Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [61]
While the eyes of the media were on the enemy, the Army were dusting off their invasion plans. There was a lot of dust on them. it was over fifty years since there had been any realistic possibility that a foreign power would invade Britain rather than obliterate it with nukes. During al that time, the British Army had kept itself busy with minor skirmishes, training exercises, Northern Ireland and peacekeeping for the UN. The theorists and strategists had spent a lot of their time running war games, planning what they would do in the unlikely event of an invasion of British soil. The computer simulations had proved that the war time plans had been broadly along the right lines.
It was a simple idea, borrowed from the terrorists, guerril as and mercenaries that the Army had spent its time fighting. Elite soldiers would, as the sexist phrase had it, 'kiss their wives and disappear', heading underground to carefully prepared safe houses and secret hideouts. Caches of weapons and other equipment were buried around the country. These soldiers would continue the fight behind enemy lines, helped by careful y-vetted locals with good knowledge of the terrain of their area. Each group would operate like a terrorist cell, to prevent infiltration.
These 'Auxiliary Units' would sabotage bridges and railway lines, monitor enemy troop movements, blow up strategic targets.
All around the country, men were kissing their wives goodbye and disappearing.
Captain Ford was on his way to UNIT HQ in Windmill One-Nine. Because of their unique position, the staff at UNIT
HQ would liaise with other countries, provide an 'underground railway' for men and materials. Ford would remove the communications equipment from HQ and take it to the rendezvous point outside Windsor.
Bambera's husband Ancelyn had been in Durham, on a pilgrimage to the tomb of St Cuthbert. Now he was heading to Balmoral with an SAS team to evacuate the Queen and Prince Phillip. The submarine Prometheus was waiting to take them to safety. The Prince of Wales and his sons had been on the royal jet when the Martian ship entered the atmosphere. Instead of London, the jet had ended up in Madrid.
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Other members of the royal family were also being accounted for. Ancelyn would be going with the Queen to Canada, protecting the rightful sovereign and the descendants of the rightful sovereign as his sacred oath demanded.
Bambera would never get the chance to kiss her husband goodbye. She put the phone down.
'We are with you,' Lethbridge-Stewart said. Alexander Christian nodded his consent.
'With respect, gentlemen, no. Go home to your family, Alistair. We'll manage.' Bambera couldn't look them in the eye as she said it.
'No.' Lethbridge-Stewart said firmly. 'This is our fight, too.'
She smiled. 'Good.'
The Foreign Office was being deluged by messages from around the world, al of which welcomed the Martian's peaceful intentions towards the rest of the world. The Cubans were the first to welcome the new administration and hope for future co-operation. Emergency sessions in parliaments, congresses and palaces around the world concluded that a 'wait and see' policy would be most prudent.
***
Greyhaven consulted his watch.
'A quarter past eight. It is time.'
'Time?'
'With the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary in Washington and the Chancel or of the Exchequer in bed with a nasty bout of food poisoning, you're in charge, Staines.'
'M-me?'
Greyhaven nodded. 'And the Martians did say that they wanted the leader to go up in person.'
'Er... Teddy.'
'I'll accompany you if you wish, Home Secretary.'
'You're going up there?' It was Veronica Hal iwel , the head of MI5.
'There's little choice, is there, Director General?'
'Will you be armed?' she had done her homework. Greyhaven had done his National Service, and still practised his marksmanship from time to time.
'No, thank you, commander. That's a big ship, and one handgun won't make too much