Part 27 (1/2)

'Do you think they'll honour their promises?' he asked.

'No,' Kirst said quietly.

'Of course they will,' Joel interrupted. 'Why wouldn't they? What's it to them?'

'What have they promised you?' the Doctor asked.

'That we get to keep this,' Joel told them proudly, looking around.

'This tower block?' the Doctor said. 'Is it theirs to give you?'

'Not the building. Just what's in it. They've got a machine. It just turns ordinary stuff into anything you want. We've got a bowl full of gemstones, we've got gold.'

'The Doctor can give you money,' Debbie told them. 'Help us get out of here, he'll give you money. It won't be stolen, it'll be a gift. You can stick it in the bank, spend it on whatever you want. If anyone asks any questions, the Doctor will vouch for you.'

'And if that Rolex was really made by Ferran's machine, it's a fake anyway,' the Doctor pointed out.

Joel shook his wrist, irritated.

Kirst looked at the Doctor, who was smiling at her. 'I'm game if you are,' he said.

'A million,' Joel said. Kirst was going to turn around and tell him to shut up, but before she could 'Agreed!' the Doctor said cheerfully.

Joel clearly rather wished he'd asked for more.

'You've got a million?' Kirst asked.

The Doctor nodded, and that seemed to be good enough for her.

Joel was looking nervous. 'I don't know about this,' he said.

Kirst grabbed his fancy lapels. 'Real money, no strings, no ha.s.sle. A million quid. Given to us by nice people, real human beings who will get us out of here before Sallak and that little psycho decide to kill us.'

Joel nodded. 'OK, what do we do?'

'Get us out of here,' Debbie said. 'We need to save Miranda.'

'No,' the Doctor interrupted. 'Take us to this machine first.'

'I thought you'd never get here,' Dinah moaned as she let Miranda, Alex and Bob in.

They'd heard the music from halfway up the street. Now it was almost deafening. Miranda identified it as Marillion, before filtering it down until she could hear conversations a little better. In the front room, everyone was shouting at each other, trying to get drinks of lager or cadge a cigarette.

Dinah was wearing a new skirt and a red-andblack jumper.

'Are these ribbons OK?' she asked, tugging at her hair.

'You look very vivid,' Miranda a.s.sured her, handing over her present, which she had carefully wrapped in dinosaur wrapping paper.

Dinah began pawing at it, eventually reaching the box inside.

'A gold necklace,' she said. She pulled it out and with a little difficulty put it on. She kissed Miranda on the cheek. 'It's beautiful,' she said.

Alex was staring out across the street. 'There's someone on the other side of the road.'

Miranda turned. 'The boy from the swimming baths.'

'The one that beat you?' Bob asked, tactlessly.

Dinah was already strolling out. 'Hi, there!'

The boy looked startled, but came forward.

'It's OK, you've found us. Come in.'

He came over. He looked at Miranda, who felt Bob's arm around her.

'It's chilly out here,' Bob told her, by way of explanation.

The room they were looking for was right at the top of the restructured part of the Tower, although all the windows had been sealed over. It was circular, with consoles dotted around which hummed with power. There were also bins, full of builders' waste and other sc.r.a.p, looking very out of place in such a futuristic environment.

The sonic suitcase was sitting by one of the consoles. The Doctor opened it up, and checked everything was in order. 'A couple of things are missing,' he noted.

At the centre of the room was a raised area about five metres in diameter.

'You should see this thing,' Joel said. 'It can make anything. You just put stuff on the platform and it turns it into other stuff. And that thing ' He pointed at a device that looked like a petrol pump, which sat on a trolley 'That's like the portable version. You point it at stuff and it transforms it.'

'That's how they've redecorated,' Debbie said.

'More than redecorated,' the Doctor said. 'Restructured it all at the molecular even atomic level. This is incredible technology. I'm not even sure how it could work.' He turned to Joel. 'And it can reproduce anything? Not just raw materials, but complex items?'

'Watch,' Joel said, proudly. 'Sallak showed me how to do a few things.'

He went over to one of the bins, then threw a few bricks on to the platform. Then he crossed to one of the consoles and pressed a combination of b.u.t.tons.

The console hummed, and the bricks s.h.i.+mmered and vanished. A few seconds later, the humming stopped, and there were half a dozen red roses there instead.

The Doctor went over and picked them up, sniffing them.

'Incredible. Smell these.' He pa.s.sed a handful over to Debbie. 'These are all identical,' he noted. 'It's like a three-dimensional photocopier.'

'It's a big machine, it's fixed in place. We can't take it with us.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I don't want to. It's a very useful machine, but it's far too advanced for this time zone. Imagine if this fell into the hands of someone who wanted unlimited plutonium, or guns. Even if they only wanted gold or coins, this thing could destroy the world's economy with just a few days of production.'

'So what are we going to do?'