The Forgotten Army (4 page)

'Old friend,' the Doctor murmured to Amy. 'Always nice to have someone put in a word...'

Commander Strebbins evidently didn't like being kept waiting. She broke in brusquely: 'I'm trained for this situation, Doctor, and we need to go in with maximum force. I have the capacity to take out a creature twenty times the size of that beast. I've got smoke grenades, stun guns, smart explosives, and enough firepower to reduce however many elephants you've got in there to cat food.' She smiled, 31

DOCTOR WHO

obviously assuming the matter was closed.

Commander Strebbins had underestimated the Doctor.

'Ah, well that's where there's a problem. Because, no one is going to hurt that creature while I'm here.'

'Damn it, there are people in there, Doctor!' Strebbins more or less shouted. 'I will protect them, whatever the cost.'

'Like shouting at him will make him change his mind,'

Amy thought wryly, as the Doctor pulled a tiny pair of binoculars out of his pocket and started gazing towards the Grand Hall of the Museum.

'There's no one in the windows.’ he told them, 'which means everyone got out of the place before the mammoth woke up properly. If I'm right, you'll have sealed the doors of the Grand Hall, so it's not going to have gone far. Pretty grand doors in there, if I remember.'

Strebbins gaped, but the Doctor hadn't finished.

'And you're forgetting just how clever and brilliant those people in there are. If they're as good as I think, they'll have run to the top floor, only sensible thing to do when a prehistoric animal comes back to life...' His binoculars shifted up, where he saw a group of schoolchildren waving. 'There they are! Safe on the top floor, probably looking at the crustacean exhibit, lovely seahorses... So, Commander, you were saying?'

32

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Commander Strebbins stared back at the Doctor for several seconds. I’ll give you thirty minutes. If you get in trouble in there, you're on your own.'

Three minutes later, the Doctor was ready to enter the Museum. Strebbins had reluctantly ordered her marksmen to crawl back from the steps, the armoured trucks had been withdrawn, and the Doctor had given out instructions on how to safely trap a mammoth. Under his keen eye, officers were busily scattering hay over a flatbed truck, and loading up tranquilliser darts.

'This is only a precaution,' the Doctor told them cheerfully.

'We'll lead it out. Probably. My friend here is an expert on wild animals.'

The Doctor nodded at Amy. From the way the police officers looked her up and down, Amy guessed she wasn't their idea of a zoologist. She nodded back, trying to radiate a convincing air of professional beast-tamer.

The Doctor turned back to the men and told them exactly when they should open the doors, and what to have ready for when the mammoth emerged.

'Is this going to be like Time Lord horse whispering?' asked Amy. 'Are you going to talk to it in its own special language?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Nah, nothing like that. But tusks and guns - not a good mix.'

Amy nodded her agreement. 'Let's go get our mammoth!'

33

DOCTOR WHO

Together, they bounded through the police cordon and up the steps of the Museum. Above the enormous doors were carved three words: Truth', 'Knowledge' and 'Vision'.

The Doctor nudged Amy. 'Also, Mammoths.'

Amy looked up. 'I think I recognise this place from Grand Theft Auto.'

As they reached the doors, two armed police officers clad in black pulled the doors back, straining with effort. The Doctor and Amy stepped through, and the doors closed again with a massive clang.

'Plus - when you're going in to face an impossible creature it's best to be absolutely defenceless,' the Doctor remarked conversationally, as if it were an obvious point. "That way we won't be lulled into a false sense of security.'

"Thought you had a plan?' said Amy. 'You told that lot it would be over in minutes.'

The Doctor grinned at Amy. 'I might have exaggerated the plan part a bit. But don't worry. This is what makes things fun!'

34

'Whoa...' the Doctor breathed.
'This is not looking good.'

