by Doctor Who
He wondered what would happen if the Doctor or Rose did see him. Would they ask him to come inside, away from the danger, from the clockwork knights they were obviously expecting? Or would they pack him off back home? Probably they would telephone his stepfather to come and get him, he thought.
Best not to be seen. Best to watch and wait and help when and if he could.
It was getting cold now, and Freddie pul ed his coat about him and hummed to himself for the company.
It was a tune his father had taught him. They had whistled it together as they trudged through the snow that last night, before they sheltered in the barn. A lilting, melancholy tune. If there were words to it, he did not know them. But he could feel the emotion and the sadness that went with it. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and imagined his father standing behind him as he kept watch.
The fat man was cal ed Wensleydale. Like the cheese, as the Doctor pointed out with amusement. He had been a lieutenant in the Fusiliers, he told the Doctor and Rose. 'In younger days,' he added, patting his enormous stomach.
'Thank you for staying,' Rose said.
He laughed it off. 'Couldn't let you down. Anyway, got nothing much better to do, and can't leave decent people in the lurch.'
'Unlike Wyse,' Rose said. She turned to the Doctor. 'How could he just leave like that?'
The Doctor shrugged. 'He said he'd be back.'
'Yeah, like Schwarzenegger.'
'He did come back,' the Doctor pointed out. 'Maybe Wyse wil return to save the day.'
'He's a good sort real y,' Wensleydale assured them. 'But Wednesday's his chess night. Everyone knows that. Plays against some fellah named Ben something or other. Dunno where he lives, but Wyse once told me you can see his place from the Embankment. Seemed to find that amusing, but he's a cheerful cove any old how.'
'What about the cat?' Rose asked the Doctor once Wensleydale had left them.
'Dead duck.'
'No, cat. But it's dead al right. If clockwork animals can die.'
'We'l worry about it later then.'
'Think it's something to do with Melissa Heart and her clockwork knights?'
The Doctor pursed his lips and stared at her.
'OK, so big coincidence if it isn't, right?'
'Right'
'And you really think she'l come after us?' He kept the same expression, so Rose sighed and went on,
'OK, another stupid question. Just forget I'm here, like usual.'
'Oh.' He was mortified. 'I never forget you. How could I ever forget you, Rose Taylor?'
'Tyler,' she corrected him. But they were both smiling now.
The back door of the club closed with a satisfying clunk. Almost as satisfying as the click of the key turning in the lock. Wyse slipped the key into his pocket. It was a shame to have to leave and miss al the fun, assuming there real y was fun to be had, he thought.
He knew the Doctor wel enough, trusted him enough, to believe that the Doctor thought the threat he described was very real. But it was, Wyse decided, a question of priority. He turned away from the door, not at all surprised to see that the cat had slipped out with him. its eyes glowed green in the near-darkness.
Wyse crouched down and tickled the cat under the chin. Its eyes narrowed, but it did not object.
'Right, time to be going.' Wyse straightened up and raised a hand in a farewel wave to the back of the Imperial Club.
He hummed tunelessly to himself as he emerged into the street. It looked as if it was going to be a fine evening, he thought. A bit cloudy, maybe a shower later. The inevitable London mist and fog. But general y fine. He swung his monocle happily on its chain as he strode off towards the Embankment, apparently without a care in the world.
Behind him, the cat fol owed along the pavement. Its eyes never left the figure ahead. When Wyse paused to listen to the hour strike, so did the cat. When he moved on, the cat kept with him. He didn't look back. He paused to nod a greeting to the two figures that passed him on the other side of the pavement, and the cat paused too.
But it did not spare the figures a glance. It did not seem to notice that they were walking stiffly and mechanical y, any more than Wyse did. It did not care that they looked more like suits of medieval armour than human beings. It did not wonder at the rhythmic ticking that accompanied the two dark figures making their way towards the imperial Club.
TEN
The first sign was a hammering on the front door. Quiet at first – knocking to be al owed in – the sound quickly grew to a battering. The Doctor had left one of the shutters on the first floor half open. The window gave a good view of the main door, and Rose ran to look.
