Doctor Who_ Trading Futures Part 6

'The greatest musical entertainer of the twentieth century'? Fitz doubted it. Granted, his knowledge of the twentieth century fizzled out a bit past the late sixties. But he'd heard some of the music of the eighties and nineties. Half of it seemed to be cover versions of stuff from his day. But, y'know, live and learn. This guy could be good. Seeing as the tour of the house took six hours and covered two thousand seven hundred acres, presumably he'd made enough money from selling records.

Too much money. The first thing the coach pa.s.sed, once it was through the gates, was a twenty*foot marble statue of a chimpanzee. In the distance, past the lake full of swans, where giraffes were sipping at the water, he could see what looked like a fairground. The gravel path there was lined with statues of all sizes and shapes. Children, monkeys, fairyland creatures, all playing musical instruments or playing with toys.

Fitz was sat at the back of the coach. The kiddies here about half the pa.s.sengers were lapping it up. If Fitz had had millions of quid to spend on a house, it wouldn't look anything like this. But it was exactly what those kids would do with the cash.

All this wholesomeness was beginning to nag at him. He fished out the packet of nicopills, and discovered he'd already had the last one.

'Er, miss?' he asked the tour guide, who hurried up the coach. He'd found out on the way over from the airport that her name was Barbara Millicent Roberts, that she'd been a guide at Neverland for over a year, and discerned that he have more chance of getting a s.h.a.g at a Cliff Richard concert.

'Yes, sir?'

'I don't suppose there's anywhere here where I can buy nicopills? Or ciggies? Ciggies would be better.'

She looked like he'd just asked if he could strangle her pet hamster.

'No, sir. That would go against the whole spirit of Neverland. Before he left this Earth '

'Left the Earth?' Fitz asked.

'He now lives in a mansion in the grounds of LunarDisney, sir,' she told him, as if explaining that the sky was blue and the sea was wet. 'Even on Earth, the founder of Neverland never smoked or took drugs.'

'It's not really a drug,' Fitz squirmed.

' he didn't drink alcohol or caffeine. There's a very strict policy of enforcing those rules throughout the whole Neverland complex,' she completed.

She went back to the front of the coach.

Fitz wasn't feeling very well disposed. He shook the packet, wondering if one of the nicopills had got loose.

He was surprised when a small metallic disc fell out. He turned it over in the palm of his hand. It looked for all the world like a little microphone.

Malady had given him the packet. She must have known where he was and what he was doing since he'd met her. In that time, he'd gone back to the Doctor, they'd discussed plans. She'd know all about Athens and Neverland, and the briefcase.

Best not to mention this little debacle to the Doctor, next time they met up, Fitz concluded. Least said, soonest mended.

He squished the microphone with his thumb.

Malady's eyephones beeped to warn her that the microphone had been destroyed.

She'd always known it was going to be found, and she'd got all the information she needed, anyway. She wasn't sure she could stand any more of Fitz humming to himself. Although she was impressed he could hum Revolution 9 Revolution 9 she'd have thought that was physically impossible. she'd have thought that was physically impossible.

Fitz stayed true to form. Seeing him at first, Malady had wondered if the bewildered expression and casual att.i.tude was a mask, whether he was one of Cosgrove's men. After two minutes, knowing there was probably someone following him, he'd just walked back to a couple of friends on the beach. A pretty Anglo*Indian woman, about Malady's age, and a slightly older man in an absurdly heavy coat.

Malady was heading for Athens, on the only scheduled flight of the day from the island. Fitz's a.s.sociates 'the Doctor' and 'Anji' ought to be on the plane, unless they had their own transport. She hadn't been clear on that. The Doctor had mentioned something about 'taking the TARDIS', but she wasn't familiar with the term (and it wasn't on her database). Was that a plane, or some sort of weapon? Whatever it was, the signal had broken up for a couple of minutes, then Fitz had been in an airport. Then it hadn't made much sense from the things he was saying, he seemed to think he was already in America.

Fitz had struck Malady as a little confused, generally.

The Doctor and Anji, though, from what she could gather from the short time she was able to listen in to them, were operators professional, focused, organised. Malady instinctively knew she'd have to stick close, and lie low.

