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213

DOCTOR WHO

watch his fellow officers turned into Vykoid slaves.

Hardening his heart to the task ahead, he told himself that his only option was to find Commander Strebbins and take the alien controller from her head. Taking out his mobile, he dialled the private number Strebbins had given him.

On the other side of the city, walking stiffly out of the TV

Studio, Commander Strebbins picked up her phone.

'I am ready to report on the Doctor,' Oscar told her.

Sitting in the command chair on top of her head, the Vykoid Lars grinned and waggled his levers to make Strebbins answer. 'Of course, I'll be at Madison Square. Meet me there.'

Sitting in his car, Oscar's hands shook with nerves. He'd never thought being a police officer would lead him to this.

He drew out his gun and loaded it. He wasn't going to let New York go down without a fight.

214

Chapter

20

Their mad dash across Manhattan had worked, and Amy stopped the mammoth in the shadow of the World Financial Center. The waters of the Hudson lapped at the quayside in front of them. The dock was thronging with boats, and New York ferries. Amy was eager to get out of the mammoth and leap aboard.

'Hang on a minute, Amy.’ said the Doctor, then yelled back to Sam: 'Is this thing waterproof?'

Sam appeared, ruffled and shiny from being cooped up in the back end of the mammoth. 'It should be, yeah. I mean, it kept the ice out for all that time.'

The Doctor knocked on the walls, 'Built of rare Vykoid alloys. I reckon it'll float, even with us inside.

215

DOCTOR WHO

Oh don't look at me like that, Amy, that's the slowest ferry you'll ever see. It'll be like the open bus tour of Leadworth.

This way, we get to find out one of the lost secrets of prehistory... Can a mammoth swim?'

Amy turned the mammoth away from the ferry, and headed south into Battery Park. In front of her they could see Ellis island, where twelve million immigrants had once arrived for a new life in America and, standing proudly in the bay, the Statue of Liberty itself.

Joe and the other children had been right. Even in the morning sun, Amy could see the pulse of alien light on the Statue. Sparks of green energy arced between the spikes of the crown, and the top of the statue crackled like a circuit waiting to discharge.

'OK, I'm ready.’ Amy said. 'Though I'd like to point out you never said it was going to be "Goodbye Leadworth, hello drowning inside a hairy elephant".'

The Doctor smiled. 'Being trapped inside friendly monsters is all part of the fun.'

The mammoth picked up pace, going faster and faster until it reached the water's edge. Amy pulled back on the pretzel-wheel, and the giant creature soared forward.

Barely a metre away from the quay, they landed in the water with a massive splash and, for a disconcerting moment, the entire mammoth sank down, down into the murky waters of the Hudson.

216

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

As water rose up past the eyes of the mammoth, Amy saw an astonished school of fish blinking in wonder at the hairy beast.

Amy looked around her nervously. 'Er, how exactly do you know Vykoid metal floats?'

'The skin is holding tight.’ the Doctor reassured her. 'Look, no water's leaking in. So come on - teach this thing to swim!'

Amy kicked out with the mammoth's feet, and it sprang off the silty riverbed and bobbed back up to the surface, its massive tusks jutting out of the water.

As the head broke the surface of the water, a slow-moving seagull flapped its wings lazily and took to the air. The Doctor grabbed the pretzel-wheel and yanked the controls to one side.

'We're going a bit faster than them, too - they can't move out of the way.’ he explained.

The seagull narrowly avoided being impaled on the fast-moving tusk and splashed back down in the water, perturbed by the hairy beast wallowing in the Hudson.

'Full steam ahead!' the Doctor yelled.

Battling through the waves and currents the mammoth was swimming directly towards Liberty Island.