Doctor Who_ Trading Futures Part 28

'Access to another system,' Anji concluded. 'To do what? Start a war between the US and Europe? You don't need a computer to do that.'

She dried up, tried to think back to what he'd been talking about before, on the yacht. He was wearing his best poker face, now.

Golden geese. Stealing money.

'Money?' she asked.

Baskerville's face fell. 'Great heavens, you really are good, aren't you?'

'Money?' she repeated, this time disappointed. 'You have a Concorde, you have a helicopter, you have a yacht. There comes a point where you don't really need any more money, doesn't there? You're already drinking the most expensive champagne. If it's not good enough, well, I'm sure you could afford your own vineyard.'

'IFEC,' Baskerville said. 'ULTRA will give me complete access to IFEC.'

The intercom buzzed. 'We're coming in to land, Baskerville. Everyone should get to their seats.'

Anji followed him through, puzzled.

Mather and Cosgrove were sitting opposite each other, and had clearly been in conversation. They straightened up, looking like guilty schoolboys.

'Seatbelts, gentlemen,' Baskerville reminded them. They both belted up.

Baskerville took a seat, Anji sat next to him. Dee was hurrying through to the c.o.c.kpit, perhaps to help out with the landing.

The plane was banking down, gently. It had slowed down considerably, even in the time it had taken Anji to come through and take a seat. They were heading through the clouds, now, so there was no visibility.

Anji checked her watch. They'd been flying for about two and a half hours. It took Concorde about three and a half to cross the Atlantic, so they must be well inside Russia.

Baskerville smiled over at her. He trusted her she could have told Mather or Cosgrove that he wasn't a time traveller, she hadn't. Anji was unsure why she hadn't, but knew it was the right thing to do.

She wondered where he'd got his time machine. There were time machines everywhere, of course, she'd learned that from her travels with the Doctor. It was a bit like L-plates. Before you started driving lessons, you didn't notice any learners. Once you started, every third car seemed to be from a driving school. And everywhere the TARDIS landed, there seemed to be a time traveller there or thereabouts. The only thing the time machines had in common was that they were all completely different.

He'd killed the original owner, she could presume that much. Perhaps that was why he was so keen to sell it it was hot property. And maybe that was why the TARDIS had diverted them here a time traveller had died, a wrong needed righting.

The Concorde banked hard to the right, splas.h.i.+ng Anji's champagne over her.

'Just routine,' Baskerville called out, 'nothing to worry '

The plane banked hard left. Anji saw a streak of fire through the window.

'What the h.e.l.l?'

'That was a ground*to*air missile.' Cosgrove shouted. 'We're being fired on!'

Chapter Seventeen.

Stand Off (ish) 'It's a Concorde, Baskerville,' Relker told him. 'Ground to air defences are active. We'll down it.'

The Doctor leant back in his chair, his hands behind his back. 'Dee, what do you make of it?'

Malady moved over to the radar. 'It's not registering on radar. It could be modified for stealth. You're sure the radar is working?'

'Of course, Miss Gordon. We think it is a stealth craft. That makes it hard to hit with heat*seekers,' Relker admitted. 'We were right to fire on it?'

The Doctor smiled beatifically. 'Of course. Those were my orders, after all fire on anyone approaching who isn't me. Let it land, then have your men surround it, stop it from taking off again. Keep everyone on the plane for the moment. Oh and Relker, if they resist '

' kill them?' Relker asked, with relish.

The Doctor was horrified. 'No. If they resist, get under cover. Non*lethal force only.'

Relker looked disappointed, but saluted and left the office.

Malady waited until he'd gone and rounded on the Doctor. 'When he finds out...'

'Let's keep that from happening for as long as possible, eh?'

Malady had given up asking him how they'd ended up here.

They'd had one time jump. The Doctor had materialised them in... well, at first Malady had thought it was his house. Somehow, the cathedral*like s.p.a.ce of wood panelling and bookcases looked just the sort of place the Doctor would call home. The Doctor had seemed relaxed there, too. He'd handed her the time machine, then gone over to an odd five*sided writing desk, which had some sort of computer built into it. The Doctor had used it to track the radio signals that had been controlling the RealWar robot, followed them back to the teletroop at the source, then announced that the signal had been bounced off all sorts of satellites.

Then he'd opened the door, and it turned out they'd been right in Baskerville's base all along.

In a blue shed.

