Doctor Who_ Father Time Part 27

'Do you think they'll honour their promises?' he asked.

'No,' Kirst said quietly.

'Of course they will,' Joel interrupted. 'Why wouldn't they? What's it to them?'

'What have they promised you?' the Doctor asked.

'That we get to keep this,' Joel told them proudly, looking around.

'This tower block?' the Doctor said. 'Is it theirs to give you?'

'Not the building. Just what's in it. They've got a machine. It just turns ordinary stuff into anything you want. We've got a bowl full of gemstones, we've got gold.'

'The Doctor can give you money,' Debbie told them. 'Help us get out of here, he'll give you money. It won't be stolen, it'll be a gift. You can stick it in the bank, spend it on whatever you want. If anyone asks any questions, the Doctor will vouch for you.'

'And if that Rolex was really made by Ferran's machine, it's a fake anyway,' the Doctor pointed out.

Joel shook his wrist, irritated.

Kirst looked at the Doctor, who was smiling at her. 'I'm game if you are,' he said.

'A million,' Joel said. Kirst was going to turn around and tell him to shut up, but before she could 'Agreed!' the Doctor said cheerfully.

Joel clearly rather wished he'd asked for more.

'You've got a million?' Kirst asked.

The Doctor nodded, and that seemed to be good enough for her.

Joel was looking nervous. 'I don't know about this,' he said.

Kirst grabbed his fancy lapels. 'Real money, no strings, no ha.s.sle. A million quid. Given to us by nice people, real human beings who will get us out of here before Sallak and that little psycho decide to kill us.'

Joel nodded. 'OK, what do we do?'

'Get us out of here,' Debbie said. 'We need to save Miranda.'

'No,' the Doctor interrupted. 'Take us to this machine first.'

'I thought you'd never get here,' Dinah moaned as she let Miranda, Alex and Bob in.

They'd heard the music from halfway up the street. Now it was almost deafening. Miranda identified it as Marillion, before filtering it down until she could hear conversations a little better. In the front room, everyone was shouting at each other, trying to get drinks of lager or cadge a cigarette.

Dinah was wearing a new skirt and a red-andblack jumper.

'Are these ribbons OK?' she asked, tugging at her hair.

'You look very vivid,' Miranda a.s.sured her, handing over her present, which she had carefully wrapped in dinosaur wrapping paper.

Dinah began pawing at it, eventually reaching the box inside.

'A gold necklace,' she said. She pulled it out and with a little difficulty put it on. She kissed Miranda on the cheek. 'It's beautiful,' she said.

Alex was staring out across the street. 'There's someone on the other side of the road.'

Miranda turned. 'The boy from the swimming baths.'

'The one that beat you?' Bob asked, tactlessly.

Dinah was already strolling out. 'Hi, there!'

The boy looked startled, but came forward.

'It's OK, you've found us. Come in.'

He came over. He looked at Miranda, who felt Bob's arm around her.

'It's chilly out here,' Bob told her, by way of explanation.

The room they were looking for was right at the top of the restructured part of the Tower, although all the windows had been sealed over. It was circular, with consoles dotted around which hummed with power. There were also bins, full of builders' waste and other sc.r.a.p, looking very out of place in such a futuristic environment.

The sonic suitcase was sitting by one of the consoles. The Doctor opened it up, and checked everything was in order. 'A couple of things are missing,' he noted.

At the centre of the room was a raised area about five metres in diameter.

'You should see this thing,' Joel said. 'It can make anything. You just put stuff on the platform and it turns it into other stuff. And that thing ' He pointed at a device that looked like a petrol pump, which sat on a trolley 'That's like the portable version. You point it at stuff and it transforms it.'

'That's how they've redecorated,' Debbie said.

'More than redecorated,' the Doctor said. 'Restructured it all at the molecular even atomic level. This is incredible technology. I'm not even sure how it could work.' He turned to Joel. 'And it can reproduce anything? Not just raw materials, but complex items?'

'Watch,' Joel said, proudly. 'Sallak showed me how to do a few things.'

He went over to one of the bins, then threw a few bricks on to the platform. Then he crossed to one of the consoles and pressed a combination of b.u.t.tons.

The console hummed, and the bricks shimmered and vanished. A few seconds later, the humming stopped, and there were half a dozen red roses there instead.

The Doctor went over and picked them up, sniffing them.

