Doctor Who_ Just War - Lance Parkin [72]
Resurrection. War machines pouring from production lines.
Advancing, guns blazing. Technical achievement. Scientists, working in laboratories, conceiving new terrors. They built all those weapons. Germ warfare. Powerful explosives. Their supreme ruler barking orders. I obey. Total war. Buildings shattering, bricks and concrete cracking and splintering.
Racial purity. They ran slave camps, killed their prisoners for sport. Experimenting on the inmates. Twisted science.
Permanent warfare. Master Plan. The future, with London in ruins. Destiny. Blond supermen, brutish subhuman servants.
Their rightful place: the supreme beings of the universe.
Planet, Doctor, not universe. Revelation. Halt! Stay where you are!
‘I know! I know who you really are!’ Bernice bawled, her throat dry. Darkness falling. She couldn’t hear herself; she couldn’t see where she was. Her hand was still burning with pain, but it seemed so far away, now. She knew the nurse was there, feeling for her pulse.
She slumped in her seat, her head lolling.
Kendrick entered the room. Reed and Forrester stood and saluted. It was just after six o’clock.
‘At ease.’ He faced Forrester, treating her as the senior officer in the room for the first time in a week. The admiral was smiling for the first time that Reed could recall. It suited Kendrick’s lined face, giving it the air of a benevolent monarch. There was none of the weariness, none of the resignation that had weighed so heavily on him before. When he spoke, it had the ring of a royal proclamation.
‘Captain, three hours ago I took your sterling work to the War Cabinet. It has convinced them. Tonight, Bomber Command will target Granville and the adjoining airfield. We’ll blow Hartung, Steinmann and their superbomber right off the face of the Earth.’
Roz shifted in her seat as she spoke. ‘But, sir, the reason that has never been done before is the danger to the French civilian population. Where next, Guernsey?’
There was no remorse in Kendrick’s green eyes. ‘The stakes are high. Captain Forrester, I understand your concerns, but if we don’t take this action now then the whole course of the war will change. The sacrifice is necessary.’
Something about his answer nagged at Roz’s mind.
Goddess! He hadn’t batted an eyelid when she’d mentioned Guernsey. She dare not accuse him here and now, but instinctively she knew that the War Cabinet had discussed the bombing of Guernsey if this raid wasn’t a success. They were going to bomb their own people.
‘Sir,’ Reed began, ‘there may be some evidence to suggest that there isn’t a superbomber. We’ve found out what Hugin and Munin are.’ He explained what they had discovered. Thought and Memory. A pair of birds that fly invisibly around the world. ‘That doesn’t sound like a short-range heavy bomber, sir.’ Why was Reed agreeing with her now?
His conscience. Like her, Reed could picture the French civilians dying needlessly.
Kendrick considered the new information for a moment.
No, they don’t sound like bombers. But Hartung is still working from Granville. Destroying the town will destroy Hugin and Munin, too, whatever they are.’
‘Sir, Granville is a civilian target,’ Reed said forcefully.
‘Lieutenant, this is total war. There are no civilian targets.’ More quietly, ‘George, I sympathize, but there is too much at stake.’
‘I strongly recommend, sir, that we don’t go ahead with the raid until we know precisely what we are dealing with,’
Roz declared.
‘My dear, the planes took off twenty minutes ago. They’ll be in France in less than a quarter of an hour. An hour from now, Granville will have been removed from the map. After that, there will be nothing left of Hartung except... thought and memory.’
‘That was impressive even for you, Doctor. You persuaded that man that you were a nun, of all things. That was the worst acting performance I have ever seen, and you got away with it!’
The Doctor gave a twirl, his borrowed habit spinning