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‘Only to stop the Doctor catching a monster, and certainly not so that you could turn a flesh-eater on to him!’ He tried to speak more calmly. ‘Look, let me tell the Doctor what we’re doing. I’m sure he’d be sympathetic. He might even try to help us.’

Professor Whitaker’s face hardened. ‘That’s quite out of the question. What if he didn’t agree with our aims?’

‘But I’m sure he would,’ Yates pleaded. ‘Everything we are doing is for the good of Mankind.’ He paused. ‘It is, isn’t it?’

Butler. smiled. ‘Captain Yates, would you be involved if it were not? In the end we shall be judged the saviours of the human race. One cannot have ideals higher than that.’

Yates felt reassured. ‘That’s true,’ he said. ‘But there’s no need to harm the Doctor.’

Professor Whitaker smiled. ‘It’s nice to see you care. I wouldn’t mind meeting this Doctor myself sometime.’ Then he added quickly, ‘But not just now. Tell me, what stage has he reached?’

‘They’ve taken the creature to an aircraft hangar on the fringe of the evacuated area. The Doctor’s surrounding it with an electrical field. As I told you before, he intends to record when the monster vanishes in order to track down the location of this control centre.’

‘Then more sabotage will be necessary,’ said Butler. ‘More work for you, Captain Yates.’

‘Sorry. Count me out.’

Butler and Whitaker exchanged a quick glance. Butler continued, ‘We can’t count you out, Captain Yates. Who else can do the sabotage except you?’

Yates thought about that. ‘All right. What do you want me to do?’

‘Ensure that the Doctor’s instruments don’t work,’ said the Professor. ‘In due course, the creature will return to its own time. When that happens, the Doctor must not be able to locate the source of its temporal displacement.’

‘I’ll do what I can,’ promised Yates, preparing to leave.

‘Don’t forget,’ added Butler, ‘that if the Doctor finds this place, it will mean the end of Operation Golden Age. The entire future of Man depends on you, Captain Yates.’

Yates nodded, and hurried out.

Whitaker turned to Butler. ‘You forgot to mention the past of Man.’

Butler, his back to the Professor, was studying a set of instruments. ‘There are some things it’s better for Captain Yates not to know.’

The Brigadier and Sarah were standing in the hangar office gazing through an internal window at the Doctor as he walked the length of the tyrannosaurus. The giant reptile, still unconscious, and lying on its side, filled the aircraft hangar. Thick chains, attached to heavy spikes driven into the concrete floor, were pad-locked round the creature’s hind legs, tail and neck. A series of electrical antennae, rather like indoor television aerials, surrounded the monster. These antennae were linked by cables to an apparatus that the Doctor had hastily rigged up in the office.

‘I hope it doesn’t wake up,’ said Sarah.

‘Don’t worry,’ replied the Brigadier. ‘Those chains could hold a herd of wild elephants.’

The Doctor, seeming satisfied with the arrangements in the hangar, returned to the office.

‘Sleeping peacefully?’ asked the Brigadier.

‘Not exactly sleeping,’ said the Doctor, as he checked the dials and gauges of the directional detector, ‘but still in a faint. I wonder if those creatures ever dreamed?’

‘What a curious fellow you are,’ laughed the Brigadier, ‘to think of something like that at a time like this.’

‘There’s not much else to think about until the animal dematerialises.’ The Doctor adjusted some of the controls.

Sarah seized her opportunity. ‘Then perhaps I could tell you something, Doctor?’

‘But of course,’ he murmured, his attention entirely focused on a small black knob that he kept twiddling. ‘I’m all ears.’

Sarah glanced at the Brigadier. He shrugged and smiled an encouragement to her to continue.

‘I’ve been investigating the whole question of Time travel,’ she said, hoping to gain his undivided attention.

‘Have you?’ He continued to turn the black knob to and fro. ‘You know, I think this could do with a spot of oil. You wouldn’t have any handy, would you, Brigadier?’

‘I don’t usually carry it on