| When Betty's outgoing message ended, a familiar female voice came over
the speaker: "Yes, hello, this is Inquirer. I don't know whether..."
The Doctor yanked the receiver up to his ear. "Hello? Inquirer?"
"Doctor! How about that, you're actually there! It seemed like a bit
of a long shot, but Betty's house was the only logical rendezvous point
I could think of."
The Doctor found himself rather impressed with her quick thinking. "Where
are you now?" he asked.
"I'm at a payphone in the library on New Mexico Tech campus, apparently."
She chuckled. "People have been looking rather strangely at my clothes,
but they all seem to have assumed I belong to the Society for Creative
Anachronism. Anyway, presumably the others have also arrived scattered
around the town. Unless they're with you?"
"No, I'm here with..." He looked at the young woman fidgiting by his
elbow. "With Betty's charming sister." She smiled.
"You mean Ragan?"
"No, her real sister. She's the one who let me in."
"Oh. Well, we obviously need to find the others and get out to the VLA.
I don't suppose you could come and pick me up? Have you got the TARDIS?"
"Yes, but I'm not sure I want to use it. A crosstown hop is short enough
to be extremely tricky. I did notice a car in the driveway." He looked
over at Betty's sister (whose name, he realized, he still hadn't caught).
"Perhaps I could arrange to borrow..."
"Oh, that's my rental car!" the excitable young woman broke in. "Sure,
you can use it! I've got the key right... Right around here somewhere..."
The Doctor smiled. "I'll be there shortly," he told Inquirer.
-
 Meanwhile,
elsewhere in Socorro...
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