Doctor Who_ The King of Terror - Keith Topping [54]
‘It sometimes seemed as if I didn’t have much choice in the matter,’ said the Doctor as Natalie Wooldridge entered carrying two teacups.
‘Thank you,’ scowled Lethbridge-Stewart as she put them on the table in front of them.
‘That’s all right Uncle Ally,’ said Natalie. Then she popped a hand to her mouth as if to stop anything more incriminating emerging. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered and scurried off.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. ‘I know I really shouldn’t ask . . . ’ he said.
‘For heaven’s sake,’ bristled the Brigadier angrily. ‘I’ve known the girl since she was six. And she was featherbrained even then! I mean, look at this, she hasn’t even put any sugar in my tea . . . ’
‘I’m sure she’s doing her best.’
‘Her best?’ the Brigadier roared. ‘Doctor, my grandmother could do better and she’s been dead since 1955,’ he continued, using one of his favourite aphorisms.
‘Not interrupting anything, are we?’ asked Captain Paynter as he, Barrington and Tyrone returned to the office.
‘Not at all,’ noted the Doctor. ‘Pull up a seat. We have much to talk about.’
‘How was the conference, sir?’ asked Barrington.
Lethbridge-Stewart looked horrified at being reminded of it. ‘Dreary, Lieutenant,’ he said. ‘All the Third World representatives were a bunch of cut-throats and ruffians who I wouldn’t trust with a peashooter, let alone extremely dangerous alien technology. I’ve never trusted the Soviets. And now there are dozens of them . . . ’
‘Interesting,’ said the Doctor. ‘For you, the break-up of the old Soviet Union was a really bad thing wasn’t it?’
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‘Well exactly,’ agreed the Brigadier before he realised he was being ruth-lessly sent up and returned his attention to Barrington’s question. ‘Sir Thomas tries hard to keep them all under control but it’s a losing battle. Bunch of foreigners after all. Anyway, it seems we have more urgent matters to attend to. Perhaps we can have Captain Paynter’s report first?’
‘Yes sir,’ said Paynter. He paused and looked genuinely uncertain about how much of a ten-page report to read. After a moment he pushed it across the desk towards the Brigadier and said, simply, ‘InterCom have access to alien technology.’
Lethbridge-Stewart nodded. ‘Brief, but useful. Doctor?’
‘Intercom have access to alien technology,’ repeated the Doctor, without any apparent irony. ‘At least we know that much.’
‘And nothing more?’
The Doctor began to say something, then stopped, shaking his head. ‘Some suspicions,’ he continued after a moment of soul-searching. ‘Lots of speculation, rumour and hearsay. Which are all useless without some facts. I should prefer to confine myself to those before sending you all off on a wild goose chase. Suffice to say that I think what we’re dealing with here is infiltration rather than conquest. I believe Intercom are aliens, rather than that they’ve been taken over by them.’
‘What’s their objective?’ asked Tyrone.
Now that, thought the Doctor, was a question worth asking. ‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ he noted. ‘Though having a direct point of access to virtually every man, woman and child on this planet through their computers, television screens and newspapers does raise some quite startling possibilities as I’m sure you’ll agree.’
Paynter almost choked on his tea at that point.
‘Indoctrination,’ said Lethbridge-Stewart.
‘An invasion from within . . .
We’ve seen all this before.’
‘My God,’ spluttered Paynter. ‘How did we let this happen again?’
‘The question is rather, what do we do about it?’ said the Doctor.
‘I think you’ll find this one most interesting,’ said Ryman as he and Sanger took the