Doctor Who: Virgin Missing Adventures [009] - Dancing the Code by Paul Leonard

Author:Paul Leonard
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426204411
Publisher: Virgin
Published: 1995-06-13T22:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

The Brigadier had a last glimpse of the Giltean encampment as Yates turned the helicopter towards the mountains. The guns were still trained on them. It was a disconcerting sight, even though the Brigadier knew that they were out of range.

‘I took a gander at the alien installation, sir,’ said Yates. ‘Got a couple of pictures from the automatic camera.’

‘You didn’t see the Doctor?’

Yates shook his head. ‘Just a lot of Kebirian Army men. They seemed to be held prisoner in a compound –’

‘I know, I know. Al-Naemi told me about it. And some sort of fairy tale about “dancing the code”.’ He paused, decided he’d better ask. ‘So how the blazes did you get here, Yates? And what are you doing in my helicopter?’

The Captain glanced sidelong at him. ‘Apparently Benari’s given in to UN pressure, sir. But we’ve got to be out of the country as soon as possible and –’ Yates broke off for a moment. ‘They want Miss Grant, sir. For murder.’

The Brigadier was so startled that for several seconds he couldn’t think of anything to say. Finally he just repeated, blankly, ‘Murder?’

Yates swallowed.

‘She escaped from prison, with a journalist. Several of the prison guards were killed and they reckon Jo got one of them.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ said the Brigadier. It was true: he didn’t. He still remembered the occasion when Jo had told him off for using fly spray, and had shown him how to catch a fly with a teacup and a piece of paper so that you could let it out of the window alive. He could no more imagine her killing anyone than he could imagine –

He swallowed, forced himself to complete the thought.

Himself killing her. With a .38. And that cold expression on his face.

‘I don’t believe it either,’ Yates was saying. ‘But the Secretary-General’s office have given us a direct order to hand her over if we find her.’ He paused. ‘Actually it was addressed to you, sir, but in the circumstances I felt I ought to open it.’

The Brigadier waved a hand at him to signify that it wasn’t important. He looked down through the tinted glass of the helicopter’s cockpit at the grey and black rocks of the desert drifting below.

Ahead, the ground fell away and the Brigadier could see a brown plain dotted with thorn trees.

He cleared his throat.

‘You have my authority to ignore that order, Yates. Tell your men. If we find Miss Grant, she goes back to England and we argue about it with the politicians later.’

Yates nodded, grinned. ‘Yes, sir!’

The Brigadier gazed at the desert, and wondered how many more orders he was going to have to ignore before this operation was over.

When the gun went off, Jo fell to her knees, clutching her chest.

She saw the Doctor rush forward, saw the fake Brigadier stagger backwards and fall against one of the eggs. But only when he pointed his ruined hand at the oncoming figure of the Doctor, only when she saw the

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