Part 3 (2/2)

'So we can switch it off?'

The Doctor looked worried. If the mammoth had been built, then this was going to get complicated... How could he know what was going to hurt the beast? Like a little boy, he desperately wanted to take it apart and see how it worked, but he couldn't be sure how much was machine and how much was animal.

With all four legs working again, the mammoth put on a burst of speed and they crashed past a 49 giant canoe, arriving back where they'd started in the Great Hall.

The doors had been hauled open, presumably so the Doctor and Amy could lead the mammoth out as they had promised. Seeing its chance to escape, the mammoth bellowed with triumph and charged for freedom...

Bursting out into daylight, the mammoth paused. It was built for arctic plains and vicious tussles with other bloodthirsty animals, but outside everything was concrete and brick and flas.h.i.+ng lights. In that brief moment, the mammoth was. .h.i.t with a barrage of tranquilliser darts.

'Will the tranquillisers work on it?' Amy asked.

There was no reply, and she twisted round to look behind her. The Doctor was sound asleep. He had been struck in the leg by a dart and had flopped onto the mammoth's back.

'Wake up!' Amy screamed at him in frustration.

The mammoth was about to tumble over and they were still on its back. Amy grabbed the Doctor and pulled him to one side as the mammoth staggered and then collapsed on the steps.

Surrounded by New Yorkers and live on TV, Amy stood beside the sleeping body of the mammoth, the Doctor in her arms - and heard a huge cheer. Smiling, Amy waved at the crowds. They'd only stopped off for a burger, but they'd managed to 50.catch a mammoth. She slid down off the back of the beast, and several men clad in severe black clothes grabbed both of her arms.

Officer Oscar Henderson stepped up to her, a grim look on his face. He snapped a pair of cuffs around her wrists, and motioned for her to 'zip it' when Amy opened her mouth to complain.

'I think it's time you two came with us,' he said.

51.

Chapter.

5.

Oscar Henderson had been working for Commander Strebbins for six months, and he'd never seen her like this before. He guessed that she was feeling out of her depth. He knew she had spent twenty years in the Baltimore City Police, working her way up from foot patrols on the roughest streets, to become Chief of the entire district. working for Commander Strebbins for six months, and he'd never seen her like this before. He guessed that she was feeling out of her depth. He knew she had spent twenty years in the Baltimore City Police, working her way up from foot patrols on the roughest streets, to become Chief of the entire district.

A new unit was being set up to deal with Serious Civil Unrest.

They needed a hard nut to run it, someone who wouldn't be scared by whatever the city had to throw at her - and someone who'd stay calm, whatever was happening. In the last two years, Strebbins had coped with riots on the streets, striking taxi drivers and bomb threats. But the mammoth was something new, and Oscar could 53.see that Strebbins was absolutely fuming. She paced up and down in front of her lieutenants, barking orders.

'I want every single person in the Museum interviewed.

I want names, I want backgrounds, I want witness statements. If one of them so much as farts out of turn, send them to me! And most of all, get me the Man in the White Jacket!'

The other officers filed out of Strebbins's office, their mission clear, but Oscar heard his name and stepped back inside her office. Strebbins shut the door behind him, conspiratorial.

'Now we're alone, I need to tell you something.'

Oscar sat down but, seeing that Strebbins stayed standing, he awkwardly got to his feet again and stood in the centre of the room while Strebbins paced her office.

'I'm going to tell you about the man with the silly hair we let into the Museum. What I have to say must remain top secret. I'm telling you as you're being a.s.signed to deal with him and his friend.'

Oscar couldn't tell whether this was going to be a good or bad thing yet. 'She's called Amy Pond,' he confided. 'Scottish police force.'

'She's nothing of the sort,' Strebbins snapped back. 'The man is called the Doctor. The code he used to gain access has been on record since 1932. The origins are vague, but I'm instructed to step aside to the bearer of the code, and allow them to 54.THE FORGOTTEN ARNY.

pursue their actions. However harebrained those actions might seem.'

Strebbins paused for a moment. This obviously wasn't the kind of conversation she wanted to be having with a junior officer. Oscar usually saw her barking direct orders at them and going home to her dogs.

'That was actually in the wording of the command.'

Strebbins went on. 'However harebrained those actions might seem. Now, I'm in charge of this city's response to major threats. And I consider the intrusion of a mammoth to be one of them. It was a mistake to let the man in the tweed jacket into the Museum. I hold myself responsible, and I'm certainly not going to repeat it. I give my authority to no one. So I need a solution. Since this young man arrived in town, things have started to go wrong. I can smell trouble, but this time I can't stop it. Colonel Mace from UNIT is on his way here from Vancouver, and I want this wrapped up before he gets here. I start to need help in my own backyard, pretty soon we'll all be shut down. I want you to stay on their case. Wherever the Doctor goes, you go, whatever they do, I want you to be there with them.'

Oscar smiled. This sounded like a promotion to him. He couldn't wait to tell the rest of the boys that he was on the personal instructions of the Commander.

'One thing, Henderson,' Strebbins continued. 'I 55 can't have this being reported. You know how this place works. It's all time sheets and duty logs and explaining ourselves to a higher authority. I'm not having any of that.

You'll take the next few days as leave. If you want to ring in, I'm giving you my personal cell phone number.' She handed Oscar a blank card with a number written on it in biro.

'Thank you, ma'am. This is a great honour.'

Strebbins cut him off. 'Can it, Oscar. You're doing this 'cos you're the only guy here that the girl talked to. I need you to get close in to them. So lose the grateful act.'

Oscar was smiling as he left the office. If taking care of the two eccentrics was all he had to do, he was going to have an easy time of it.

Strebbins was obviously more concerned than Oscar.

She punched a speed-dial b.u.t.ton on her desk phone.

'This is Commander Strebbins. Status update on the apprehended creature, please.'

Oscar could hear the reply through the speakerphone: 'It's out cold. We're clearing the dog pound for it. Until then, it stays on the flatbed.'

'Forget the dog pound,' Strebbins ordered. This thing needs proper protection. Take it to the zoo.'

'Are you sure?' queried the duty officer.

Strebbins's lower lip trembled with anger. 'If I hear you haven't done it, you're fired.'

56.THE FORGOTTEN ARNY.

Ever since the sleeping mammoth had been taken away by the cops, Sam Horwitz had been hiding deep in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Natural History Museum. He'd seen how quickly the ginger girl had been handcuffed, and he had slipped quietly back into the Museum in the hubbub. He knew he'd have to face his fate sooner or later, but for now he was trying to piece together the mystery of the mammoth.

Working furiously at his desk, he'd been going through every scan and test he had run on the mammoth. It had been improbable enough that the beast still had fur when he first found it, let alone that it could breathe. He sighed, and put his head in his hands.

This wasn't how the day had been meant to go. By now, he thought, he should have been interviewed countless times on television and radio, answering questions in as many languages as the world spoke. He would have answered humbly and calmly, explaining how he alone had found and preserved the mammoth. Then, after an exhausting but triumphant day, he would have asked Polly Vernon out to dinner. Tired, but sparkling, she would have seen in him what he saw in her, and all the months of working alone would have been worth it.

Now, instead, his career was over. In the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes, he'd gone from being the rising star of Palaeontology to the biggest b.o.o.by in all of America. He'd brought a living creature into the 57.sacred heart of the Natural History Museum and let it loose on hundreds of people. Priceless displays had been destroyed, and the two strangers that had leapt upon its back had almost been killed.

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