Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [12]
The man’s frightened eyes darted from the Doctor to Sarah.
‘The witch,’ he said. ‘She put a spell on me. I shall tell the priest and he will burn her at the stake.’
‘Do you know what year it is?’ asked the Doctor.
The man looked puzzled. ‘What strange tongue do you people speak?’
‘Modern English,’ said Sarah. ‘Tell me, what is the name of the king?’
‘’Tis a stupid thing to ask,’ said the man. ‘All people know the name of the king.’
‘But we don’t,’ said the Doctor. ‘At least, not your king. Think of us as strangers in your land. Who is your king?’
‘Richard, but he’s in the Holy Land, fighting the Infidel. John rules now.’
‘Good gracious,’ cried the Doctor. ‘We’re not only dealing with reptiles that died out millions of years ago. This man has just stepped right out of the Middle Ages!’
3 The Time Eddy
At UNIT’s temporary Headquarters in the classroom, the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton stood watching the radio operator as another report came in about the sighting of a monster.
‘The signal’s very faint, sir.’ The radio operator turned up the volume control on his console to ‘full’. ‘It’s no good, sir. They’ve faded out altogether.’
The Brigadier had noticed that this always happened. There must be some connection between the appearance of the monsters and his radio operator’s inability to pick up signals from the military mobile patrols.
‘Did you hear anything?’ he asked.
The radio operator turned to the Brigadier. ‘Only that one of the big flesh-eaters had stopped a truck taking two prisoners to one of the detention centres, sir. I think they said the prisoners escaped.’
‘I can hardly blame them.’ The Brigadier turned away.
‘But they are villains, sir,’ protested Sergeant Benton. ‘I mean to say, any civilian in the Central Zone must be there for the pickings. We have to stop the looting.’
‘So I keep being told,’ snapped the Brigadier, returning to his desk, ‘by General Finch, and now by special despatches from the Government. What they all forget is the main problem. We seem to be far more interested in capturing petty crooks than slaughtering monsters.’ He glanced across at Benton’s desk where the ‘In’ tray was piled high with despatches recently received. ‘You’d better get on with your filing, sergeant.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Benton obediently returned to his desk.
The Brigadier sat down at his own desk. As an officer he was supposed to set a good example of leadership and hard work. At this moment in his career he had no idea where to lead anyone, and could think of no work that he could usefully do. It had been so much easier when he was fighting reptile men*in the caves of Derbyshire, or even trying to exterminate giant maggots**that came up from a disused mine in Wales. In both instances, the enemy was tangible and permanent. With these giant reptiles, he had no idea at all where they came from; even worse, he didn’t know where they went. In every instance when his troops had pursued a monster it had gone behind buildings—and, by the time his troops turned the corner, the monster had vanished as though it never existed. He earnestly wished that the Doctor had not gone off on one of his jaunts into Time and Space.
‘Sir!’
The excited voice of Sergeant Benton interrupted the Brigadier’s thoughts. He looked up.
‘What is it, Sergeant?’
‘Look, sir.’ Benton was holding a photograph of the Doctor before the Brigadier’s eyes.
‘Very good, Benton. Pin it on the wall as a souvenir, and we can all wish he was here.’
‘But he is, sir,’ Benton persisted. ‘It’s a mug shot from one of the Army posts. Listen to this.’ Benton read from an official paper. ‘“Found accompanied by a young woman in possession of stolen furs and a stolen van.”’
The Brigadier sprang to his feet. ‘The Doctor’s been arrested as a looter?! ‘
‘That’s right, sir. And Sarah Jane Smith with him. They’re being held, or were being held, at Number Five reception area.’
The Brigadier hurried across the classroom to the radio operator. ‘Get Number Five reception area