Doctor Who_ War Games - Malcolm Hulke [6]
Twelve armed soldiers had lined up. Captain Ransom looked at them, confusion in his eyes.
‘Awaiting your command, sir,’ said the sergeant.
Ransom still seemed uncertain, so the sergeant reminded him why they were all there. ‘Ready to execute the spy, sir.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Captain Ransom. He cleared his throat. ‘Take positions.’ Six soldiers in the front row knelt down and aimed their rifles; the six soldiers behind raised their guns to fire from a standing position. ‘Ready,’ said Captain Ransom. ‘Take aim—’
Before he could utter the word ‘Fire! ‘ a single shot broke the silence. One of the kneeling soldiers fell backwards. Zoe looked up at the trees. For a second she saw a tattered British army uniform, a grimy unshaven face and the glint of a rifle. Another shot rang out. The sentry holding her fell to the ground.
‘German sniper!’ shouted Ransom. ‘Fire at will!’
Now all members of the execution squad knelt to take aim and fire into the tree. Zoe raced across the grass to Doctor Who. She started to untie his hands.
‘What’s happening?’ he said. ‘Get this stupid blindfold off me, whoever you are. I want to see what’s happening.’
Zoe released his hands first. He dragged off the blindfold himself. ‘Who are they shooting at?’
But she didn’t answer. She had already formed a plan of escape in her mind and this was no time for discussions.
Grabbing the Doctor’s hand she tugged him with her into dense bushes.
Jamie banged with both fists on the door of his prison cell.
‘Hey,’ he shouted, ‘if you’re going to return me to a regiment I never belonged to, hurry up and return me! I don’t want to stay in this filthy hole.’
The only item of furniture in the cell was a straw-filled palliasse. The small, heavily barred window was far too high for anyone but a giant to look out of.
Footsteps were coming along the corridor outside. He thumped on the door again. ‘I wasn’t to be put in a place like this,’ he called. ‘I was told to go and die for my country.’
A key turned in the lock. Jamie stood back, hoping his pleas had been heeded. The heavy door swung into the cell.
Outside were two British soldiers struggling to subdue an English redcoat.
‘You get in there,’ one of the soldiers shouted. ‘We’ve got no time for deserters here! ‘
The redcoat was thrown bodily into the cell. By the time he had scrambled to his feet the door was closed.
‘I’m no deserter,’ the man started to say. Then he saw Jamie. He looked down at the kilt. ‘A Highlander! Keep away from me, you barbarian.’ The man cowered back into a corner.
Jamie could not believe his eyes. ‘You’re... you’re from my time.’ The long red coat, with its blue cuffs and white trimmings, was all too familiar to a Scottish lad who had fought for the Young Pretender over two hundred years ago. ‘How did you get here?’
‘I got lost,’ said the Englishman. ‘I don’t rightly remember.’
‘Listen,’ said Jamie, ‘what year do you think it is?’
‘Only a Scots barbarian wouldn’t know what year it is,’
said the redcoat snidely.
‘All right,’ said Jamie, ‘what date is it?’
‘I don’t rightly know the exact day of the month,’ said the redcoat, ‘but any fool knows this is the year of 1745.’
The Doctor lay on his stomach in tall grass looking down at the valley below. ‘They were going to send him to some regiment or other. How do you know he was sent to a military prison?’
‘I heard one of the officers tell one of those sergeants,’
said Zoe. ‘Do you think that could be it?’
The only sign of life in the valley was a grey, sombre building with rows of tiny windows. The Doctor produced a telescope from one of the many pockets of his black jacket. He fixed it to his eye.
‘We may have struck lucky,’ he announced. ‘It’s surrounded by sentries.’
‘That doesn’t sound very lucky.’
‘It’s a first step,’ he said, pocketing the telescope. ‘You need to recognise your target before you can hope to hit it...’ He trailed off. His attention had been taken by a khaki military car coming along