Part 9 (1/2)

One final glance at the mirror. 'Well, I'd better be off then,' he said. She handed him his case and followed him out into the garden. He gave a wave of acknowledgement to the pilot who waited in the helicopter. The propwash blew Doris's auburn hair into disarray.

'You will be careful, won't you?'

'I've always been careful. Don't worry. I'll sort this out and come home.' He held her tightly and she kissed him on the cheek. Then she pulled away.

'I think they're waiting for you,' she said quickly.

'Of course.'

The Brigadier straightened up. She watched him walk briskly towards the helicopter and climb in next to the pilot.

The machine tilted forward slightly as it lifted away.

Doris saw him give a brief wave and she raised her hand in response. The helicopter was already disappearing over the trees. Away north towards East Grinstead and London beyond.

Why wasn't Alastair too old for this? Too comfortable and retired. Surely they could have found someone else.

She thought that if he didn't come back, her heart would break.

'Merlin!' exclaimed Shou Yuing.

'You've got it wrong, mate, this is the Doctor,' insisted Ace.

The Black Knight was laughing as he pulled at the buckles of the jesseraunte armour. He met the Doctor's stare head on. 'Oh, he has many names, but in my reckoning he is Merlin.'

The Doctor helped prise the dead armour open, allowing the knight to move freely. Underneath, he wore a hauberk of light chain mail.

Testing the armour in his hands for its strength and composition, the Doctor said casually, 'So you recognized my face then?'

'No. It's not your aspect, but your manner that betrays you.'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

'Do you not ride the s.h.i.+p of Time?' went on the knight.

'Does it not deceive the senses, being smaller without than within? Merlin, cease these games and tell me truly. Is this the time?'

'The time for what?'

The knight was apparently perplexed. 'Thou dost not know, truly?'

Ace's patience finally ran out. 'Do you think he'd be asking if he did, tinhead?'

Instantly, the young man drew his sword and raised the blade in an earnest salute. 'Why, the answer to Excalibur's call,' he cried. 'The time of retribution. The time when Arthur rises to lead the Britons to war!'

'Vortigern's Lake,' muttered the Doctor. He ignored Ace's quizzical look and studied the young knight. The tribes of the chieftain Arthur's Dark Ages were a wild and generally untrained group of freedom fighters, a world away from this warrior. He resembled a fragment of romanticized legend, yet his ideals and objectives were all too real and dangerous. There had never been anything like this knight on the real Earth - at least not on any Earth the Doctor knew.

'Can you walk?' he asked.

'Aye,' said the knight eagerly, and sheathed his sword again.

Shou Yuing was beginning to be reminded of a local pageant. 'Would someone please tell me what is going on?'

she complained.

The Doctor wished he knew. The answer was, it appeared, a world away - and then he guessed. 'If my hunch is correct, the Earth could be at the centre of a war that doesn't even belong in this dimension.'

Ace threw Shou Yuing a look of sympathy. She knew what it was like trying to keep up with the Doctor.

The brewery door crashed open and a figure in UNIT uniform, holding a hi-tech rifle like a machine gun, burst in on them.

'Everybody stand nice and easy,' ordered Brigadier Bambera.

How very tiresome, thought the Doctor. 'Excuse me, Winifred,' he said, 'but we have to be somewhere urgently.

So if you could just let us get past.'

She focused the gun directly on him. 'You're under arrest, you and your freaky friends!'

'Who are you calling freaky?' shouted Ace.

The Doctor deliberately pushed Ace behind him out of the firing line and added, 'I'm sure we can sort this out quite quickly. If I could just explain...'

A loud fizz behind them like a firecracker, dissolved a section of the brewery wall into smoke. Three figures in grey armour stood in the gap carrying heavy-duty guns that resembled sawn-off lances.

'Take them,' shouted the leader.

To the Doctor's dismay, Bambera automatically trained her gun on the newcomers and yelled, 'I am an armed military officer and you are under arrest! Lay down your weapons and put your hands in the air!'

'Winifred, that is not the right approach,' protested the Doctor.

'Put the guns down!' she shouted. The Black Knight tensed and his hand went to his sword. Shou Yuing edged backwards behind a vat. The three figures advanced.

Ace saw the Doctor step directly into the knights' path.

She reached for her nitro-nine and found she had left her knapsack in the garden.

'Well, now that we're all here, let me introduce myself.

I'm the Doctor and this is... '

The Grey leader levelled his gun, but Bambera released a volley of shots directly at his head. He fell back against his companions, his mirrored visor cracked across.

The Black Knight launched himself at Bambera, knocking her to the floor as the wall behind them disappeared in a burst of splintered brick. 'One favour returned, my lady,' he said in her ear. He turned and saw his fallen sword lying across the floor out of reach.

A pair of small hands grasped the ma.s.sive hilt and tried to drag up the broadsword.