Doctor Who_ Daemons - Barry Letts [37]
The Doctor pulled up. 'Something must have happened,' he said. 'Benton and Yates were supposed to stay in Devil's End...'
'Well, we'll soon know,' said Jo, 'he's coming in to land.'
But he wasn't. He came down so low that if the Doctor and Jo hadn't ducked, he'd have taken their heads off. Then he swept up in a tight turn, obviously to come in again.
The Doctor started off. 'Who's driving that thing?'
'Well, it certainly isn't Mike. Look, there he is,' and she pointed at Mike on the motor-bike, taking a short cut across the moorland.
The helicopter had positioned itself for another descent. Now it started to swing down towards Bessie once more. 'Hold on, Jo,' shouted the Doctor, 'were in for a bumpy ride.'
As the helicopter plummeted down on an inevitable collision course, the Doctor pulled on the wheel and swung off onto the grass, bumping and rattling across the moor.
Mike Yates roared up alongside. 'He's handling it like expert!' he yelled to the Doctor, as the bike ran on a parallel course.
'Like a man possessed, you mean,' countered the Doctor.
'I'll try to draw him off.'
'No, Mike, stay back. He's after me, not you.'
But Mike swerved away from Bessie, pulling out his automatic. Controlling his bike with one hand he started to take highly inaccurate pot-shots at the helicopter as it started its third attack. At first it looked as if the firing might have frightened the helicopter off, but after a few moments it came again—and again—and again...
'What's he trying to do?' screamed Jo, as the car swerved violently to the left and right, with the helicopter relentlessly in pursuit.
'He's trying to drive us into the heat barrier,' shouted the Doctor. 'There it is, dead ahead!'
Jo could see, very clearly, the strip of blackened turf crossing the downs which obviously marked the position of the barrier.
Now the Doctor stopped zig-zagging and was apparently bent on blowing Bessie up, for he was driving straight for the barrier, the helicopter close behind.
'Doctor!'
'Hang on, Jo. Hang on!'
At the last possible moment the Doctor flicked the wheel to the right. Bessie went over on two wheels with a violent lurch, recovered, and ran neatly parallel to the burnt track of the barrier. The helicopter desperately tried to follow, but in vain. Meeting the barrier at about fifty feet, it exploded in a ball of flame.
'We've done it,' Jo shouted the Doctor pulling up the car. But Jo was no longer in the passenger seat. That last swerve had been too violent. Jo had been thrown out.
The Doctor reached her at just the same moment as Mike Yates on his bike. She was quite unconscious. The Doctor quickly examined her. If only she had put on her seat-belt!
'Is she all right?' asked Mike anxiously.
'Nasty knock on the head, but that seems to be all. She should be all right,' answered the Doctor. 'Better get her into Bessie and take her back to the pub. She'll need rest and quiet for a bit.'
'Okay,' said Mike. 'How about you?'
'I'd better get across to the Brigadier. He's probably about to burst a blood vessel.' He nodded towards the UNIT vehicles which were visible on the other side of the barrier, about a hundred and fifty yards to the north-east.
As he helped Mike to lift Jo gently into the back of the car, the Doctor said, 'Look, Mike, you and the Sergeant had better stay at the pub. I'm going to need you when I get back.'
'Righto.' said Mike.
Haring seen them safely on their way, the Doctor climbed on the motor-cycle and set off, bumpety-bump, towards the Mobile H.Q.
'Well, Doctor,' said the Brigadier as he arrived, 'twenty thousand pounds of UNIT money gone up in a puff of greasy smoke.'
'You have the mind of an accountant, Lethbridge Stewart,' said the Doctor as he dismounted. 'So, this is your heat barrier, eh?'
'It is,' replied the Brigadier. 'And if you get any nearer, you'll know it. Watch this!' He picked up a large stone