Doctor Who_ Battlefield - Marc Platt [51]
The Brigadier, his face grave, took Husak’s arm and led him aside.
By the hotel’s front porch, Pat and Elizabeth Rowlinson were standing like lost war refugees with a suitcase and several bags.
Peter Warmsly still clutched Excalibur in his arms.
‘What’s going on?’ he said to the Doctor. ‘Surely they’re not turfing out Pat and Liz. They can come and stay with me.’
‘I don’t think so, Peter,’ said the Doctor. ‘They’re clearing the whole area. You may well find yourself going with them.’
‘Like hell I will.’ Peter strode off towards his friends with the sword still under his arm.
The Doctor sighed and plunged his hand deep into a pocket. He produced a rusty tin whistle. Putting it to his lips, he gave a hearty blast that no one in the immediate vicinity even acknowledged. But K9 would have heard, he thought proudly.
Major Husak, his face tightly emotionless, approached the Rowlinsons and indicated a small minibus across the parking area. ‘This way please, sir.’
Elizabeth stooped to pick up a bag and the Major bent in to help her.
‘No, thank you,’ she said curtly.
Husak stood back in astonishment as Elizabeth picked up the bag and walked towards the minibus.
Pat watched her go. There was a strong independence in her walk which made him want to cry, if only to weep with confusion. ‘I apologize, Major,’ he said curtly, his voice filled with barely concealed rage. You see, half an hour ago my wife was blind.’
Peter caught up with them as they reached the minibus.
‘They’re not going to evacuate me,’ he said. ‘Not so they can trample all over Trust land. I’ll...’
He suddenly noticed that Elizabeth was staring at him with a slow confused smile.
‘Peter?’ she said.
‘Liz? What’s the matter?’
She shook her head. ‘A woman touched my face and now I can see. She killed a girl and touched my face... and now I can see.’
‘In you get, love,’ said Pat and helped her up the step.
He turned to Peter and found the Doctor standing next to them.
Peter pushed Excalibur into the Doctor’s arms. ‘You’d better have this,’ he said angrily.
‘And I have a few questions I want answered,’ added Pat.
Peter continued, ‘I have absolutely no intention of being evacuated! Here is where I live.’
‘You’re angry,’ said the Doctor, catching at the depths of Pat’s eyes. ‘And you want to leave,’ he went on, turning his glance on Peter.
‘No, we do not want to leave!’ protested the archaeologist.
The Doctor looked straight ahead between his assailants. His voice became at once gravelly, compelling and persuasively subdued. ‘Of course you want to leave.’
He turned towards Pat and fixed the agreement with his eyes. All rancour drained from the landlord’s mind.
‘Of course we want to leave,’ he intoned gently. He could not imagine why he had thought otherwise.
‘I wouldn’t stand for any nonsense if I were you,’ the Doctor warned Peter.
‘Look, Doctor,’ he complained as he took in the compulsion of the grey, blue, brown, whatever they were, eyes. ‘The situation is perfectly simple. We are very angry.
And we want...’ For a second he wondered what on earth he was talking about.
Of course, the eyes were reminding him...
‘... we want to leave. Is that right, Pat?’
‘Don’t get in our way,’ said Pat.
‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ said the Doctor politely.
Peter faltered for a moment. He looked confusedly at the Doctor. ‘I can’t leave without Cerberus,’ he said.
‘Is that all?’ The Doctor set the whistle to his lips and blew hard again.
There was a distant bark and the huge wolfhound dashed across the lawn and nuzzled eagerly against its delighted master.
‘You monster! How did you get out?’ cried Peter indulgently.
‘Off you go then,’ said the Doctor to the hound and bundled the evacuees into the minibus.
The Brigadier had been watching with the astonished Major.
Husak pointed to his clipboard. ‘At the risk of being totally baffled sir, I have one more evacuee on my list. A young Chinese girl. Her parents are waiting in the village.’
The Doctor glanced at Peter Warmsly’s abandoned car and then around the car park. He looked the Czech officer in the