Doctor Who_ Trading Futures Part 7

'Then your first blooding is overdue. Will you be able to carry out your duty?'

'Of course, Jaxa.'

'Good. Prepare.'

This really wasn't Fitz's scene.

He'd wandered up to the zoo, had a look round the reptile house, which had an enormous pair of pythons, a cobra and a pit full of rattlesnakes. The place was swarming with something far worse, too kids. Little kids, all screeching and clapping and running around to tell each other what wonderful new thing they'd discovered.

Yuck.

The Doctor's instructions had been clear enough buy a camera at the airport, take a photo of anyone who looked out of place.

Fitz had a good mind to hold the camera at arm's length and point it at himself. The only other people that had qualified were a pair of blokes in trenchcoats. When he'd tried to take their photo on the digital camera, the pictures came out as a blur. Fitz clearly hadn't mastered the intricacies of high technology.

Then he saw the old man and the totty with him.

Totty first: she was in her early twenties, wearing the unusual combination of tight shorts and a scientist's white coat. She was oriental, and had an incredible figure slim, athletic. Her hair was dyed honey blonde.

He was well preserved, but in his seventies at the very least. His hair was snow white, with a buzz cut, and a neat beard. He was wearing a smart double*breasted suit. He was broad*shouldered, tall.

And he was sleeping with the girl. Not right this minute, obviously, but it was pretty clear. She was smitten. Lucky old sod.

'Could you tell me the time, Penny?' the old man asked. A commanding voice, with a slight Scots accent.

'It's ten past nine, Mr Cosgrove.'

Fitz took their photograph.

The camera was virtually silent, but Cosgrove's head snapped round as the shutter clicked.

Through the viewfinder, Fitz saw a look of rage cross the old man's face. He saw the man lurch towards him.

He didn't hang around to see what happened next.

The Doctor and Anji sat on opposite leather sofas in the reception of the office block, acutely aware there was likely to be, at the very least, a concealed microphone in the room.

The chauffeur had told them to wait here, and that someone would be coming to see them shortly.

Most importantly, they hadn't been taken outside and shot in the head, which meant their little deception hadn't been detected.

There was a computer here instead of a receptionist, and their chauffeur had gone back to whatever his other duties were. There was no sign that there was anyone else in the building. There were three doors, all of which remained resolutely closed.

After three or four minutes spent speculating about the chauffeur's accent, and which part of East Europe he came from, a woman about Anji's age came through the middle door. She was tall and slim, with long legs. Anji hated her already. She wore a trouser suit, with as was the fashion nothing underneath the jacket, and elegant pointed boots.

'h.e.l.lo, I'm Baskerville's a.s.sistant, Dee Gordon.' It was an accent she'd bought in the best finishing school. 'You can call me Dee.'

'I was expecting to speak to Baskerville, and only Baskerville,' the Doctor said haughtily.

'You're the British scientist?'

'That's right. The Doctor. Cosgrove couldn't make it he had a small boating accident.'

'And you're his a.s.sistant...?'

'Malady Chang,' the Doctor said quickly, stepping between Dee and Anji.

'Chang? But that's a Chinese name and you're '

'Is that a problem? You have a problem with my skin colour?' Anji asked brusquely.

'No!' she said quickly. Then, after a moment's reflection, 'Wait here a moment.'

Ms Gordon disappeared through the door.

Anji and the Doctor stayed silent, kept up the act, but Anji was buzzing with questions. All would be revealed shortly, she a.s.sumed.

Dee came back in with neatly printed name badges, with their names or rather the Doctor's name and Malady's and photographs on.

'Follow me through, please.'

The Doctor stood, held out his hand, indicating that Anji could go first.

They stepped along a short corridor, into a lift, which climbed an indeterminate number of floors (there wasn't anything that indicated which floor they were on), before discharging them into a small circular room, done in the quasi*futuristic style that had gone out of fashion while Anji was still at primary school all moulded plastic, round TV screens and primary colours.

The man sitting behind the circular desk was in his sixties, with a high forehead and aquiline nose. He indicated that they should sit down on the plastic chairs. Dee took her place, standing, behind her employer.

They were very high up here twenty or thirty storeys, Anji guessed. The city beneath them was a stark contrast to the modern decor of the office. Anji had been a little disappointed by Athens on the way over there was the Acropolis, of course, but other than that, the rest of the city seemed to be concrete and anonymous apartment buildings. From this vantage point, she could see she'd been a little unfair, there were older areas, there were plenty of churches. There was a lot of scaffolding, too perhaps there was a renovation programme underway.

'This is the Doctor, and his a.s.sistant Ms Chang,' she announced. 'And this is Baskerville.'

'Lady and gentleman, thank you for coming,' he said softly.

The Doctor looked suspiciously over at him for a moment or two.

'Do you know why you are here? Have your superiors told you?' the old man asked. A refined English accent.

