Chapter Eight

It was like diving into a swimming pool - the air was so much colder out of the reception chamber. More than that - the amount of available oxygen had just become rather more limited. She opened her eyes to find that it was much darker, too.

The Doctor ran through the wide corridor, used to the light and thin air. She followed, already wheezing. He was moving with a reassuring confidence.

The Martian ship rocked. Presumably the helicopter was beginning to loose off its air-to-air missiles.

The Doctor was clambering up a ladder, the rungs of which were almost a metre apart. She followed as best she could, her chest tight.

The Doctor pulled open a hatch above his head, and warm night air seeped in.

'We're moving!' Benny shouted. She hadn't realised until she poked her head out of the hatch.

'I know,' the Doctor replied. 'Heading towards Whitehall.' He was already outside, standing astride, like a ship's captain at the wheel. Benny clambered out, pulling herself up by tugging the tails of his frock coat.

When she was out, the Doctor kicked the hatch shut and held the sonic screwdriver over it. Something fizzed and sparked. They were perched on one of the ship's fins.

The drive systems were silent as a hot air balloon's. Underneath them, though, the noise was horrendous. It was a chaotic mix of gunfire, artillery and screaming civilians caught in the crossfire.

The flash of gun muzzles and the crump of grenades. The Martian ship hadn't fired on the surface, not a single warrior had left the ship. The fierce fighting down there was strictly human versus human.

Benny felt safe up here, she realised. This ship should have been the focus for the attack, but nothing seemed to be troubling it. Benny would much rather be here, two hundred feet in the air, with a million tons of Martian armour between her and the ground, than down on the streets.

A helicopter that she hadn't even heard exploded half a mile ahead of them. Its rotor blades were backlit by the burning fuselage as it plummeted down somewhere between Horse Guards Parade and St James Park.