Doctor Who_ World Game - Doctor Who_ World Game Part 33
Library

Doctor Who_ World Game Part 33

'Outside, you!' the guard growled then shot into the cell as someone gave him a hearty shove from behind. The Doctor tripped him and wrestled him to the ground, Talleyrand leaped into the cell and landed on top of him and they both struggled to pin him down.

It was Serena who grabbed the struggling guard by the ears and banged his head hard onto the stone-flagged floor of the cell.

'Non-violence can be carried too far, Doctor,' she said as the guard went limp.

They disentangled themselves and made for the door.

'Wait a moment,' said Talleyrand. He stripped off the guard's baggy tunic and pulled it on over his own coat, and grabbed the guard's rifle.

'Doctor, Lady Serena, please go in front. I'll be your escort.'

They hurried down the corridor, retracing the route by which they'd been brought in. When they got to the basement door through which they'd entered, there was a sentry on duty. As they hurried down the corridor towards him the guard said, 'Here, where you off to?'

'The prisoner is taking me to his hide-out,' said Talleyrand.

'Out of the way!'

The guard stood aside, then stared suspiciously at Talleyrand.

'Here, you're not ' He collapsed with a grunt as Talleyrand slammed the rifle butt into his forehead.

They fled into the night.

Thanks to the Doctor and Serena's Time Lord topographical sense a path once trodden is never forgotten they managed to retrace their steps through the ruined Paris without much difficulty. Once they had to hide from a marching patrol, and once skulking figures in the ruins seemed about to attack until a warning shot from Talleyrand's stolen rifle scattered them.

At last they reached the desolate stretch of rubble-strewn open space that had once been a park. Talleyrand stripped off the tunic and threw both it and the rifle away.

Serena produced her key, the door opened in the ruined statue, and they were back in the TARDIS.

The Doctor leaned panting against the console. 'I don't think I've ever been so glad to be back. Please, Serena, return us to the time and place where we picked up Prince Talleyrand.'

Once again the transition seemed incredibly short. The door opened and they came out into the peace and tranquillity of the Parc Montsouris. The place and the time were exactly the same as when they had left for the nightmarish future.

Talleyrand sank onto the stone bench and looked around him. He breathed in the warm summer air with its heavy scent of flowers, and stared almost unbelievingly at the untouched buildings all around the park.

'Well,' said the Doctor. 'You've seen the future and it doesn't work. Are you willing to help us change it?'

'That terrible world,' said Talleyrand. 'And that terrible woman! Yes, Doctor, I'll tell you anything I can.'

Sitting on the little park bench, he told them all he knew of the plot that had ended in the successful assassination of the Duke of Wellington.

Chapter Thirty.

Waterloo Ball

The Doctor and Serena sat at a pavement cafe table in the Grande Place in Brussels and watched the world go by. It was a pleasant sunny morning in June 1815 on the eve of Waterloo. The battle was still unfought, history still unchanged.

'This mission seems to involve a great deal of sitting in cafes,' said Serena.

'It's the Continental lifestyle,' said the Doctor. 'Think yourself lucky, we might have had to go to Moscow!'

Serena surveyed the bustling crowd in the huge square.

There were officers of many nations English, Dutch, Belgians and Prussians in gorgeously colourful uniforms: scarlet, blue, green, black. But the scarlet and gold of the English seemed to predominate. There were pretty young girls, flirting with the soldiers. There were family groups: parents, grandparents and children out for a morning stroll.

There were numbers of what obviously looked like tourists, strolling around in little groups, gaping at the baroque towers and turrets of the imposing buildings around the Grande Place. To Serena's surprise, most of them also seemed to be English.

She said as much to the Doctor. 'You'd never think we were on the brink of a major battle. Brussels seems more like a holiday resort for English tourists.'

'Well it's hardly surprising, is it? The English have been confined to their own little island by years of war, they're starved for foreign travel. When Napoleon abdicated in 1814 and went into exile on Elba, they all flocked abroad. Then he spoiled it all by escaping and staging a comeback.'

'And now he's bearing down on Brussels with a massive army.'

'That's right. Over seventy thousand troops cavalry, infantry and artillery.'

'This lot don't seem very worried about it.'

'Some were. Quite a few shot back to England when the news broke that Boney was back. But plenty of them stayed on.'

'What makes them so confident?'

'The Allies have got an even bigger army, over one hundred thousand men. English, Dutch, Belgians, Prussians...Above all, there's the Duke of Wellington Sir Arthur Wellesley that was.'

'Who's never fought Napoleon before.'

'Ah, but he beat six of Napoleon's marshals, in Portugal and Spain. Everybody trusts the Duke to see Boney off. The Duke's the most confident of all. In fact he's so confident he's going to a ball tonight. And so are we!'

'This is no time for frivolity, Doctor,' said Serena severely.

'Believe me, this is business,' said the Doctor. 'You remember what Talleyrand told us?'

'Precious little, as I recall.'