'Of course,' the Doctor said huffily. Anji could almost hear him regret the false bravado it as he said it if he'd told him 'no', then perhaps Baskerville would have explained it all to them.

Baskerville nodded, smiling. 'You don't seem to have brought any equipment. I would have thought you would have brought instruments of some kind.'

Anji briefly wondered if they'd been booked to play a gig.

'I have a few tricks up my sleeve,' the Doctor a.s.sured him.

'Good. Now, as you will know, Doctor, Mr Cosgrove has had a demonstration. I take it that you require a further test, with Ms Chang '

' call me Malady,' Anji cut in.

' with Malady as the test subject. Dee, could you prepare the sending chamber?'

'Of course, Baskerville.' She left the room.

'Er... "test subject"?' Anji asked, a little nervously.

'Nothing to worry about, my dear. While we wait for Dee, you might like to think about a destination.'

'Right,' Anji said, in a tone she hoped was decisive.

'Mr Baskerville,' the Doctor began.

'Just Baskerville.'

'Baskerville. Clearly we know exactly what you've got here. And it all sounds very impressive, from what we've heard, doesn't it, Malady?'

'What? Oh yes. Desperately impressive.'

'But what we don't understand, if you'll forgive us, is what is in it for you. You're offering us something that I'm sure is wonderful. Desperately impressive, to coin a phrase. But we're not sure what you want in return.'

Baskerville looked at him coldly for a moment. 'You are at a crucial point in the history of this planet,' he told them. 'Europe and America, poised on the brink of a war that would alter the course of this century, and only for the worse. Millions will die.'

'"You",' the Doctor said.

'I beg your pardon?'

'"You are at a crucial point in the history of this planet." We We, surely? We're all in the same boat, aren't we?'

The old man smiled. 'Yes. Well done. You have uncovered my little secret. While I have presented myself as a reclusive scientist, I am in fact '

' a time traveller,' Anji finished for him.

His smile flickered, he clearly didn't like having his big surprise spoiled.

'Indeed. I should have known not to underestimate the people of this time zone.'

'So the ' Anji realised she was going out on a limb, ' time machine you have is the product of a future technology. You are from the future?'

'Indeed. Over ten thousand years in your future.'

The Doctor looked over at Anji and grinned, like she'd just won a round of charades.

'A dangerous time to be here,' the Doctor suggested. 'You said yourself that the world's on the brink of war.'

'The war will be averted,' Baskerville said simply. 'Historians aren't clear how, but I think I know.'

'Care to share?' Anji asked lightly.

'I think I prevent it. I think I prevent it by reaching a deal with the European Zone that sees them acquire a working time machine. From that, the elite of the EZ become the Lords of Time, and usher in a new age of peace, prosperity and social and scientific progress. That is what I am offering.'

The Doctor opened his mouth to ask the next question, but Dee had come back in. 'The sending chamber is ready,' she announced.

Dee led Anji and Baskerville to an airlock with solid metal doors.

'Dangerous, is it?' Anji asked, a little nervously.

'Not for the subjects,' Baskerville said quietly.

The airlock door slid open. Anji and Baskerville stepped through, waited while the door slid closed behind them, some fans whirred, then the door in front of them opened. The room beyond the airlock was bare, with plain white walls. A stainless steel device sat incongruously in one corner. Anji quickly worked out why the room smelled of coffee once she realised it was a coffee machine.

Dee and the Doctor watched her through a thick gla.s.s window.

'This is the time machine?' Anji asked.

'This is the sending area.' Baskerville told her.

'Have some coffee while I prepare the process,' Dee suggested, her voice echoing slightly over the PA system.

Anji went over and poured herself a cup but she wasn't impressed too bitter. She glanced back up at Dee, who was adjusting dials and pressing b.u.t.tons behind the plate gla.s.s.

'Where would you like this demonstration to take you?' Baskerville asked. 'There's an effective range of about two thousand years it's past*facing, but can reach any point on Earth.'

On the other side of the thick gla.s.s, the Doctor was bending over a control panel, trying to figure out the controls and displays. There were some very thick cables coming up through the floor, all connected to a central box about the size of a fridge*freezer. There were switches and displays all along that box.

'That's the time*path indicator, I take it?' he asked, pointing out one of the displays.

Dee gently moved him aside. 'If you don't mind, sir, this is quite a delicate stage of the operation.'

'What's the power source?'

'I'll explain later.'

The Doctor nodded. 'I see. And it only has a range of two thousand years.'

'Only?'

The Doctor's smile flickered. 'Well, I admit that two thousand years is very impressive.' A thought struck him. 'If it can only take someone back two thousand years, and Baskerville is from more than two thousand years in the future, then how could he use it to get here?'

Dee frowned. 'That's something you'd have to ask him.'

'Could he have made a lot of little two*thousand*year hops? Does it work like that?'