'Incredible. Smell these.' He pa.s.sed a handful over to Debbie. 'These are all identical,' he noted. 'It's like a three-dimensional photocopier.'

'It's a big machine, it's fixed in place. We can't take it with us.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I don't want to. It's a very useful machine, but it's far too advanced for this time zone. Imagine if this fell into the hands of someone who wanted unlimited plutonium, or guns. Even if they only wanted gold or coins, this thing could destroy the world's economy with just a few days of production.'

'So what are we going to do?'

'Stand away from that!' an electronic voice barked.

One of the guards had entered, he was aiming his rifle at the Doctor. He moved forward warily. His helmet hid his expression, but Debbie doubted that it was anything other than grim determination.

'Sallak will be angry if you shoot me,' the Doctor a.s.sured the guard. 'He wants that honour for himself.' He turned his back on the guard and began examining the machine on the trolley. He picked up the nozzle.

'Put that down!' the guard ordered.

The Doctor tapped a control on the console with one hand and jammed the nozzle of the device over the rifle barrel with the other.

The rifle became several dozen identical roses, which fell into a pile on the floor. But it didn't stop there. The roses spread, carried on up the guard's arms, over his shoulders and down his back. Debbie glimpsed the man underneath, pale and muscular, then all that skin and muscle began changing, too.

The process was fascinating to watch. Even the guard himself seemed to think so. He didn't scream, or cry out, or even look worried: he just watched his metamorphosis until he had no eyes left to watch with.

For a moment, the pile of flowers was roughly the shape of the man it had replaced, but there was nothing holding them together, and they just fell away.

The Doctor looked sadly down at the pile.

'I've just had an idea,' he told them.

'Do you like Guns 'N Roses?' Dinah asked.

It was half an hour after he'd arrived before Dinah had a chance to go up to the blond guy, but that was still the best opening line she could come up with.

He was sitting on his own, seemingly happy to let the party lap up around him, rather than to be any great part of it. He had a bottle of lager in his hand, but had barely touched it. His leather jacket, torn jeans and Adidas trainers looked brand-new.

'I think Axl Rose is the ultimate rock frontman.'

'That's an anagram, you know.'

'His real name is William Bailey.' He recited it as if it was French vocab.

'What's your name?'

'Ferdy,' he replied. Then, 'Happy birthday.'

'Sweet sixteen,' she said. 'How old are you?'

'Nineteen,' he said. That looked about right he looked mature for his age, but was also quite fresh-faced.

'N-nn-nineteen, eh?' she joked.

Ferdy looked at her in a very odd way. She decided to stay away from pop music from now on.

'What do you do?' she asked instead.

He seemed puzzled by the question.

'For a living?' she elaborated.

'I work as a yuppie,' he told her, after a short pause.

Dinah laughed. 'That's funny.'

He smiled back, a little uncertainly. 'Thank you.'

The Doctor checked the connection between the sonic suitcase and the trans.m.u.tation machine, then flicked a couple of switches.

A humming noise, quite a low, ominous sound.

The Doctor snapped the briefcase shut and checked the readings.

'We've got two minutes,' he told them. 'So let's make the most of them.'

'You've set it to blow up?' Joel asked, worried.

The Doctor smiled and ushered them towards the door.

'But all our stuff!' he complained.

Kirst grabbed him. 'The Doctor's going to give us a million quid. It's not like you've got anything worth saving.'

'The telly...'

'The telly is from Rumbelows,' she reminded him. 'Nicked from Rumbelows.' from Rumbelows.'

They hurried out of the door, into the corridor.

The metal door stood between them and the unrenovated lower storeys of the Tower.

'How are we going to open the door and get past the guards?' Debbie asked.

'I'll use the sonic suitcase,' the Doctor said, ushering them out of the way. He had opened it up, balanced it on one knee. He pressed something and the door slid smoothly open. The Doctor closed the briefcase and waited.

The guards on the other side clearly hadn't been expecting the door to open. They turned and edged forwards.

'Halt!' they said.

'Not even the sonic suitcase can get us out of this one,' Debbie whispered.

The Doctor smiled, then, without warning, he charged forward, holding the briefcase out in front of him. Before the guards had time to raise their rifles, he'd swung the case around, smashing both of their helmets with enough force to crack them.

The guards fell to the floor, out cold.