Doctor Who_ The Paradise of Death - Barry Letts [62]
‘Why yes,’ answered the President. ‘He took over from me when I resigned to run for President. Would I have trusted my corporation to a stranger?’ He turned back to Freeth. ‘Sit down, my boy. Pour yourself a glass The Doctor is about to tell us a story. I must say he has me thoroughly intrigued.’
Freeth stayed quite still, a slight smile curving his thick lips, his little eyes between the folds of flesh flicking to and fro.
There was a silence. The Brigadier looked at Tragan; was he smiling too? It was impossible to tell.
The Doctor said, ‘I think the moment has passed, sir. If you will forgive me, I’ll leave it to another time.’
The President raised an eyebrow. ‘As you will,’ he said courteously. ‘I shall have to contain my disappointment as patiently as I can.’
After exchanging a few more polite, diplomatic, empty platitudes, the Doctor and the Brigadier were allowed to retire, having expressed the enormous sense of privilege and eager anticipation they felt at the thought of meeting the Chancellor and other Ministers of the Government the next morning.
As they left, Tragan made to follow, only to be stopped by the President’s voice, made firm by its sternness. ‘Not you, Vice-Chairman,’ he said. ‘Before you go, I should like to hear what message can be so urgent that you consider it gives you permission to invade my private quarters...’ His voice was cut off by the closing of the door behind them.
‘We can’t stay here now,’ the Brigadier said out of the side of his mouth, as he strode down the corridor after the guard escorting them to the front door of the palace.
‘Certainly not,’ replied the Doctor, in like manner. ‘But we can’t leave without Sarah and Jeremy. Tragan said they were on their way back. Let’s hope he was right.’
At this moment the pair in question were hanging on to the edges of their seats as Waldo’s flycar swooped down towards its home park. In spite of Jeremy’s fears that it might drop out of the sky (’I mean! We don’t really know how to work it, and it hasn’t got any wings or jet-thingies or anything!’), it had responded immaculately to Sarah’s finger pressing on its home button.
So it was that when they arrived at a run at the entrance to the Ambassadorial suite, they met the others running the other way.
‘Sarah! Thank goodness!’ said the Doctor. ‘Come on, there’s no time to lose!’ Taking no notice of her urgent pleas for him to stop and listen to her, he set off with the Brigadier back the way they’d come.
‘Hey, wait for me!’ cried Jeremy, as Sarah raced in pursuit.
‘Where are we going?’ she gasped, as she caught up with the Brigadier.
‘The TARDIS. We’ve got to get away.’
‘But we can’t do that. They’re going to kill Waldo!’
‘What? Captain Rudley? When? How?’
‘Execute him – hunt him. Oh, I don’t know. What does it matter? We’ve got to stop them! Doctor! Please!’
But the Doctor was disappearing through the door that led to the outside. Sarah dived after him, closely followed by the Brigadier. But as the Doctor ran the last few yards towards the TARDIS, which was waiting patiently in the middle of the courtyard, a figure appeared from behind it.
‘You didn’t really think we’d be so stupid as to leave your ship unguarded, did you?’ said Tragan, his face turbulent; and as Jeremy crashed through the door behind them Sarah became aware that other figures, in purple uniforms and holding strangely shaped guns, were appearing from every side.
The massive bulk of Chairman Freeth rolled into view.
‘We meet again, Doctor,’ he said. There was a crack as he squeezed two walnuts together in his little podgy hand.
‘Just in time to say goodbye,’ he went on. ‘And we’ve hardly had an opportunity to get to know each other. To misquote a little, I think this could be the end of a beautiful friendship.’
‘What are you going to do?’ said the Doctor.
‘Oh, come now, Doctor,’ he said, poking an exploratory finger amongst the broken shells. ‘You know very well what I’m going to do.’ He looked up. ‘The only question is,
“How?” ‘