Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [61]
Robert thought he was going to start smashing things again, even though the Quevvils were watching them. But instead the Doctor suddenly snorted, and Robert was surprised to see he was almost laughing. ‘Hark at me,’ he said. ‘If I wanted to feel good about myself, go to bed with a little moral glow every night, then I’m in the wrong business. Come on, we’ve got work to do. Where’s everyone at?’
And Robert looked back at the plan, and saw to his horror that there were only four blue lights left. The Mantodeans had claimed another victim.
* * *
Anil had, amazingly, been able to track down two more of the people who were actually playing the game now. He’d been coming up with some pretty convincing cover stories, and in one case someone’s girlfriend had seen his messages while she was browsing the Internet, waiting for her boyfriend to ring her, and had texted him, only to find out he’d been playing Death to Mantodeans for the last hour. Someone else had popped online to check their emails, and found one of Anil’s fake news stories that had been forwarded on by a friend. Mickey had his own mobile to one ear, and Jason’s to the other, and was relaying the Doctor’s instructions from one to Anil, back at the youth club, via the other.
Then Mickey had collected the lads’ own console and the ‘live’ one they’d found earlier, persuaded (blackmailed) Jason and Kevin to go with him, and they were about to do something that wasn’t sensible at all.
He hadn’t been able to resist glancing up at Rose’s windows again as they left the youth club; his eyes were irresistibly drawn there. But there were still no signs of life. He didn’t know why he’d half been expecting to see something. Jackie was still in hospital, as far as he knew, and Rose was… elsewhere. But when someone had a time machine, you couldn’t help thinking they might turn up even when you knew they were somewhere else…
But there was no blue box standing around. Rose and the Doctor – future Rose and the Doctor, or even past Rose and the Doctor – weren’t here at all. It was all up to him, Mickey.
He knocked on the door in front of him. Jason and Kevin shuffled their feet behind him. They’d taken some convincing. Mind you, Mickey was nervous, even though he knew it should be safe.
After thirty seconds or so, he knocked again, louder. ‘Keep the noise down!’ came a voice from somewhere above. ‘Some of us are trying to sleep!’
Mickey raised his hand to knock again, but then he heard something, someone shuffling towards them. The door was opened a chain‐length, and a wrinkled face peered at them through the gap.
‘Hello, Mrs Pye,’ said Mickey. ‘D’you mind if we come in?’
* * *
Once they’d got over their panic about what Darren’d do if he came home and found them there, Kevin and Jason had seemed pretty impressed at the way Mickey had persuaded Mrs Pye to let them into the flat. They’d been even more impressed at the way Mickey had commandeered the half‐dozen or so tellies they’d found in a back room, especially as he’d even got Mrs Pye to point out power sockets where they could plug them all in. He’d then uncovered Darren’s stash of games consoles. There were dozens of the things – he must have been round the whole area – and they’d gone through every one of them. And then he’d heaved the biggest sigh of relief in the world, because they’d found four more saved games.
‘There’s only six left to find,’ the Doctor had said. ‘Four saved games, and two more live ones.’
So, just the two live ones to go now. Mickey knew one of them was the bloke who wouldn’t stop playing, but he wasn’t able to tell the Doctor that. Anyway, though, that meant they’d found everything except one person still out there playing the game. Strange as it seemed, Darren Pye had actually done them a favour by collecting up all these games. He’d probably got more of them with threats than Rose would have done with pleas,