by Doctor Who
The dummy's eyes glowed red and the unearthly chuckle echoed through the room again.
Derek found himself sprawled on the floor with the dummy clinging to the ceiling above him, its head twisting round to look at him and those malevolent red eyes drilling into him.
And then it sprang.
The thing I want to know is,' said the Doctor, 'why coffee?' 'I beg your pardon?' Sir Gerry raised his eyebrows. 'Coffee!'
said the Doctor. 'In the shops, everywhere. Why do these places always smell of it? Just strikes me as odd, that's all.
Some people might not actually like coffee.' He leaned back in the guest chair in Sir Gerry's office and was about to put his feet up on the desk before he thought better of it.
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At the picture window, Sir Gerry turned round and narrowed his eyes at Kate. 'Miss Maguire,' he said, 'I gather this feller has summat to do with you?'
'He can help you, Sir Gerry,' said Kate, leaning forward.
'The Doctor's picked up on all sorts of things going wrong in Hyperville. It's not just the Snow Queen. Tell him, Doctor.'
Sir Gerry leaned on his desk, breathing heavily, and turned his gaze towards the Doctor. 'I'll have you know, Doctor, that my Director of Operations, Max Carson, was all for having you thrown out on your ear.'
'Ah, yes.' The Doctor scratched his ear awkwardly.
'Black suit, tries to be terribly butch? Little George Michael-y thing going on with the beard? Yes, we've met.'
'But I,' Sir Gerry went on, 'have been in this damn business long enough to know when I see an opportunity.
And you, Doctor, are an opportunity.' He sank back into his chair, nodding and smiling. That's why I asked my security officer to bring you directly to me, rather than to Max.' Sir Gerry nodded towards Captain Tilbrook, who was standing impassively at the door to the office. 'You know you've been giving Maxie-boy quite a runaround?'
'Have I? Oh. Sorry.'
I’m sure you are, Doctor. Go on, then. Amaze me. Tell me what you want me to know.'
The Doctor leaned forward, his face suddenly serious and urgent. 'Sir Gerry, you have a serious problem. You have dangerous automata in some of your Zones. Close down the Doomcastle and WinterZone. Don't let anybody into them, not until I've had a chance to have a proper look at them.'
'Until you’ve had a chance?' Sir Gerry chortled and raised an eyebrow. 'What exactly are your qualifications for doing that?'
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The Doctor opened his mouth, closed it again, pulled a face. 'Weeell... To be honest, I'm pretty much good at everything."
'Everything?' Sir Gerry's bushy eyebrows shot up.
'OK, some of the Entertainment questions on Trivial Pursuit throw me a bit. I forget which era I'm supposed to be playing in. Really hard to get a pink wedge on the—
Sorry, sorry. You were saying?'
Sir Gerry sighed and leaned forward, hands clasped on the desk. 'You see, Doctor, I do have a bit of a dilemma. I've got a business to run, and sometimes mavericks can be helpful. Now, then, if you've genuinely got summat to offer me, how about you clear off out there and find some evidence?'
'He is right, sir,' said Tess Tilbrook. 'We did have a seriously malfunctioning WinterZone exhibit.' She stepped forward, exchanging glances with the Doctor. 'We got everyone out of the Atrium in time, but it could have caused serious damage.'
The Doctor leapt to his feet, pushing his hair back with both hands. 'Ohhhh, humans, humans, huuuu-mans! It's more than a seriously malfunctioning exhibit!' He leaned with both hands on Sir Gerry's desk, his voice low and urgent. "That... thing, Sir Gerry, Captain Tilbrook, that thing which your guards only managed to disable once I'd reflected its own weapon back on it... Do you want to know what it was? It was an Auton. Ever heard of that? An Auton.'
Sir Gerry sat back in his chair. 'An... Auton? What the bloomin' Nora is that?'
The Doctor's voice was low and urgent. 'A fragment of the Nestene Consciousness. An alien race able to manifest itself in a range of forms, with a biological make-up congruent with the molecular structure of Earth plastics.