The two of them weren't on the plane. She'd checked, discreetly, first by hacking the unhackable airline security and checking the photos on the boarding pa.s.ses, then with a quick physical search of the small plane, on the pretext of trying to find a gla.s.s of water.

During the flight, she'd had a call: new instructions from the Octagon. Control had conferred with the President himself She was to discover what was being offered to the EZ, and to either acquire it or destroy it. A simple enough order to give, but the Doctor and his companions were her only lead, and she didn't feel happy about that. Whoever they were, they weren't working for the EZ. Neither were the goons who'd forced her off the road and killed Garvin. There was a lot of interest.

Ah yes, the goons.

Athens was only a few hours away, which gave her a little time for some counterespionage before catching this flight. She'd doubled back, watched the goons follow Fitz and the briefcase. There had never been any doubt that they were the two men who'd chased her off the road and killed Garvin. Except, of course, that she'd shot and killed one of them, then blown the arm off the other one and watched him burn to death.

Twin brothers? It seemed unlikely. Clones? They were in their late thirties, so too old to be clones. Why copy security people, anyway, when you could hire new ones for a fraction of the cost?

They must be the same people. She must have been wrong it had been a dark night. The first guy was wearing a vest. The larger man fell, blood sprayed from his head, he twisted slightly, looked surprised. The larger man fell, blood sprayed from his head, he twisted slightly, looked surprised. The flames must have confused her she saw twisted shadows, not the man himself. The flames must have confused her she saw twisted shadows, not the man himself. But the flames were only there because his gun exploded. His ray gun. But the flames were only there because his gun exploded. His ray gun.

Whoever they were, wherever they'd come from, however they'd survived, they weren't that bright. There were two of them, and both of them followed Fitz. One of them ought to have gone after Fitz, the other one should have looked for her.

If they'd been looking for her, they'd have seen her no more than fifty yards behind them at any time.

Eventually, though, she lost their trail. Annoying, but only just before she had to catch her plane to Athens. The goons weren't on the plane, either.

Malady hoped to h.e.l.l she could find the Doctor in Athens.

Anji lay back in her chair. The hologram display on her armrest told her that she was about half an hour from Athens.

It would take her half an hour to work out the interactive menu that picked her movie or choice of music. After checking the news, which was dominated by the sudden death of a young actress, Bermuda Atkins (who, of course, had still been in nappies back in Anji's day), she decided to dial up a tourist guide to Athens instead and sip some free champagne.

Anji was enjoying herself in First Cla.s.s. She'd only flown First Cla.s.s once before, and that was because she'd been upgraded for being outrageously late. A business trip with the bank to Hong Kong not that she'd had any time to take in the sights.

'This is the way to travel,' she concluded.

The Doctor was lying back with his eyemask on. 'It's not exactly the TARDIS, is it?'

Precisely, thought Anji, but knew better than to say it.

'And the TARDIS will be safe in the long stay car park at Heathrow?'

'Oh yes. It's got a ticket in the window.'

Travelling with the Doctor wasn't without its occasional discomfort or life*threatening moment, but... well, she'd always regretted not taking a year out to go backpacking before or after university. See different places, walk paths no other Westerner had ever walked (except for the other backpackers, of course). She'd certainly done that now. Gone where no one had gone before, and all that. She enjoyed travelling with the Doctor. The way time travel worked wasn't like being abroad: she didn't even have to worry too much about where her friends and family thought she was, or how it all looked. Until she'd realised that, she'd felt all sorts of things guilty she wasn't in contact with her parents, or Dave's parents, vaguely concerned she ought to be at work, and that she'd be completely out of touch if she ever got back. It had even occurred to her that the police might think she'd been murdered or had murdered Dave and gone on the run.

But none of that mattered that would all sort itself out, the Doctor had a.s.sured her of that. She could sit back and enjoy the ride.

'What do we do in Athens?'

'We're expected, remember? We turn up at the right place and the right time, and see what happens from there.'

'What do you think is going on?'

'Something to do with time travel,' the Doctor said. 'Quite what, I'm not sure. But whatever it is, we'll stop it.'

Chapter Five.

Baskerville Malady pa.s.sed through airport security without a hitch, despite the two guns, the knives, the explosives and the hunter/killer software that were either on her or in her luggage. As ever, that left her feeling both smug and unsettled.

