Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [41]
‘Where’s the Brigadier?’
‘Out on the manhunt, miss, looking for the Doctor.’ She screwed up her face. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’
‘Haven’t you heard? The Doctor was the monster-maker. They caught him in the act but he escaped. Want a cup of tea?’ The corporal had been feeling lonely, and liked the look of Sarah.
‘That’s idiotic. What about Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates?’
‘They’re all out, too,’ said the corporal, ‘chasing after the Doctor.’
‘Then I’ll go to General Finch’s Headquarters. I’ll leave a note for the Brigadier. Have you got anything I can write with?’
The corporal opened the Brigadier’s desk drawer, and found some paper and a pencil. ‘Will this do?’
‘Thanks.’ She sat down, and started writing.
‘It wouldn’t take a moment to make us both a cup of tea,’ said the corporal, hopefully.
‘You’re very kind,’ she said, still writing, ‘but there isn’t a moment to spare—’
She stopped speaking as General Finch entered the classroom. If he was surprised to see Sarah he concealed it very well. ‘Where’s the prisoner?’ he asked Corporal Bryson.
‘The prisoner, sir?’ The corporal stood rigidly to attention. ‘He escaped, sir.’
‘I know that, man. He’s since been recaptured. I just heard it on the R/T in my car. I presumed he’d been brought back here.’
‘No, sir. Not here, sir.’
‘In any case,’ interrupted Sarah, ‘the Doctor isn’t behind it all. I know who is. I was captured and escaped. I know everything.’
The General stood with his feet apart, hands behind his back, and tapped his left calf with his swagger cane. ‘Do you, indeed?’ He turned sharply to the corporal. ‘Dismissed!’
‘Sir?’
‘Get out!’
‘Yes, sir! ‘ Corporal Bryson saluted and hurried out of the classroom.
The General looked back towards Sarah. ‘You were saying, Miss Smith?’
Briefly, Sarah told General Finch what had happened to her. ‘And you know what I found when I opened that hatch? Steps leading down into a corridor in that underground control centre!’
‘What an extraordinary experience. But how did you get out of this place underground?’
She eagerly told him everything. ‘I snooped about for a while. Sir Charles Grover was down there having a chat with Professor Whitaker—’
The General cut in. ‘Is that the scientist you said had disappeared?’
She nodded. ‘I knew him from photographs I’d seen in the newspaper files. Anyway, they didn’t see me. Eventually I found the lift that Sir Charles Grover took me down in.’
‘I think your story deserves my personal investigation. Have you told it to anyone else?’
‘There was no one here to tell.’
‘We must go to Sir Charles’s office immediately. I think he has a lot to answer for.’
Fifteen minutes later, the General’s staff car drew up outside the deserted ministry. He and Sarah raced through the corridors then made their way upstairs to the Minister’s private office. It was empty. Sarah opened the door to the filing room which she knew to be a lift.
‘We go in here,’ she said. ‘And we press that button on the wall.’
The General placed his finger on the button. Themetal door slid across the carved wooden door and they heard the faint humming sound that Grover had said was the air-conditioning.
‘We’re really in a lift,’ Sarah informed him. ‘It’s very ingenious.’
‘Thank you,’ said General Finch. ‘You see, I devised it.’ He drew his Service revolver from its holster and aimed it at Sarah. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Smith, but you’re a prisoner again.’
She gasped. ‘I really do pick my friends.’
‘Perhaps we are more friendly than you imagine.’ He smiled, not unkindly she thought.
Nothing more was said until the General and Sarah had reached the main control room. Sir Charles Grover and Professor Whitaker looked