TTR / Storytime! Macbeth

Interlude 1

Izzy was torn between pride in the efficiency of her escape, and annoyance at the knowledge that she was good at this sort of thing precisely because she kept having to do it.

It had taken her less than five minutes to escape from the empty warehouse in which she'd been deposited. Once she'd got out of the locked lavatory cubicle by climbing over the partition, the rest had been plain sailing — ascend to the roof (which for some reason had been laid out as an elaborate bonsai garden), find a fire escape, climb down it, get her bearings, and head for Look Who's Talking.

She had a shrewd idea who was behind this, too. The last people to succeed at an Izzy-kidnapping operation had been Jamie and Zoë, and the smoothness with which she'd been abducted this time suggested that this wasn't the work of raw novices.

She rounded a corner and the nursery was before her, its three Dalek guardians standing placidly outside.

"What's the situation?" she asked as she hurried up.

If the leading Dalek had had shoulders, it would have shrugged them. It did the Dalek equivalent, a sort of waggle of the eyestalk.

"SITUATION. GREEN." it said.

"Right." Izzy rolled up her sleeves. "I'm going in. Stand by in case I need support."

"HAVE A NICE. DAY."

She burst into the nursery...

... Except it was a bowling alley. A beaming, chubby, red-faced man with a checked jacket and a lopsided moustache looked up from behind his desk.

"I don't think I've seen you here before," he said. "Are you a member?"

"What the..." Izzy turned back and looked at the door through which she'd entered. The mist made things difficult, but it looked as if there was a flight of steps outside, which she certainly hadn't climbed.

"Excuse me a moment," she said, and walked out. Her eyes hadn't deceived her; she was standing at the top of a short flight of steps, at the foot of which was a cobbled street. Buildings of varied ages and shapes, painted in pastel colours, stretched away in both directions. There was no sign of the creche, or of the Daleks.

"Curiouser and curiouser." She went back inside. The man gave her an encouraging smile.

"This may sound like a stupid question," she said. "But this is Nameless, isn't it?"

"It certainly is, madam."

"So... do you know the way to This Time Round?"

"Go out of here, turn left, across the roundabout, turn right at the lights, keep going until you come to a shop called Carter's Imports..."

"Thanks," Izzy interrupted. "I know the way from there."

The man raised his eyebrows. "Oh, do you? I wouldn't have thought a nice young lady like you would be interested in that sort of thing. Trust me, that end of town is full of nothing but weirdoes."

A party of hermaphrodite hexapods in Goth makeup and wearing Aston Villa football shirts chose that moment to arrive, squeaking cheerful greetings to the man on the desk as they entered.

"Weirdoes," the man repeated complacently. "Good thing we don't get that sort round here."

"Thank you," Izzy said, and ran for it.

It was some time later that Izzy, fatigued and annoyed, arrived at the Round. She didn't even notice Michelle's cheery "Afternoon, Donna."

"One Lucozade," François said, placing the drink before her. "Rough day?"

"You could say that." Izzy took a gulp of the fizzy liquid. "That's better. You haven't seen Jamie or Zoë around?"

"Not seeing skirt-boy or zany girl all day," the Ogron replied. "Dead boy was saying dark-hair screaming girl looking for them as well."

Izzy took a moment to do a mental translation. So Victoria knew or suspected something too.

"She hasn't been back?"

The Ogron shook his head.

"Any ideas where she might be? Or Jamie or Zoë?"

François turned his palms upward.

"Zany girl sometimes selling flowers in shop," he said. "More than that, François not knowing."

After another long walk Izzy triumphantly pushed the door of the flower shop open, and descended on the young brunette behind the counter.

"Right," she said. "I want answers and I want them now."

"You don't mean asters?" the florist replied, puzzled.

"Stop mucking me around. I know you and Jamie are up to something, and I want to know what..." She trailed off as she read the florist's name badge. "Oh no. You're Zoot's identical twin sister Dingo, aren't you?"

Jenny shrugged. "Don't worry. I get this all the time. You're after Zoë, I take it."

"She does work here?"

"Oh yes, but this isn't one of her days."

"Back to square one." With a supreme effort, Izzy restrained herself from chucking a flowerpot through the window. "Do you know where I might find her?"

"She's got a place out on the industrial estate. You can't miss it."

Izzy set out once more, feeling rather as if she were being bounced about in a pinball machine.