They've tried
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to invade this planet at least three times before and almost succeeded. Now, I think this could be one left over from a previous invasion attempt. And the way you're looking at me, I might as well be speaking Swahili.' The Doctor turned his head and looked at Kate. 'I'm not, am I?
Speaking Swahili?'
'No,' she said reassuringly.
'Good. Just checking. You see, you probably don't remember any of it. People never do, that's the problem.'
The Doctor leaned on Sir Gerry's desk and opened his eyes wide. 'And do you know what? I think the malfunctioning exhibits in the Doomcastle may have been Nestene constructs as well.'
'Really,' said Sir Gerry levelly.
'Maybe not full Autons. Not total capability. But ohhh, yes, they looked alien to me, Sir Gerry. Now, I need to know if these were just odd remnants left behind from a previous invasion, or if they're trying to establish a new bridgehead.
People could be in danger, Sir Gerry.'
Sir Gerry shook his head and snorted. 'Poppycock!
Doctor, I've listened to your twaddle for long enough. So, thank you for the customer feedback - it's been noted.
You're free to go.' He gestured towards the door.
'Oh. And that's all? You're not going to close down any of the Zones? Evacuate any of the people, seal any areas off?'
The Doctor sounded incredulous.
Sir Gerry smiled. 'As Miss Maguire will no doubt tell you, I am running a business here, lad. A major, thriving, 24-hour-a-day business.' He glanced at his watch.
'Hyperville's gearing up for night-shift, and the bars and casinos are about to open. You got any idea how much money I'd lose if I closed the place? Just for one night? The damage would be irreparable.'
'Just give me two hours. Suspend trading, get everyone 103
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out, and let me check over all the Zones for you, deactivate anything potentially dangerous.'
'Sorry, Doctor. No can do.' Sir Gerry lit a cigar.
'Ohhhhh....' The Doctor gritted his teeth. 'Please don't say no can do. I really hate that. Do you talk about blue-skies thinking as well?'
Sir Gerry sighed. 'One more thing, Doctor. Before you toddle off.' He waggled his cigar in the Doctor's direction.
'Yes?'
'Mr Carson detected you messing about with a... sonic pen of some sort. You did summat odd with the HyperCard vending network?'
'Really?' The Doctor tried to look innocent. 'No idea.'
Sir Gerry held out his hand. 'Hand it over, Doctor. You'll get it back when you leave Hyperville. Gaffer's word.'
The Doctor's face fell, and he looked like a naughty schoolboy as he handed the thick, pen-like silver instrument to Sir Gerry. Take care of it,' he said. 'I don't want it broken."
Sir Gerry smiled, and slipped the device into his desk drawer. Taken care of, Doctor.' He slammed the drawer shut. 'Now, then, happen you'd like to do a little shopping?
I think you'll find we're open all night.
The doors to the Great Hall of the Doomcastle flew open with a crash.
Two armed guards stormed into the Hall, leaping onto the table and covering all exits with their guns.
Max Carson strode in after them, looking cool and calm, hands behind his back, his dark eyes flicking back and forth. He was flanked by six more security guards.
'Search,' he ordered them.
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Max Carson enjoyed power.
Four years ago, he had been a nobody. He'd had a job title - Managing Director of Carson Polymers, for what that was worth. They were a small firm with a small turnover, and his empire had consisted of one prefab office and one small factory warehouse, which he staffed with cheap labour from Eastern Europe. They'd had their regular customers - a s
election of local firms whose orders were starting to tail off as the global downturn bit hard. And Max knew it was only going to get worse. One day, he went into the office, put his briefcase down on his desk as usual and decided that the time had come to call in the administrators.
He had one appointment later that day, a meeting with a Miss Elizabeth Devonshire about a possible new project.
But he knew that one new order, even if it came off, wouldn't be big enough to keep Carson Polymers afloat.
However, his meeting with Miss Devonshire was the one which changed Max Carson's life.
Thinking back, he couldn't really remember much about it. There had been talk of wonderful new opportunities, of riding out the global recession to a new consumer boom. Of an age of plastic. Of spend, spend, spend. And Max had gradually realised that he was being asked to be part of this. Miss Devonshire, it transpired, worked as a head-hunter
and
general
aide
to
Sir
Gerry
Hobbes-Mayhew, the self-made magnate, the man who had a global empire of shopping and leisure centres and who had recently poured all of his investments into one place - Hyperville.
