Doctor Who_ Last of the Gaderene - Mark Gatiss [36]
He moved swiftly through the kitchen, dropping the briefcase and red ministerial box as though they were discarded sweet papers. They banged off the polished wooden floors but Cochrane didn’t seem to notice.
He opened the door into the front room and took his place at a long, highly decorative table. Eight high-backed chairs surrounded it. Two were already occupied but Cochrane registered no surprise. He merely pulled out the nearest chair and sat down, folding his hands on the table before him.
Next to Cochrane sat a well-built woman with grey hair and small, clever eyes. Two chairs along sat Jocelyn Strangeways in full dress uniform. All three stared straight ahead, their faces blank except for the wide grins plastered across their faces.
None of them reacted when the front door opened again and a stranger entered the room.
He took his place at the head of the table and glanced from one to the other of them. His smile of satisfaction did not quite match theirs, but then, he still had responsibilities, after all.
Insects chirruped in the long dry grass which encroached on the aerodrome’s perimeter.
The Doctor crouched down and turned towards the shadowy complex of the aerodrome. Lifting his face from the parched soil, he peered through the diamond-shaped mesh of the perimeter fence for any sign of activity. He frowned. There was nothing. No movement. No lights.
Reaching a sudden decision, he leapt to his feet, rammed the toe of his boot into the mesh and began to haul himself up.
With two or three swift moves he was up, then swung himself over on to the other side where he landed gracefully, spreading his feet wide to distribute his weight. He looked swiftly around. Still no sign of life.
Ahead, visible against the night sky, was the aerodrome’s control tower. The Doctor thought he could discern movement of some kind through the panoramic window, but, again, there were no lights on. Pressing himself against the lower wall of the building, his cloak-lining flat behind him like scarlet plumage, the Doctor paused and considered his next move.
There were a number of parked lorries close by which attracted his interest but the control tower seemed the logical place to start, despite the absence of any personnel.
Detaching himself from the wall, the Doctor walked swiftly and silently across the tarmac towards the tower. He put out both hands and grabbed the steel banisters of the staircase. hauling himself upwards until he was right outside the door.
He examined the lock quickly and then stopped as he heard voices.
A narrow, grilled catwalk extended around the circular tower just outside the thick glass window, and the Doctor jumped over a metal gate and on to it in one silent movement.
Crouching down, he pressed his face close to the glass and tried to make out what was going on inside the darkened office.
Wing Commander Whistler sat upright in a chair, listening to the sound of his own breathing. He had come to in a grim-looking cell, his head pounding sickeningly, confidently expecting to be shot at any moment. But the hours had passed and none of the black-uniformed guards had appeared.
Fear had turned to anger and anger to boredom. Just when he had thought he’d prefer anything to simply sitting there staring at a blank concrete wall, the door had opened and two troopers had bundled him outside into the warm night.
They had made no allowances for his age or the darkness, and dragged him on whenever he stumbled. Now he was sitting in some kind of office, presumably about to meet whoever was behind all this.
He sighed, blinking slowly and expecting the door to open any moment. When a voice oozed through the dark, he almost jumped out of his skin.
‘Show me.’
Whistler collected himself and peered ahead. He could just make out a figure behind a desk. He cleared his throat and set his jaw aggressively.
‘I wouldn’t mind being told just what the hell you people think you’re playing at.’
There was no response. Whistler could just hear a soft, wet sound as though someone were smiling. ‘Show