Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [28]
‘Perhaps,’ said the Doctor disarmingly, ‘because even I cannot think of everything at once.’
‘Exactly how much energy would be needed to make those things appear, Doctor?’ asked Sarah.
‘Oh, you’d need something like a small nuclear generator.’
‘Then why don’t we look for one?’
The Brigadier smiled self-importantly. ‘You may sometimes think we military chaps are stupid, Miss Smith, but that was one of the first things that occurred to me. I have made a thorough check and I can assure you there are no nuclear generators which have not been accounted for in the Central London area.’
Sarah gave the Brigadier a savage look.
‘I’m afraid the Brigadier’s right,’ said the Doctor. ‘There can’t be any nuclear generators around that nobody knows about. Why don’t you try and get some rest? You had a nasty fright in that hangar.’
‘Thank you,’ said Sarah, apparently resigned. ‘I’ll do that.’
‘Well,’ remarked the Doctor, ‘I’d better get started. Most of what I need is in the TARDIS. If you’ll excuse me...’ He produced his key, opened the door of the TARDIS, and went inside.
The Brigadier looked at his watch. ‘I’m due for yet another planning meeting with General Finch. Now he wants to hang looters in public! I sometimes think the poor fellow lives in a bygone age.’ He turned smartly and left the headmaster’s office.
Sarah and Sergeant Benton were left facing each other. ‘Isn’t it marvellous,’ she said scornfully. ‘I’ve just been told to go out and play!’
‘The Doctor said you should get some rest.’
‘It comes to the same thing.’ She felt her temper rise. ‘They don’t want to listen to me. Look, if there’s a nuclear generator involved it must have been designed and assembled, and all that could be traced. There’d be records of it.’
‘The Brigadier’s checked all that, miss,’ said Benton, loyally. ‘He found nothing.’
‘Maybe it was all secret,’ she said, thinking aloud. The sergeant smiled. ‘Too secret for the Brigadier to know about?’
‘Yes, why not?’ Sarah had a sudden flash of inspiration. ‘Can you get me some transport?’
‘I could try, miss. But where do you want to go?’
‘Out to play,’ she replied pertly. ‘There can’t be any harm in that, can there?’
‘What a pleasant surprise,’ said Sir Charles Grover as he welcomed Sarah into his office. It was a small ministerial study, beautifully furnished, with a fine view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. ‘I’m sorry you had to find your own way in here, but we’re down to a skeleton staff. What can I do for you?’
‘I’m very sorry to trouble you, Sir Charles.’ Sarah accepted his offer to sit down. ‘But you seem to be the only member of the Government still in London.’
‘Indeed I am.’ As he talked, he lit a little camping gas ring that had been set up on a corner table next to cups and saucers, a teapot, packet of tea, and a bottle of milk, all of which looked somewhat incongruous in a Cabinet Minister’s office. ‘We have no catering staff now—nothing. But I can make you a cup of tea. Do you take milk and sugar?’
‘Yes, please,’ she said. ‘One lump.’
Sir Charles put a kettle on to the lit gas ring. ‘The rest of the Government shot off to Harrogate. But I said to the Prime Minister, “If I’m in charge of the situation in London, I’m going to stay on the spot.” So here I am. How can I help you?’
Sarah quickly explained the Doctor’s theory that it would require a nuclear generator to produce the vast amounts of power necessary for the Time transferences. She continued, ‘Wasn’t there a plan once,’ she then asked, ‘to build underground quarters for the Government in the event of an atomic war breaking out?’
‘That’s true,’ said Sir Charles. ‘The Government of the day saw itself retreating to a hole in the ground where it would be safe.’ He laughed. ‘Goodness knows why! Just ten hydrogen bombs would have destroyed every city, every living person, every blade of grass in the British Isles. So they’d have had nothing to govern once the war was over!’ He poured boiling water from the kettle into his teapot.
‘Do you know whether