Doctor Who: Dragonfire (3 page)

The Doctor glanced over to Eisenstein. 'Are you sure you won't get into trouble with your boss?'

'Aw - I'm fed up of being a waitress. Go on, Professor - let me come too.' The Doctor looked at the waitress. She seemed bright and lively. A bit argumentative, maybe - but that's what teenagers were supposed to be.

'All right - join the party!'

The waitress almost jumped in the air. 'Ace! And can we search for the treasure too?'

This question took the Doctor by surprise. 'Treasure?'

'Yeah - the dragon's supposed to be guarding a fabulous treasure.'

At the next table, Glitz's ears pricked up at the mention of the word treasure. 'Treasure? What treasure?' He leaned across to the Doctor.

'You don't want to go believing in myths and legends, Doctor.'

'Who asked you?' retorted Mel. 'We're not talking to you - remember?'

Glitz ignored Mel. 'No, if you want my opinion, Doctor, this talk of dragons and treasure, it's all a load of space dust.'

'Well, if you're so convinced it's all rubbish,' began the waitress, leaning towards Glitz, 'why have you been burning holes in the treasure map for the last two days?' She suddenly snatched at an old document, tucked in Glitz's belt, and brandished it in the air above her head.

'Here - give us that back!'

Kane stood in his Control Room. The crystalline structure of the room housed controls and display screens. Some of these were currently providing information about the running of Iceworld, but most of the displays were dark and empty. Kane stood silently.

One of the doors hissed open, and Belazs entered to report on her encounter with Glitz in the Refreshment Bar. Kane didn't move. Belazs waited, wondering if he hadn't heard her come in. Then he turned to her. 'Yes?'

'He says he lost the money in a game of cards.'

Kane narrowed his eyes to look at her. 'I know he lost the money in a game of cards. The game was fixed. Sabalom Glitz could never resist an easy opportunity to make money.'

'I gave him seventy-two hours in which to find the 100 crowns, or we take his spacecraft.'

'And the map?'

'He's convinced it's genuine.'

'Excellent. He'll soon realise that if he wants to see his spacecraft again, he has no alternative but to go after the treasure. And when he does, I'll be following him -every step of the way.'

'There's just one thing, Air Kane.'

'Yes?'

'He appears to have two colleagues.'

'Colleagues? I thought you said he sold his entire crew?' Kane turned his piercing black eyes on Belazs. She suddenly felt as though two invisible laser beams were cutting into her mind and reading her thoughts.

'They're not from his crew. I made enquiries - they're space travellers, a girl and a man. Do you want them eliminated?'

Kane turned away and considered the suggestion. 'Not for the moment, I think. After all, there's no reason for these travellers to suspect that the seal on the map contains a radio tracking device.'

'As you wish.'

'They may even help Glitz find the treasure more speedily. And once they have located the treasure, I shall follow the tracking device to locate them.' Belazs thought she saw a momentary smile in his eyes.

At the table in the Refreshment Bar, Glitz's map did indeed look perfectly authentic, with its large, red wax seal in one corner of the old parchment. The Doctor had spread the map out and was examining it, while Glitz looked on anxiously.

'Fascinating,' murmured the Doctor. 'Absolutely fascinating.'

Mel was slightly more sceptical. 'You don't want to believe anything you get from Glitz, Doctor. He probably bought 200 of them in a job lot.'

Glitz bristled indignantly. 'Here - there's nothing snide about this document.'

'It looks like something from a jumble sale,' observed the waitress.

Glitz turned to her. 'Do you mind? This is the genuine oyster, this is. It comes from an unimpeachable source.'

'What's that, then?' demanded the waitress.

Glitz looked at her, slightly puzzled. 'It's something that's beyond reproach or question.'

The waitress glared at him. 'I know what unimpeachable means, Birdbath! But what makes you so certain that this map's pedigree is 24-carat?'

'Because I acquired it from a man of character and distinction.'

'How?'

'I won it in a..." Glitz suddenly realised that Mel was looking at him. '...

in a... chess match...' His voice tailed off. Mel was appalled.

'You won it playing cards?' She turned to the Doctor, who was still engrossed in the map, and had missed all of this. 'It's a waste of time, Doctor. He won it in a card game.'

'An honest transaction,' protested Glitz. 'The man was desperate not to lose that map. So I knew it must be something very tasty.'

