Doctor Who_ Trading Futures Part 37

'He's drunk the drugged coffee. He's taking his cues from the television.'

'He thinks he's on telly?'

The Doctor poured the rest of the coffee down the sink. 'He does. Conclusive proof of what Baskerville's been up to, wouldn't you say? Now, we've only got ten minutes before the drug wears off. I suggest we use the time to find those aliens, and get them back to their s.h.i.+p.'

Fitz looked a little sheepish. 'Er, yeah. About that...'

Baskerville jammed his pistol into the President's ribs.

'Tell her to drop her gun.'

'Malady...'

Malady circled for a moment. They were right at the edge of the runway, on the edge of the cliff. There weren't many places they could run to.

'I'll kill him,' Baskerville told her. He looked desperate. Malady thought about a headshot. She could probably do it.

Then six huge creatures lumbered out of the gloom.

One of them growled something. A moment later, it said it again, in Baskerville's voice. 'He has the time machine?'

She'd seen them before, she realised back in Ibiza, the night that Cosgrove's boat had exploded. These were the things that had killed Garvin.

Baskerville was shaking his head. 'No that's the most powerful man on Earth, the President of the United States.'

The creature was unsure whether Baskerville was pointing at Mather or at Malady.

Another one was snorting excitedly. The other turned to it, listened for a moment or two. Malady saw it was also getting excited.

The nearest creature swung its great head to face the President. 'You have the time machine.'

Baskerville looked bemused. 'There's some mistake...'

'No mistake. You have the time machine. Superior Onihr science has located it.'

The President hesitated, then held the silver cylinder out.

'Hand it over,' the translator voice said calmly. But all six creatures were aiming their weapons at the President, and s.h.i.+fting from foot to foot excitedly.

Mather pa.s.sed the device to Baskerville, who held it up, triumphantly.

'This is my time machine,' he told the deputy leader.

The deputy leader leant in and sniffed it. 'That?'

'Yes. It operates ' Baskerville tried twisting at it, looking for any hint of a control panel. He even tried willing willing it open, wondering if there was some sort of mental control involved 'I will show you how it operates when we reach a deal,' he concluded. it open, wondering if there was some sort of mental control involved 'I will show you how it operates when we reach a deal,' he concluded.

'He doesn't know how it operates,' the Doctor said, stepping forwards. Fitz and Anji were right behind him.

A moment of silence.

The creature growled.

'That's right,' the Doctor replied. 'I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. This man has been trying to trick you. He's tried to trick a lot of people, and he almost succeeded.'

'Is this true, Doctor?'

The Doctor frowned. 'I just said it is...'

After a moment's incomprehension, Fitz stepped forward. 'Yes, deputy leader, it's absolutely true. Everything he just said.'

The monster stepped over to Baskerville.

'They think you're me?' the Doctor asked.

'Yeah.'

'Why?' The Doctor looked deeply offended. 'I mean, how could they mistake you for me?'

'You've either got it or you haven't,' Fitz told him. An idea was clearly dawning. 'And... and I'm afraid Baskerville destroyed your s.h.i.+p,' he called to the creatures. 'He used an impulse to set off your EMP cannon. That is why you can't signal it.'

The creature roared something.

'Destroyed your s.h.i.+p?' Baskerville whimpered. 'I wouldn't know how to do that...'

'He is a skillful and resourceful man,' the Doctor continued. 'Very dangerous. Probably the most dangerous human being alive.'

The alien was growling and snarling into its control box.

'You can teleport over such vast distances?'

A short grunt.

'I see... only at lightspeed. So it will be many centuries before you arrive? Then... yes... take Baskerville back to your planet for trial. Subject him to the full punishment of your law.'

'Wait!' Baskerville shrieked. 'Wait!'

The Doctor reached out, s.n.a.t.c.hed the time machine from Baskerville's hand.

Then the alien activated a control on the control box, and all six, and Baskerville, vanished.

The Doctor smiled. 'There... safely packed off to another galaxy. Earth won't be bothered by the Onihrs for many more centuries to come.' He clapped his hands together. 'I think that's all the loose ends neatly tied up.'

Cosgrove stepped out of the darkness. 'All but one.'

He held the gun to the Doctor's head.

'I can't miss at this range, Doctor. I can kill you and take it, or you can hand it over. Those are the only two choices.'

'Choices,' the Doctor said, his voice trailing away. 'Is that really the last choice that anyone on this planet gets? Make you a dictator, or let you become one?'

'It certainly looks that way, doesn't it?'

The Doctor smiled. 'Here's a choice for you. You can catch it, or you can shoot me. You won't have time to do both.'

'I beg your pardon?'

'You can shoot me, or you can catch it.'

The Doctor tossed the time machine over the edge of the cliff.

Cosgrove leaped after it.

Fitz and Anji joined the Doctor at the edge of the cliff.

'He's mad,' Fitz said.

'Well, yes,' the Doctor replied.

'He can't possibly...' Anji began.

'He can,' said the Doctor, untroubled. 'Just. And he knew it. The slightest hesitation and he wouldn't have a chance.'

'But he has a chance?' Fitz asked.

'Yes.'

'And if he gets to the time machine, he'll get everything he wants? He'll be able to go back in time and kill his enemies? He'll be able to bring weapons and intelligence information from the future?'

'Yes.'

Cosgrove had his arms out, like a diver.

The wind was intense, freezing. He barely noticed it.

The fall was hundreds of feet, on to jagged rocks. There was not one chance he could survive this, unless he caught the time machine.

The silver cylinder tumbled down, ten or fifteen feet ahead of him. It looked like a cigar tube. It was that sort of size, that sort of burnished silver.

He was gaining on it. He was definitely gaining.

He had one chance. All he had to do was grab it, squeeze the controls at the end.

One chance.

He reached out, strained until his arm was almost out of its socket.

His fingertip tapped against the time machine. Just for a moment, as it spun, but he'd felt it.

Seconds.

He had seconds to do this.

His arm reached further. His hand brushed against the cylinder.

Cosgrove s.n.a.t.c.hed the time machine, grabbed it.

This was his destiny.

He squeezed the controls, felt the machine powering up.

He hit the rocks.

Fitz looked away. 'Yuck.'

Anji and the Doctor were still looking over the edge.

'Why didn't it work?'

'It hadn't had time to recharge.' The Doctor sounded sad.

'You didn't mention that to him?'

'Cosgrove was the sort to follow orders, not to give them,' the Doctor said, not answering the question.

'"If the Doctor told you to jump off a cliff would you do it?"' Anji said quietly.

'Pardon?'

'It's what they say at school, isn't it? When you say you did something because someone said you should.'

'I don't remember my schooldays.'

'Of course, I was forgetting.'

Malady and President Mather were running across the runway. They were, Anji realised with a start, the only five living beings still here.

'The USAF are on their way,' Malady said. 'There will be transport helicopters here in twenty minutes.'

Mather smiled, held out his hand. 'The least we can do is offer you a lift back to civilisation. Perhaps you could explain why you don't look a day older than you did in 1989.'

The Doctor looked away, a little embarra.s.sed.