Doctor Who: Paradise Towers by Stephen Wyatt Read Free Book Online

understand.
    ‘Of course, I will,’ she assured them. ‘And thank you for everything.’
    And she stepped through the hole in the front door Pex had created, feeling oddly rather relieved to be away from these kind old ladies. However, she was not to feel relieved and alone for very long. As they came to wave goodbye to Mel, the Rezzies very firmly ordered Pex from their flat. And now as she made her way back down the street, Mel became aware that she was being followed.
    ‘Just a moment,’ Pex was calling.
    Mel turned to face him, liking him no more than before.
    ‘What is it now?’
    ‘You are going on a difficult journey,’ he announced smugly, striking another pose designed to show off his muscular development. ‘You need me to protect you.’
    ‘I most certainly do not.’
    ‘But that’s my job. I am Pex. I put the world of Paradise Towers to rights.’
    Pex’s conceit seemed to be immeasurable and Mel found herself especially annoyed by the assumption that she wasn’t able to manage on her own without this lumbering male tagging along. She said as much and, again, Pex started to wilt under her indignation. It was only when she caught a glimpse of this vulnerability that she found she could like him a little more.
    Perhaps sensing this, Pex tried again to persuade her to take him along. There was something almost plaintive in his tone now and Mel began to realise that in some odd way it was very important to him that she accepted him.
    ‘If you don’t need a protector then you might need a guide.
    Somebody who knows their way about.’
    He had a point. Paradise Towers was a vast baffling building and Mel hadn’t begun to work out how it was planned. ‘All right,’ she agreed, ‘you’ve got the job.’
    She walked off down the street and Pex, happier now she had accepted him, followed on just behind. It was true that a guide would be helpful in tracing the Doctor and that Pex must know the ill-lit and confusing streets a lot better than she did. All the same, Mel couldn’t help wondering whether she might live to regret letting this self-appointed protector tag along.
     
    4

The Chief
    Somehow the Chief Caretaker had the feeling that all was not exactly as it should be. And for somebody as methodical in his ways as the Chief Caretaker it was not a very comfortable feeling to have.
    Normally it gave him a nice, snug glow of satisfaction to sit there in his Headquarters surrounded by screens that told him what was going on in every single corner of Paradise Towers.
    Everything ran according to the rules in the rule book and none of the Caretakers ever questioned anything. Not even who had first invented all the rules in the rule book. The only thorn in his flesh was the Wallscrawlers and, though they were sometimes a nuisance, he could usually keep them in order with the odd surprise raid like the one he had ordered that morning on Fountain of Happiness Square. All in all, life in Paradise Towers seemed to run on the well-oiled lines that he had laid down for it and all was well with the world.
    Not, of course, that even a Chief Caretaker didn’t need a spot of relaxation. For that he had adopted a pet in the Basement of the Towers whom he visited now and then. The Chief Caretaker couldn’t really remember quite how contact had first been made but now he spent a great deal of his waking life thinking about how best to serve his pet. Pets often have good appetites and this particular pet had a mountainous appetite which the Chief Caretaker did his best to satisfy. After all, like any proud owner, he wanted his pet to grow up big and strong.
    A particularly satisfying part of the morning had been spent in despatching to the Basement in a Robotic Self-activating Megapodic Mark 7Z Cleaner the remains of the now defunct Caretaker number 345 stroke 12 subsection 3. The Chief had watched the Cleaner carrying its load on one of his screens and thought what a tasty little snack Caretaker number 345 stroke