The Doctor looked up. 'It appears to show the lower levels of Iceworld.'

The waitress turned to look at the map as well. 'Nobody goes down there now. It's too dangerous.'

The Doctor indicated various places marked on the map, reading them out. 'The Ice Garden... The Singing Trees..."

'But like the girl says,' reminded Glitz, 'it's too dangerous.'

'Where's your sense of adventure, Glitz?' demanded the Doctor.

'But look at this... You don't want to go here, Doctor.' Glitz pointed out some more markings on the map. 'The Lake of Oblivion...'

'Really? Where's that?' The Doctor looked excitedly at where Glitz's finger was pointing.

Glitz looked for something a bit more frightening. 'The Death of Eternal Darkness... Dragonfire ... I should stop at home if I were you, Doctor.'

As Glitz read out each dangerous location, the waitress's eyes shone brighter and brighter with excitement. 'Cor - this sounds brill!'

The Doctor turned to her with a smile. 'My sentiments precisely.' He looked at the name patch on her uniform, but it had been torn off. 'Do you have a name?'

'Everyone calls me Ace.'

'Pleased to meet you, Ace. I'm the Doctor - and this is my friend Mel.'

'And we're really off looking for dragons?' Ace's eyes were still shining brightly.

'Too risky, if you ask me,' volunteered Glitz, but the Doctor would have none of it.

'Nonsense, Glitz. We've just time for a quick adventure, and then back in time for tea.'

'Ace!' exclaimed Ace, jumping up.

'That's the spirit, Doctor!' joined in Mel, also jumping up eagerly.

'Hang about,' complained Glitz. 'You can't go without me. It's my map.'

He took possession of his map again. 'And I'd rather not have any girls coming with us.' He glared particularly at Ace. She turned on him angrily.

What?'

'It's too dangerous for girls,' he explained condescendingly.

Ace turned to the Doctor for help. 'Professor... ?'

But Glitz was insistent. 'And since it's my map...'

Ace turned back to him in fury. 'Right, you male chauvinist bilgebag!

Just - you - wait!' And she stormed off back to Eisenstein, who gave her a sharp telling-off for chatting with the customers.

The Doctor sighed, and sat down again, disappointed. 'Oh dear - and I was so looking forward to meeting a dragon.'

'It's all right, Doctor,' consoled Mel. 'You go ahead. I'll meet you back here.' The Doctor's eyes lit up again. Mel then turned angrily on Glitz.

'And if Glitz burns his fingers in the dragon's fire - well, it serves him right!' And then Mel also stormed off to the bar where Ace was serving.

Glitz smiled at the Doctor. 'Just the two of us, then, Doctor...'

In the Cryogenics Chamber, Belazs watched Kane gliding silently amongst the tubes of frozen mercenaries. He was like a spectre floating amongst an army of the dead. He spoke. 'Only two of them, you say?'

'Glitz and the traveller called the Doctor. They're just setting off for the Lower Levels.'

'Excellent. Continue to monitor the tracking device.'

'Yes, sir.'

Belazs waited, wondering how she could say this.

Kane noticed she was still there, and looked at her. 'Well?'

Belazs was nervous. 'It's Glitz's spacecraft...'

Kane sensed Belazs's fear, and advanced out of the shadows towards her. 'What of it?'

'It's...' Faced with those penetrating black eyes, Belazs's courage deserted her.

'Yes?'

'Well, if Glitz and the Doctor are as good as dead..." She screwed up her courage and took a deep breath: 'I'd like the spacecraft.'

Kane's silence was like ice.

He stepped towards her like a predator stalking its prey. Belazs watched him warily.

'You'd like the spacecraft, would you?'

Slowly and methodically, Kane began to remove one of his gloves.

Belazs was filled with terror. She'd seen this happen to other people who'd made an enemy of Kane. They hadn't lived long. Already she could see ice beginning to form on Kane's flesh. There seemed to be a slight smile on his face. His voice had dropped to an icy whisper.

'When you first came here, you had nothing. You were willing enough to join me then - willing enough to take my payment. But now you want to leave.' He was circling behind Belazs, out of her sight. She was frozen with fear. All she could hear was the evil whisper over her shoulder.

'Perhaps you have memories of home. Perhaps you think you can return home. Perhaps I should have put you into cryo-sleep along with all the others, and erased your memories. Perhaps you need reminding...'

