the fire engines going past?’
‘It’ll all be in the papers tomorrow,’ put in Rose, for added verisimilitude.
‘No, I did not hear any fire engines,’ the woman replied. ‘Which is odd, because I have verra good hearing. Nor did I see any smoke.’
‘Well, we’re a bit far away for that,’ said the Doctor, waving a hand to indicate somewhere over there, but really quite far away indeed.
‘I see.’ The woman snorted again. ‘Well, it’s better than the last attempt, I’ll give you that. At least you’re not threatening to punch my head in. Is it that you’re trying to win the prize, and don’t want any rivals? Or is it that these games are worth a bit? Is that why everyone’s so keen to get hold of them?’
Rose grabbed the Doctor’s arm. ‘Someone else has been round?’ she said. ‘Someone was trying to get you to give them your games console?’
‘Trying and succeeding,’ the woman said. ‘I don’t like giving in to threats,