Doctor Who_ The King of Terror - Keith Topping [105]
The Doctor ignored the insult to his friend. ‘So, to sum up. Yet again, you’ve brought humanity to the brink of destruction and placed the Earth in the middle of an alien war-zone. Let me know if I’m being unduly harsh at any point?’
Control merely smiled, whilst the Brigadier showed his horror at the CIA man’s lack of an apology for his actions. ‘You are an unspeakable wretch,’ he said angrily. ‘You don’t care, do you? It’s all a game to you.’
‘Of course it is,’ said Control. ‘What is life, if not a game?’
‘You do really make something of a habit of this, don’t you?’ asked the Doctor.
‘Well, I guess you could say we’ve been surfing blind with two aces up our sleeve,’ noted Control. ‘If you’ll excuse such a terribly mixed metaphor.’
‘Meaning?’ asked the Brigadier, but Control didn’t reply.
Instead, he was again looking into the distance, watching the sunset dip below the horizon and the sky go through several shades of orange in a matter of seconds before stopping at bloodred. ‘About the only thing I love about California is the sunset,’ he noted wistfully.
‘I feel it necessary to remind you that there is the minor matter of two heavily armed alien war fleets currently heading for Earth,’ said the Doctor. ‘Both with very different agendas of course, but neither of them wholly conducive to health and happiness for the human race. And I include the CIA in that, however reluctantly.’
‘Oh that,’ Control deadpanned dismissively. ‘I suppose you guys could use a bit of help. In fact, I’m surprised I had to come to you. I figured you’d have been looking for my assistance a couple of days ago. Fair disappointed me, that did!’
Now the Doctor was angry. ‘Help?’ he squealed. ‘Los Angeles is about to be destroyed.’
‘Never did like this town much,’ Control said, avoiding the disgusted look he received from Lethbridge-Stewart.
The Doctor, despite the provocation, could see a way to move the meeting towards a conclusion that would satisfy both sides. ‘What help would you and the CIA be able to contribute?’ he asked. ‘Theoretically?’
‘All of the CIA’s expertise,’ Control answered and stuck his keys in the car’s ignition.
‘Fine,’ replied the Doctor, getting out of the car and helping the Brigadier to follow him. The pair stood mutely as Control drove off at speed, throwing up a plume of dirt as the car careered around a tight bend and disappeared from sight.
199
‘So, what does that all mean?’ asked the Brigadier.
‘It means we’ve got a chance, I think,’ replied the Doctor as he turned and started to clamber down the steep incline towards Paynter and their jeep.
200
Chapter Twenty-Two
Holes
The man’s name was Dwayne Landmott. When he arrived at UNIT headquarters, banging on the roller shutter and demanding entrance, Captain Paynter and two of his newly formed temporary Los Angeles regiment met him with guns and few smiles and asked what the hell he wanted in a secure area.
‘I’m from the CIA,’ Landmott told them, producing an identity card like it was a sheriff’s badge in the middle of a gunslingers’ convention. ‘Control sent me to show you guys how to put the wind up these aliens.’
‘Good.’ noted Paynter, bundling the bearded little man in open-necked shirt and flared jeans through the door at the point of his gun. ‘Come upstairs, and if we like you we won’t kill you.’
The UNIT area patrol car sped along the virtually deserted Sepulveda Boulevard. What traffic there was, mostly family saloons crammed with people and belongings, was heading in the opposite direction – out of the city. These people knew, Paynter thought to himself. Soon, everyone would know and Los Angeles would resemble the Balkans as millions of refugees fled up the freeways in a seething tide of displaced humanity.
The patrol car took a corner into a side street with a squeal of rubber on tarmac that set Paynter’s teeth on edge. ‘Who the hell do you think you are, matey?’ he called forward to the corporal doing the driving. ‘Pierre-Yves Dudoin can get away with that