'It's them,' she confirmed.
'Just two of them?' the Doctor cal ed up the stairs from the foyer. His voice seemed to carry easily though Rose had to shout to be heard.
'Yes.'
'Melissa not with them?'
'Seems not.'
'She won't be far away.'
Rose ran back down to join the group gathered in the foyer. 'So, what now? Should we just, maybe, you know, go with them?'
'If I thought it would end there,' the Doctor said quietly. 'But it isn't really us she's after. And when she works that out...' He shook his head. 'No, we have to...' His voice tailed off, and he was staring into space.
'Stand and fight?' Wensleydale suggested. He brandished a service revolver he had proudly produced earlier.
'A noble sentiment,' Repple agreed. Aske, hand as usual in his jacket pocket, making him look nonchalant and aloof, said nothing.
'On balance,' the Doctor said between thumps from the door, 'I think...' He paused to allow for the first splintering of the heavy wood. 'Run away,' he decided.
Repple caught the Doctor by the arm as he strode across the foyer. 'You fear to fight?'
'I fear to lose.' The Doctor shook Repple's hand off him. 'Those aren't people. Not flesh and blood to be stopped with bul ets or brute force. Not human like you and...' He reconsidered. 'Like you,' he decided.
'Once inside they'l kil every one of you to get at me. Not you, me. Got it?'
'Shouldn't we telephone the police for assistance?' one of the two old men asked. His companion nodded in agreement.
'What?' The Doctor stared at him in disbelief.
'Yes,' Rose said, 'why not?'
'What?'
'You know,' she reminded him, 'officers and cars respond to al cal s.'
'We're past officers and cars responding now,' the Doctor insisted. 'That'l just get more people kil ed.'
'So what do we do?' Aske demanded. 'Wait here to be ripped apart by these mechanical things?' As if to emphasise the point, a panel of the door exploded inwards. A metal fist thrust through, clenching and unclenching before withdrawing to strike again.
'Clockwork, that's the key,' the Doctor told him, grinning at the pun. 'Clockwork soldiers, and clockwork cats. Technology that doesn't stand out, that can't be detected, that isn't out of time and place.'
The door was splintering now. The two knights were clearly visible through the holes punched in the panelling. One of them reached in and scrabbled for the bolts, drawing them back. The lock would not hold for long. Already the metal was screeching and straining with every thump.
'Mr Pooter,' Rose said quietly. 'He's behind this, isn't he?'
The Doctor shook his head. 'No such person.'
'I've seen him. The trustees or whoever they are had a meeting with him.'
'With someone,' the Doctor corrected her.
'What are you talking about?' Repple demanded. 'You say you won't stand and fight, yet any moment now you will have to.'
The Doctor turned full circle, taking in each and every one of the people gathered in the foyer. 'It's me they think they want,' he said. He pointed at Crowther. 'You and your chums, back to the kitchens. If there's no one trying to get in there, get the back door open.'
'You think there might be more of them? 'Rose said.
'Or Miss Melissa. They d
on't want us just walking out the back as they come in the front. That'd be a bit daft.' He turned back to Crowther. 'When and if it's al clear, leg it. If we're not after you in half an hour then we're not gonna be.'
Crowther nodded. He was looking pale, but otherwise calm and in control. The two servants with him were less composed. One of them, he couldn't have been much older than Rose, looked close to tears.
The Doctor turned next to Wensleydale and the two elderly men. 'You three, back to the Bastil e Room. Only one way in, so you can defend yourselves better in there. Let's hope you don't have to.
Wensleydale – look after them.'
'Sir!' Wensleydale snapped importantly.
'And where are we going?' Repple asked. He had to shout to be heard above the final splintering of the door as the two knights forced their way through the last of the woodwork. The lock fel to the floor, shattered.
'With me,' the Doctor yel ed back. He was running now, holding Rose's hand and leading Aske and Repple up the stairs. 'To see a man about a cat.'
