Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [21]
Butler said, ‘You’re never supposed to come here.’
‘It’s urgent,’ said Yates. ‘Where’s Professor Whitaker?’
‘Playing with his Timescoop,’ said Butler. ‘This way.’
Butler led the young Captain along the corridor to the control room. On entering, Yates looked about himself, very impressed by all the gleaming scientific equipment.
‘Over here,’ Butler called.
Yates crossed to where Professor Whitaker was adjusting controls on the Timescoop. The Professor looked up. His sickly smile always turned Yates’s stomach.
‘Dear boy,’ said Whitaker, ‘how lovely to see you—’
‘The Doctor’s back,’ Yates blurted out, interrupting him.
‘Really? And who, may I ask, is the Doctor?’
‘UNIT’s scientific adviser,’ replied Yates, his face grim. ‘The one person who could catch us.’
‘I wish you wouldn’t use words like that. You make us sound like common criminals.’
Butler cut in. ‘I think you should listen to Captain Yates, Professor. This may be important.’
The Professor turned on his swivel chair to face Yates. ‘Do carry on, Captain.’
‘The Doctor is making a stun-gun to catch one of the monsters,’ Yates continued. ‘Once he’s got one he intends to surround it with an electrical field and then wait for it to disappear. In some way, I don’t understand how, that will give away the location of the Timescoop.’
Whitaker laced his fingers and looked down at the well-polished nails. ‘Most ingenious. And most improbable.’
‘If the Doctor says he can do it,’ said Yates, ‘I believe him. He’s probably the most brilliant scientist on this planet.’
‘That,’ said Whitaker, looking up sharply, ‘is a matter of opinion.’
‘But don’t you realise what will happen if he’s right? It’ll be the end of Operation Golden Age. Everything we’ve planned will be ruined.’
‘Well,’ said Whitaker after a few moments’ thought, ‘you’re the soldier. You’d better do something about this Doctor of yours.’
‘I’ll do nothing to harm him, nor will I allow him to be harmed by anyone else. If we descend to that sort of thing we’re no better than the society we’re trying to get away from.’
‘How very touching,’ said the Professor. ‘Then what do you propose we do?’
Yates hesitated. ‘I’m afraid I have no idea.’
‘Naturally,’ scoffed Professor Whitaker. ‘I’m the one who has to come up with all the ideas. So now I shall contribute yet another brilliant inspiration—for the good of the cause. We must sabotage this so-called stun-gun.’
‘How?’
‘It won’t be difficult.’ The Professor rose from his swivel chair. ‘Give me a few minutes at the work bench and I shall produce the very thing for you.’
‘For me?’ queried Yates.
‘Of course, dear boy. You’ll have to deliver the goods. But don’t worry, it’ll only affect the stun-gun. I shall see that not a hair of your precious Doctor’s head is harmed.’
The Brigadier’s jeep screamed to a stop. He gazed in awe at the monster which the soldiers were holding at bay. Long as a railway coach and thirty tons in bulk, the giant, fully-grown brontosaurus filled the little street next to a factory.
‘What a remarkable specimen,’ said the Doctor as he climbed out of the jeep. He carefully laid the cumbersome stun-gun on the back seat. ‘Let’s take a closer look.’
Cautiously, the Brigadier and the Doctor walked towards the towering monster. Its head, high as a three-storey house, swung to and fro on the end of its long neck: it was trying to get the humans into focus.
‘How convenient,’ remarked the Doctor, ‘to have it turn up in a cul-de-sac. It can’t escape.’
‘Is this the kind you wanted, Doctor?’ the Brigadier asked with a shiver.
‘The bigger the better,’ replied the Doctor, rubbing his hands together. ‘The larger the mass, the greater the temporal displacement.’
‘What’s the firing range of that stun-gun of yours?’ asked the Brigadier.
‘I shall have to get up quite close,’ said the Doctor. ‘But not to worry. These fellows aren’t partial to flesh.’ He gazed