Suddenly, he grabbed Belazs's arm with his gloved hand, and forced her palm down onto a control panel. Then, slowly, he lowered his ungloved hand down towards hers. She was trying to fight back her terror, but already she could feel the back of her hand beginning to blister from the deadly freezing cold of Kane's flesh hovering barely a centimetre above hers. With a sudden movement, he pressed his hand down. Belazs stiffened in anticipation of the pain.

But Kane hadn't pressed his bare flesh against hers. Instead there was a hiss as his hand made contact with the metal of the control panel instead. With his gloved hand he wrenched her palm upwards. She saw the deep scar of Kane's insignia branded on her own palm.

'I own you. Never forget that. For as long as you bear my mark, I own you.'

He tossed her arm aside and strode quickly to the intercom, where he jabbed at a button. Kracauer's voice crackled back in response. 'Yes, sir?'

Kane looked at Belazs while he gave Kracauer his order. 'Glitz's spacecraft - have it destroyed.'

Stellar was happy now. Her mother had finally finished trudging around the Freezer Centre and had agreed to buy them both a milkshake. Ace served the two drinks, and then returned to the bar where Mel was sitting.

Ace and Mel were both in a foul mood. Their temper wasn't improved by a distant cheery announcement from the Bing-bong Woman: 'Would the Emergency Services please report to the Upper Docking Bays and deal with an icefall? Thank you.' Bing-bong.

'This is all your fault,' complained Mel.

'How do you work that out, then?'

'You were encouraging them both, with your Oh, ace! Oh, brill!'

Ace glared at Mel, and toyed with the idea of pulling her hair out, but she was interrupted by Stellar's mother calling from the table.

'You girl!'

Ace looked round, to make sure that the woman was actually calling her.

'Yes, you girl. Come here!'

Rather unwillingly, Ace wandered over to the customer. 'What do you want?' she asked insolently. The woman took Stellar's milkshake and brandished it beneath Ace's nose.

'This milkshake,' she complained. 'It isn't adequately shaken.'

Ace peered into the milkshake. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. 'That's how they come, missus.'

'It's got lumps in it!'

'It's supposed to have lumps in it. That's the ice cream.'

'We don't want lumps in it. Shake it some more!'

Ace was fed up with this complaining woman decorated with ridiculous feathers. 'Shake it yourself!'

'I beg your pardon!'

'You heard!'

'I've never been so insulted...'

'I bet you've never had a milkshake tipped over your head before, neither...' Ace snatched the tumbler from under her nose and tipped it over the woman's head. The woman shrieked as the cold liquid ran down inside her clothes and down her back. The offending lumps of half-melted ice cream, meanwhile, dribbled slowly down her face and onto the outrageous black feathers that decorated her clothing. Stellar squeaked with delight. This was definitely more fun than wandering round a boring freezer centre!

Mr Eisenstein, standing at the bar, watched all this in horror. Coming to his senses, he strode over to Ace. His face was scarlet. 'That does it!

You're fired!'

Ace looked at the soggy mess that was making spluttering noises from beneath the drooping feathers, and she realised that she'd gone too far this time. 'I'm sorry, Mr Eisenstein, it won't happen again.'

Eisenstein's face was now beginning to turn a rather vivid purple. 'Get out! I've had enough of you!'

'I promise, it'll never happen again...' Ace desperately needed the job.

'Get out!'

There was no point arguing. Ace knew she'd lost her job.

Eisenstein then turned on Ace's friend, Mel, who had been watching all this from the bar. 'You too! Get out!' 'Me?' Mel wasn't sure what she had to do with any of it.

'Both of you, out! Pair of troublemakers!' Mel decided not to argue, and she scurried after Ace, who was trudging through the door.

'Hooligans!' shouted Eisenstein after them.

The soggy mess was still squawking pathetically from beneath her bedraggled feathers. Eisenstein turned to her. 'I do apologise, Madam. I hope your delightful outfit wasn't brand new...' Stellar giggled.

The Bing-bong Woman, of course, hadn't seen any of this, and another cheery announcement drifted through the Refreshment Bar. 'Would customers please avoid the Upper Docking Bays, which are blocked by an icefall? Thank you.' Bing-bong.

There was no longer any tapping sound in Kane's Restricted Zone, and the half-completed ice statue stood shrouded in muslin. Kane was alone, gazing on the veiled statue. He ran his hand softly over the muslin. He seemed to be thinking of something. Something far away.