Chapter Five
They met in Trafalgar Square.
'There was a VE Day party here,' Rory told
the Doctor and Amy as he sat down beside
them. He was still thinking of the two old
ladies, Mrs Collins and Mrs Hooper.
The Doctor nodded. 'Eighth of May, 1945.
Thousands gathered here. Churchill made a
speech and they played it over loudspeakers.'
'Good old Winston,' said Amy. 'What?' she
cried as Rory gave her a look. 'I can namedrop
too! It's not just the Doctor who's been
everywhere and met everyone.'
'I wasn't at the VE Day party,' the Doctor
pointed out. 'I just heard about it from other
people.' He sighed. 'One happy day. One great
big happy day for them all. Then real life got
them again. Japan was still fighting the war.
Everyone had lost loved ones. Homes had been
bombed. There were no bananas.'
'They were there,' said Rory. 'Those two old
ladies. They were at the Trafalgar Square party
on VE Day. Strange to think of it, really. More
than sixty-five years ago. They'd just have been
teenagers, and they were dancing right here.
Maybe on this very spot.' He smiled. 'Poor old
dears. I couldn't really follow what they were
saying. I tell you what was weird, though. They
were called Kylie and Amber. You don't think
of old people being called Kylie or Amber, do
you?'
'Hang on,' said Amy, looking shocked.
'Doctor...'
The Doctor stiffened. For a moment he didn't
say a word, then started leafing through the pile
of posters beside him. He picked out the one he
had shown Amy earlier, and another of a blonde
girl. He held them up so Rory could see them.
MISSING: KYLIE DUNCAN. MISSING:
AMBER REYNOLDS.
Rory frowned. He took the poster of Amber
Reynolds and stared at it. 'I don't understand...'
'That's because you missed the end of the
show,' said Amy. 'We've got a lot to tell you.
Sammy Star is using a Weeping Angel in his
act. It's sending girls back into the past.'
'I think you've just found out where in the
past they're ending up,' the Doctor told Rory.
'One minute they're in a West End theatre in the
twenty-first century...'
'... and the next they're in 1945. At a party in
Trafalgar Square,' finished Rory. 'Oh no.' He
jumped up. 'We've got to go and rescue them!
We know where they are and when they are, so
we can go in the TARDIS!'
The Doctor shook his head. 'We also know
they stay there, in that time. They grow old.'
'We could get them back to their own time!'
Rory cried.
'They get back to their own time,' said the
Doctor. 'They just take the long route. It takes
them about sixty-seven years.' He shook his
head again. 'I'm sorry, Rory. We can't change
that.' He stood up. 'But we can make sure it
doesn't happen to anyone else. Come on, Ponds,
we're going back to the theatre. We've got less
than twenty-four hours to stop Sammy Star.'
The sign above the theatre was still lit up. The
words Sammy Star's Magic Show! shone out.
'The city never sleeps!' the Doctor said. He
rattled the theatre doors. They were locked. 'It
seems the people who work here do sleep,
though. Never mind.' He pulled the sonic
screwdriver out of his pocket. 'I have a key.'
The foyer looked haunted in the gloom, more
haunted than the stage graveyard. They crept
across it in silence and went through a door
marked NO ENTRANCE.
'I know the way,' the Doctor whispered. 'I
went for a snoop around during the interval. I
had a feeling something was wrong. My
seventh sense.'
'Don't you mean sixth sense?' asked Rory.
'No,' said the Doctor. 'I already have six wellused
senses. This was my just as well-used but
often ignored Finding Evil sense. Of course all
my senses are finely honed - ooof.'
He broke off as he walked straight into a
large security guard.
'What are you doing here?' growled the
guard.
The Doctor fumbled in his pocket and
brought out his psychic paper. 'I've come to
inspect the magic,' he said, holding out the open
wallet. The guard peered at the blank paper,
seeing only what the Doctor wanted him to see.
'Says here you're with the Magic Oval,' he
said.
'Ah yes,' said the Doctor as he brushed
himself down. 'It's like the Magic Circle, only...
stretched. We inspect tricks at night so no one
else finds out how they're done. If you could
just escort us to Sammy Star's prop store, we'll
get on with our checks.'
He made to walk past the guard, but the burly
man put out an arm to stop him. 'Does Mr Star
know about this? He never said you were
coming.'
The Doctor tutted. 'Well, of course he doesn't
know. It wouldn't be a random secret magic
check at night if he knew about it. You've heard
of secret shoppers? They buy things in shops
and then report back on the service.'
The guard nodded his head.
'Well, we're secret magic-checkers. We check
the tricks then report back to the Magic Oval.'
Amy held her breath. For a moment it looked
like the guard might let them through.
'Well...' he said. Then he paused. 'Hey,
haven't I seen you before?'
The Doctor looked puzzled. 'I don't think so.
I've just got one of those faces.'
'Yes I have!' The man frowned. 'I threw you
out of here an hour ago. I noticed your plastic
bowler hat at the time.'
'Lots of people wear these!' the Doctor said.
'They're cool.'
'No they don't,' muttered Amy under her
breath. 'And no they're not.'
'Yeah, but I also noticed your funny T-shirt
and that you had a red-headed girl with you,'
said the man. 'Come on, you're not fooling me.
You're trying to nick something so you can
cheat in the contest tomorrow. Well, you're out
of luck. Out you go!'
'And stay out!' the Doctor yelled as he landed
on the pavement for the second time that
evening.
'I already have "theatre" on my list of places
we've been thrown out of,' Amy complained.
'We could at least have found somewhere new.'
'Well, look on the bright side,' said the
Doctor. 'At least we were thrown out before we
got to the guard dogs. They looked fierce.'
Amy blinked. 'There were guard dogs?'
'Just a couple. I saw them when I was
scouting around during the interval. Oh, and a
lot of padlocks. Sammy Star really doesn't want
people going through his props.'
'So what do we do now?' asked Rory.
The Doctor didn't answer at once. He looked
deep in thought. 'We've got to find a way of
getting into the prop store,' he said after a
moment.
The others nodded.
'We need to do it before the next show. The
Angel mustn't get any more girls.'
They nodded again.
'Did anyone else hear that guard mention a
contest?'
Amy and Rory nodded again. 'I don't know
what he was talking about, though,' said Amy.
The Doctor jumped up. 'One way to find out!'
He went back over to the theatre. The guard
could still be seen in the foyer, his shadow on
the window. The Doctor found a letterbox in the
main door, and knelt down to it. 'Excuse me!'
he called through the letterbox. 'What contest
were you talking about just then?'
A few seconds later a flyer plopped out onto
the pavement from the other side of the
letterbox. The Doctor picked it up. 'Thank you!'
he called.
He rejoined Amy and Rory. 'Aha!' he said.
'What do you think about this, then?'
Amy took the flyer from him and read it.
'Have you got what it takes? If you think
you're as good as Sammy Star, come to the
Britain's Got Magic try-outs. Show your tricks
to TV judges Austin Hart, Daisy Mead and Bill
Evans. With special guest judge, Sammy Star.'
'So?' said Rory. 'It's a thing for daft people
who want to get on telly.'
'Yes,' agreed the Doctor. 'The thing is,
though, the try-outs are tomorrow, and they're
at this theatre.'
'Right!' Amy got it. 'You mean you're going
to enter?'
'Not quite,' said the Doctor. 'I mean, we're
going to enter. Just call us daft people who want
to get on telly. We're just going to rescue a few
damsels in distress at the same time.'