Doctor Who_ The Last Dodo - Jacqueline Rayner [48]
Albert! Of course! The Doctor suddenly had an idea. He hared off down the road, doubling back on himself.
Yes! There outside the supermarket a fire engine still stood. A fire engine with a ladder on the top…
He opened a door and climbed up, schoolboy pleasure at being inside such a machine blotting out all worries about the present crisis. He flexed his wrists and grasped the steering wheel, a big grin on his face.
A throat was cleared on the other side of the door. The Doctor looked out of the window. ‘I think you might need this,’ said Albert, holding up a key.
The Doctor reached out, but Albert didn’t hand it over. ‘What’s up?’ he asked.
‘I need the ladder,’ the Doctor told him. ‘To climb over a dinosaur.’
‘Ladder needs two people to operate,’ said Albert. ‘Shove over.’
‘Do you know how to drive this thing, then?’
‘I’m the man with the key,’ Albert said. ‘Why d’you think the rest all went off on the other appliance? Course I know how to drive it.’
The Doctor looked crestfallen. ‘I was sort of hoping you didn’t,’ he said. ‘I don’t suppose…’
‘Nope,’ said Albert, grinning. ‘Tell you what, though, maybe on the way back. After we’ve sorted the dinosaur.’
The Doctor returned the grin, moving over to let Albert into the driving seat. ‘It’s a deal!’
To the Doctor’s disappointment, Albert wouldn’t let him put on the sirens or the flashing blue lights as they drove down the road towards the Megalosaurus. ‘You really want to alert that thing?’ the fireman asked, which the Doctor had to admit was a good point. The dinosaur didn’t pay any attention to them as they pulled up, though, still being occupied with its sabre‐toothed meal. But how long it would remain distracted for was the question.
‘Yup, that’s a big beast all right,’ commented Albert matter‐of‐factly as he pulled on the brake. ‘Lucky it’s a big ladder…
The fireman showed the Doctor how to use the system of ropes and pulleys that extended the ladder upwards. They were both uncomfortably aware as they worked that the merest flick of a claw could prove their undoing, should the dinosaur switch its attention to them.
‘Any particular reason you need to climb over the thing?’ Albert asked as they began hauling away.
‘Got a time machine the other side,’ the Doctor said.
‘Oh,’ said Albert.
Soon the ladder was fully extended. The Doctor made Albert get back into the vehicle’s cab, with strict instructions to drive away should the Megalosaurus become an immediate danger – no matter what position the Doctor was in. Then he began to climb.
The dinosaur’s head was lowered, attacking the tiger corpse, but it was still a formidable height. The Doctor reached the top – just as a huge eye flickered towards him.
The head reared up. Jaws opened. The Doctor leapt…
…And landed on the creature’s scaly forehead. He scrambled upwards as a forearm flailed worryingly near, but then he was over the top and sliding down the other side, like he was in the Flintstones title sequence. The TARDIS key was in his hand ready, and he slid off the end of the tail and inserted the key in one flowing movement. He grabbed the pendant out of its slot on the console, zip zap zipped with the sonic screwdriver, and was back through the doors in seconds. Were his calculations correct? Would it work?
Yes. The dinosaur froze, and the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. But now what? Could he reverse the reversal, Martha had asked; send the creatures back? Well, he had a pendant, and he had the sonic screwdriver. He didn’t have access to the museum’s central computer, but he did have the TARDIS.