Doctor Who: Paradise Towers (12 page)

‘Kang wallscrawl,’ Pex announced, rather unnecessarily.

‘I know,’ Mel returned pointedly. Lots of it. As if the Blue Kangs had had a go first and then the Red Kangs had come and gone one better. There was certainly a mass of different slogans, paintings and signs covering the familiar blue telephone box.

The Doctor, Mel feared, was not going to be too pleased.

‘Quiet!’ Pex had tensed suddenly and his eyes were scanning the dark corners of the Square.

‘What is it now?’ Mel enquired patiently.

‘I thought I saw a Blue Kang.’

‘Relax!’ Mel urged him. ‘I know the Blue Kangs weren’t very nice to you but if you’re going to be this jumpy all the time it’s going to be hopeless.’

‘You don’t know them like I do,’ Pex insisted. But Mel had already started to leave the Square. It was no good crying over spilt milk. Hopefully, there would be time at a later date to clean up the TARDIS. For the moment they had to get on.

Sometimes when you’re in a hurry or slightly flustered, you don’t trust your instincts. Mel was anxious to pull Pex out of his panic so she didn’t perhaps pay enough attention to hers.

Because, as they left the Square, Mel had a very strong sense that they were being followed. And not by Blue Kangs.

‘Welcome one and all to Paradise Towers, which will be your new home for a good few years to come...’

The Doctor settled back comfortably in anticipation. The Illustrated Prospectus promised well from the point of view of information. After all, it was intended to help future inhabitants not lure unsuspecting tourists like the aged video-brochure that had so impressed Mel.

‘Some of you will understandably feel nervous at leaving everything you know for a strange new environment...’ The voice was jolly and reassuring, the music that accompanied it bland and up-beat. The Doctor found it all rather creepy.

‘However, we believe once you’ve tasted the Paradise Towers experience you won’t want to change it for any other...’

Well, it’s not an experience
like
any other, the Doctor agreed mentally but personally he’d have exchanged it for a weekend locked in a hotel room with the Daleks.

Pictures of various aspects of Paradise Towers started to appear now. And the Doctor realised that, in the original concept, it was not just the swimming pool that was planned on such a lavish and spacious scale. The video-brochure had not lied. Now he had walked round the desolate streets, the Doctor found he could recognise places he had passed through in their gleaming new counterparts on the screen.

‘Our motto,’ intoned the voice, ‘is “Build High for Happiness”...’

So there was one less mystery. The Kangs’ code phrase that had puzzled him before was the slogan the inhabitants had been given when they first arrived, one no doubt intended to give them confidence and pride in the soaring Towers. The Kangs, he was sure, knew nothing of that. For them it was simply a resonant phrase, a magic conjuration against disaster.

‘The facilities of this mighty structure are unrivalled,’ the cheery voice continued as glossy image followed glossy image.

‘Every care has been taken to ensure that Paradise Towers will not only be thoroughly enjoyable but also safe and clean...’

There was a great deal of din in the background behind the Doctor but he was so tense with concentration that he tried to filter the noise out and hear only what was on the screen.

‘Paradise Towers has been specially designed for you by...’

The Doctor leant forward eagerly but it was impossible to hear a word of what was being said on the screen. The noise in the control room was quite deafening. As if somebody had decided to move all the furniture around and somebody else was trying to stop them.

The Doctor turned. ‘Will you please keep quiet, I’m –’ He stopped in mid-sentence as he finally realised the explanation for all the upheaval. The Deputy and other Caretakers guarding the Doctor were on the floor, arms tied behind their backs and gags in their mouths. And over them, crossbows in hand, stood a small group of Red Kangs with Bin Liner and Fire Escape at their head.

‘How you do, Doctor?’ Bin Liner, grinning, gave the Doctor the Kang salute. With delight the Doctor returned it. ‘Bin Liner!

Fire Escape! How did you get here?’

‘We track you down the carrydoors,’ Fire Escape answered,

‘creep in when the Chief Caretaker left and bundle up these others.’ She gestured to the woe-begone Caretakers on the floor.

‘Sorry to disturb you,’ apologised Bin Liner, in whose hand a copy of the small square key card was visible, spoils no doubt from an unwary Caretaker.

