Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [27]
The tyrannosaurus rex tried moving its legs and its tail. All parts of itself were held down. Instinctively it struggled to become free. With a new strength born of fear and anger, it stretched out its legs until suddenly the chains snapped.
Sarah heard the crash of the giant chains as they slid from the monster’s legs to the concrete floor. Unable to stop herself, she turned and watched in terror as the dinosaur now raised its neck, snapping the chains that held down the upper part of its body.
Temporarily exhausted by its efforts, the tyrannosaurus rex remained lying on the floor. Then it became aware of a noisy midget only a few yards away. Through the window it could see the midget with its mouth open, screaming. Most of the monster’s prey was like this just before being eaten—mouth open in fear, making a loud noise. The thought triggered the sensation of hunger in the reptile’s brain. It hadn’t eaten since morning when it caught two very small dinosaurs. It moved its head forward to take a better look at its next meal.
Sarah beat her fists on the door to the corridor. ‘Help! Will someone open this door! ‘
There was no response. She felt sick with fear.
The tyrannosaurus rex moved its great snout forward to take its prey, and found its nose pressed against something that it couldn’t see. This was bewildering. There was the prey, clearly visible, but some plate of invisible substance stood between them. It wriggled its great bulk round and started to bash at the little wooden office with its tail.
The first blow from the tail smashed the window. The second blow smashed in the entire window frame and fractured the wall. The third blow brought down part of the roof. A rafter hit Sarah’s head, throwing her to the ground. The fourth blow was about to strike as the door to the corridor opened and the Doctor reached in, pulling Sarah to safety.
She was aware of being carried into the open air. She clung to the Doctor, weeping.
‘It’s all right, my dear,’ he said soothingly, ‘you’re safe now.’
Hearing a terrific crash of falling masonry, they looked up. The head of the giant tyrannosaurus rex was sticking up through the vast roof of the aircraft hangar.
‘We must get away,’ shouted the Doctor. ‘If it does give chase, I don’t imagine it can outrun the speed of a jeep.’
Sarah was bundled into the passenger seat. She turned back to look, fascinated and horrified, at the giant reptile.
‘Doctor! It’s vanishing!’
As they watched the tyrannosaurus rex dematerialised and was gone.
Sergeant Benton and two UNIT soldiers carefully laid the directional detector apparatus on the Doctor’s work bench. The Doctor was busy inspecting the bump on Sarah’s head which had been made by the falling rafter.
‘The skin isn’t broken,’ he told her, ‘but it will probably be a bit swollen for a day or two.’ He turned to the Brigadier. ‘The creature was still in the force field when it vanished, so perhaps the directional detector will tell us something.’
Sergeant Benton carried in a couple of heavy sacks. ‘I think, Doctor, that what’s in here might tell you something.’ He pulled from a bag a length of heavy chain. ‘Some of these links have been half sawn through.’
The Doctor took the chain from Benton. ‘By Jove, you’re right!’ He turned quickly to inspect the directional detector. ‘And this has been sabotaged. Not a single reading.’
For a moment there was complete silence. The Brigadier dismissed the two UNIT privates, and turned to the Doctor. ‘So we have someone inside our organisation working against us.’
‘Obviously.’ The Doctor rubbed his chin, thinking. ‘I shall now have to try a completely different approach.’
‘Are you going to catch another monster?’ asked Sarah weakly.
‘No,’ replied the Doctor, much to the relief of the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton. ‘We know these Time transferences must require enormous amounts of energy. I’m going to build a device that will detect that energy at its source.’
‘Why didn’t you think of that in the first place?’ asked the Brigadier, a little piqued. ‘Moving thirty tons of inert reptile