Doctor Who_ The King of Terror - Keith Topping [63]
She could almost have hugged Paynter at that moment.
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Almost, but not quite.
‘I know,’ said Natalie sympathetically, sitting on the side of the bed and stroking his arm. ‘But life goes on.’
‘And we, however reluctantly, have to go on with it,’ added Tegan. She was thinking of Aunt Vanessa now. How had she coped with that? By getting in a time machine and being kidnapped, that’s how.
‘I know all that,’ noted Paynter. ‘It’s not the first time I’ve had this happen to me. But that doesn’t make it any easier. You’d think it would, but it doesn’t.’
Natalie kissed him and stood up. ‘You poor thing,’ she said as she began to cry again.
Tegan was visibly appalled.
Thankfully, Sergeant Milligan arrived at that moment, looking furtively around him as he came into the room.
‘All right Dave,’ said Paynter, brightly. ‘Surely you brought me some booze?’
Milligan triumphantly produced a bottle of Jack Daniels from beneath his overcoat and thrust it into Paynter’s hands.
‘Hide it quick,’ he said. ‘There’s a twenty-stone nurse following me about. I think she’s got alcohol sonar.’
‘Nice one,’ said Paynter with a cheeky grin, slipping the bottle beneath his bedclothes. ‘How you doing?’
Milligan was forthright. ‘A lot better than you are by the look of things, skip.
Who the hell is trying to kill us all?’
‘Search me,’ replied Paynter. ‘What does the Doctor reckon?’
‘He and the Brig are planning to fly to San Francisco tomorrow for some reason that they didn’t see fit to let me in on. ’Cos, like. I’m only a sergeant, you know? They did give me some orders concerning you though.’
‘Oh yes?’ Paynter looked worried.
Milligan sensed the panic he was causing. ‘And Miss Tegan,’ he continued.
‘I don’t like the sound of this at all,’ said Tegan.
By the expression on his face, neither did Paynter.
The car that met the Doctor and the Brigadier at San Francisco airport was a long black limousine with tinted-glass windows. Entering it, they felt as though they were crawling into the belly of a rattlesnake.
The landmarks of one of the most beautiful cities on Earth flashed by them as they drove through Golden Gate Park at high speed. But neither the Time Lord nor the soldier seemed particularly interested in their surroundings. Both were unusually nervous and dry-throated and they spoke little during the journey. When they did, it was in monosyllabic and conspiratorial whispers.
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In the front seat, their CIA driver appeared to be not the slightest bit interested in the men he was delivering to his superiors. But both the Doctor and the Brigadier knew how little faith to place in such appearances.
‘What do you expect from this?’ asked the Brigadier in a low voice.
‘I couldn’t possibly comment on that Brigadier,’ the Doctor said more loudly, nodding towards the back of the driver’s head. ‘Chicanery and double-bluff I’d have said.’
‘No change there then?’
‘Not really.’
Once they had arrived at the CIA offices it seemed to take an eternity for the elevator to get them to the twenty-ninth floor, but when it did they were both in for a surprise.
‘Well, look here,’ said a familiar voice as they were ushered into an underlit office. Control stepped out of the shadows with a broad grin. ‘Ally, boy. I haven’t laid eyes on you in like, for ever.’
The Brigadier looked closely at the little man. A flood of memories threatened to drown him. Of Area 51 Nevada, the Nedenah and the sarcastic son of a bitch who was standing before him now, looking not a day older than he had in 1970. ‘You’ve aged well,’ he said flatly, looking at this keeper of the purple twilight as Control seated himself at his desk and smiled a bland and dangerously friendly smile.
With friends like this who, indeed, requires deadly enemies?
‘Wish I could say the same for you, Ally,’ replied Control. ‘But frankly, I’d be lying if I did. Aren’t you getting a bit old for this sort of thing?’
Lethbridge-Stewart managed to keep his dignity despite the vicious sarcasm. ‘That’s one opinion,’ he said. ‘Not