Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [14]
‘Hide!’ The Doctor called across the garage to Sarah in an urgent whisper. She quickly hid behind some of the machinery.
The Doctor poised himself by the door to attack whoever might enter. Suddenly the door flung open and a khaki-clad figure stepped into the garage. The Doctor moved forward to apply Venusian karate to the intruder’s neck.
The Brigadier, aware someone was approaching him from behind, turned to face the Doctor, whosehands were poised ready for his neck.
‘Good grief, Doctor,’ he said calmly, ‘whatever do you think you’re playing at?’
‘I was just about to render you unconscious,’ grinned the Doctor.
‘So I gathered. If you can resist the temptation, perhaps you’d be good enough to accompany me back to our temporary Headquarters. We’re having a bit of bother with prehistoric monsters popping up. You should be just the person we need to help sort out the mess.’
The Doctor regarded the classroom which had been taken over by UNIT. ‘Is this the best you could do, Brigadier?’
‘We have everything we need. A school provides plenty of rooms, toilet facilities, and a big kitchen. And with all London’s children gone, no one was using it. Would you care to take a seat?’
But the Doctor had become too interested in the map of London that covered the blackboard. ‘What do all the flags mean?’
Sergeant Benton stepped forward to explain. ‘It’s a colour code, Doctor. Red flags for the sightings of a tyrannosaurus, blue for a triceratops, green for your stegosaurus, and pink for the pterodactyls.’
‘You’ve had all those different types of monsters?’ Sarah asked.
‘Those are the ones we know about,’ replied the Brigadier. He turned to the Doctor. ‘We soon realised that these giant reptiles only appeared in central London. The Government therefore ordered the evacuation of the entire area.’
‘Apart from evacuating millions of people,’ said the Doctor, ‘and chasing after looters—’
‘And arresting innocent people,’ Sarah cut in.
‘—what,’ continued the Doctor, ‘have you actually done ?’
‘When these creatures appear,’ replied the Brigadier, ‘we try to make sure that they keep within the evacuated area and do not wander off into populated areas beyond the boundary of this line.’ He pointed to a heavy red line on the map that ringed central London.
‘But having contained them in this way,’ continued the Doctor, ‘what do you do ?’
The Brigadier smiled. ‘That’s where you come in, Doctor. We’ve no idea where they come from, or where they vanish to. In fact that really puzzles me—the way they just seem to disappear.’
‘I should think the explanation is pretty simple,’ said the Doctor. ‘They return to where they came from. The past.’
General Finch marched into the classroom, followed by Captain Yates. Sarah took an instant dislike to the General, but warmed when she saw young Captain Yates of UNIT. Sergeant Benton leapt to attention. The Brigadier straightened his shoulders and turned to greet his superior officer.
‘All right, Brigadier,’ the General’s voice boomed, ‘I’ve arranged for the extra patrols you want. But I warn you, I shall expect results.’
Ignoring the General, the Doctor went forward to shake Captain Yates’s hand. ‘My dear Yates,’ he grinned, ‘how nice to see you again. How are you?’ Only recently, when UNIT and the Doctor had been battling against an artificially created outbreak of giant maggots in Wales, Captain Yates had been captured by a group of villains and mentally ‘readjusted’ so that he would do their bidding. At their orders he had almost murdered his good friend the Doctor, but his own conscience had prevented him from carrying out the order at the last moment. Although the Doctor had eventually helped Yates recover control of his own mind, it was generally believed that the young Captain had undergone terrific mental strain. He was given a very long leave in which to get better.
‘I’m fine now,’ said Captain Yates, ‘thanks to you.’
General Finch, who did not like being ignored at any