Doctor Who_ Return Of The Living Dad Part 10

'But?' said Chris.

'But they're amateurs.'

'What are we, then?'

'Trained.' Roz harrumphed. 'You'd think that after all this time they could manage not to lose their aliens.'

Chris recalled the meeting they'd had at the Pyramid.

Benny had phoned them at the cottage. Five minutes later they were at the Pyramid, ignoring the CLOSED sign hanging on the door. The crew had already gathered around a table where Isaac had spread out a map of the area.

Isaac was marking an irregular shape around the town with a red pencil, following the roads that surrounded it. 'Roz and Chris, I want you to do a sweep right around this perimeter. We're expecting Albinex back from Aldermaston in the next hour. Joel, Tony, I want you to check out the church, the forest, anywhere close at hand where Ia might be hiding.'

'Do we know why she went?' asked Roz.

'Once or twice, guests have just wandered off in a fit of claustrophobia. Each time we found them nearby and calmed them down.'

'What if she's left the area altogether?' said Chris.

'Then that's her business,' said Isaac firmly. 'We can't help her if she doesn't want our help. But Myn thinks it's unlikely that she'd leave without letting him know. Which brings us to our third, least pleasant, possibility.'

'She was abducted,' quavered Tony.

The door bells jingled as Benny came back into the shop.

'Um. I can't find the Doctor,' she said. 'We'll have to start without him.'

Thunder cracked suddenly, and the lights flickered. 'I'll be staying here,' said Isaac. 'I want to do a head count of the guests. I'm not letting Myn out of my sight, and I need to coordinate the rest of you. Report anything anything out of the ordinary.' out of the ordinary.'

Jason said, 'What, you mean aliens, time travellers, that sort of thing?'

'Anything,' said Isaac sternly. 'If Ia was picked up, she'll be the first alien we've ever lost. We'd have to bug out.'

That was an hour ago. They were still doing the perimeter sweep, with no sign of the Lacaillan. Chris frowned.

If their coming here had triggered this somehow, it would be so... unjust.

'They must've had some amazing adventures,' he said.

Roz smiled involuntarily. 'Well, they must have. It would make a great sim series.'

'Yeah, but who wants to watch a bunch of aliens?'

'Oh yeah,' said Chris. 'Funny thing. In this century n.o.body likes aliens because they're supposed to be invaders, and in our century n.o.body likes aliens because they're supposed to be janitors.'

'Yeah, well don't let them hear you say that, or it'll be slime time.'

Chris returned her smile. 'I like like aliens. The more tentacles the better.' aliens. The more tentacles the better.'

They stopped at the crossroads. Chris pulled out the communicator Joel had loaned them. 'This is Cwej calling the Pyramid,' he said. 'Cwej calling Pyramid. Come in!'

'h.e.l.lo, Chris.' Isaac's voice was half hidden by a storm of static.

'We've reached the crossroads, sir,' he said. 'We haven't seen anything we recognize as being out of the ordinary.'

Roz hissed at him, suddenly, and he dropped the phone into his pocket almost before he knew what he was doing. A car was coming towards them, headlights slas.h.i.+ng through the rain. It slowed down as the driver saw them. 'What do we do?' said Chris.

'Good question.'

The driver's window rolled down. The short man inside was in his twenties, with thick eyebrows and a pouting mouth.

He wore a dark grey jacket over a white T-s.h.i.+rt. 'You must be Cwej and Forrester,' he said.

'Albinex,' said Roz.

He nodded. 'Any luck so far?'

Roz shook her head. Albinex frowned. 'Can I give you a lift back into town?' 'We need to finish our circuit of the boundary roads,' said Chris. 'I'll see you back there, then.

Good luck.' He wound up his window and drove off slowly.

'Wherever the Doctor is,' said Roz, grimacing up at the sky, 'I'll bet he's dry.'

'Why do you look for ghosts?'

Woodworth took the kettle off the camp stove and poured the steaming water into their mugs. 'There are all sorts of reasons,' she said. 'Curiosity. The chance to look beyond the veil. Solving historical mysteries.'

'Ah,' said the Doctor, taking the mug of tea from her. 'But why do you you look for ghosts?' look for ghosts?'

Woodworth sat back, listening to the rain hammering the tent fly. It was large enough to cover the remains of the room, keeping them dry if not exactly warm. 'Because they're dangerous,' she said.

'So it's the adventure.'

'No. I... was once in the military. And that was because I wanted to protect people. But there are plenty of police.'

'But not many ghosthunters.'

