Doctor Who_ The Forgotten Army - Brian Minchin [14]
Oscar smiled. This sounded like a promotion to him. He couldn't wait to tell the rest of the boys that he was on the personal instructions of the Commander.
'One thing, Henderson,' Strebbins continued. 'I 55
DOCTOR WHO
can't have this being reported. You know how this place works. It's all time sheets and duty logs and explaining ourselves to a higher authority. I'm not having any of that.
You'll take the next few days as leave. If you want to ring in, I'm giving you my personal cell phone number.' She handed Oscar a blank card with a number written on it in biro.
'Thank you, ma'am. This is a great honour.'
Strebbins cut him off. 'Can it, Oscar. You're doing this 'cos you're the only guy here that the girl talked to. I need you to get close in to them. So lose the grateful act.'
Oscar was smiling as he left the office. If taking care of the two eccentrics was all he had to do, he was going to have an easy time of it.
Strebbins was obviously more concerned than Oscar.
She punched a speed-dial button on her desk phone.
'This is Commander Strebbins. Status update on the apprehended creature, please.'
Oscar could hear the reply through the speakerphone:
'It's out cold. We're clearing the dog pound for it. Until then, it stays on the flatbed.'
'Forget the dog pound,' Strebbins ordered. This thing needs proper protection. Take it to the zoo.'
'Are you sure?' queried the duty officer.
Strebbins's lower lip trembled with anger. 'If I hear you haven't done it, you're fired.'
*
56
THE FORGOTTEN ARNY
Ever since the sleeping mammoth had been taken away by the cops, Sam Horwitz had been hiding deep in the basement of the Natural History Museum. He'd seen how quickly the ginger girl had been handcuffed, and he had slipped quietly back into the Museum in the hubbub. He knew he'd have to face his fate sooner or later, but for now he was trying to piece together the mystery of the mammoth.
Working furiously at his desk, he'd been going through every scan and test he had run on the mammoth. It had been improbable enough that the beast still had fur when he first found it, let alone that it could breathe. He sighed, and put his head in his hands.
This wasn't how the day had been meant to go. By now, he thought, he should have been interviewed countless times on television and radio, answering questions in as many languages as the world spoke. He would have answered humbly and calmly, explaining how he alone had found and preserved the mammoth. Then, after an exhausting but triumphant day, he would have asked Polly Vernon out to dinner. Tired, but sparkling, she would have seen in him what he saw in her, and all the months of working alone would have been worth it.
Now, instead, his career was over. In the space of a few minutes, he'd gone from being the rising star of Palaeontology to the biggest booby in all of America. He'd brought a living creature into the
57
DOCTOR WHO
sacred heart of the Natural History Museum and let it loose on hundreds of people. Priceless displays had been destroyed, and the two strangers that had leapt upon its back had almost been killed.
He couldn't stop remembering Polly's face asking him what she should do. It was so obvious to him now that he should have led her and her school to safety. That's what a hero would have done. Instead, he'd told her to run, and tried to talk to a mammoth. Some kind of hero he was.
But even through all of this, part of him couldn't get over how incredible it all was. His