Doctor Who_ Trading Futures Part 15

Cosgrove turned to the screen. There were three cameras on them one long shot, showing almost a quarter of the city, one following the land Rover ploughing through the water, the third aimed square through the windscreen. The Doctor was driving, Chang was in the pa.s.senger seat.

'So they are.'

Like the rhinoceroses of Earth, the Onihrs had poor eyesight, but more than made up for that with a highly developed sense of smell.

The Onihr leader could hardly bear to look at the Doctor at the moment. The alien was burning leaves, blowing the smoke through his mouth.

'That is your fifth burning leaf tube in almost as many minutes,' the deputy leader growled.

'Sorry,' the Doctor said. 'I'm trying to get off nicotine pills.'

'You were going to tell us about the Time Vortex.'

'I will, I will. Can I just get the circulation back to my wrists?'

The deputy leader grunted his impatience. The leader concurred.

'You will tell us... now now.'

'Er... right. Time travel. Well, there's my TARDIS, of course '

'We know of Chronodev from the fifty*first century. We know the ident.i.ties of the four surviving elementals.'

'Right*oh. Good for you. Then who else is there? Time travel is pretty common these days. The fabric of s.p.a.ce*time just seems a bit more malleable, don't you find? Oh yes in the thirties we met Kala. She was a Time Agent, a human from the forty*ninth century. Noel Coward had some big shears that cut through the Very Fabric of... don't look at me like that, it's true. There was that experiment at Station Forty. Then in the eighteenth century we met Sabbath '

'What do you know about Sabbath?' they both growled. 'We must know more about Sabbath,' the deputy leader added.

Fitz pointed at his own chest. 'Hey, hang on you've got the Doctor here, right in front of you. Concentrate on what's important.'

The Onihrs looked at each other.

'This room has a lovely view,' the Doctor added.

The Onihr leader turned to follow the sound and smell of the Doctor it wasn't difficult keeping up with him.

'Wow. Is that the Earth?'

The blue*green disc was obvious against the blackness of s.p.a.ce.

'We do not know the local name for the planet. We were on routine patrol in this galaxy and detected disturbances in the fabric of s.p.a.ce*time.'

'But you were down there, chasing that Chinese bird and hanging around that theme park.'

'We were monitoring you, Doctor. The human female was also monitoring you. Our disguises were necessary for covert operations on the planet.'

'So you're not interested in the Earth?'

'It's a primitive planet.'

'It's one of the Doct of my my favourite places in the universe.' favourite places in the universe.'

'It is?' the deputy leader asked. 'Why?'

'Well, to be honest with you, I'm not sure. Let's have a think. It's beautiful to look at. As you can see. It's big '

'Onihros, our home planet, is four times the size.'

' but not too big. Er... the shopping's good. There are some nice people there.'

The Doctor paused to light his sixth leaf stick. The deputy leader was studying his snouttop computer. The rich smell of data pervaded the air.

'You are hiding something from us, Doctor. Something about the Earth.'

'Nah.'

'You have a special affinity with the planet. You have visited it on many occasions. It has acted as a magnet to time travellers and other fourth*dimensional beings. Why?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'I honestly can't say.'

'He is hiding something from us, leader.'

'I agree, deputy leader. There is only one thing for it.'

The Doctor's shoulders slumped. 'Don't tell me... the pain inducer, only this time you'll start on level five.'

The Onihr leader paused. That hadn't occurred to him. 'No,' he grunted finally. 'The only course of action is to conquer the Earth. Deputy leader, prepare the invasion fleet.'

Chapter Ten.

The Secrets of Time The Doctor parked the Land Rover right outside Baskerville's office block. Here, closer to the sea, the city was in ruins. Across the road, another office block had collapsed completely, its top floors concertinaed into the ground level. The water was knee high, filthy, full of concrete rubble and sodden paper debris.

Malady followed the Doctor out of the car, wading through all this.

