Doctor Who: Shada by Douglas Adams, Gareth Roberts, Douglas Roberts Read Free Book Online Page B

– very, very old – I thought that perhaps…’ He let his sentence trail off suggestively and finally looked up over his half-moons at the Doctor, shamefaced.
    ‘That perhaps I’d take it back to Gallifrey for you,’ said the Doctor.
    ‘Well,’ said the Professor, ‘now that I’m retired I’m not allowed to have a TARDIS.’
    He turned his sad old eyes to Romana. She couldn’t help but be moved. He seemed such a nice old man.
    The Doctor looked less forgiving. ‘Professor, I don’t want to be critical. But I will be. It’s very risky, bringing a book back from Gallifrey. It could be terribly dangerous in the wrong hands!’

Chapter 11
     
    CHRIS PARSONS TURNED the book over in his hands. He’d summoned the courage to pick it up again but he couldn’t banish the feeling that it was in some way terribly dangerous. His duty was obviously to alert the highest authority of his college straight away, the head of the Faculty, Professor Armitage.
    So he put down the book, picked up the phone, and called Clare.
    Firstly, and least importantly, Clare wouldn’t kick up a fuss about the smouldering spectrograph. She might even think it was funny, though sometimes he didn’t understand her sense of humour. Why she had nicknamed that skeleton she was examining ‘bony Emm’ and why she found that so hilarious and expected him to fall about too, he had no idea.
    Secondly, and more importantly, the book was impressive. Much more impressive than the books he’d actually meant to borrow from old Chronotis, which now sat abandoned on a table top, in their disappointingly papery ordinariness.
    As the call connected and Chris listened anxiously to the ring-ring, he was not aware that there was a third and even more important reason. He had found something exciting and wonderful, and there was nobody else on Earth that he would rather share it with than Clare Keightley.
    She answered. ‘Hello?’ She sounded busy, as if he’d disturbed her in the middle of something.
    Chris was flustered, as he always was when they first made contact, and then for most of the time they subsequently spent together. ‘Keightley, it’s me,’ he said. As there were so few women in the faculty, Chris had decided that to make them feel welcome and not different in any way, he would address them by their surnames just as he would with any other friend or colleague. He was sure they appreciated it.
    ‘Hello, Parsons,’ she said. ‘I’m busy, what is it?’
    ‘Right,’ said Chris, ‘stop being busy because this is very important.’
    ‘I’m packing,’ said Clare. ‘I leave on Monday. So get to the point.’
    ‘If you want to see the world of science turned on its head,’ said Chris impressively, ‘come to my lab!’
    ‘Your lab? You mean the faculty’s lab that you sometimes use?’
    ‘Yes, that’s what I said, my lab,’ said Chris.
    ‘Look, give me two hours, OK?’ said Clare. ‘I’ve got a lot to sort out.’
    ‘No, not in two hours, now!’ insisted Chris. ‘I need you here!’
    There was a pause. ‘All right then,’ said Clare, in a different tone that Chris hadn’t heard before. ‘I’ll come over now. But this had better be worth it.’
    Chris glanced at the book. ‘Trust me, it is – the most amazing, incredible thing—’
    ‘Sooner you shut up, sooner I’ll be there. Bye,’ said Clare and hung up.
     
    Clare replaced the receiver and looked around her small flat. Neatly propped against one wall were a stack of collapsible cardboard boxes and a huge roll of parcel tape, ready to receive all her worldly goods and transport them across the world to her new life. They had been sat there now for a week. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to make a start.
    She’d been hoping for a particular call that would mean she’d never have to leave. She wondered, despite all the weirdness, had that been it? Was she finally going to hear what she’d been waiting so long for?
    She grabbed her coat and was out the