‘Not at all,’ the Doctor replied. ‘I’m delighted to see you.

You must have taken quite a risk.’

‘You took a risk for us,’ Fire Escape returned simply. ‘But we must all leave now, Doctor.’ She placed the key card in position and the door started to open.

‘Of course,’ the Doctor agreed eagerly. ‘There’s bound to be an alarm system that the Deputy can set off given half a chance.’

He was halfway across the control room when he remembered the Prospectus was still playing. ‘How stupid of me,’ the Doctor muttered. He rushed back to the screen and removed from it the high tech disc within that contained the Prospectus. Crucial evidence to be examined in more detail later.

As he stepped over the recumbent Deputy, he waved the disc cheerily at him. ‘I’m sure there are rules to govern all this, aren’t there, Deputy?’

Gagged as he was, the furious Deputy could only mumble indistinctly.

‘You know,’ the Doctor remarked as they left the Headquarters, ‘that’s the most intelligent thing he’s said so far.’

The door slid shut behind them leaving the Deputy to face the wrath of his Chief for a second time.

The Chief Caretaker peered down the XY3 standard issue waste disposal unit but there were certainly no traces of Tilda and Tabby for him to see. He had a pretty shrewd idea where they would end up, of course, but it worried him that once again he had not given any orders. Someone else had sucked them down to their fate. Someone or something. He would have to investigate very closely. For the moment, however, he had a more immediate task: to comfort the agitated Maddy, who hovered by his side, her plump face a picture of puzzlement and distress. It was she who had summoned the Caretakers after hearing strange noises and reported Tilda and Tabby’s probable fate.

‘Well, I can’t think of any other explanation,’ she insisted to the Chief. ‘Can you?’

‘Since you ask,’ he returned loftily, ‘thousands.’

‘But it’s never happened before,’ Maddy persisted.

The Chief Caretaker straightened up from his investigation and gave Maddy the full force of his most disarming smile. ‘You wouldn’t by any chance have eaten them, would you?’

‘What do you mean?’ Maddy stared at him in total shock.

‘I’ve heard rumours that such things go on, you know,’ the Chief continued.

‘The very idea!’ Maddy exclaimed indignantly. ‘They were my friends, my closest neighbours. Would I have summoned you if I’d done something wrong?’

‘It was just a thought.’ The Chief was pacific now. It had been worth a try but the woman was clearly an innocent, trusting fool. The real culprit was elsewhere. ‘Anyway,’ he assured her charmingly, ‘there is no cause for panic.’

‘No cause for panic!’ Maddy could not believe her ears and repeated the words in disbelief. ‘No cause for panic! Two of my next-door neighbours have just disappeared down the waste disposal chute!’ She remembered then Tilda and Tabby’s many little meannesses and acts of unfriendliness but also the awfulness of their fate. ‘I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.’

The Chief resumed his official face. ‘There will, of course, be a frank and full review of the circumstances and in due course a report will be issued to all Residents. And you can rest assured there will be no cover-up.’ He repeated the last words more impressively to emphasise them. ‘No cover-up at all.’

Maddy’s face, however, was still filled with doubt. The Chief brought his face closer to hers and hissed in confidential tones. ‘I would urge you, nevertheless, for the moment to keep the matter quiet. We don’t want to alarm people unduly, do we?’

‘Well,’ Maddy hesitated, ‘I’m not really sure that I ought to.’

Fuller measures were going to be needed and the Chief, suppressing his impatience, re-assumed his official voice. ‘Not that I would in any way wish to bribe you to hold your tongue but rules could be made flexible and it could be arranged for you to move into this flat instead of your own. It is, after all, substantially larger.’ His eyes invited Maddy to take in the attractiveness of the move into this bright snug apartment. ‘After all, what’s the good of panicking people when, I repeat, everything is under control?’

Maddy regarded the flat longingly. Her desire for it battled with her innate honesty and, for the moment at least, won.

‘Well,’ she conceded slowly, ‘I would hate to upset anybody.’

‘Exactly.’ The Chief allowed himself a smile. The fool had taken the bait and would keep her tongue for the moment.

