Doctor Who_ Battlefield - Marc Platt [50]
There was one lurch as Ancelyn struggled to drive at right angles a machine he had never seen before. Then he steadied and took its measure.
This guy is no idiot, thought Bambera.
She saw a flash of metal in the trees. Three men-at-arms burst from cover and started tiring.
Bambera reckoned that Ancelyn’s unfamiliarity with any vehicle at all, actually helped as they swerved along the road like a dodgem car. Or was it deliberate?
She returned fire in short deliberate bursts.
Sparks flew. The steady pap-pap of the men-at-arms’
guns was no match for Bambera’s fast delivery. The soldiers fell back into the woods.
‘Foot down!’ yelled Bambera and the little car tore past their bewildered enemies. The Brigadier threw back her head and let the wind tear at her.
‘Magnificent!’ shouted the Knight Commander as she passed. He watched her go as he relayed orders to the ambush that lay ahead.
‘I still can’t see them,’ Ace called down to the Doctor.
The Range Rover was parked on the grass verge with Ace perching on its roof. She was surveying the road behind them with heavy duty binoculars.
‘What about the bad guys?’ called Shou Yuing.
‘Them neither.’
Lethbridge-Stewart stubbed at the buttons on his radio and got no response. ‘What’s Bambera playing at?’ he muttered.
‘I don’t like this at all,’ said the Doctor.
The Brigadier straightened up. ‘Don’t worry, Doctor, Bambera is a highly competent and experienced officer. I gather the war correspondents book their flights for wherever she’s going.’
‘Oh, very reassuring, Brigadier.’
‘She’ll make it through.’
The Doctor grimaced as if he had a mouthful of something particularly unpleasant. ‘War is a destroyer. It makes mockery of competence and experience.’
He tapped the Brigadier’s radio and it crackled into life.
‘This is Seabird. Piece of cake, Greyhound One. Will be with you shortly. Over.’
‘Much relieved to hear it, Seabird. Over and out.’ The Brigadier allowed himself the smallest ration of smugness with his smile.
‘Professor.’ Ace’s voice came urgently from the roof.
‘There’s a whole pile of tinheads setting up on the road back there.’
The Doctor strained to see in the distance. He grappled for Lethbridge-Stewart’s radio. ‘Brigadier, tell Bambera she’s in trouble.’
Winifred Bambera sat back behind the steering wheel and grinned. ‘So tell me, Ancelyn. Are you married or what?’
‘My lady is very forward!’ he laughed. He turned in his seat to study her with his knowing blue eyes.
She spun a corner and saw rows of armoured soldiers blocking the road.
With a yell, she wrenched the wheel round. The car skidded towards a ditch. The men-at-arms opened fire in a blaze of flame.
A giant ball of flame rose above the woods. A moment later they heard the blast. Shou Yuing turned and buried her head in Peter Warmsly’s anorak. He held her gently.
The Doctor stared grimly along the road at the distant billowing smoke.
Ace made to get back into the Range Rover. ‘We’ve got to help them!’ she shouted.
The Brigadier pocketed his radio. He showed no emotion. ‘There’s nothing we can do. The area’s swarming with Morgaine’s troops.’
She saw the Doctor trying to avoid her stare.
‘Doctor?’
Her mentor shook his head.
‘We’d better get back to the hotel,’ said the Brigadier quietly. He turned and saw the look of unconcealed hatred on Ace’s face.
Chapter 5
The rest of the journey back to the Gore Crow was completed in explosive silence.
The hotel drive was a mass of military vehicles. Soldiers were unloading weaponry and ammunition. Military hardware was being serviced. It reminded Ace of the activity she had seen around Coal Hill School in 1963. But here the weapons were sleeker and more nastily fascinating.
Major Husak, a heavy-featured Czech, came to meet them. He looked flustered and carried a clipboard. ‘I’m glad to see you got through, sir,’ he said as he saluted. ‘Just a couple more names and I can get the evacuation completed.