Part 17 (2/2)

The Doctor concluded that the people serving behind the bar would be best placed to help him in his search. He turned, and stumbled straight into the young woman he was looking for.

'I'm sorry,' said the girl, reaching out to steady the Doctor.

'Clumsy of me.'

'My fault entirely,' noted the Doctor with a charming smile, doffing his hat. 'In actual fact, I've been looking for you. A mutual friend has sent me with something for you.'

The darkened interior of the van was filled with surveillance equipment. Light from a monitor splashed over Shanks's face, framed by a set of headphones.

'You're not supposed to talk to her!' shouted Shanks into a microphone, linked to the tiny receiver in the Doctor's ear.

'Just give her the packet!'

Shanks could see the Doctor on the screen in front of him.

The little man glanced around, as if looking for the CCTV cameras. Then he and the girl disappeared behind a column.

'What are you playing at, Doc?' screamed Shanks into the microphone. 'I told you, one false move and the place goes up.' He turned to one of the men at his side. 'Get Dean to move in. I need to know what the Doctor's doing,' he ordered.

The Doctor put a finger to his lips, quelling the girl's surprise.

With the piece of pencil lead under his nail, he scribbled on to a beer mat: 'Important. We are in danger.'

'Well,' said the Doctor brightly. 'I have a gift for you. But you mustn't unwrap it yet.'

'Go along with what I say,' he wrote.

'OK,' said the girl, the uncertainty obvious in her voice. The Doctor was just hoping that she'd humour him for a few moments. 'Who's it from?' she added lamely.

'Ken,' said the Doctor instantly. 'Ah,' said the girl. 'I remember Ken.'

Shanks switched off his microphone and cursed loudly.

'What's he playing at?' he asked rhetorically. 'Shall we detonate?' asked a man at his side. 'No,' snapped Shanks.

'That's not what I had planned. Denman has to really really suffer.' suffer.'

'So...?'

'So, has the Doctor pa.s.sed on the merchandise?'

'Dean's not sure.'

'Plan B, then,' said Shanks. 'Tell Jane to move.'

The Doctor handed over an imaginary parcel. 'There you are,'

he said.

The girl clearly considered the Doctor a harmless lunatic.

'Er, thanks,' she said, pretending to pocket something just as one of the bouncers burst through a crowd of people. He stared at them, mouthing something into a walkie-talkie, then swept past a moment later as if he'd not seen them at all. 'Now, I really must be going,' said the Doctor, raising his hat again. He walked as quickly as he could towards the exit.

He had gambled on the fact that Kenny Shanks hated his plans being interfered with so much that he wouldn't actually detonate the bomb; that the explosives were there simply to intimidate the Doctor, and to incriminate him later. But he couldn't rely on a man as erratic and violent as Shanks. He had to get out.

A young woman stumbled into him as she skirted the expansive dance floor. The Doctor reached out an arm to steady her. 'I do beg your pardon.'

'No worries,' said the girl with a smile.

'He thinks thinks the package was handed over, boss.' the package was handed over, boss.'

'Cretin!' exploded Shanks. 'I'm not falling for that song-and-dance. Get the law in there, now.'

Jane sidled up to Nicola cautiously, one hand in her pocket, resting on the package she'd lifted from the small man in the pale suit. It hadn't been difficult to steal the parcel from the man, but then it was Jane's pickpocketing skills that had first brought her to Shanks's attention. When Jane was twelve, she had started stealing old women's purses as a dare. She didn't need the money, but she craved the buzz.

Then one day she'd been caught by a plain-clothes security man running through the automatic doors of Marks & Spencer. When the police investigated her room, they found hundreds of wallets and purses, many of them still crammed full of money. Her friends had said she'd be sent to borstal, but Shanks got her off with a weak rebuke from a greedy Magistrate.

She'd been paying him back ever since.

Nicola's back was turned, her handbag hanging half open at her side. Holding her breath, Jane pushed at the zip, then gently lowered the package into place. With a trailing hand, she pulled at the zip again, walking around in front of Nicola.

'Who was that I saw you with?'

'Oh, just some nutter,' said Nicola. 'Off his head.'

Jane was about to say something when she became aware of a commotion behind them. Uniformed figures were descending the stairs.

'd.a.m.n' she said. 'Looks like another raid.' In truth, she was just glad to be shot of the package - you didn't have to be Einstein to work out what it contained.

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