Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [55]
‘That’s it,’ said the Doctor, looking quickly around before turning back to the screen. ‘Brilliant. Now for stage – how many stages have we had so far? Stage whatever of the plan.’
* * *
Rose soared over a Mantodean, the poor misguided creature having had the idea that stalking towards her with its jaws open would somehow worry her. Catch me if you can, she thought, leaping ever higher and faster.
She reached the top of a series of stone steps, and there she finally stopped, gliding to a graceful halt. She wasn’t out of breath; she didn’t ache or have a stitch. Technology like this, and they use it to further a war. Just went to show how people could be clever and yet have no brains at all.
Her hand went to her pocket – and pulled out her recently retrieved mobile phone. Her other hand started to press its keys. It scrolled through the address book. It stopped at a name. It pressed ‘dial’. It held up the phone to Rose’s ear.
* * *
Mickey jumped when his mobile rang. To his astonishment, the display told him that it was Rose calling. He clicked it on hurriedly. ‘Hello? Rose?’
Rose’s voice said, ‘Hello, this is the Doctor.’
Mickey took the phone away from his ear and looked at it. It still said ‘Rose’. That’d definitely been a female voice. Rose’s voice.
‘You don’t sound yourself, Doctor,’ he said. ‘D’you have some sort of accident?’
‘You’re probably a bit surprised,’ the voice said. ‘Or more likely you’ve just tried to be witty. Rose can hear you but I can’t, and she can’t answer back, so you might as well just shut up and listen. I need you to do something. It’s really important, and unfortunately I don’t have anyone else I can ask.’
‘Thanks a lot,’ Mickey muttered, convinced by the rudeness that this really was the Doctor, who was for some reason using Rose’s voice to speak to him. And further than that, he really didn’t want to speculate.
‘Now,’ continued the Doctor, ‘I hope you’re better at playing Death to Mantodeans than you seemed, cos believe me, you’re gonna have to play like you’ve never played before…’
* * *
Rose listened to herself in some amazement as she outlined the plan. Her mouth was opening and her tongue was going up and down and words were coming out, and she couldn’t do a thing about it. It was totally and utterly freaky.
And she seemed to have developed a northern accent.
* * *
Mickey was feeling slightly stunned. It was one thing to get a phone call from your ex‐girlfriend, it was quite another to get a call from her new man using her vocal cords to speak to you, or something, and it was yet another thing entirely for him/her to casually drop into the conversation that she’s – he’s – calling from another planet, and needs your help to save the world again. Or a world, anyway, he wasn’t too sure about that. All he knew was that the plan the Doctor had outlined was not only impossible, as well as bordering on the insane, but practically speaking totally difficult because it involved him having a telly, which he didn’t any more. That actually felt like a far more insurmountable problem than the loony saving‐the‐world bits. It was getting latish now, nearly eleven, he’d have to find someone who’d let him come in and play a dozen games of Death to Mantodeans without asking awkward questions. If Jackie had been home he’d have had a chance – after the lecture about disturbing her beauty sleep… Maybe he could break in to Rose’s flat – but if he got caught, the police wouldn’t listen, they’d lock him up, and then who’d save the world?
A thought struck him. There was a telly at the youth club. The club was supposed to shut at ten, but Bob, who ran it, let some of the older lads hang out for longer if it wasn’t a school night. Worth a go.
Mickey bundled all the games consoles into Mrs Burton’s shopping basket on wheels, and limped off. The stairs were a bit of an ordeal, especially with the basket thumping down behind him, but he made it eventually.
As he headed down to the