Doctor Who: The Sands of Time by Richards Justin

Author:Richards, Justin [Richards, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Post-1930
Publisher: manybooks.net

Chapter Nine

The first thing that Atkins noticed was the noise. The second was how clean and clear the air was. He walked along the Embankment in something of a daze. It was the world he knew, and yet it was not. The trees had grown tall and strong; the buildings he recognized in the distance, like the Palace of Westminster were gleaming clean as if encased in limestone. Only Cleopatra's Needle and its attendant sphinxes stood unchanged from the last time he had walked this route. They walked by the front of the Savoy, which the Doctor remarked was now the back, and they passed the warehouse which in 1896 had been the Necropolis Funeral Company. Atkins watched in amazement as boats sped past on the river, and gaped openly as horseless carriages noisily crossed the bridges over the Thames. The Doctor did his best to explain everything, and Tegan smiled and laughed.

When they reached Kenilworth House, the feeling of upheaval remained. He had hoped that the familiar architecture, set apart from the rest of the disjoint city would offer a still point of continuity in the turned world.

It did not.

They made their way round to the busy road at the front of the house, and found the driveway gates open. The jackals watched them with stony eyes, their upright ears chipped and their claws blunted by the elements. The wall bulged outwards where a tree was growing into it. The trunk was forcing its way through the brickwork in a way the architects and landscapers had neither intended nor anticipated. The house at the top of the drive, rising out of the ground like some huge ancient structure, was recognizable. Just.

The roof had been entirely replaced, the new one rising higher with a dormer window suggesting the addition of attic rooms. The ground floor had been extended outwards from the original house, the porch stretching the width of the frontage, and an annex added to the side. The upstairs bay windows had been replaced with more streamlined double-glazing, so that with the extensions at ground level, the whole house seemed to taper inwards from the base.

'That's the trouble with Time,' the Doctor said catching sight of Atkins' expression.

'What is, Doctor?'

'Things are never the same again.'

'Well, I think it's a definite improvement,' Tegan said. She led the way up the drive, feet crunching on the gravel.

Across the street from Kenilworth House, a blue Ford Mondeo stood shadowed by a beech tree. The car was in every way average, an unremarkable model in a standard colour scheme. The owner had selected the car for these very reasons.

He watched the Doctor, Tegan and Atkins make their way up the drive, then checked his timepiece.

'Right on time, Doctor. As always.'

He smiled, and returned the hourglass to his jacket pocket. The upper bowl was almost empty of sand. Then Sadan Rassul started the engine, checked his wing mirror and pulled out into the traffic.

Aubrey Prior was alone in the library when he heard the doorbell.

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