Doctor Who_ The Paradise of Death - Barry Letts [28]
‘Get a move on,’ he hissed.
‘What’s the rush?’ said the Brigadier, falling back into his seat as the little car shot away like a Formula One at Brands Hatch.
‘I want to get away before they find out, of course.’
‘Find out what?’
‘That I’ve nicked that hair.’
‘Whatever did you do that for?’
‘I have a hunch we’re going to need it,’ the Doctor said and refused to say another word.
‘Space World will be closing in fifteen minutes’
time. Please proceed to the main gate or to the car park.
Space World will be closing in fifteen minutes’ time...’
The distant voice on the public address system could barely be heard in the hushed luxury of the Chairman’s room.
‘A very satisfactory day all round,’ said Freeth, as he inspected the returns from the box-office. Tragan watched him inscrutably as he ambled over to the Sheraton sideboard and poured a quarter pint of crème de menthe into a crystal tumbler, topping it up with a dollop of Campari.
‘Nevertheless.’ he went on, sucking his teeth after a first luxuriant gulp. ‘it would be as well if you were to return to Parakon forthwith and take, er, “Fido” and “Fifi” with you.’
‘And if there’s more trouble here?’
‘The only possible trouble would be if that soldier person,’ he continued disdainfully, ‘should manage to connect us with the death of the intruder. If you’ve removed the creatures, the problem can’t arise.’
‘I wish I could agree, Chairman Freeth.’
Freeth took another large sip of his greyish concoction.
‘The point is academic,’ he replied. ‘As you say, I am still the chairman and I shall decide. The only other person who might have posed a threat has been dealt with. The Doctor is dead.’
A single knock and the door swung open to reveal the putative corpse, followed by the ‘soldier person’. For a moment. Freeth’s jaw hung open, a little dribble of his cocktail trickling from the corner of his mouth.
‘Forgive us for barging in unannounced,’ said the Doctor. ‘Your secretary seems to have gone home for the evening.’
Freeth quickly recovered. ‘I’m delighted to see you so hale and, one might almost say, hearty. We were given to understand that you’d left us.’
He wiped the trickle with the back of his forefinger and licked it off, with every appearance of enjoyment.
‘Space World will be closing in five minutes time. Thank you for visiting us. Please tell your friends how much you have enjoyed yourselves. Space World will be closing in live minutes time...’
‘I say, Sarah Jane – ’
‘Sssh! Keep still!’
Honestly, she’d have been better off by herself. But he’d pleaded, saying how good he was at keeping watch and saving her life and stuff, so she’d relented; and now she was stuck with him in the little service room behind the Kamelius House, listening to the booming voice outside and waiting for everything to shut down. They’d incautiously peeped through the door and seen the Kamelius lying down, chewing like a cow, and were just in time to catch the last visitors being ushered out. So it wouldn’t be long now.
‘But I’ve got pins and needles.’
‘If you don’t be quiet...!’
UNIT had refused to give her the Brigadier’s home number, but they’d checked for her. He wasn’t in Bessie either, because they had given her that one, and she’d tried three times. So she’d decided that, Clorinda or no Clorinda, it was too good a story to pass up and if necessary she’d sell it to one of the Nationals and –
A voice in the Kamelius’s chamber! Jeremy was by now delivering himself of a sort of sotto voce groan. She pinched his arm hard, and with a little ‘Eek!’ he subsided.
‘Maybe tomorrow night. Mavis’ll have got the chips on.
See you.’ Oh, Lor’. The voice was getting closer!
She pulled Jeremy down behind a big grey metal