She only had hand luggage, and had been to Athens airport before, so was confident she'd be out of the terminal building in a matter of minutes.

That was until she strode straight into the first target, the Englishman in the long coat, the Doctor. He had also been striding along the main concourse, when he suddenly stopped to tie his shoelaces.

She tripped over him, rolled over his back and landed uncomfortably on his other side.

'I'm so terribly sorry,' he said. After doing up his lace, he held out his hand, helped her up. 'I'm the Doctor.'

'I'm Malady Chang.' She was too busy looking for 'Anji' to bother with an alias. The Asian girl was behind them, struggling to keep up with the Doctor.

'An unusual name.'

'My parents didn't know what it meant. They liked The Three Musketeers The Three Musketeers, and there's a "M'Lady" in that. I think they wanted me to be a lady.'

'I suppose my parents must have wanted me to be a definite article,' the Doctor said, smiling.

Malady picked up her bag. 'Are you here on business?'

'I am. And it looks like our... ah... business a.s.sociate is here.'

A Teutonic*looking man in a dark suit was introducing himself to Anji, who had pa.s.sed over a small piece of card. He wasn't particularly heavily built, but moved as though he was trying not to look combat trained. Malady smirked hopefully she was better at that than he was.

'Doctor?' he came over and asked.

The Doctor nodded happily.

'If you'll excuse me?' he asked Malady, before walking off with the man.

At least she'd slipped a buglet into his... she glanced down, and saw the surveillance device lying on the concourse floor.

Malady waited a moment before hurrying after them. Outside, the Doctor and his companion were just getting into a silver limousine.

Malady crossed over to the taxi rank, and told the driver (who seemed surprised by her fluent Greek), to follow the Doctor's car. The taxi driver was pleased to, telling her he'd seen people say that in the movies, but in ten years of being a taxi driver no one had ever asked him to follow a car before.

Malady stayed alert. 'Any idea where they're heading?' she asked. Her training called this technique 'gathering data from a local soft a.s.set'.

'Towards the docks?' the driver guessed. 'Ten minutes or so, even in this traffic.'

'OK.' She kept her eyes on the car in front she wanted to stay ready for anything. The car didn't have tinted windows or privacy LCD she could see the Doctor and Anji sitting primly in the back seat.

The taxi driver was wrong the limousine was now heading away from the docks.

'Ah, business district,' the driver told her.

There were more modern buildings here it must be some new development. Still a bit of a ghost town. Most of the new office blocks looked empty.

'We couldn't build this tall until the last few years,' the driver explained. 'Earthquakes.'

'Yeah, I'm from California, and it's the same.'

They were heading towards one of the tallest. The limousine drew up outside it.

'Who owns that building?'

'No idea, ma'am. Drop you here?'

Malady nodded, pa.s.sing over the fare and a generous tip. 'You look after yourself,' she told him.

She got out of the cab, putting on her eyephones. They could detect most forms of surveillance, and warn her if she'd been spotted. The idea was to avoid being seen in the first place, of course.

She was pinged pinged almost immediately, but not from the office block. She checked the display. From behind there were two of them on the roof of the building opposite. A man and a woman in purple uniforms. Who were almost immediately, but not from the office block. She checked the display. From behind there were two of them on the roof of the building opposite. A man and a woman in purple uniforms. Who were they they?

The picture shifted, automatically following the man in the long coat as he entered the office block.

'I can't believe it's him,' Roja said.

'Both he and the girl are showing an anomalous temp*trace. I'm running ident software to be sure. There: the identification computer says there's no doubt. It's the Doctor.'

'He's involved in this?'

That earned a withering look. 'You can see he's involved.'

'You think he's behind all this, Madame Jaxa?'

'He interferes. Records from my time show that this is a critical point in the ancient history of the Earth. He probably thinks he's helping.'

'All rogue time elements think they're helping.'

'Indeed,' Jaxa said, rewarding the boy with a smile.

'What should we do?'

'We treat him like any other time criminal we establish his guilt, then eliminate him. We have to identify the transduction point he is using. I'll attempt to do that, while you set up a sniper position.'

'I've only killed in simulations, Jaxa.'