Part 21 (1/2)

The Doctor shrugged. 'Possibly.'

'I'm Felix Mather, Doctor.'

The Doctor racked his brains. 'Ah yes. 1989. I stole your s.p.a.ce shuttle.'

'That's right.'

Malady looked at the Doctor. He must have been about ten at the time.

The Doctor smiled. 'Remember afterwards, when we landed at Edwards? The look on the face of the '

'Sir, Doctor, I'm sorry to interrupt, but if we could save this for another time?'

A hesitation at the other end, then. 'OK, Malady, what have you got?'

'If we could deal with the impostor first. You know who it is?' she asked the Doctor.

'I strongly suspect that it's Anji Kapoor, a young companion of mine. What did she tell you, Felix?'

Malady winced. Even the First Lady referred to him as 'Mr President' in public.

The President outlined what they already knew that Baskerville had a time machine, he was willing to hand over blueprints in return for access to the ULTRA computer.

The President was to deal face*to*face with Baskerville in Istanbul, and he was in Air Force One, heading that way for a meeting in just a few hours.

Malady waited for her new instructions.

'I think we can handle it from here, Malady. Stand down, and get back to Station E for a debrief. But take your time you've earned a rest.'

'Felix,' the Doctor interrupted. 'To prove he has time travel, Baskerville made four prophecies to Cosgrove. Three of them have come true, the third was the Athens tidal wave. We need to know what the fourth was.'

'I'm not sure how I could '

'You've got the whole CIA and FBI at your disposal, you're the leader of the free world and you're meeting Baskerville in a couple of hours. I'm sure a man of your resourcefulness can find a way.'

Malady could almost hear the President glaring at the Doctor.

'I'll do it,' he said finally.

'How did you know?' Anji asked, tucking her hair back behind her ear.

They could see Istanbul on the horizon, now. The pilot (Anji had finally learnt that his name was Leo), had anch.o.r.ed the yacht, and started to prepare the helicopter. Dee had gone to her cabin to pack.

'How did I know what?' Baskerville asked her.

'You made those prophecies. But your time machine can only go into the past. So how can you see the future?'

'Ah yes. Well, being the richest man in the world has its advantages. Fixing a soccer match is really not as difficult as you'd think.'

'The young actress who died...'

'Really should have paid more attention to biosecurity.'

'And Athens?'

Baskerville took a deep breath. 'Yes, Athens.'

'Four thousand dead or missing. A million people homeless.'

'Yes. I've killed more people in my time, directly and indirectly. But I have to admit I'm not proud of myself.'

Anji found it difficult to look at him. 'How?' she heard herself saying.

'A large bomb, placed in exactly the right place on the seabed. It dislodged just the right amount of material to create a localised tidal wave... and just enough to bury all the evidence. Quite a feat of engineering. The people who arranged it were worth every penny.'

She couldn't think of anything to say. Nothing that would express how she was feeling.

He was an old man, sixty if he was a day. He was quite slight. She could break his neck, throw him overboard. She was sure she could do it physically. She was d.a.m.n sure she could justify it morally.

But a minute pa.s.sed, and she still hadn't done it. It wasn't fear that Dee and Leo would kill her when they discovered what she'd done. They probably would, but she didn't care about that.

The reason she hadn't killed him, she realised, was that she still wanted some questions answered, and if she killed him, she'd never know.

'You think it's a crime,' Baskerville said softly.

'Don't you?' she asked, angry.

'I suppose it is. But what's wrong with crime? I've always thought the world should be run along Mafia lines. When the Soviet Union fell, the Mafia took over. As a soldier. I hated to see gangsters and pimps running the country. But they paid good money, at a time when the government couldn't even pay its own workers, let alone provide for anyone else.'

He suddenly seemed quite tired.

'Areas controlled by criminals have far lower crime rates, that's the irony.'

'They rule by terror. They charge protection money.'

'And governments rule by default, and charge taxes. I tell you what, my dear, if a gang tried demanding forty or fifty percent of people's income, they wouldn't last very long.'

'There would be anarchy. Who would be in charge?'

'Whoever made the streets the safest, whoever could supply the most of what people demanded. It's the free market, you should appreciate that.'

'It's not what the majority want.'

'Yes it is. You don't vote for someone who looks good on the datanet and who isn't quite as awful as the other chap. But you do get someone who knows the local area, someone who wants to look after it, someone who's got an interest in keeping the local businesses running. Not like the Eurozone, where someone who's never even been to your country decides to close the factory that's your town's only employer because he needs to tidy up a balance sheet or reduce a subsidy budget.'

'Those people are accountable.'

Baskerville shook his head. 'No. They're elected, but that's hardly the same thing. Do you think they have the real real power? Do you know who controls the world, Anji? Do you know who it is who guides the markets, regulates supply and demand? Follow the money, follow the flow of capital.' power? Do you know who controls the world, Anji? Do you know who it is who guides the markets, regulates supply and demand? Follow the money, follow the flow of capital.'