Max knew all about Hyperville. It was always on the news. Opening soon. Bold new statement, they said.
Revolutionising leisure and shopping for the entire population, they said. He
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didn't quite believe it until he saw the place himself. And then, that same day, he was offered the position of Director of Operations.
Max knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. He didn't stop to ask himself what lay behind the strange offer. He just grabbed it with both hands.
It all became clear, of course, later on. Who Miss Devonshire really was. Who she was working for. And it was clear, too, why Carson Polymers was still needed -
because Miss Devonshire's employers were people for whom plastic had a very, very special significance.
Carson Polymers was kept on, as a subsidiary of Hyperville Holdings. It had new investment, new staff-properly
trained
technicians,
this
time,
not
the
minimum-wage labour he'd used before. It was used to develop something amazing -something Max knew could revolutionise the way people lived. Something called Plastinol.
And here, now, he didn't always stop to think how far he had come in the past few years. Sometimes it was all like a dream - and Max Carson feared that he might one day wake up.
Max snapped his fingers and pointed to the fallen figures of the witches. 'Check there are no more of those,'
he said quietly, as he strode down the hall to take a look at the figure of Dracula, who was standing slumped like a broken puppet.
Carefully, Max pushed the vampire-automaton's head back, peering into its eyes, before slapping a red disc on its plastic hand. The disc glowed slightly in the dark, and the automaton's knees buckled, causing it to fall to the ground with a crash. He then fixed similar discs on the inert figures of the witches.
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Max gave a grim smile of satisfaction, and tapped the Bluetooth attachment in his ear.
The rogue units are deactivated,' he said. 'I think we have bought ourselves a little time again.'
Miss Devonshire's voice came back to him. 'I hate to tell you this, Max,' she said, 'but there's still one unaccounted for.'
'Which one?' he asked quietly.
'Beta-4. From the ShopZone.'
'Ahh!' Max gave a rueful grin. The little one.'
'As you say. The little one. Track it down and neutralise it, Max. We don't want it doing any serious damage, not yet. Not until the Central Program comes online.'
Max nodded. I’ll do that.'
'Good boy, Max. I'll have a biscuit waiting.'
He clicked the link off, and sighed. This,' he said to nobody in particular, 'is turning into one of those days.'
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SIX
'Shopping,' said the Doctor, as they descended in the glittering travelator. He was watching the crowds bustling to and fro in the malls and walkways, Kate noticed, and all the while checking readings on the compass-like instrument he had been using in the WinterZone.
'Shopping, shopping... It's an odd thing, isn't it? I mean, as a hobby.'
Kate shrugged. She didn't think so. 'What do you mean?'
'You spend time trying on different variations of the same shirt or the same coat, make a whole afternoon of it, even, bring your friends... And then you take your card or your cash to the counter, after you've chosen the one that's most like what you had in mind. But it's never quite the way you imagined it would be.'
That's the thing,' she explained patiently. The stuff looks good in the shop because it's with all the other stuff.'
The Doctor clicked his tongue. 'I went shopping in New 109
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York with Shirley Bassey once. Never again. Blimey, that woman can try on shoes...'
'Bit of a Big Spender, was she?'
'Oh, very good. You see, we're getting on so well.'
Kate smiled. 'Don't name-drop, Doctor. It doesn't impress me... Anyway, I think this is a wonderful place.'
'And also a strange place.' The Doctor nodded upwards at the Oculator as it bounced overhead. 'Why do you reckon that's there?'
'It keeps us safe,' Kate said with a shrug.
'Safe?' The Doctor wrinkled his nose and looked down at her. 'How does an electronic box of tricks watching your every move keep you safe? Safe from what?'
Kate folded her arms and glared at him. The world's changed, Doctor. People are happy to give up a little privacy these days, for the sake of being more secure.'