Whether she would actually get the promised flat or not would depend on later developments. ‘And now if you’ll excuse me,’ he continued charmingly. ‘I think I will depart to begin my investigation.’ He paused as if in thought. ‘In the Basement, perhaps, might be the best place.’

The Chief left almost immediately. His exterior was still calm, a mask of efficiency and tact, but underneath, his brain was seething with questions. The feeling of unease was back with a vengeance now and there was nothing he could do to dispel it.

He would have to confront his pet in the Basement. Tilda and Tabby were not part of the diet he had planned. Daddy was going to have to be very strict indeed with his darling.

Maddy said her goodbyes to the Chief with appropriate deference and then watched him walk away down the street. The flat was tempting but she was not at all sure she should take it.

Nor was she convinced that she should hold her tongue. Rezzie gossip had told her about Caretakers being killed. Now Rezzies themselves were threatened. And Tilda and Tabby had been the toughest and most self-reliant of them all, eating good fresh meat long after the rest had given up hope of finding it. If she didn’t speak out, who was going to go next? She went home to ponder with a heavy heart.

Mel had not quite shaken off the feeling of being followed – even though they had been travelling for some time now without sight of anything, despite Pex’s nervous staring about at every crossroads. The map, meanwhile, was proving an incalculable boon. They were making good progress and Mel had even located a lift that, if it worked, would take them right to the top of the Towers. It was on the 48th floor and they were nearly there now.

As it came into view, Pex started to go towards it to investigate. Mel gently restrained him. After their previous experience with a lift she preferred to do the checking herself.

A careful glance round the nearby street corners and up the nearest staircases assured her no one was there. ‘Come on,’ she beckoned to Pex, ‘it’s all safe. Quick!’

She entered the confined space and Pex reluctantly followed. The interior certainly boded well. It was comparatively free of wallscrawl and the control panel seemed undamaged.

The floor indicator was even reading the right floor number,

‘48’, which was the first time Mel had ever come across that in the Towers.

‘Now all I have to do is press the button for the 304th floor and –’

‘Er, Mel –’ Pex sounded uneasy but that was perfectly normal for him so Mel ignored his interruption and confidently pressed the button. Unfortunately, nothing happened.

‘Mel – look!’ Pex’s voice was sounding really scared now.

Scared enough for Mel to notice and follow the line of his pointing finger.

Down the street towards them came a large, white, wheeled robot with headlights gleaming in the gloom. It made a soft regular whirring sound. And on its front a ferocious-looking corkscrew device turned menacingly. Mel gasped. Was this what had been following them all that time? It was scary in a way pursuing Kangs would never be and she felt her heart thump.

‘What is it, Pex?’

‘I’ll explain later,’ Pex urged plaintively. ‘Could you just press the button?’

Mel had no more wish to stay around and face the robot than Pex so she pressed the button again. Nothing happened.

The door stayed open and the robot, corkscrew rotating, came nearer. If the lift failed to move, they were trapped.

Mel pressed the button yet again. There was a faint whirring sound and then, after an agonising pause, the lift doors slid shut and the lift was in motion, leaving the robot behind.

‘You see, we call those Cleaners,’ Pex began to explain, ‘and sometimes they –’

‘Pex!’ Mel was eager to hear his explanation but she had noticed something that took priority. She pointed to the lift indicator.

‘Am I imagining things?’

‘Why?’

‘Are we going up – or are we going down?’

Pex thought for a moment. The indicator certainly showed them going down but that wasn’t necessarily a true sign of what was happening. But Pex quickly decided that, for once, the indicator was telling the truth. ‘We’re going down,’ he admitted.

‘But I pressed the button to go up,’ Mel protested.

Pex nodded ruefully. ‘But the Kangs play a game, you see.

These lifts only take one instruction at a time. So the Kangs get in and press the button for all kinds of floors up and down the building and the lift will have to go to all those floors before it’ll get to the floor we want to go.’

Mel listened, horror-struck. ‘So we could be stuck in here going up and down for hours?’

Pex nodded.

‘And we could end up facing that dreadful Cleaner thing again – or something worse?’

Pex nodded again. ‘Now do you see why I don’t like travelling in lifts?’

Mel had to acknowledge that she did see why. And she had thought they were doing so well in their trek to the 304th floor.