Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [6]
The General rocked on his heels, clutching his swagger cane behind his back. ‘On that I agree with you, Brigadier. May I ask what you’re doing about it?’
The Brigadier explained that his UNIT troops were fully occupied in plotting the sightings of monsters.
‘And do you call that doing something?’ smirked the General. ‘Where is this famous scientific adviser of yours?’
‘Temporarily on leave, sir.’ It was a white lie. He had no idea where the Doctor was at this moment.
‘Really?’ said the General. ‘How inconvenient. Should he decide to return, do you think he may be able to help us with our problem?’
‘In all honesty, sir, if anyone can find out why dinosaurs keep appearing and disappearing all over London, it’s the Doctor.’
‘Then the sooner you recall him from leave, Brigadier, the better.’ The General turned to go, then paused. ‘I shall let you have some extra men, seconded to UNIT from the British Army. But their orders will be to shoot to kill! I hope you understand that.’
The General marched out of the classroom. The Brigadier sighed with relief, and slumped into the chair behind his make-shift desk. He turned to Sergeant Benton, who had remained standing to attention throughout the General’s visit.
‘Sergeant, you’ve no idea where the Doctor is, have you?’
‘He could be anywhere, sir’, said Benton. ‘But I wish he was here to help us.’
The Doctor and Sarah were standing between armed soldiers in a draughty church hall. Ahead of them another prisoner, a tough-looking young man in a dirty raincoat, was being questioned by an Army sergeant seated at a bench desk.
‘Name?’
‘Lodge.’
The sergeant wrote down ‘Lodge’ on the top of a blank sheet of typewriting paper. ‘Age?’
‘Twenty-two.’
The sergeant noted the prisoner’s age, then turned to the armed soldier standing beside Lodge. ‘What had he got?’
The soldier reeled off a list of goods found in the possession of the prisoner. ‘Two tape recorders, one radio, and a colour television set.’
‘Right, my lad,’ said the sergeant to Lodge, ‘you know where you’re going. Take him away!’
The soldier yanked on Lodge’s arm and steered him to a far corner of the big hall. The soldiers guarding the Doctor and Sarah pushed them roughly towards the sergeant’s desk. The sergeant placed a fresh sheet of paper before him.
‘Names?’ He didn’t look up when he asked the question.
‘If I could have a word with someone in authority—’ the Doctor blurted out.
The soldier standing behind the Doctor shouted in his ear, ‘Quiet! Answer the sergeant’s question!’
‘Names?’ The sergeant repeated his question, still not looking up. He had been on duty for many hours without sleep. He was tired. He hated looters.
Sarah spoke up. ‘Sarah Jane Smith.’ Then she added quickly, ‘But you’ve got to listen to us, please. I’m a journalist. This is all a big mistake! ‘
The sergeant wrote down Sarah’s name, and then looked up at the Doctor, ignoring Sarah completely. ‘And your name?’
‘Dr John Smith,’ said the Doctor, realising that the sergeant would never believe he hadn’t really got a name. He remembered to add, ‘We’re not related.’
The sergeant wrote ‘Dr John Smith’. Then he asked, ‘Ages? The girl first.’
Sarah said, ‘Twenty-three.’
‘You’d never believe me if I told you,’ the Doctor replied.
The sergeant shrugged. ‘It doesn’t really matter. Age is no excuse for what you people have done.’ He turned to the soldier standing behind the Doctor. ‘What had they got?’
‘The patrol said they’d got furs in the back of a lorry.’
The sergeant wrote down ‘furs’. Then he looked up. ‘Right. You’ll be held for military trial.’
‘Just one question,’ said Sarah. ‘Why are the military running everything? Where are the police?’
The sergeant, pushed his chair back, stretched his arms and yawned. His eyes were bloodshot with tiredness. ‘You were found in the Central Zone, which you know is under martial law. Only the military are allowed in the Central Zone.’
‘But why?’ asked the Doctor earnestly. ‘What’s happening?’
The sergeant looked at the