Part 27 (2/2)

'Stand away from that!' an electronic voice barked.

One of the guards had entered, he was aiming his rifle at the Doctor. He moved forward warily. His helmet hid his expression, but Debbie doubted that it was anything other than grim determination.

'Sallak will be angry if you shoot me,' the Doctor a.s.sured the guard. 'He wants that honour for himself.' He turned his back on the guard and began examining the machine on the trolley. He picked up the nozzle.

'Put that down!' the guard ordered.

The Doctor tapped a control on the console with one hand and jammed the nozzle of the device over the rifle barrel with the other.

The rifle became several dozen identical roses, which fell into a pile on the floor. But it didn't stop there. The roses spread, carried on up the guard's arms, over his shoulders and down his back. Debbie glimpsed the man underneath, pale and muscular, then all that skin and muscle began changing, too.

The process was fascinating to watch. Even the guard himself seemed to think so. He didn't scream, or cry out, or even look worried: he just watched his metamorphosis until he had no eyes left to watch with.

For a moment, the pile of flowers was roughly the shape of the man it had replaced, but there was nothing holding them together, and they just fell away.

The Doctor looked sadly down at the pile.

'I've just had an idea,' he told them.

'Do you like Guns 'N Roses?' Dinah asked.

It was half an hour after he'd arrived before Dinah had a chance to go up to the blond guy, but that was still the best opening line she could come up with.

He was sitting on his own, seemingly happy to let the party lap up around him, rather than to be any great part of it. He had a bottle of lager in his hand, but had barely touched it. His leather jacket, torn jeans and Adidas trainers looked brand-new.

'I think Axl Rose is the ultimate rock frontman.'

'That's an anagram, you know.'

'His real name is William Bailey.' He recited it as if it was French vocab.

'What's your name?'

'Ferdy,' he replied. Then, 'Happy birthday.'

'Sweet sixteen,' she said. 'How old are you?'

'Nineteen,' he said. That looked about right he looked mature for his age, but was also quite fresh-faced.

'N-nn-nineteen, eh?' she joked.

Ferdy looked at her in a very odd way. She decided to stay away from pop music from now on.

'What do you do?' she asked instead.

He seemed puzzled by the question.

'For a living?' she elaborated.

'I work as a yuppie,' he told her, after a short pause.

Dinah laughed. 'That's funny.'

He smiled back, a little uncertainly. 'Thank you.'

The Doctor checked the connection between the sonic suitcase and the trans.m.u.tation machine, then flicked a couple of switches.

A humming noise, quite a low, ominous sound.

The Doctor snapped the briefcase shut and checked the readings.

'We've got two minutes,' he told them. 'So let's make the most of them.'

'You've set it to blow up?' Joel asked, worried.

The Doctor smiled and ushered them towards the door.

'But all our stuff!' he complained.

Kirst grabbed him. 'The Doctor's going to give us a million quid. It's not like you've got anything worth saving.'

'The telly...'

'The telly is from Rumbelows,' she reminded him. 'Nicked from Rumbelows.' from Rumbelows.'

They hurried out of the door, into the corridor.

The metal door stood between them and the unrenovated lower storeys of the Tower.

'How are we going to open the door and get past the guards?' Debbie asked.

'I'll use the sonic suitcase,' the Doctor said, ushering them out of the way. He had opened it up, balanced it on one knee. He pressed something and the door slid smoothly open. The Doctor closed the briefcase and waited.

The guards on the other side clearly hadn't been expecting the door to open. They turned and edged forwards.

'Halt!' they said.

'Not even the sonic suitcase can get us out of this one,' Debbie whispered.

The Doctor smiled, then, without warning, he charged forward, holding the briefcase out in front of him. Before the guards had time to raise their rifles, he'd swung the case around, smas.h.i.+ng both of their helmets with enough force to crack them.

The guards fell to the floor, out cold.

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