Part 17 (1/2)

The guard glared at him. 'What?'

'Provisions,' repeated the driver patiently. 'Nos.h.!.+ Food!'

'Back gate. You can't come in 'ere.'

'I can't go through the back gate either,' said the van driver reasonably. 'Van's too big.'

The guard shrugged. 'You'd better clear off then.'

'Now listen,' said the van driver persuasively. 'I've got a week's supply of food in there and booze for the Governor. Am I supposed to go back and say you don't want it? They'll think you're barmy.'

The guard said, 'Hang about.' He spoke into his RT set.

'Main gate, here. Er, Mr Mailer? I've got a big provision lorry here, food, booze, the lot. Do I let it in?'

A voice crackled from the RT. 'Yeah, okay. But I want him unloaded and out of here fast.'

The guard turned to the driver. 'Drive round the ring-road up to the main courtyard and unload. You'll find some blokes there to give you a hand. We've had a bit of trouble, see, and the Chief wants you out of here as soon as possible.'

'Don't worry, mate, less time I spend in there the better!'

The van driver got back in his van and revved up. It seemed to take rather a long time. While he was doing it, the rear doors of the van opened and three uniformed figures slid out.

The arched doorway was just big enough to admit the van and the three soldiers walked behind it unseen. Once inside, they jumped on the guards at the gate, knocking them out with swift efficiency.

The van trundled along the outer road that ringed the inner courtyard.

At a pre-arranged point it stopped, and half a dozen men, led by Sergeant Benton, scrambled out of the back and ran to a narrow gate set into the ma.s.sive wall.

The gate was soon open, and the men disappeared in the narrow cleft in the wall. They emerged from the darkness onto a long flight of steps that ended in a tunnel set into yet another ma.s.sive wall.

Ignoring the pounding in his head, Benton led his little party through the echoing darkness of the tunnel until they emerged into a little enclosed green. In front of them was another high stone wall the rear wall of the inner courtyard.

'Right,' shouted Benton. 'Ropes and irons!'

Two of the men produced grappling hooks on the end of long nylon ropes. They hurled the hooks over the wall. As soon as they were lodged fast, men began climbing upwards.

Meanwhile the provisions van drove up to a second checkpoint set in the inner wall.The main gate guard must have phoned ahead, because it was admitted without trouble.

The provisions van drove into the inner courtyard and stopped. Immediately it was surrounded by a little group of men, some dressed as warders, some still in their prison uniforms.

The cloth-capped driver jumped out of the cab and favoured the little group with a cheery wave. He went round to the back of the van and flung wide the doors, revealing not the expected supplies of food and drink but a tightly packed ma.s.s of UNIT soldiers, who leaped out of the van and piled into the astonished convicts, with fists and rifle-b.u.t.ts.

The van driver took a megaphone from the back of the van, strode into the centre of the courtyard and raised it to his lips. 'I am Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT. This prison is now in military hands...'

The effect of the Brigadier's carefully prepared little speech was rather spoiled when an armed convict high on the wall took a shot at him and hit the megaphone instead, smas.h.i.+ng it from his hands.

The Brigadier dived, rolled over, and came up with his service automatic in his hands, shooting the prisoner neatly off the wall.

This was the signal for the battle to begin in earnest and the fighting, although brief, was b.l.o.o.d.y.

Armed convicts began appearing from the doorways that led into the courtyard, and running along the walkways on top of the high walls that surrounded it.

The Brigadier and his men used whatever cover they could find, in alcoves and stairways and behind parked vehicles among them, the Brigadier noticed, the Doctor's beloved Bessie. Heaven help anyone who put a bullet in that!

As the Brigadier had predicted, the convicts, although surprisingly well supplied with weapons were untrained in their use. They blazed away wildly, wasting most of their shots, while the UNIT soldiers fought with deadly efficiency, using every sc.r.a.p of cover and shooting only when they were sure of a hit.

Convicts tumbled screaming from the high walls, rolled down long staircases, collapsed wounded or dying on the cobbles.

What really turned the tables was the arrival of Benton and his party on the top of the rear wall. From there they soon swept the walkways clear of convicts. The remaining convicts' nerve broke and they began to fall back.

In the condemned cell, the Doctor and Jo were listening to the sounds of battle in amazement.

'It seems to be right inside inside the prison,' said Jo. the prison,' said Jo.

The Doctor nodded. 'The Brigadier probably used the old Trojan horse trick. I only hope he can gain complete control before Mailer starts killing the hostages.'

Since they themselves were hostages, Jo found it easy to agree.

'Yes, Doctor,' she said. 'So do I!'

The Brigadier looked round the courtyard, and realised that the battle was over. Most of the convicts were wounded or dead, the rest were beginning to surrender. He ran to the checkpoint and saw a UNIT lorry driving up the road from the main gate. Reinforcements had arrived.

Waving the lorry forward, the Brigadier yelled, 'Come on! I'm going to find the Doctor.'

He ran for one of the doors that led into the main building.

The cell door was flung open, to reveal Mailer. He was both angry and frightened.

'Come to give yourself up?' asked the Doctor affably.

'Shut up and listen. If you want to stay alive, do exactly as I say.'

'Well?'

'You two are going to walk out of here in front of me.

Tell those mates of yours that either I get out or I chop you down.'

'They won't listen,' said Jo.

'Too bad for you if they don't,' said Mailer flatly.