Doctor Who_ Battlefield - Marc Platt [48]
A scout group had reached the ground overlooking the lake. They relayed enhanced images of activity among the soldiers on the bank.
As was honourable before combat, the commander considered a challenge, but the Queen had herself presented such a credence to Merlin the previous night.
Swords had been crossed, gauntlets exchanged. War had been declared.
Amongst the distant figures illuminated across his visor-relay. he recognised the errant traitor Ancelyn ap Gwalchmai: a Knight General deserter already stripped of his office, skulking amongst the enemy.
The commander vowed that his sword would answer this treachery with Ancelyn’s blood.
There was movement beside the lake. An ugly beetle-shaped carriage was scuttling away from the encampment.
The commander called his men-at-arms into readiness and set them to spring the trap.
‘See you at the hotel,’ shouted the Doctor.
Winifred Bambera watched Peter Warmsly’s packed car setting off along the road. Warmsly was in the back seat with the two young women. Lethbridge-Stewart was driving with the Doctor firmly ensconced in the passenger seat.
Since Lethbridge-Stewart had decided that all civilians should be cleared from the exclusion zone, it became increasingly apparent to Bambera that this exercise was not going to be a shared command. But when she looked from the old Brigadier to the Doctor, she could not decide which one was really in charge.
‘They could have waited,’ she muttered in her annoyance, half to Ancelyn, more than half to herself. She had favoured a convoy party with Major Husak to bring up the rear. One solid bolt through whatever was lurking in the woods.
Husak had been sent on ahead with more instructions from Lethbridge-Stewart.
Bambera shouldered her automatic rifle with resignation. ‘Come on, Ancelyn. Looks like we get the deckchair.’
She climbed into the driving seat of Shou Yuing’s 2CV
and opened the other door for the knight.
‘Let’s hope there’s enough methane in this old crock,’
she said, as she searched for the keys.
They were not in the lock. ‘Oh, shame!’
She heard jingling beside her and saw Ancelyn holding up a set of car keys for her.
‘Do you seek these?’ he said merrily. ‘The Brigadier bid me give them to you.’
‘I’m a brigadier too,’ she said and took the keys.
He sighed to himself. ‘These Old Times are not easily endured.’
‘What?’ said Bambera.
‘Old legends that return to find us. I have Merlin and Arthur. You have your Lethbridge-Stewart.’
‘Do you think we live up to their expectations?’ she said.
He grinned. ‘Do they live up to ours?’
She smiled back at him. ‘At least mine isn’t family!’
The old crock started first time and purred smoothly away from the lake.
‘Winifred isn’t following,’ said Ace from the back seat.
‘Good Lord, is that her name?’ said Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
There was a cold silence, which the Doctor took to mean: I wasn’t talking to you!
Peter Warmsly sat silently, clutching the sword Excalibur in his hands, still dreading the moment when he might eventually wake up and find that all this was true.
‘We may run into trouble,’ said the Doctor cheerfully.
‘Really, Doctor?’ said the Brigadier. ‘You surprise me.
At least it looks as though Husak got through all right.’
‘Brigadier Bambera’ll be along in a moment,’ the Doctor added. ‘Probably just having another tiff with Ancelyn.’
‘A tiff?’ asked Shou Yuing. ‘What, you mean like...?’
‘Not while they’re on duty,’ interrupted the Doctor.
‘Besides which, he’s a perfick gentil knight.’
Ace shook her head. ‘Winifred and Ivanhoe. Struth!’
They drove on for another minute and were just passing the parked TARDIS when the Doctor said, ‘There’s something wrong.’
‘What?’ they chorused.
‘We haven’t been attacked yet.’
Something exploded directly in front of the Range Rover.
Earth showered down on the windscreen as the Brigadier swerved violently through the smoke. The car mounted the verge and missed the fresh crater in the road by half a metre.
The Brigadier pressed hard on the accelerator.
‘Everyone down!’ he ordered