In front of them, the entrance hall of the Natural History Museum had been trashed beyond recognition. The once spotless polar habitat display was smashed, and its cubes of fake snow were scattered across the marble floor. The neat rows of red chairs had been knocked skewiff as the audience fled, and the massive drapes lay in velvet tatters on the floor.

There was no sign of the audience, and heavy wooden and iron doors had been shut all around the huge Grand Hall - locking the miraculous mammoth inside.

Amy heard a heavy clang, and saw that the entrance doors had been closed behind them. They were locked in with a prehistoric monster.

35

DOCTOR WHO

Amy was impressed by the scale of the damage. 'Where is it, then? How can it hide?'

The Doctor scanned the room with his sonic screwdriver.

'Never mind that. Lots of places to go in this Museum... Come on, this way.' He was heading for the edge of the room.

'How do you track a mammoth, anyway?' Amy asked. 'I thought you'd be on your knees using your Time Lord tracker senses or something, listening for mammothy sounds?'

The Doctor was thinking out loud. 'Why would it do this?

How could it come back to life? We need to work out the precise order of events, but that's impossible.'

While he was talking, Amy picked up a camera that had been abandoned in the struggle to escape.

'Hey, Time Boy, have a look at this!'

Amy scrolled through the pictures, past grinning shots of a young teacher at a school party, until she reached the unveiling of the mammoth. The first picture showed the hall packed.

Some of the same children that had been at the party were grinning brightly. In the second, the man in the white blazer was making a speech.

The next three pictures were of the floor. The final shot made Amy scream with delight. 'Look at this!'

The picture was a close-up of the mammoth's head, in all its wonder. Its jaws were wide open, and

36

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Amy could see row after row of sharp teeth, tusks curving a cruel circle in the air.

The Doctor said nothing. Peeved, Amy looked around and saw him clambering up one of the marble columns, pressing his ear up against the stone. She hurried over.

The Doctor offered Amy his hand. 'Better come up here.'

Amy wasn't impressed. 'Why on earth would I do that?

Anyway, I've just found the exact order of events, just like you wanted.'

The Doctor came straight back with: 'I've done better, I've found the mammoth. Now get out of its way.'

Amy turned to follow the Doctor's gaze. But in front of her the hall was empty. 'There's nothing there.’ she protested, 'so will you get down from that post! We've got a mammoth to find.'

'Did I not tell you I have very good hearing? Listen through this.'

He leant down and held his screwdriver to Amy's ear. Out of nowhere, a raucous pounding noise filled her ears. Heavy breaths and grunts like nothing she'd ever heard before. It was the panting and stomping of an enormous creature, smashing and howling as it made its way through the Museum. Amplified by the screwdriver, Amy could hear people screaming in horror.

An overlapping mix of voices: mums telling children to 'Get back!' Men cursing under

37

DOCTOR WHO

their breaths, car horns beeping and mobile phones chattering with the news: 'Oh no, it's coming!'

Amy was lost for words.

'It is a sonic screwdriver,' the Doctor explained.

Nervous now, Amy asked, 'How far away is it?'

The Doctor bent his head to one side. 'Not far. I'd say two hundred metres. Or, actually twenty metres. Hard to tell with these things.'

Just as he finished speaking, the glass front of the Museum shop shattered. Glass shards sprayed over the floor, and a huge display of plastic Triceratops exploded, flying through the air. Charging out of the store, souvenir posters and T-Rex T-shirts festooning its massive form, was the wild and frothing mammoth.

The Doctor twiddled his screwdriver, puzzled. 'Glass must have distorted it,' he muttered.

'Never mind that!' Amy yelled. 'It's heading right for me.

Pull me up!'

She grabbed the Doctor's hand, and he hauled her up the column, sitting her on top of a window ledge, high above the floor.

She smiled at him. 'Not bad. You're surprisingly strong for a skinny bloke.'

The Doctor looked hurt. 'I am not skinny! I'm just you know, not too show-offy about my strength.'

Below them, the mammoth was getting ever nearer, veering from side to side, almost like it was unbalanced.