'We'll need shots after this,' she called over to him.

'And a towel,' the Doctor agreed.

It took both of them to push open the revolving door of the office block, against the water.

There was a creaking sound, like a ship's timbers.

'The building's unstable,' Malady told the Doctor.

He didn't acknowledge her.

'Which storey did you say I was on?' he said instead.

'Pardon?'

'When I fell out of the window, you told me which storey it was.'

'I didn't actually count them.'

The Doctor moved behind the reception desk.

'h.e.l.lo, sir. Visitors aren't allowed behind this desk, I'm afraid.' It was the autosec.

'The power's still on,' the Doctor mumbled to himself. 'Using the lift would be too risky, though.'

'If you could move to the other side of the desk, sir, I'll be able to help you with your enquiry,' the autosec said calmly.

Malady was already heading for the stairwell. 'It's going to be quite a climb,' she warned.

Outside, there was a terrible splash, as some concrete crashed into the ground.

'I don't think this building's going to last much longer,' she said, although the Doctor wasn't listening.

He came back over. 'We'll use the lift.'

'You said it wasn't safe.' What she meant to say was that it obviously wasn't safe the building was creaking, she could almost feel it twisting off its foundations.

'No, but it's fast. If the building's really going to fall down, I'd much rather I was in a steel box with all sorts of safety features than just some stairwell.'

If the building was really going to fall down, Malady thought, then she'd much rather be somewhere else entirely.

The Doctor pressed the b.u.t.ton for the lift. When it didn't immediately arrive, he started jabbing repeatedly, as if that would make the lift come down any faster.

'Who's Cosgrove?' he asked, while they waited.

'Pardon?' She knew the answer, but the question had come out of the blue, and Malady didn't want to play all her cards if she could help it.

'I borrowed his briefcase,' the Doctor told her.

'You did?'

'Yes. Shortly before I blew up his boat.'

'That was you?'

'You know about it?' the Doctor countered.

'I saw it.'

'So you know Cosgrove?' He smiled, knowing he'd caught her out.

'Jonah Cosgrove is '

'Jonah?'

'Yes. It's an odd name, but... well, my first name's Malady, and yours is "The".'

'It's not that, it's... it doesn't matter. Carry on.'

'Cosgrove is the head of the British Secret Service.'

'Eurozone Secret Service, surely?'

The lift arrived, and they stepped into it. The Doctor pressed the b.u.t.ton for the twenty*somethingth floor.

'The British military was meant to merge with the rest of Europe's as part of the Act of Federation, yes. But not quite everything got put into the mix. The British government liked to maintain a little... independent capability. Cosgrove is the deputy head of the EZ Security Service, but his real job is to fight for King and country.'

'And the other EZ countries don't know about it?'

'Less than a hundred people in the world know about it, and most of them work for the Service. They're the cream of the crop.'

'Cosgrove being the creme de la creme.'

'Exactly. He's been at the heart of the British Secret Service since before the moon landings. He survived the Martians, the Euro Wars, the fall of Learman. He's normally utterly invisible. He stays in London. The fact that he's involved at all was enough to have the President authorise me to look into it.'

The lift doors opened.

'This is the floor,' the Doctor said. 'Come on we don't have long.'

'What are we looking for?'

'It doesn't matter what I'm looking for. You're looking for anyone who's trying to kill us.'

Malady drew her gun. 'Bring them on.'

The Doctor followed the Onihr leader on to the command gallery, wittering all the way. All around them, Onihr officers moved into place, with practised ease. The leader admired their discipline, their sense of purpose.

'You can't invade the Earth,' the Doctor was saying, through clouds of leaf smoke. 'They'll resist. They're tenacious creatures, humans.'

'We have a.n.a.lysed their defensive capabilities.'

'Five minutes ago, you said you knew nothing about them.'

'Five minutes ago, we didn't. Now we know everything.' Olfactograms of various human weapon systems appeared in the air.