The two dark figures stepped through the shattered remains of the front door of the imperial Club and disappeared from sight. Freddie was standing, watching. He wondered if he ought to fol ow. Perhaps he could help the Doctor and Rose escape a second time. Or maybe he should wait in case they came out.
'A difficult decision.'
The voice was quiet, close to his ear. Startled, Freddie turned.
The dark mask was close to his face. Matt black, with silver teardrops under the eyes. The mouth was a smiling slash of scarlet. Freddie braced himself to try to get away. But Melissa Heart's hand closed tightly on his shoulder, holding him stil .
'He won't run,' she said gently. 'He won't try to escape. It isn't in his nature. He wil stand and fight.'
She shook her head, the silvering on the mask catching the light and flickering. 'If you only knew what he is capable of, how many he has kil ed, you wouldn't be so keen to help him.'
She pushed Freddie ahead of her across the street. 'Come with me,' she said. 'Witness the execution of a mass murderer.'
'They are searching each floor, so we have some time,' Aske reported. 'One of them stays on the stairs to prevent our escape, the other checks each room. Simple, but effective.'
'Driving us to this top floor,' Repple said.
'Unless we sneak out down the fire escape,' Rose pointed out. 'Maybe they haven't thought of that.'
'I expect they have.' The Doctor was lying on the floor in front of the door to Mr Pooter's rooms. He had the panel of the door open, the one where Rose had seen the cat emerge. He had peered into the darkness beyond, and now his arm was thrust inside and he was feeling round. 'Yeah, they've got us just where she wants us.' He pul ed out his arm and stood up.
'Anything?' Rose asked.
He shook his head. 'Metal box. Like an airlock. The cat enters the box, box closes. Panel in door opens, cat creeps out.'
'An airlock?' Repple said.
'Oh, I doubt there's a different atmosphere behind there. I think it's to stop something else escaping with the cat.'
'Mr Pooter?'
The Doctor smiled at Rose. 'In a way.' He pul ed the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and aimed it at the lock on the door. 'This should...' He stopped. Nothing was happening. The screwdriver was silent, not working. The Doctor frowned and banged it into his palm several times before trying again.
'Flat battery, remember?' Rose said.
'No battery at al ,' the Doctor agreed. 'She took it out.'
'Who?' Aske wanted to know.
'Melissa Heart,' Rose told him. 'She's nobbled it. So what now?'
The Doctor sniffed. 'Something less subtle,' he decided. And shoulder-charged the door.
It took the three of them – the Doctor, Repple and Aske – several attempts, encouraged by Rose, who had to be dissuaded from joining in, before the door final y gave way. It swung open sharply, so the three of them tumbled and sprawled into the room. They picked themselves up and looked round in astonishment.
Rose fol owed them in. She too was staring round in surprise. 'What is al this?'
The large room behind the door was panelled, like so many others in the building. But the walls were clad not in polished wood, but in dul grey metal. Even the floor and the ceiling were coated with it, like a huge metal box. There was no furniture, and dominating the room was a dark metal control console.
Lights flickered and pulsed, power hummed, dials whirred, meters registered various readings. The front of the console jutted out, like a piano, towards the door. But there were no obvious input mechanisms. A bank of screens above the extended section gave different views that Rose recognised as rooms in the building.
As she watched, the pictures changed, switching from one room to another in rapid succession – like the control room of the CCTV system at work in the shop, she thought. One of the screens paused on a picture of the Bastil e Room. The camera zoomed in on Wensleydale and the two old men as they manoeuvred furniture to make a barricade in front of the door. It lingered on Wensleydale, then focused in close-up on the revolver he was holding.
The whole assembly was of a dark plastic-like material. Apart from the screens and various controls and read-outs, the only other colour was a triangle of white against the black under the extended front section. It reminded Rose of something, but she could not think what.
Until she saw the cats.
On one side of the console was what looked vaguely like a wine rack. Except that inside most of the pigeonholes was lying the dark, furry body of a cat. Rose counted over a dozen. Each identical – a black cat with a white triangle of fur under the chin. Just like the console.
