Doctor Who_ The Paradise of Death - Barry Letts [19]
‘Bye-bye, Grebber,’ Freeth said lightly, through a mouthful of treacle toffee.
The seaside donkey with good feed in his nosebag happily follows wherever he is led. In spite of much evidence to the contrary, there is a widely held view amongst those in the PR business that the ladies and gentlemen of the press can be bribed into a good opinion by offering them the equivalent of prime quality oats. In Sarah Jane Smith’s case, they happened to be right (other things being equal).
‘Smoked salmon!’ she said, taking another large mouthful. (Must be a thousand calories a bite. So what?
She could always go without supper.) ‘They’re doing us proud.’
‘I’m bored with smoked salmon,’ said Jeremy, piling his plate with little Nuremburger bratwurst sausages. ‘Every party you go to, they – ’
‘Listen to the deb’s delight. Think yourself lucky it’s not a pickled onion on a toothpick.’
Happily munching, she peered through the bodies of her ever hungry (and thirsty) colleagues milling about the Space Restaurant. She mustn’t let the nosh get in the way of the job. She frowned. ‘Where’s the Doctor got to?’
‘The Observation Gallery. I saw him going up with the Brigadier.’
‘Oh, Jeremy, why didn’t you tell me?’
Pausing only to add a dollop of fresh asparagus mousse to her heaped plate, she pushed her way through to the glass lift in the middle of the circular room, closely followed by Jeremy – and up they sailed like a couple of weightless astronauts to the gallery above.
As she stepped out, her attention was caught by the view through the big picture windows, which was even more spectacular than the one from the restaurant below. Of course, on the south side you had to look through the scaffolding framework holding the exterior lift which had brought them all up, just like the original Apollo rocket which went to the moon, but that merely served to emphasize the incredible distance you could see. The whole of Greater London, with the winding ribbon of the Thames, was laid out like a giant’s toy; and beyond, the greens and browns of the Surrey countryside, shading off into a far blue haze; and beyond that even – yes, it was!
Glinting in the noonday sun: the sea!
‘Not a bad Chablis, all things considered’
The Brigadier’s voice broke into her thoughts. He and the Doctor were alone, the other members of the party having found more important things to do down below.
Poking a gourmet forkful into her mouth, Sarah wandered casually round the gallery to the other side, hoping to be as unnoticed as a familiar piece of furniture.
‘All the circumstantial evidence,’ the Doctor was saying,
‘points to their having come from the other side of the Galaxy.’
Now, this was something interesting. She stopped chewing in case she missed something.
‘What evidence?’ asked the Brigadier.
‘Those creatures: the extremely advanced brain technology used in ER; the – ’
‘But you said the monsters were fakes,’ interrupted the Brigadier.
‘I said nothing of the kind. It’s the names that are fakes.
“Kamelius!” “Ostroid!” I’m surprised they didn’t show us a two-trunked Elephantiasus from the Planet Junglon.’
A chortle from Jeremy drew a filthy look from Sarah.
He became aware that they were all looking at him.
‘Sorry.’ he said. ‘It just tickled me, that’s all: There isn’t really a planet called Junglon, is there?’
‘Of course there isn’t. I just made it up.’
The Brigadier brought them back to the matter in hand.
‘So if they are in fact real,’ he said, ‘we’re on the right track, after all. One of them could have killed that poor chap on the Heath.’
‘If I’m correct in my suspicions, Lethbridge-Stewart, you’d be as safe with those creatures as you would be in a field of new-born lambs!’
Sarah’s indignation overcame her discretion. ‘But that Kamelius thing nearly got me!’
‘Yes, said Jeremy, ‘it could have had her head off. If I hadn’t been there –’
‘Well, of course, they’ve programmed the things to appear savage. But I assure you that you were never in any danger at all.’
‘Programmed?’ said the Brigadier.
‘Nevertheless,’ the Doctor went