Amy watched it slowing slightly as it

38

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

reached the centre of the room. She'd never seen anything quite like it.

Next to her, the Doctor was transfixed by the sight.

'Wowzers, that is beautiful!'

Amy shot the Doctor a critical look, mouthing 'wowzers'

at him with disdain.

'Yeah, sorry, I'm so not saying that again,' he said. 'Mind you - wowzers. Might catch on...? No?'

Amy shook her head disapprovingly. 'Not likely.'

The Doctor wasn't put off though. 'You have to admit it is beautiful. What a wondrous thing. And it might not even be alien. Could be from your own planet. We could send it back to its own time. Or maybe it'll be happy here. Find it a nice elephant to share its life with—'

'What's it doing?' Amy interrupted. 'It doesn't look very scared.'

From where they were, it almost looked like it was trying to read the calendar in the mess of the gift shop. Amy discounted that as ridiculous.

The Doctor motioned for her to keep quiet, then made a complicated set of hand signals that left her baffled.

Are you trying to tell me that it'll follow our sounds?' she whispered.

Instantly, the mammoth was on to them, raising its big eyes to gaze at them perched on the window ledge.

39

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor nodded, then realised there was no point being quiet now. 'They can't see that well, all that hair in their eyes -

but just look at those ears!'

'How big do you think it is?'

'I'd say four metres high, probably weighs about ten tonnes, need to eat a lot to keep up that kind of energy.' He noticed Amy's reaction. 'I didn't mean to say the wrong thing about eating. They don't eat humans, far as I know, not that I've met one before, I'll just stop now, OK?'

Looking decidedly angry, and smashing a path through the seats, the mammoth was heading straight for their vantage point. Amy felt very exposed. They were in the centre of the mammoth's path, high and dry, with no way of escape.

Acting tough in the face of danger, Amy went on. 'A little beastie like that? You've fought off worse. In fact, I've fought off meaner-looking things in Leadworth. If the caveman can get rid of it, then surely we can?'

The Doctor looked straight at Amy Pond. He was half proud of her and half scared. Amy was confident beyond her abilities, ready to leap into any situation whatever it meant, and full of absolute trust in him.

'You are brilliant, Amy Pond,' he said, 'but there's a thing. A very important thing. A thing that's been troubling me for the last five minutes. This mammoth has survived two ice ages, the Stone Age, the Bronze

40

THE FORGOTTEN ARMY

Age, the Iron Age, the nuclear age. So how has it managed that when almost nothing else has? Maybe it's because it's the most vicious mammoth in all of creation, so bloodthirsty it survived.

Or maybe it's because it's so wise and peaceful no one has ever wanted to harm it, and it has been kept safe and protected for thousands and thousands of years. Or, and I'm not making a speech this long again, especially halfway up a marble column, or - it's not a mammoth at all. Which leads me to think it's drawing the attention of the world to it, so maybe it's just a mistake? Or, or, or it could be a diversion and, while I'm here, Washington is being turned into a spa town for insect creatures.

Either way, we need to stop it before anyone else does...'

'Sshhh!' Amy was calm and focused.

The mighty mammoth was almost directly below them now.

She could hear its every breath and pant. Something in it was rumbling and growling, a noise so deep and so primal it would have stilled the assault of any predator.

The Doctor continued regardless. 'Whatever it is, it's trapped in a museum with five hundred innocent people, and we can't allow it to reach them. We need to get it out the door, where your new admirers can tranquillise—'

Amy interrupted him again. 'Before you do that, Doctor, would you mind telling me why it's safer up here?'

41

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor looked at Amy as if she was crackers. 'Safer?

It's not safer up here. We came up here to make it easier to get onto it.'

Amy was filled with horror. 'Onto it? Are you mental? I thought we were staying out of its way.'

The Doctor was calm and pragmatic. 'No, it would be far safer down there, here we're on its level.'