'The lead shields the emissions,' the Doctor said, tapping one of the walls. 'Melissa Heart would have detected it immediately otherwise. Same reason for the airlock.'
'But what is it?' Rose said again. 'What's it for?'
'It is monitoring events in the building,' Aske said quietly, nodding at the screens.
'You knew it was here?' Rose asked.
He shook his head. 'The purpose seems evident.'
'Some direct feeds,' the Doctor said, examining the console. 'Shielded, of course. Audio and visual links. Then for specific tasks, or to monitor outside the building, it uses the cats.'
'Which is why they're clockwork,' Rose realised.
'Can't be detected,' the Doctor agreed. 'No power source, nothing anachronistic in clockwork. Just the way that it's applied.'
'And the psycho-kil er laser-beam eyes?'
'You can get clockwork radios,' the Doctor pointed out. 'Clockwork torches where you squeeze a handle. Same principle. Just shining a light.'
'Sorry,' Rose said to Repple and Aske. 'This is probably a bit beyond you two.' She grinned to show it was child's play to her.
'This is not powered by clockwork,' Repple said, nodding at the console.
'But I can hear it ticking,' Rose said. She was aware of the sound, but couldn't think when she had first started to hear it. When they came into the room, she supposed.
'There may be some clockwork components. But nuclear emission cel s, more like,' the Doctor agreed.
'There's a backup supply cable round here. Give us a hand.'
Five minutes later they were ready. Rose was crouched beside the console, Aske and Repple behind her. On the other side of the machine the Doctor held a heavy, wel -insulated cable that he had detached from the back of the controls. The end of it spat and hissed like a snake that had eaten a sparkler.
'Shouldn't be long,' the Doctor told them with a grin. He wiggled the cable happily, showering sparks across the dul metal floor.
Rose heard the footsteps first. The rhythmic beat of the two knights as they made their way up the stairs. As they approached it was impossible to tell which sounds were their internal mechanisms and which the thump of their metal feet on the wooden stairs. Together they stood framed in the splintered doorway – blank and unforgiving figures. The metal of
their bodies was as dul and dark as the wal s of the room.
The voice could have come from either of the knights. It was impossible to tel , as they gave no movement, no indication. The words were rhythmic, uninflected and mechanical. Rasping, metal ic, unemotional.
'Doc-tor you wil surr-en-der.'
Rose could imagine an internal pendulum swinging inside the thing's chest, a syllable for each sweep of the weight. Each beat alternately high then low – tick-tocks of speech.
'Give up now.'
One of the knights, perhaps the one that had spoken, stepped into the room. It raised its arms jerkily, and started towards the Doctor, gauntlet fingers clutching as they reached for his throat.
The Doctor stood his ground. He waited until the knight was almost on him, then jabbed out with the cable. He stabbed it into the figure's outstretched hand and sparks exploded from the metal palm. The knight staggered back, blue lightning flashing and echoing round its whole body. It stood absolutely stil , but Rose could stil hear the rhythmic ticking from inside.
'I'd be careful,' the Doctor said. 'That was just a free taster. A longer blast might seriously damage your health.'
'Like smoking,' Rose added. 'We can arrange that too.' She returned the Doctor's grin. At last it seemed like they had the upper hand.
'Now, I've a few questions,' the Doctor went on, dangling the cable so that sparks dripped to the floor beside his feet. 'Luckily, they won't need long answers. In fact multiple choice is probably easiest. Starter for ten...' He sucked in a deep breath as he considered. 'Let's keep it simple. Where's Melissa Heart? Is she, (a), inside the building or, (b), outside the building?'
The knights did not reply. The Doctor waited, tapped his foot with mock impatience. 'Ding,' he said at last. 'But thanks for playing. Time for another shock.'
'How very true.' The voice came from behind the knights. A voice Rose recognised at once. Melissa stepped past the knight at the door and into the room. But she was not alone. She was pushing a smal , frightened figure in front of her. Freddie's eyes were wide and scared, his cheeks damp from his tears.
