Doctor Who_ Wonderland - Mark Chadbourn [27]
'She's planning something.' Ben had returned from dumping the trash. 'Everything that's been happening has been some kind of test.'
'You think?'
'I wish the Doctor would take more of an interest in this,' Polly said wistfully. 'He would work it out.'
'We don't need him,' I said firmly. 'If you're with me, let's go find out about Mathilda.'
Stimson was typing furiously, surrounded by a cloud of smoke, his cigarette holder stuck out dangerously. 'Greetings, cat and chicklets,' he said through clenched teeth when he saw us. 'Just let me finish these pearls of wisdom – another great exclusive! Pulitzer here I come! – and then I'll be with you.'
We managed to find a few square inches not covered with piles of paper and roaches and watched the other journalists go about their business. Music filled the air – a live tape of Country Joe and The Fish singing 'I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die' – and the fragrant smoke drifted everywhere. I couldn't imagine straight newspaper offices being like that: there wasn't a touch of cynicism in the earnest conversations or absurd asides, and the level of dedication was remarkable; they truly believed in the people and subjects they were writing about.
Eventually Stimson came over, riding his wheeled chair like a tricycle. He eyed me seriously: 'How was the Goblin? Did he let you across his bridge?'
'That was a troll,' Ben said. Stimson waved him silent.
'He's after my blood. But I can deal with that –'
'Whoa! There's fire in you, girl!'
'We want to know about Mathilda
'The Witch of Buena Vista?' Stimson's curiosity was piqued. 'Why's she suddenly the dame of the day?'
I told him what happened, leaving out the part about the transformations; a lack of cynicism goes only so far.
He whistled through his teeth. 'So she's behind the Blue Moonbeams. That's crazy. What's she going to get out of that? She doesn't have to deal shit. She's got enough moolah and influence from all those sappy celebrities who hang around her all the time.'
'That's what we want to know. What's her background?'
He headed for a filing cabinet and came back with a cuttings file, which he leafed through quickly. 'She's got all the right credentials. Former member of the Theosophical Society, friends with Krishnamurti, studied Ouspensky and Gurdjieff, visited Gerald Gardner shortly before his death. She started her coven down in LA where she met all her high profile buddies. Moved up here eighteen months ago.' He unfolded cuttings and scanned quickly. 'She became a mover and shaker pretty quickly – she's cute when it comes to publicity. Telling how her magic works ... usually after the fact. Nothing here to show why she'd get wrapped up in a scam like Blue Moonbeams. For such a publicity hound, rumours about kids vanishing and all that horseshit can only be a bad thing. Dig?'
'She's bloody well planning something big,' Ben said. 'I'd stake my life on it.'
'I told you kids, there's only one big thing happening round here – the Human Be-In tomorrow night. The whole country is talking about it ... heck, maybe the world, even in the straight press. That Summer of Love is on its way, and it starts here. Yeah, it's getting hyped ... the Diggers hate it, think it's going to bring a lot of undesirables to the Haight ... like we haven't got enough already, right? But it's going to get the message across to everybody whose hair stays above the collar. This country is changing. The shirts and ties, the greedheads, the politicians, the generals – they're getting a wake-up call that the people are on the move and they're not going to take their crap any more.'
I felt a surge of excitement and pride at Stimson's words; it was what we all believed in, what we were fighting for, and I really felt we could win.
'So could Mathilda be going to the Human Be-In?' Polly had grown serious; she'd latched on to something.
'Everybody who's anybody is going to be there. And, yeah, Mathilda, she's got a big part to play.' Stimson fetched his notebook from his