Doctor Who_ The Devil Goblins From Neptune - Keith Topping [47]
Pakilev established radio contact with Grennikov on an open channel, hoping to warn the other helicopters if their instruments had not yet picked up the enemy craft. 'I will move to intercept the multiple enemy targets,' he stated. 'You continue on to the destination.'
Pakilev's gunship had already come to a halt, circling around as it hovered. Soon it had turned through 180
degrees, then the nose dipped, and the blades once more began to push it through the air. The craft's maximum speed was 275 kilometres per hour; even so, Pakilev knew that the enemy targets would intercept the Mi-8s long before they would come into range of the gunship's weapons.
'Blue Flight, you have multiple targets coming towards you. They are small - very small - they might even look like a flock of birds on your equipment. But be warned. Suggest that we now keep all radio channels open. Over.'
Once back at UNIT HQ, Mike Yates checked at reception and was told that neither the Brigadier nor the Doctor had yet reported in from their various destinations. However, a hastily scribbled note from the Brigadier had been left for him. It mentioned a file on higher-than-normal radiation levels in the sea, which the Brigadier felt might have some connection with the events at the pop festival. The file, the note went on to say, had been given to the Doctor but, in his haste to leave for the Soviet Union, he'd barely glanced at it. Yates, the note concluded, should 'take appropriate action'. Whatever that meant.
'Sergeant Benton.' said Yates with irritation. 'Before you start chasing up our long-haired weirdo friend, go down to the Doctor's lab and pick up this file for me, will you?'
'Yes, sir,' said Benton, immediately turning down the corridor.
Yates watched him go, and felt like calling him back. It was a menial task and Yates was angry that he had delegated it to Benton, who was not only a friend, but also much too busy with his own work to be treated as a dogsbody. It said much for Benton's superbly developed discipline that he hadn't complained to Yates's face about being asked to do what any first-day recruit could have done.
But Yates knew that the chain of command made any sort of apology inadvisable. The infallibility of rank must be seen to be maintained.
So he turned, annoyed by his own shortcomings, and headed for the Brigadier's office and the bottle of Scotch in his filing cabinet.
The Mi-6 carrying the Doctor and Liz suddenly banked to one side. Liz could tell from the Doctor's face that this was a worrying development not envisaged in the original mission plan, but he waited patiently while Shuskin ran towards the front of the helicopter.
Moments later she returned, clearly worried. She barked out orders to the soldiers, and then turned to Liz and the Doctor. 'Blue Flight have come under attack.'
'From what?' asked the Doctor.
'We can't tell from the garbled messages. But they're small and agile.'
'So what's happening?' asked Liz.
'We're making preparations to land. Plan B. We'll have to approach the target on foot.'
'A whole regiment got wiped out,' said Liz. 'And they were better armed than we are.'
'I'm aware of that,' snapped Shuskin.
'Can't we go to the aid of the others?' asked the Doctor.
Shuskin shook her head emphatically. 'No.' She smiled one of her bitter smiles. 'You forget, Doctor. This helicopter has no offensive armament whatsoever.'
John Benton would have been surprised that Captain Yates was even beginning to regret his impatiently snapped instruction. Benton had always obeyed orders without question. As a raw eighteen-year-old, then a private in the rifle brigade of the 17th & 21st Lancers, Benton had been taught harsh lessons in the military way. If it moves, salute