Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [36]
‘Might as well give up,’ said Rose as they left, the door not actually having been slammed in their faces, but near enough for them to have got the message. But the Doctor disagreed, and after an hour and a half, they’d managed to collect up eight games. Rose’s arms had had trouble coping after the first three, but Mrs Burton, who had known Rose since she was small, and certainly wouldn’t give the game she’d won to her grandson if it was dangerous, lent Rose her shopping basket on wheels to carry them in. Rose felt slightly self‐conscious, but couldn’t deny that it made things easier.
A couple of people refused to give up the consoles, a few dozen had never had a game or had given theirs away, but the majority of game‐owners had already handed theirs over in exchange for not being thumped, and it came as little surprise when the would‐be thumper was identified by some of Rose’s near neighbours as Darren Pye.
‘Sort of hoist by his own petard,’ said Rose, as they walked down the road towards the next block of flats. ‘Nicking all these games, and then getting killed by one of them. In one of them.’
The Doctor suddenly stopped. ‘If that’s what happened. Come on.’ And he was moving back the way they’d come so quickly that Rose’s feet were still going onwards. She quickly turned round and hurried after him, but he wouldn’t tell her why the plan had changed.
‘This Darren Pye,’ he said. ‘Thick, is he?’
‘As a brick,’ Rose replied.
‘Got to have some sort of reasoning power to beat someone up for their lunch money, though,’ said the Doctor. ‘Fist plus terrified first year equals cash, sort of thing. Be devious enough not to get caught by the teachers. Shrewd enough not to take things so far that the police get involved.’
‘So?’ said Rose.
‘So perhaps we’ve got something more to worry about. Come on.’
To Rose’s slight surprise, the Doctor didn’t head back to her flat, but to Mickey’s. He swept in with barely a rap on the front door. Mickey was in the bedroom, concentrating on the computer.
‘We wanna have a look at that site again,’ said the Doctor.
Mickey seemed to know what he meant. ‘It’s gone mad,’ he said. ‘Just this evening. Death to Mantodeans is everywhere. There are message boards and stuff. Price has gone up to 100 quid, and there’s one on eBay that’s gone up to over 200 already.’
‘Damn!’ shouted the Doctor, kicking at Mickey’s bed. ‘This has got to be stopped.’
‘People are selling the consoles on the Internet?’ asked Rose.
‘Dumb humans!’ yelled the Doctor.
Mickey looked almost nervous. ‘That’s not the worst of it.’
The Doctor looked at him. ‘You’re not telling me someone’s done something even more stupid?’
‘Er… yeah,’ said Mickey. ‘Looks like they have.’ He started to click through screens on the computer. ‘I’ve been at this since you left. Searching around, seeing what I could find out. This only went live a couple of hours ago, as far as I can tell. It’s not easy to find. You go through all these links, passwords and stuff. But I got there.’ He preened slightly.
‘Well done, who’s a clever boy,’ said Rose. ‘Now, are you gonna tell us what you found?’
Mickey clicked Return, and sat back.
It started with a message posted on a forum. ‘It would be gr8 if game’s were real if you shot someone and they were really DEAD!!!’ It was signed by alienkiller1984.
‘That’s the bloke who runs that other site,’ said the Doctor.
‘But it’s only the start,’ said Mickey, scrolling down the thread.
‘There are so manny people Id like to see DEAD. But not go to prison 4 it!!!! It would be GR8 if you could send them on holiday and they never came home but were KILLED!!!! Do you agree.’
Rose inhaled sharply.
The text ‘Do you agree’ was hyperlinked. ‘That’s where the trail starts,’ said Mickey. ‘Finally, you get a phone number.’ He gestured to a notepad, where a mobile number had been scribbled down. ‘You want someone dead – this person’s prepared to sell you a winning scratchcard. Treat them to a holiday.