Part 38 (1/2)

'We're going to Trafalgar Square. Come with us if you like.'

'Sure,' said Rita. 'I fancy a stroll.'

Trafalgar Square seemed unusually crowded with people. Jimmy honked and struggled to navigate the car between the crowds and out into Whitehall. Crawhammer hadn't been very hard to trace he was almost a celebrity in these dark hours.

'What made you change your mind?' asked the Doctor?

'I'm sorry...?' Limb queried.

'About starting a war.'

'Oh, I sensed larger events in the wind, Doctor. Alien technology...

the fact that you had appeared... it gave me grounds to hope that there might be another way to avoid my fate. I don't relish the prospect of nuclear war, you know.'

'I wish I knew what was going on,' said the Doctor. 'I don't suppose there's a radio in here.'

'A wireless... no.'

'No..: said the Doctor, then slapped himself on the forehead. Or rather yes, there is.'

He lifted Ace's Walkman from his pocket and, ostentatiously keeping it out of Limb's view, put the headphones on and fiddled with the dial. A sombre, resolute voice emerged from the static.

'We interrupt this programme with a live newsflash.'

It was odd. Stan and Elsie seemed just like any other English pensioners, but Rita had seen through Stan's thinning pate the two tiny metal-lined holes that sank like fang-marks into the back of his skull.

'So you looking forward to the speech?' Rita asked, fis.h.i.+ng again.

'Of course, Elsie replied. 'Aren't you?'

'Must be something important, said Stan. 'Middle of a Sunday.'

They reached Trafalgar Square without incident. Everyone seemed 181 relaxed and friendly. No one was in a hurry. 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' wafted through the doors of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

As distant Big Ben sounded eleven o'clock, the church fell silent and the congregation flooded out and down the great stone steps of the church. There was suddenly frenzied movement all around Rita people poured into the square from all sides. She felt the crowd pus.h.i.+ng her away from her elderly friends, sweeping her into the square. She stumbled and went down next to one of the lions, and cowered against its ma.s.sive stone plinth.

A voice boomed out across the square, somewhere over Rita's head.

'We now take you live to the Ministry of Augmentation, where the prime minister is about to speak. The prime minister' prime minister is about to speak. The prime minister'

Instantly the hubbub in the square was stilled. Everyone stood motionless and silent, facing towards the source of the voice.

Another voice took over, sage and old, powerful and rea.s.suring.

'Citizens of the British Empire...'

'How much longer do we have to stay here?' McBride demanded, slouching into Drakefell's lounge. 'The screwball's still asleep. I gave him a coupla sleeping pills '

'Ssss.h.!.+' hissed Sarah Eyles. She was staring at the TV 'It's the prime minister.'

' government and I, in close concert with our American allies, yesterday demanded of the Soviet government in Moscow certain yesterday demanded of the Soviet government in Moscow certain explanations, undertakings and a.s.surances with regard to the recent explanations, undertakings and a.s.surances with regard to the recent escalation of aggression towards this country, beginning With the escalation of aggression towards this country, beginning With the shooting down of our Waverider rocket and culminating in the recent shooting down of our Waverider rocket and culminating in the recent attack by Russian forces on British soil. It is now my duty to tell you attack by Russian forces on British soil. It is now my duty to tell you that Mr Khrushchev's government has responded by issuing a blanket that Mr Khrushchev's government has responded by issuing a blanket denial of any wrongdoing and by accusing Her Majesty's government denial of any wrongdoing and by accusing Her Majesty's government of fabricating the incidents.' of fabricating the incidents.'

'Old Macmillan's shovelling it on,' said McBride, perching on the settee next to Sarah.

'We're too late, aren't we?' she suddenly said. 'The Doctor and Uncle George they never made it.

McBride felt Sarah grab his arm and draw him close to her. He put an arm round her and held her tight.

'Another war,' she whispered. 'I lost everyone in the last one.

Everyone except Uncle George...'

McBride held her tighter. He didn't know what to say.

' a threat to our freedom and our way of lift, indeed to our very survival, but one that we can and shall overcome.' survival, but one that we can and shall overcome.'

182.

Rita struggled to her feet. She recognised the voice but she was sure it wasn't Harold Macmillan. She gasped for the first time she noticed the huge gla.s.s screen that covered the front of Admiralty Arch.

It was the biggest TV set Rita had ever seen. The face of the speaker filled the screen. It wasn't wasn't Harold Macmillan. It was the man from the cottage the man who had appeared to interrogate her. Harold Macmillan. It was the man from the cottage the man who had appeared to interrogate her.

'It is a threat we have prepared for over many years, and a threat we are more than ready to deal with. BEHOLD MY WORKS, YE are more than ready to deal with. BEHOLD MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND TREMBLE!'

There was a whoos.h.i.+ng in the air all around Rita. She covered her ears and craned her neck skyward. Planes weird-looking craft were flying in from all sides. Something was happening overhead. A cracking, booming sound, like the sky tearing open...

A great gash of light pouring into the sky from... somewhere else.

Rita could see, dotted around the giant gash, machines of some kind.

They must be huge...

The s.h.i.+ps, the planes, were flying into the light in their dozens, being swallowed whole and endlessly.

'It seems we are too late, Mr Limb,' the Doctor said. 'Even now '

He was interrupted by a sound. An explosion a boom that shook the car and cracked the windows.

'Holy sweet Mother of G.o.d...' whispered Jimmy. 'What is that that?'

The sky was a rip of white light, almost from end to end, through which flying craft by the dozen were pouring. Some fanned out and jetted away in different directions. Others swooped low over the streets. Explosive projectiles raked over the heads of pedestrians, who began to panic and run, trampling each other, fighting.

And then, from the s.h.i.+ps, came men, descending as if on invisible parachutes, soldiers, black-and khaki-clad, heavily armed with weapons of lethal sophistication. Just like at the hangar, but on an immeasurably greater scale.

One landed on the road in front of them. Jimmy fumbled beneath the dashboard and pulled out a pistol.