Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [25]
‘What about your little pet in the hangar?’ asked Sarah.
The Doctor looked through the internal window at the enormous bulk of the green, leathery tyrannosaurus rex. ‘He’ll be all right for a while.’ He turned to the Brigadier. ‘You’ll post a guard?’
The Brigadier nodded. ‘General Finch has lent me a special squad.’
‘But what if it dematerialises while you’re back at UNIT Headquarters?’ Sarah asked.
‘My instruments will still obtain the necessary readings. Are you going to come with us?’
‘Yes,’ replied Sarah eagerly. ‘I must get my camera.’
‘Whatever for?’ asked the Brigadier.
‘I’m a journalist, remember. When all this is over, I want to write about it and have photographs to offer to newspapers. It’ll be the scoop of a lifetime.’
The Brigadier looked stern. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Smith, but this whole affair is under a strict security blackout. You can take your photographs once the crisis is over.’
‘But, Brigadier,’ she cried out, ‘when the crisis is over there won’t be anything to photograph! ‘
‘I’m sorry, Miss Smith,’ the Brigadier repeated firmly, ‘but those are my orders. Are you ready, Doctor?’
The Doctor and the Brigadier hurried out. Sarah, pouting a little, took one last look at the monster, then turned and followed.
Had Sarah remained behind one second more she might have seen the reptile’s right eyelid blink. It was only a momentary flicker, as the reptile’s minute brain was starting to regain consciousness. As often happens with humans when they recover from a faint, the tyrannosaurus rex had a very severe headache. It breathed deeply, then fell into a peaceful sleep.
Captain Yates quietly entered the office. For the past half hour he had been concealed in one of the corridors leading out of the hangar, waiting for the office to become vacant. He looked at the Doctor’s directional detector, contemplating how best to render it useless.
The TARDIS was standing in a corner of the headmaster’s office. Sarah, who had been making some preliminary notes about the appearances of the dinosaurs, looked up as the Brigadier entered with General Finch and Sir Charles Grover.
‘Where’s the Doctor, Miss Smith?’
She nodded towards the open door of the TARDIS. ‘In there.’
The Brigadier called into the police box. ‘Doctor, could you spare us a moment?’ Then he introduced Sarah to the Cabinet Minister.
The Doctor’s head popped out of the TARDIS. ‘What is it now? I’m busy.’
‘The Minister has some information for you about this fellow Whitaker,’ explained the Brigadier.
The Doctor smiled. ‘Then you have my full attention.’
‘It’s rather negative information,’ said Sir Charles. ‘I was chairman of the committee that considered Whitaker’s application for a government grant. I actually saw his working papers. Not that I understood them, of course, but my scientific advisers assured me they were utter nonsense. All I can say is that the man is, or was, a harmless crank. He couldn’t possibly be responsible for this dinosaur business.’
Sarah spoke up, unable to contain herself. ‘That’s not what I’ve heard, Sir Charles! I’ve spoken to his colleagues who were at Oxford with him, to the science correspondent of The Times , and to the editors of a number of scientific journals. They all say he was brilliant! ‘
Sir Charles turned to her with a kindly smile. ‘His work on the measurement of the internal weights of atoms was brilliant, Miss Smith, and so was his contribution to the analysis of magnetic infractions. But his ideas about Time travel were completely worthless.’ He turned back to the Doctor. ‘I understand you have set up an experiment that may give us a clue to the appearance of the dinosaurs? I’d be interested to hear more about it.’
‘I shall need the map of London to explain what I have in mind. Brigadier, may we all go to your office?’
The Brigadier opened the door and ushered out the Doctor and Sir Charles. ‘General Finch, sir? Will you accompany us?’
‘I have to get back to my own headquarters,’ said the General. He gazed at the police box in silence until the Brigadier