'Exactly. Oh, for the most part, the apparitions are harmless - bad dreams, or overactive imaginations, or a squeaking floorboard that the landlord likes to say is the footstep of a phantom.' Her eyes were hard in the yellow light of the lamps. 'But for centuries, people have been driven mad, or actually killed, by ghosts. We need to understand them so that we can protect ourselves from them.'

'So you see them primarily as hostile,' said the Doctor.

'Mm-hmm, yes.'

'Some people just collect stamps, you know,' he teased.

Woodworth gave him a sarcastic smile. 'What about you?' she said. 'How do you spend your spare time?'

'I travel.' He took a mouthful of the tea. 'What I'd really like to do is busk.'

'Busk!' said Woodworth.

'Don't you ever feel like putting aside all your responsibilities -'

'No.'

'- and just making people happy?'

'No.'

The Doctor made a glum face. 'You must have hated The The Muppet Movie.' Woodworth barked a laugh and hit him on the arm, nearly making him spill his tea. 'You're mad!'

'Mad as bees in December.'

'Tell me something,' she said. 'Are you -'

A face was peering at them from over the wall, lit in yellow patches. 'Bernice!' said the Doctor.

'There you are,' she said. 'We need you back at the shop.' She looked at Woodworth. 'There's been a spot of bother.'

The Doctor stood up. 'Will you still be here tomorrow?'

Woodworth grinned. 'That depends on the ghost.'

'Come on, Doctor,' said Benny. Water's seeping into my socks.' She waved at Woodworth. 'Sorry for the interruption.'

'Not at all,' said Woodworth. 'I still owe you that drink,'

she told the Doctor.

The Doctor awkwardly handed her back his tea. 'Perhaps I'll catch up with you in Little Caldwell.' He doffed his hat.

'Good luck!'

As they walked away, Benny elbowed him in the ribs.

'Who's your girlfriend?'

The Doctor blinked at her, unfurling his umbrella. 'A ghosthunter. What's the matter?'

'One of our aliens is missing. And I think Dad is convinced it's your fault.'

Behind them, Woodworth frowned as her lamps flared blue. In the next room, the bees were buzzing in the rain.

9 Benny

They'd scoured the countryside. They'd counted the hologram projectors. Ia Jareshth was out there somewhere, alone, with a thin layer of illusion between her and humanity.

Isaac had a.s.sembled the rest of the guests in the Pyramid. Rather than make the aliens wear their hologram projectors, Isaac had Joel set up a single hologram inside the shop doorway, making it look as though the place was empty.

The two Ogrons were adamant that they hadn't eaten anyone for weeks. They were waiting for a pa.s.sing transporter to get them back into the galactic mercenary market.

The Bannerman had been living in a cardboard box in London for the last five years. He had probably survived the 1959 incursion, but his memory wasn't working any more. He didn't know where the Lacaillan had gone. He just wanted to go home.

Benny hovered, not sure where she should sit. Isaac and Jason and the Doctor were sitting at different tables, studiously ignoring one another.

It had not been the best of beginnings.

'You know Heseltine's threat hasn't stopped them over at Greenham,' Ms Randrianasolo was telling Isaac. 'They've been going in, but thank G.o.d, no one really has been shot so far. Maybe this isn't the right time. I can talk to someone...'

The Admiral shook his head. 'It'll occupy the military's attention. I appreciate your staying with us. I know it's a difficult time.'

'Zak,' said the black woman, may be determined to civilize this century, but this -' she gestured around at the shop is always my first concern.'

Isaac gave her one of his serious smiles. 'There's something I need you to do for me.' He stopped suddenly, glanced up at Benny. She frowned, pus.h.i.+ng her hands into her pockets, and decided to see how the Doctor was doing.

Roz was giving the Time Lord a sotto voce sotto voce sitrep. sitrep.

'They've got no security to speak of. If the Lacaillan wanted to walk out under their noses, she could have - and I don't think it would have been hard to s.n.a.t.c.h her away, either.'

'They've been running this operation for twenty years,'

said the Doctor. 'They know what they're doing.'

'Do they?'

'They've contacted a dozen of their a.s.sociates, all over the country. They've got quite a grapevine. Academics, astronomers, journalists, a Local Group of the Professor X Professor X Appreciation Society.' He turned his cup around in his hands.

'Isaac,' he finished gloomily, 'was very careful not to mention any names.'

Chris said, 'The Admiral says the Lacaillan mothers.h.i.+p is due here the night after tomorrow. They'll make the pickup with or without Ia Jareshth.'