Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [40]
There was a pause, then a Quevvil said, ‘Yes. Tell us where this “Doctor freak” is.’
‘Right. Yeah. Right. He’s gone to your planet, him and that little cow. He’s got a thing called a tarpit or something. He’s plugging one of your cards in it and it’ll take him there.’
There was another pause.
‘We must warn Frinel,’ said one Quevvil.
‘We must return to Toop,’ said the voice of another.
‘What about this human? Shall I kill him?’
There was a yell from Darren Pye. ‘We had a deal! I said I’d help you!’
The Quevvil spoke again. ‘No. Bring him with us. We cannot afford to leave behind a human who knows the truth, but if this human wants to help us… he can play the game.’
There was another yell from Darren, abruptly cut off. Mickey shivered. Had they killed him after all? But no, there was the lemony scent in the air again, and the fizzy feeling that made his hair stand on end.
He left it for a couple of minutes, but couldn’t stand the suspense any longer than that. He limped to the front door, and put his ear against it. Not a sound. He pulled away the crumpled magazine, and eased open the door. No one was outside: no humans, no aliens.
Mickey slammed the door, shoved the magazine under it again, stumbled back into the lounge and collapsed on a chair. His knee was hurting like crazy, but all he could think about was the Doctor and Rose. The monsters knew they were on their way. They’d be waiting for them. And there was no way on Earth he could let them know about it.
* * *
They were hand in hand, and they almost jogged back to the TARDIS. It was a time machine, but somehow time still seemed of the essence.
The Doctor, annoyingly, hadn’t told Rose his plan. This either meant that he didn’t have one, or he just expected her to do what he asked her, when he asked her, without worrying about silly little things like explanations or reasons for it. But she didn’t have to put up with that. ‘What’s the plan then?’ she asked as they came up to the TARDIS, reasoning she might as well know the worst sooner rather than later. Just because it was the Doctor’s time machine, that didn’t mean she had to play entirely by his rules.
‘I’m gonna try an’ home in on this Mantodean stronghold. Rescue anyone still in there. Then find where they’re holding the people ready to play the game. Rescue them. Persuade the Quevvils not to do this any more. When we don’t succeed, do something clever which means they can’t do it whether they want to or not.’
‘Great,’ she said. ‘I approve.’
‘I’m glad you approve,’ the Doctor replied, getting out his TARDIS key.
‘How’re we going to do all that then?’ she asked. ‘Bribe them with salt?’
The Doctor had earlier seemed not entirely impressed by her salt brainwave. She’d explained it in detail while they’d been trooping round all the flats.
‘Well. I remembered this thing about how porcupines go mad for it,’ she’d explained. ‘They chew stuff to bits if someone’s just touched it with sweaty hands, that’s how much they love it. So I figured…’
The Doctor had interrupted her. ‘These aren’t porcupines! Porcupines don’t, contrary to popular belief, shoot their quills at you. They don’t walk upright. They don’t carry little laser guns. And they don’t, whatever David Attenborough might tell you, kidnap human beings and teleport them to an alien planet!’
Rose shrugged. ‘Well, I knew it was a long shot…’
He’d grinned then. ‘A bloomin’ brilliant one!’ And he’d given her a great big hug, swinging her off her feet. ‘I’ll never let anyone call you a dumb human again.’
‘What, you mean they –’
‘Nah,’ he’d interrupted again, laughing, and he took her hand and led her off down the street.
‘Nah,’ he said again now. ‘We’re going to figure that out when we get there. Easier that way. I hate having to keep rejigging a plan just cos there was something we didn’t know about before we arrived.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Rose. ‘You’ve just got this seat‐of‐the‐pants thing going. You’d get all bored if you’d got it sorted beforehand.