The Doctor pulled a face. 'Hmm. "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ever heard that?' He looked at Kate. 'Benjamin Franklin,' he added.
'Oh, yes. Inventor of the lightning conductor.'
And bifocals. Don't forget bifocals. Demon chess player, too. Almost beat me a few times.' The Doctor was still staring at the device he held. 'You know, I'm getting some really odd readings on this.'
'What's that?' Kate said.
'It's a liminal sub-wave energy detector. Tells me if there's anything here that shouldn't be.'
And is there?' she asked, interested.
'I'm not sure,' admitted the Doctor. 'Readings are fluctuating...'
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'Sir Gerry didn't seem to want to give you the time of day,' she said, amused.
The Doctor sighed. Thing is, Kate, the universe is full of Sir Gerrys. Self-made millionaire, plain-talking, essentially a decent man but can't see further than his own nose. Very frustrating people to deal with... And he's not twigged about you, has he? Don't you find that odd?'
She shrugged. 'I'm very convincing.'
'You're not very modest. Tell me something else. The HyperCards. Show me.'
Kate handed him her HyperCard. 'You can access the network with a card, do direct debits. It's great.'
'Mmm. I'm sure.' The Doctor, who didn't sound convinced, handed Kate her card back.
Kate sighed. 'You know what? I think you're one of those guys who doesn't like competent women.'
The Doctor looked hurt. 'What makes you think that?'
She knew she had upset him, but carried on. I bet you just like to be admired, don't you? Show off with your clever boxes of tricks and gizmos? And have someone hanging on your elbow going all slack-jawed and saying it's all brilliant? Well, I'm not like that. I'm not easily impressed.'
The Doctor grinned. 'Good! Neither am I.'
As they disembarked, the Doctor nodded at the huge, cliff-like facade of Total Records, stretching up ten floors above them, its cavernous entrance thumping with techno. 'Although that... that is impressive. That singer you we
re telling me about,' he said thoughtfully. That her?'
Kate looked up at the twenty-metre-high rendition of Shaneeqi's sharp, pretty features and spiked scarlet hair, a colourful Warhol-style print emblazoned in shimmering 111
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plastic across the glass frontage of the store. She smiled, nodded. That's her. The lovely Shaneeqi. I had the pleasure earlier today.'
'And this... Zone of hers that's being launched. In the casino, you said? You got an invitation?'
Kate flipped her badge up at him. 'Access All Areas, Doc.
Does what it says on the tin.'
'Oh, no, no, don't do the Doc thing. Anyway, look, I need to be there. See if I can mingle with the crowd. Be alert.
Find out what's going on here.'
'You really think there could be danger here?' Kate asked.
'Oh, yes.' The Doctor gave her a casual, sideways glance, hands in pockets, and swivelled towards her with a slight smile when she didn't look too perturbed. 'You OK with that?' he asked, mouth half-open and eyebrows raised.
'I'm fine with that.'
'Good! I'm starting to like you, Kate Maguire.'
Kate smiled. Again, she felt the hard, comforting oblong of the HyperCard in her inside pocket and wondered if now was the time. Somehow she knew it was not. She folded her arms. 'You could evacuate this entire place in a matter of minutes, you know. Hit a fire alarm.'
The Doctor pulled an awkward face. That could cause more problems than it solves. And anyway - we could be talking just a couple of rogue Autons, randomly activated after years. I've seen that kind of thing happen before.' He seemed to stare into space as he spoke to her, but his tone was low and urgent. 'No point causing a mass panic. Last thing we want to do. You know what humans are like.'
Kate gave him a curious look. 'Yes, Doctor. We are human.'
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'Speak for yourself.'
'What do you—'
'Now that's odd,' said the Doctor, who had suddenly put his glasses on and was staring across the mall at one of the upper balcony levels.
'What?'
'Up there. Some heavies in a bit of a hurry!' The Doctor pointed, and now Kate saw - about half a dozen black-uniformed security officers were hurrying through the shoppers, guns unholstered, pounding along the artificial pavements towards one of the lifts. 'Come on!' The Doctor leapt onto the nearest escalator and ran upwards, with Kate hurrying behind.
