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foot, put the gun against his mouth.
Jo could see that he was still alive, his eyes terrified, staring at
Vincent. 'No!' she screamed again.
'Wait a minute ' began the Doctor at the same moment.
But Vincent had pulled the trigger. Blood and pieces of flesh and
bone spattered over the ground.
Jo felt her stomach heave and collapsed onto the cold stone.
Somewhere through the ringing in her ears she heard the Doctor's
voice. 'That wasn't really necessary, gentlemen.'
'It wasn't necessary,' said Vincent's voice, thick with some emotion
that Jo didn't want to identify. 'But it was justified.'
Twenty-Three
The Brigadier looked around at the twitching bodies of the
Kebirian soldiers. They were rolling on their backs, faces blank,
limbs beating against their sides in what looked like a fruitless
attempt to fly. One young man was persistently banging his head
against a rock: blood pooled on the dry ground beneath him.
The Brigadier shook his head, looked up at Yates who was
standing on a high rock, scanning the landscape with binoculars. 'Any
sign of Rashid?'
'Nothing, sir,' said Yates. 'Just a lot of these Kebirian fellows.' He
paused. 'All out of action by the look of it.'
The Brigadier sighed. 'Those shots must have come from
somewhere.' He struggled to his feet, winced as he put his weight on
his injured ankle. But it wasn't as bad as it had been ten minutes ago.
He reckoned that he could walk, as long as he was careful. He
cautiously climbed the incline to the base of the rock where Yates
was standing.
There were two single shots in the distance, from the direction of
the ruined nest. The Brigadier shielded his eyes from the low sun,
stared, thought he saw some figures moving amongst the reddish
rocks and slabs of fallen nest material.
'It's the Doctor!' said Yates suddenly, the binoculars still against his
eyes. 'And Jo!'
They were alive!
The Brigadier felt as if a set of clamps had been removed from his
head and chest. 'Are you sure?' he asked.
'Certain,' said Yates. 'Take a look.'
He handed over the binoculars. The Brigadier saw the familiar
figure in his cape and coloured shirt, Jo's head of blonde hair. There
were some other people there Arabs by the look of them. They
seemed to be arguing.
'Better get over and say hello, I suppose,' he said to Yates.
The Captain nodded, started out at a run across the rocks. The
Brigadier followed as fast as he could. As he got nearer, he saw the
Doctor standing on a rock shouting something, heard the
unmistakable sound of Jo's voice screaming.
Here we go, he thought. Never a peaceful moment.
He pulled his revolver from its holster and increased his pace to a
trot, heedless of the pain from his ankle.
He almost collided with a man in combat fatigues and headscarf.
The man pointed a machine pistol at him, then relaxed and laughed.
'Brigadier! So it was your people who destroyed Al Harwaz after all!'
The Brigadier recognized Tahir Al-Naemi, managed a tight smile.
'Never mind about that now. My scientific advisor and his assistant
are being attacked '
'More of a disagreement, Brigadier,' said a voice from somewhere
behind Tahir.
The Brigadier saw the Doctor with his arm around a shocked-
looking Jo. Both of them were covered in pieces of flaky mud. Three
more Arabs in combat fatigues were jogging up behind them, guns in
their hands.
Jo turned on them, shaking off the Doctor's arm. 'You killed him!'
she shouted. 'You didn't need to kill him!'
'After what you saw yesterday you don't think that I had the right?'
said one of the Arabs. The Brigadier recognized the face from
somewhere.
'No!' Jo was shouting. 'It was horrible! You're ' She broke off as
the Doctor put a warning hand on her arm.
The Brigadier stared at them. He was feeling increasingly
bewildered and irritated. He wanted to say how glad he was that Jo
and the Doctor were still alive. How happy he was to see them. How
immensely relieved he felt that he hadn't shot his friends. But nobody
was giving him the chance. 'Look,' he said, 'Could somebody please
tell me what's going on?'
'Monsieur Khalil Benari has been executed,' said one of the
newcomers. 'In accordance with Revolutionary law.' He gestured at
the Brigadier with his gun. 'Who is this person?'
Tahir told him who the Brigadier was, adding dryly, 'It was he who
ordered the nest destroyed, so I think you can say he is on our side.'
Yates ran up from somewhere ahead of them, his hand on the
holster of his gun. 'Everything all right, sir?' he gasped, looking
around the little group. 'I thought that they were ' he gestured
behind him.
'All under control, Yates,' said the Brigadier. 'Except that these
people have just shot their Prime Minister; but that's not our problem.'
'It should be your problem,' said Jo. Her voice still quavered with
shock. 'That's what the United Nations is for, isn't it? To stop the
killing?'
The Doctor put his arm round her again. 'You can't expect the
Brigadier to solve all the world's problems, Jo.' He looked up at the
Brigadier. 'Talking of which, was it you that ordered the nest
destroyed?'
The Brigadier looked at the ground. 'Yes,' he said slowly. 'Look,
Doctor, I knew that you might be in there, but '
'Really, Brigadier!' interrupted the Doctor. 'Why do you always
shoot first and ask questions afterwards? I should tell you that I very
nearly had everything under control when you '
The Brigadier decided that it was his turn to interrupt. 'Under
control! The Kebirians shot down my helicopter! They were going to
turn Yates and I into well, I suppose the same thing that they
turned you into.'
'What do you mean, turned us into?'
The Brigadier looked at the ground again, then glanced at Yates.
'Well, Doctor, it's like this ' He told the Doctor everything that had
happened since the false Doctor and Jo had joined him at Kebir City
airport.
The Doctor listened mostly in silence, nodding occasionally. Jo
gasped a few times, and when the Brigadier told them how many
UNIT men had been killed she sat down on the ground and started
sobbing. Behind her, Tahir and his men were holding a whispered
consultation of their own; of the Arabs, only the Sakir Mohammad
appeared to be listening to the Brigadier's story. He nodded sagely
from time to time.
'You shot us?' the Doctor asked finally.
The Brigadier turned away, took a few steps across the loose sand.
The sun was already beginning to feel hot, though it was not yet far
above the horizon.
'Sorry, Doctor,' he said finally. 'I thought I was doing the right
thing.'
'But of course you weren't doing the right thing! Those things were
third stage Xarax perfect copies of human beings, in many ways.
But I can assure you that it would take more than a gunshot wound to
put them out of action for good. I don't suppose it occurred to you to
have the bodies incinerated?'
The Brigadier turned and stared at the Doctor. 'Incinerated? Of
course not! I didn't even know if I mean '
'Where are they now?' snapped the Doctor.
'Well in the Army morgue. I asked Dr Moore there to give me
an immediate autopsy report by phone to Rabat if necessary.'
'And has he given you the report?'
The Brigadier shook his head.
'And this was what, four hours ago? How long does it take to
perform an autopsy?'
'Well, yes, I see what you mean, but there has been a war going on,
you know, Doctor. I didn't think '
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