And indeed, considering what they had gone through to persuade him to tell it, Talleyrand's information had been disappointingly thin. He insisted that the Countess had given only shadowy hints of her plans. Only two things had lodged in his memory. The Countess had spoken of Wellington 'treading his last measure'. And she had finished by saying that, 'She who pays the piper calls the tune.'

'You remember I spent ages studying the TARDIS archives after we left Talleyrand?' the Doctor said. Well, I kept thinking about that "treading his last measure" bit. Then I saw that on the eve of the battle, the Duke attends the Duchess of Richmond's ball.'

'It still seems an extraordinary thing to do,' said Serena.

'Isn't anyone taking this battle seriously?'

'It makes a good deal of sense actually. Wellington's already given all his orders to his troops, there's nothing more he can do for the moment. Attending the ball will boost public confidence. And all his senior officers will be at the ball as well, close at hand if there's an emergency.'

'And why are we going?'

'Because the Countess has a taste for the dramatic. It'd be very like her to do something spectacular at the very last moment. And what could be more dramatic than killing the Duke in a crowded ballroom?'

'It would be easier to do it on the battlefield,' objected Serena.

'Yes, but much less fun. We must never forget that the Countess's main aim is to amuse herself. And think how it would demoralise the Allied troops ahead of the battle. Right, finish your coffee, Serena, we've a busy day ahead.'

'What are we going to do?'

'First of all, have lunch. There are some excellent restaurants in the Rue Boucher, close by. Then we're going shopping. If we're going to attend the most fashionable ball of the season we must look our best.'

The Doctor stood in the TARDIS control room, waiting for Serena. He was wearing black breeches, a black evening coat, a frilled white shirt and a white waistcoat. He looked, he thought, rather distinguished.

Serena entered wearing a white satin gown with silver-net drapery. She had been rather alarmed by its flimsiness, but the couturier had assured her it was the latest fashion.

She looked, thought the Doctor, absolutely stunning, and he told her so.

Serena blushed.

The Doctor headed for the door and then stopped suddenly. 'Botheration!'

'What's the matter?'

'Invitation!'

'What about it?'

'We haven't got one.'

'Can't we get one?'

'Not this late. Apparently they've been like gold dust in Brussels for weeks.'

'Aha!' said Serena. 'I think I can help.'

She opened a locker in the TARDIS console and rummaged inside, emerging with a piece of square white card, which she handed to the Doctor.

He looked at it. 'What's this?'

'Whatever you want it to be. Look hard at it and concentrate.' The Doctor stared hard at the blank white square and concentrated. The card seemed to blur before his eyes and suddenly he was holding a gold-edged, heavily embossed invitation card to the Duchess of Richmond's ball.

'Latest Agency technology,' said Serena. 'Psychic paper gets you in anywhere!'

'Splendid!' The Doctor tucked the square into his frock coat and they set off.

They emerged into yet another park, this time the Parc de Bruxelles. The Doctor reflected that parks seemed to be Serena's preferred TARDIS parking place. Or perhaps the new TARDIS itself preferred them.

They picked up a hansom cab in the Rue Royale.

'Rue de Blanchisserie, please driver,' said the Doctor and handed Serena into the cab.

'Rue de Blanchisserie means Laundry Street you know,'

said the Doctor. 'Apparently the Duke has christened the Duchess's mansion the Wash House! He's got a simple schoolboy sense of humour in some ways.'

In fact, of course, the Duchess of Richmond had hired a large and splendid house in the Rue de Blanchisserie and there was a long queue of carriages before the door.

When they finally reached the door, the Doctor handed his square of white card to the magnificently liveried footman, staring at it and concentrating hard. The footman blinked at the card, bowed and waved them through.

Neatly the Doctor twitched the card out of his white-gloved fingers. 'Think I'll hang on to that, actually. Souvenir!' He tucked the card back into his coat. A thing like that could come in useful some day.

The ballroom formed a whole wing of its own on the left of the hall. There were French windows on either side, open to the hot summer night. The scene was brilliantly lit with innumerable candles and there were banks of flowers everywhere, adding their heady scent to the night air. An orchestra played in an alcove at the far end.

The ball was well under way by the time they arrived, and it was packed with all the diplomatic and aristocratic celebrities of Brussels. There were many elegantly gowned beautiful women, but the blues and greens and lilacs of their muslin gowns were put in the shade by the gorgeous uniforms of the soldiers. There were dozens of generals, each with his own elegant aide-de-camp, smartly uniformed cavalry officers, officers from foreign regiments. There were blue uniforms and green ones and black ones, but the scarlet and gold of the English dominated the scene.

Serena herself created quite a sensation, but since nobody knew who she was, and nobody knew the Doctor either, nobody was able to ask for an introduction the necessary preliminary for asking her to dance. All around the ballroom hopeful young officers were searching for somebody who knew the new arrivals, but without success.

The Doctor and Serena accepted glasses of champagne from a passing footman and stood watching the colourful swirling throng.

'I don't think he's here yet,' said the Doctor. 'Lots of very important people here, but no Duke.'

'How can you tell who's important?'

'They're the ones with little entourages around them.'

Serena nodded. 'Who's that skinny young one in the fancy uniform? He seems to be holding court.'