Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [11]
The Doctor moved from door to door, testing them. ‘Under the circumstances,’ he said, ‘hardly likely. Remember all the shop doors we found open? Ah! ‘ He had found a little door let into the bigger doors of a garage—and it was unlocked! ‘Mind the step,’ he warned, and went through into the garage, tugging
Sarah after him. Inside, a little daylight filtered through a filthy window at the far end. The floor of the garage was thick with black oil. There were various machines for car repairs, and a well-equipped work bench. Clamped to the work bench was a vice.
‘Exactly what we need,’ said the Doctor. ‘Now all we want is a file.’ He looked along the tool shelf, found a foot-long file. ‘Let’s get your cuff open first.’
Sarah held her wrist so that part of the metal cuff encircling it was between the plates of the vice. The Doctor screwed up the vice, closing the plates in on to the metal cuff. Then he started to file through it.
‘Where did that monster come from?’ Sarah asked.
‘The Upper Cretaceous Period.’
‘I mean how did it come to be here in London today?’ she persisted.
‘Ah,’ he said, ‘a very good question.’
‘Don’t you know the answer?’
‘That isn’t such a good question,’ he said, working hard with the file. ‘How could I possibly know?’ He paused. ‘Am I hurting you?’
‘Not yet,’ she said. She could see that she might be hurt once the file neared her flesh.
He continued filing. ‘Since the only people we have spoken to up to now have been either criminals or rather stupid soldiers, I haven’t much to go on.’
Sarah tried to work it out. ‘Suppose there was an egg buried in the ground somewhere, and somehow or other it hatched!’
‘Producing a sweet little baby monster?’ asked the Doctor, smiling.
‘Yes,’ she said, enthusiastically. Then she realised the fallacy in that idea. ‘But how did it grow to that size without anyone noticing?’
‘Maybe someone kept it as a pet,’ said the Doctor, ‘and turned it out when it got too big to feed.’
‘You’re making fun of me.’
‘Because I think you’re forgetting the pterodactyl. I’m almost through now. Grit your teeth in case I hurt you.’
Sarah closed her eyes and nerved herself to feel the file run across the flesh of her wrist. But the Doctor took great care. After a moment Sarah felt the cuff fall away from her wrist. She opened her eyes.
‘Thanks.’ She rubbed her wrist.
Wasting no time, the Doctor opened the vice a fraction of an inch, let the remains of Sarah’s cuff fall to the floor, then put his own cuff in the vice and set to work again with the file.
‘You see,’ he said, ‘we are talking about many reptiles, not just one. According to that unpleasant young man we met in the drill hall, there have been a large number of monsters popping up.’
‘Could it be something that we’re all imagining?’ asked Sarah hopefully. ‘A kind of mass hallucination?’
‘It’s possible—but unlikely. You can, if you know how, hypnotise a whole crowd of people, and make them believe they’re seeing all sorts of things. But I don’t think you could do it to millions of people spread all over a city the size of London.’
‘Then what is the explanation?’
‘I think it’s got something to do with Time,’ speculated the Doctor. ‘There! I’m through!’ He opened the vice, and the cuff fell to the floor. ‘People tend to think of Time as being inflexible, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But if you apply Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to the question of time, you find that it may move in great curves...’
His voice trailed off. He was staring towards a darkened corner of the garage.
Sarah said, ‘What is it?’
‘I think we are not alone,’ he said. He raised his voice. ‘Hello, old chap. What can we do for you?’
Sarah watched, her heart beating fast, as a man came forward from the corner. He was about forty with long straggly hair and a faded blue smock that came down to his knees. On his feet were crudely-made leather shoes, encrusted with mud. His right hand clutched a rusted knife.
‘Back, back, accursed wizard!’ He spoke with a strong Midlands accent.
‘We’re not wizards,’ replied