Part 36 (1/2)

Malady frowned at him. 'No, sir. People. They looked like people, anyway. They wore purple uniforms. They were humans, from the future.'

Mather laughed. 'Did they have American accents, or did they sound European?'

Malady tried to remember. 'Honestly... I don't know. The boy sounded like a d.i.c.kens character. The woman...' What had her voice sounded like?

Mather put a hand on Malady's shoulder. 'I don't think it matters. You've done an excellent job, Malady.'

'What now?'

'We sit tight and wait for our airlift.'

A moment later, a light aircraft began taxiing down the runway.

'Someone's making a getaway,' Malady said.

Baskerville turned the corner, and ran straight into one of the aliens.

It growled at him, snarled. It was speaking to him.

'I don't speak your language,' he said, as calmly as he could manage. 'We need a translator.'

Baskerville backed away, into another of the creatures.

He was holding out his hands, acting as meekly as he could, speaking so softly they couldn't possibly interpret his intent as hostile.

One of the aliens produced a small, square box and held it over its snout.

It growled. A moment later, a pleasant male voice began: 'Where is the time machine? We have come for the time machine. Show us the time machine, or we will kill you.'

It was his own voice, Baskerville realised. Or at least a good synthesised version of it.

Baskerville straightened. 'I contacted you, remember?'

They glowered at him. He couldn't tell them apart, they almost certainly couldn't tell individual humans apart.

'I contacted your s.h.i.+p. I arranged this meeting.'

One of the creatures stepped forwards and grunted.

'Are you jamming our communications? We are unable to contact our s.h.i.+p.'

'No,' said Baskerville, genuinely puzzled. 'I wouldn't know how to...'

'You could communicate with our s.h.i.+p. Therefore you could block our signals.'

'It isn't me. My name is Baskerville, I have the time machine. You have technology that I am interested in. That translator alone would be worth... let us negotiate.'

The nearest creature sniffed the air. 'Where is the time machine?'

Baskerville was never one to miss an opportunity. 'My... headquarters here are under attack by rival human forces. This is a primitive, warlike planet. There are three human factions who are also after my time machine. One, I regret to say, has stolen vital components from the machine. They were in a silver case. He is called the Doctor, and '

The creature grabbed him, almost tearing him in two. 'The Doctor is here?'

'Yes.'

The creatures looked at each other, warily. 'The Doctor has tricked us and escaped from our s.h.i.+p. He will attempt to interfere with our plans. Our top priority must be to locate him and kill him.'

Baskerville dusted himself down, annoyed to find the creature had gashed the jacket of his suit with a claw. 'You took the words out of my mouth.'

The Doctor, Anji and Fitz were in the canteen.

It was small, fairly dismal. There was evidence the place had been cleaned recently but only because there were swirls in the dirt, and some panels on the counter were a different coloured filth to the others.

The room was deserted after the gun battles of the last hour or so, the whole complex was quiet, now.

One whole wall was taken up by a large plasma screen. It played images soundlessly, and there was no sign of the volume controls.

They didn't need to hear what was being said, or read the captions scrolling across the screen. The images of American s.h.i.+ps under rocket attack didn't need any commentary.

One reporter, his head down, was shouting wordlessly into his microphone while behind him a fire was raging on the deck of a wars.h.i.+p.

Aircraft streaked overhead it wasn't clear if they were American or European planes.

There were gun battles raging in Cairo, but the pictures were fuzzy, because the soldiers were jamming, or trying to jam, RealWar control signals.

Every so often, maps would flash up, with rea.s.suringly bold arrows.

They reminded Anji a little of the IFEC map.

'Hang on,' said Fitz, 'that's the news.'

Anji managed a smile. 'It's the news,' she said grimly.

The Doctor was pointing at the screen. 'It says there that there's no sign of the President. If we could get Mather to a radio, then '

Cosgrove had arrived. He stood in one of the doorways, gun in his hand.

'It's good to see the three of you here, together at last,' he said coldly. 'And you've even managed to recover Baskerville's time machine.'

Anji glanced down at the case, which sat on one of the canteen tables. She and Fitz were a good four or five paces away from him. Cosgrove opened the case, looked in.

'I don't understand,' Cosgrove muttered.

'It's a coffee machine,' Anji explained helpfully.

'Shall I be mother?' the Doctor asked, taking the jug.

'Where's the time machine?'