Walk The Earth: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 2]

Run For Your Life

Run For Your Life

(The Sound of Drums: Part 2)

"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!" -The Doctor

"But he's got the TARDIS," Jack pointed out. "Maybe the Master went back in time and has been living here for decades."

"No," the Doctor said flatly.

"Why not? Worked for me."

"When he was stealing the TARDIS, the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates," the Time Lord explained. "I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year 100 trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed. Which is right here, right now."

"Yeah, but a little leeway?" Jack said.

"Well... eighteen months? Tops. The most he could have been here is eighteen months. So how has he managed all this? The Master was always sort of... hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale."

"I liked him," Mallory said. The two looked at her sharply. "Well, Saxon. Heard him on the news a couple times."

"Me too," Jack said.

"Why do you say that?" the Doctor asked. "What was his policy? What did he stand for?"

"I dunno. He just sounded good." She tapped her fingers on the box she was sitting on, the same rhythm of four he'd noticed earlier. "Like you could trust him. He was just... nice, I guess."

"What's that?"

"What?" she asked, startled.

"That! That tapping, that rhythm! What are you doing?"

"I dunno! It's nothing, just keeping my hands busy," she replied, looking at him sharply.

After a moment, Jack passed her buzzing phone over. "That your boyfriend?"

Her heart leapt in her chest and she hurriedly pressed it to her ear. "Matt?"

"Mal." She heard his voice crack on just the one word. "I thought you..." He paused and drew in a breath. "What's going on? Are you all right?"

"Not for long," she told him. "Look, it's a really, really long story and I don't have time to tell you but there's another Time Lord, here on Earth. His name's the Master, he's Prime Minister of Great Britain—"

On the other end of the line, Matt drew in a sharp breath and Jason glanced sideways at him while Adam furrowed his brows. It was worse than he thought. So, so much worse.

"Saxon?" he finally managed."Saxon's a Time Lord?" The Master. All too familiar words rang through his mind.

"Out you come, little girl, come and meet your Master."

"But you said—" Jason started.

Matt shook his head sharply, muting his end of the conversation for a moment. "She can't know," he said.

"Jason, is that you?" Mallory asked.

"Yeah," Jason said, raising his voice a little. "Adam's here too. Matt told us everything."

"Hello," Adam put in.

Mallory made a soft choking sound before the Doctor's voice came through. "What are you doing? You're in enough danger already without dragging them into it!"

"Didn't have much choice!" Matt shot back.

"Look, Doctor whatever your name is," Jason said. "I don't know you but Matt and Mal are some of my closest friends and they trust you. And if this is as bad as you're making it out to be you're going to need all the help you can get."