Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead by Peter Grimwade Read Free Book Online

what the TARDIS is. I’ve already told you.’
    ‘And you don’t remember me?’
    ‘Certainly not. But whoever you are, I can’t let you wander round blabbing about classified operations.’
    ‘There’s more at stake than a breach of security.’ The Doctor abandoned the tone of good-humoured banter. He spoke urgently to his old friend. ‘I’ve lost my TARDIS and you’ve lost your memory. I’d be surprised if the two events weren’t connected.’
    The Brigadier glared defiantly. ‘Doctor, I am in full possession of all my faculties.’ A raw nerve had been touched. ‘If I were suffering from amnesia I’d be the first to know about it!’ he snapped.
    The Doctor said no more until the Brigadier had brought through the tray of tea things and they were sitting together on the sagging horsehair sofa. ‘By the way,’
    he asked casually. ‘How’s Sergeant Benton these days?’
    If the Brigadier wondered how his guest knew about UNIT personnel he didn’t say so. ‘Left the army in ‘79,’ he replied, equally matter-of-fact. ‘Sells second-hand cars somewhere.’
    ‘And Harry Sullivan?’
    ‘Seconded to NATO. Last heard of doing something very hush-hush at Porton Down.’
    The tea brewed silently.
    ‘Ever see anything of Jo Grant?’ said the Doctor in a vague sort of way.
     
    ‘What?’
    ‘Jo Grant. My assistant!’ The Doctor lobbed the rider like a grenade.
    ‘Jo Grant...’ muttered the Brigadier, disturbed and confused.
    ‘Sarah Jane?’ The Doctor pressed on. ‘Liz Shaw you’ll remember, of course.’
    The Brigadier turned pale. He cradled his head in his hands.
    ‘Are you all right?’
    The Brigadier looked up. ‘Someone just walked over my grave.’
    ‘Perhaps it was a Cyberman?’ The Doctor looked the Brigadier straight in the eye. ‘Or a Yeti... Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart?’
    The Brigadier’s eyes glazed over. The Doctor’s hypnotic questioning had transported him a million miles from Brendon School. He was a young man again. He felt the adrenalin flow...
    Danger! Darkness and terrible danger... Abominable snowmen in the Underground. Saved from the Yeti by the most peculiar man with a flute... Who was this ‘Doctor?’
    Promoted Brigadier. Seconded UNIT... Enemy in the sewers
    – silver things, bionic monsters. Cybermen! Saved again by the Doctor...
    Not the Doctor, this ageing dandy with the crimped curls and frilly shirt. Can there be two of them? Regeneration? Impossible!
    But only one Doctor could destroy the Autons...
    Exterminate! Exterminate! What are they, Doctor? Daleks?
    No match for UNIT’s scientific advisor...
    Here we go again, Doctor. Is it really you? The clown? The licensed fool? Jelly babies? Thank you, but no. Where’s that police box gone to now?
    Don’t worry, Doctor, we’ll deal with that robot. Strike command coming over in four minutes flat.
    Alien planet? Don’t believe a word of it. That’s Cromer out there! Where are you, Doctor? Doctor...
     
    The Brigadier opened his eyes. The young man from the obelisk was offering him a cup of tea. Quite a decent fellow really.
    ‘One lump or two?’ asked the young man.
    ‘Bless my soul, Doctor,’ said the Brigadier, smiling at the latest face. ‘You’ve done it again!’
    The girls felt so useless, waiting beside the inert body on the floor of the TARDIS control room.
    Tegan could bear it no longer. ‘I’m going for help!’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘There’s a house in the valley. I’ll use their phone.’
    ‘If only we had the zero room.’
    ‘As we haven’t, a hospital is the next best thing.’ Tegan was already half-way through the doors.
    ‘Take this.’ Nyssa felt under the console and withdrew the Doctor’s homing device.
    ‘Thanks.’ Tegan grabbed the tiny ball. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can.’
    Nyssa walked with her fellow companion to the entrance of the TARDIS and watched her run down the steep path towards the house in the valley below.
    No one remained in the control room to observe