Doctor Who_ The Devil Goblins From Neptune - Keith Topping [35]
'Captain... ' one of the troops began.
'Quiet! I am thinking,' snapped Shuskin. She turned to find
Komarov beside her. 'It has gone sour, Sergeant,' she stated.
'Not your fault,' replied the grim-faced sergeant. 'I have heard that British prisons are comfortable' He paused for a moment. 'We have an alternative course of action, sir.'
Shuskin nodded. 'To be used as a last resort. Which it is'
She placed her Kalashnikov AKMS on the floor of the van, and turned to the Doctor. 'You will come with us, please?'
'Gladly,' said the Doctor, moving towards the van door.
'Do you wish me to mediate?'
'That will not be necessary.' Liz watched as the door swung open and Shuskin, Komarov, and the Doctor stepped out. Shuskin's hands were raised above her head to indicate that she was unarmed. As the sergeant followed her a shot rang out from the UNIT lines. Shuskin spun around to find Komarov collapsed in the Doctor's arms, spewing blood.
There was a terrifying look of utter bewilderment on his face.
Shuskin screamed. 'Pavel!'
Liz moved quickly to the Doctor's side. There was massive bleeding from the man's chest; she bunched up the jacket in an attempt to staunch the flow, but knew that it was already too late.
Komarov tried to say something, but his froth-flecked lips moved silently. A moment later he was dead.
Shuskin turned towards the UNIT soldiers. Liz thought for a moment that she was going to lunge at the nearest man, but her anger merely came out in her voice. 'You murdering bastards!' she shouted, and then lapsed into Russian.
The Doctor was beside her, a look of dejected failure on his lace. 'Lethbridge-Stewart!' he said angrily.
The Brigadier emerged from the cockpit of a Gazelle and strode across towards the pair, his gun in his hand.
'This was your idea,' continued the Doctor,' and you assured me there would be no casualties!'
The Brigadier looked embarrassed, and turned away sharply. 'Sergeant Benton!' he snapped. 'I want a report on who fired that shot on my desk by ten a.m. tomorrow. All of you men carry the Yellow Card, and you all know the procedure for the firing of weapons in this kind of situation -
and the consequences if those procedures are not carried out to the letter. Corporal Laine, take a duty of men and arrest everyone in that van' He spun back towards the Doctor and Shuskin, his voice hushed. 'I will have the man who fired -'
Liz noted a sudden and complete look of surprise cross the Brigadier's face.
'Wait a minute,' he said, staring at Shuskin. 'I know you.
It's Captain Shuskin, isn't it?'
'Yes, you murdering pig,' she replied.
'You know each other, then,' said the Doctor, somewhat pointlessly.
'This woman is, or was, a leading member of the Soviet UNIT force,' growled the Brigadier. 'We met in Geneva last year. Captain Shuskin, stand to attention when in the presence of a superior officer.'
Shuskin barely moved.
'Do you know what you're saying?' asked the Doctor.
'I believe so,' said the Brigadier. 'I'm saying that one group of UNIT troops have invaded a sovereign state and committed acts of aggression against the local UNIT force. I believe I'm saying that this incident could be the end of UNIT
And the beginning of war.'
CHAPTER 7
The corridors of UNIT'S United Kingdom HQ rang with worried voices and strained conversation. The adrenaline rush of combat was fading away, replaced by an uncertain tension as it became clear that a foreign branch of UNIT had been involved in the skirmish.
It was dark outside, but even in the middle of the night the entire building had snapped into wakefulness long before the Brigadier's return. Lethbridge-Stewart paced the hallways anxiously. The mixture of standard army troops and UNIT
men had handled the situation well, had it not been for the unfortunate incident towards the conclusion. As he approached his office