A shed that had the word 'police box' along the top, and which was laid out so that the inside was bigger than... well, it was an optical illusion of some kind. Quite a clever one, but Malady had seen better.

All very confusing.

Outside the shed, the Doctor had been more cautious. They were in a research lab. Spotless white corridors, no windows. They'd sneaked past a couple of open plan laboratories full of computers and test rigs and into this office.

Then Relker had found them.

Malady had just been about to try to blast her way out of the problem, but Relker had welcomed the Doctor as Baskerville, and herself as 'Dee', who the Doctor explained later was Baskerville's a.s.sistant. They were expected, and it was good to finally meet Baskerville, but how could he possibly have arrived here without his men knowing? The Doctor had told them he liked to keep some secrets, then asked the men to increase security. Apparently, the standing orders were already to shoot anything that came close to the complex.

Which meant wherever they were must be pretty isolated.

All the notices and safety posters were in Russian. Other than that, they hadn't a clue where they were.

They'd been led to Baskerville's office, which was almost bare.

'I wonder how many mercenaries there are in total?'

The Doctor moved on to the second drawer, not finding anything in the first. 'Why do you say they're mercenaries?'

'I recognise a couple of them. Russian Mafia. One of them, Laikov, is a suspect in the killing of the North Chinese amba.s.sador last year.'

'For a man from the future, Baskerville keeps strange company.'

'What is this place?'

'Can you hear that noise?'

She could, faintly.

'It's a production line,' the Doctor explained. 'I think this is a factory of some kind.'

'Making time machines?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'I doubt it Baskerville's selling blueprints to his time machine, not ma.s.s marketing it. Perhaps this place makes coffee machines.'

'Coffee machines?'

'He took the coffee machine from his office in Athens, remember?'

'If this is a coffee machine factory, then the last thing he'd do in an emergency is rescue the coffee machine.'

The Doctor looked thoughtful. 'True.'

They could hear the Concorde coming in to land. The sound was m.u.f.fled, but Malady now thought they were above ground at least two storeys from the top of the building.

After a moment, the engines died down.

'Baskerville's probably on that plane.'

'Certainly, I'd say.'

'So we haven't got long before he convinces them of who he is.'

'No.'

'So shall we stop messing around in filing cabinets and stop him?'

The Doctor slammed the door shut. 'Malady, you took the words out of my mouth.'

'We need to radio for backup.'

'How long would it take for them to arrive?'

'Hours, so the sooner we get it done, the better.'

Baskerville sat in the co*pilot's seat, incandescent.

'I am Baskerville, you idiot!' he screamed into the microphone, not for the first time.

'Baskerville is here already,' a Russian voice replied.

Dee sighed. This was going around in circles. She checked the CCTV back in the cabin, the President, Cosgrove and Anji Kapoor were still in their seats, chatting. She switched circuits there were sixteen or seventeen Russian Mafia mercenaries at various points around the plane. They'd put a small van in front of the plane, a forklift behind, to stop it from moving.

The Concorde had some defensive systems, but only to tackle air*to*air attacks, not against a ground a.s.sault.

They were penned in.

'Ask him to describe Baskerville,' she suggested.

Baskerville turned to her, his face red, eyes glaring. 'I am Baskerville.'

'I know that,' she said wearily 'Haven't you worked it out, yet?'

Baskerville looked at her for a moment. 'The Doctor?'

'He beat Cosgrove, he survived being thrown out of a twentieth*storey window, then a tidal wave in Athens, he got past a RealWar squad in Toronto.'

'So how did he get here? He was in Toronto... what? Twenty minutes ago?'

Dee stopped. He was right. It was impossible.

'Ask him to describe Baskerville,' she repeated.

Baskerville did so.

'He's in his forties. Long dark coat. Brown hair. Blue eyes.'

'Not a brilliant description,' Baskerville told Dee. 'It could be anyone.'

'It could certainly be the Doctor.'

'Are they restless yet?'

Dee glanced down at the CCTV 'The President is watching television with Anji. Cosgrove is looking out the window. The mad old fool's probably planning to make a break for it.'

'If he does, I don't fancy the mercenaries' chances. Perhaps I should let him out.'

She leant up to the microphone. 'Relker, this is Dee. That man is an impostor.'

'We've got a Dee here too, ma'am.'

'A Chinese*looking girl?'

'Yes.'

'Does Dee Gordon sound like a Chinese name to you?'