Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [10]
It looked as if they’d just gone off for a day trip to the seaside.
‘If you ask me, they’ve gone for a picnic,’ said the Brigadier, coming down the stairs to rejoin the Doctor and Sarah in the hall. ‘They’re obviously coming back.’
‘Handed me the keys, didn’t he?’ said the caretaker. ‘To give back to the estate office. Nah, they’ve gawn for good.’
CHAPTER FOUR
„You‟re eating a ham sandwich!‟
A startled Sarah looked up from her desk drawer, where she had been searching for her passport.
Clorinda, a tiny woman whose dyed hair (tending towards the pillar-box end of the spectrum), bright make-up and primary-coloured garments normally gave the impression of an escaped parakeet, now had the air of an angry macaw.
„Er, yes... I didn‟t get any breakfast,‟ said Sarah, puzzled.
„I knew I was right. My office! Now!‟
„Oh Lor‟, thought Sarah, as she followed her irate boss, it must be that wretched fish...
It was, too. Clorinda tossed the manuscript towards her as if she‟d like to toss it into the nearest dustbin. „Research?
Don‟t make me laugh. Every word tells me that you know zilch about being a vegetarian. If I wanted candy-floss I‟d go to Southend pier!‟
„I must admit...‟
„It‟s an angle, certainly. But it reads like a filler for a teenager‟s weekly. What do you think you‟re up to?‟
„Well, you see...‟
But it was a rhetorical question. Clorinda was on a roll. „If you want to convince me to be a vegetarian, I want to know all that jazz about one cow versus ten fields of corn... And how a nice juicy steak au poivre fills my arteries with axle grease... and so on and so on... Yes, and I want it backed up with the latest facts and figures. And I want it now! We go to press tomorrow, as you very well know.‟
Sarah took a deep breath. „Yes well, I was going to come in and see you anyway. I‟m going to take my holiday, you see, and...‟
„You what?‟
„I‟m due four weeks, what with missing last year‟s because of the Space World thing and...‟ Her voice trailed away.
Hardly the most tactful way to approach the subject, Sarah suddenly realised. The Space World story, having had a D-notice slapped on it by the Brigadier, had had to be spiked.
Clorinda looked at her for a long moment. „You‟ve had a holiday. You went to Sicily.‟
„That was due from the year before. Oh please, Clorinda! I promise to tell everyone how kind you are, how generous, how unutterably lovely you are in every possible way...‟
„And completely ruin my reputation?‟ said Clorinda. Then she sighed. „Oh Sarah, Sarah, what are we going to do with you? Once you get a bee in your bonnet...‟
Cliché! thought Sarah automatically.
„It is this Skang affair, I suppose?‟ Clorinda went on.
Sarah nodded eagerly. „Yes. Apparently the centres all over the world have closed down. And the devotees are all going to Bombay!‟ The UNIT network had quickly supplied the Brigadier with the information - and much to his disgust, Geneva had given him the responsibility of finding out exactly what was going on.
„Well, I suppose I can‟t stop you.‟
„Clorinda, you‟re a doll!‟
„Just as long as you don‟t try to swing it on your expenses.‟
„That I can promise you. It won‟t cost you a penny!‟
It wouldn‟t cost anybody a brass rupee. They were going in the TARDIS.
It seemed a little strange to be lugging her backpack through the door of the old police box, for all the world as if she were catching the so-called Magic Bus to Kathmandu with the rest of the hippy throng. Though the Brigadier‟s own luggage was a smart hide suitcase, he evidently had similar feelings.
„I‟m not sure if this is a good idea, Doctor,‟ he said.
Wouldn‟t we be better off with British Airways?‟
„Time is of the essence,‟ replied the muffled voice of the Doctor, whose top half was deep inside the central pedestal of the TARDIS control column. „If we don‟t stop this thing before it really takes root, the world could be facing one of the biggest disasters in the history of Homo sapiens.’
The Brigadier sighed. „I seem to have heard that before.‟
„You have indeed,‟ said the Doctor,