Doctor Who_ The Green Death - Malcolm Hulke [32]
‘I have not got a headache.’
‘That is good,’ said the voice of Boss. ‘It means you accept that what we are doing is right.’
Dr Stevens said nothing.
‘Please say that what we are doing is right,’ the voice insisted.
Dr Stevens took a deep breath. ‘What we are doing is right,’ he repeated.
‘Good,’ said Boss. ‘Now drink some sherry or whisky. It will make you happy.’
‘Our sherry and whisky,’ said Dr Stevens, ‘is slow poison.’
The voice of Boss chuckled. ‘But it will make money for Panorama Chemicals. Sell it but don’t drink it.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Dr Stevens.
‘Continue with your work,’ ordered Boss.
Dr Stevens sat down behind his desk. After seeing Dr Bell’s body on the roadway he did not much feel like doing anything.
‘Get to work!’ said the voice of Boss, sharply.
‘Yes,’ said Dr Stevens, ‘straight away.’
For the next two hours he tried to overcome his gloom with a pretence of desk work. The events of the past few days, the deaths of the miners and now Dr Bell, had sapped his enthusiasm. Above all, he could find no direction in what he was supposed to be doing. He remained in that mood until early evening, when Hinks tapped on the door and came in. Hinks looked as though he had been drinking.
‘What is it?’ Dr Stevens asked. He could smell the beer on Hinks’s breath.
‘Just been down to the pub,’ said Hinks. ‘Somehow the people at the Nut Hatch got hold of one of the eggs.’
Dr Stevens sat bolt upright. ‘How?’
Rinks shrugged. ‘In the mine, I suppose.’
The news triggered off all of Dr Stevens’s induced loyalty to Boss and the main purpose of their work. ‘You must go and get it for us, Hinks.’
Hinks grinned. ‘What if they won’t let me have it?’ He was a bit drunk.
‘Don’t go and ask for it,’ Dr Stevens said patiently. ‘Take it!’
‘Right.’ Hinks clenched his fists.
‘At all costs that egg must not be in their hands when it hatches,’ said Dr Stevens.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Hinks. ‘I’ll get it back.’ He hurried out.
After Mark Elgin had secreted the Doctor and Jo out of the ground in the boot of his car, he deposited them at the Nut Hatch. The Doctor thanked Elgin warmly and asked whether he knew what Panorama Chemicals was really doing. Elgin replied honestly that he didn’t know.
‘But you’re the public relations officer,’ said Jo, ‘you should know everything about the Company!’
‘Perhaps,’ said Elgin, ‘they pay me such a big salary so that I won’t ask questions.’
The Doctor tried to get Elgin to go into the Nut Hatch with them, to have a hospitable cup of herbal tea. But the PRO felt he had gone far enough in helping the Doctor and Jo to escape; he still worked for Panorama and should be back there.
For the evening meal Nancy had prepared a vast cauldron of stew, which the Doctor, Jo, and the Brigadier were invited to share. While the table was being set, the Doctor went along to Professor Jones’s laboratory with the egg they had found in the mine.
‘Extraordinary,’ said the young professor. ‘You really think that thing’s going to hatch out?’
‘Those maggots must come from eggs,’ said the Doctor, as he carefully let the egg roll from its plastic bag onto a laboratory tray. ‘Perhaps we’ll be lucky. By the way, I shouldn’t touch it.’
The meal was a great success, the Doctor amusing the Wholewealers with stories of his travels. It was during his account of life on Metebelis Three that he was wanted on the phone. With the Doctor gone from the table, conversation started between people sitting next to each other. The Brigadier politely turned to the young man beside him who had shoulder-length hair, a flowing beard, and wore a kaftan and chunky wooden beads. ‘Ever fancied life in the army?’ the Brigadier asked brightly, as a joke.
‘It was quite pleasant,’ said the young man, sipping the home-made elderberry wine Nancy had produced for the occasion.
‘ You were in the Army?’ the Brigadier looked astounded. ‘What did you do?’
‘I was a colonel.’
‘Good grief!’
Across the table Professor Jones turned to Jo. ‘Still angry with me?’
She smiled. ‘That was a long time ago.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘All of yesterday.