Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [26]
‘So far as I know. He vanished six months ago. Just upped and left home.’
‘A lot of people do disappear. They leave home, change their names, try to make new lives for themselves.’
‘Not famous scientists.’
The General laughed gruffly. ‘A famous Member of Parliament once tried to do it. We never know what pressures people are really undergoing.’
‘It seems to me,’ said Sarah, ‘that this is an enormous coincidence.’
‘What do you intend to do?’
‘Keep looking for him,’ she replied with determination. ‘I’ll make those pompous idiots believe me. Even the Brigadier’s of no help. We’ve got that monster chained down, and he wouldn’t let me take photographs of it—wouldn’t even give me a pass to go back to the hangar.’
‘That seems most unfriendly of him,’ said the General, showing a softer side of his character. He took out a little notebook, wrote a few lines, and handed a slip of paper to her. ‘Take this to my Headquarters, see my Adjutant. He’ll give you a pass.’
Sarah was thrilled. ‘Thanks! Where is your HQ?’
‘Show the note to my driver. He’ll take you there.’
Sarah was so pleased that she felt like giving the General a kiss, but on second thoughts restrained herself. ‘Thank you, General. Thank you very much indeed.’ She rushed to the door, then paused. ‘What about you? Won’t you need your car?’
‘I have things to attend to here. Have a good trip.’
‘I will!’ Sarah rushed out of the office, clutching the tiny slip of paper.
Alone, the General looked at the Doctor’s workbench. After a few moments’ search among the tools, he found the hacksaw that he was shortly going to need.
Sarah was studying the inert tyrannosaurus rex from the safety of the hangar office. She raised her miniature camera to take the first shot then remembered that the flashlight would probably reflect against the glass window. She went through the door that led directly into the hangar.
Until now everything had happened so quickly she had scarcely had time to react to the situation. As she slowly circled the monster, she experienced a strange feeling of wonder and awe. She was examining a real living dinosaur, something that humans had never seen before because they had not developed until millions of years after the last of the giant dinosaurs had died. This animal lived—in a sense was still living—in a time when the world looked very different from today. Flowers did not exist in that world because insects had not yet evolved to carry pollen. To make life possible for so many varieties of cold-blooded reptiles, the atmosphere must have been warm and humid. The earliest mammals were just beginning to evolve, life-forms that carried their babies within themselves instead of laying eggs.
She raised the camera to take the first photograph. The flash apparatus flared for a split second, and in that split second the first photograph of a living dinosaur was recorded for all time. She took a series of photographs of the monster’s bulk, then moved up to the enormous head. It was as she pressed the flash button for the fourth time that the tyrannosaurus’s right eye blinked again.
The tyrannosaurus was suddenly, abruptly aware of blinding light. Programmed into its minuscule mind was intense fear of lightning storms. Being taller than most other animals, taller than much of the primeval foliage (there were very few trees then), the tyrannosaurus rex was a frequent victim of lightning strikes. And thunder-and-lightning were almost daily weather conditions in the warm balmy atmosphere of pre-history. Time and again the tyrannosaurus rex had seen its own kind killed outright when the daggers of electricity sliced down from the clouds.
With an ear-splitting roar, the monster raised its head, only to find its movements restricted by giant chains. Sarah raced back into the little hangar office, slamming the door. She went straight to the door that led to the corridor outside—and found it locked. She banged furiously on the door.
‘Let me out! Who’s locked