Chapter Twelve

'I was only speaking hypothetically,' Lethbridge-Stewart told me.

'Glad to hear it.'

'We won't have to fight the Martian ship,' Lethbridge-Stewart announced. 'Not until we've re-taken London.'

Bambera was rubbing her forehead. 'How are we going to do that?' she asked wearily. 'No. Cancel that. Alistair, I appreciate that you're trying to help, but throwing ourselves at the Martians like the Charge of the Light Brigade won't help anyone. We sit tight.'

'No we won't,' I said firmly.

The officers were all glaring at me. I motioned for my companion to come forwards. It looked like he had been crying.

'This is Raymond Heath. He's got a story for us.'

'H-hello. I was a civil engineer at the EG Plant just outside Reading. We were making a fertiliser, all very hush-hush. Lord Greyhaven was in personal charge of the project, and he told us that what we were doing would eventually be used on Mars. We assumed he meant when the humans colonised it.' he paused. 'Really it was for the Martians themselves. On that first Friday morning, a Martian shuttlecraft arrived at the plant. A Martian scientist, Vrgnur took over, and anyone who objected was killed. Vrgnur stays in his shuttle, but the whole refinery is patrolled by Government troops with machine guns. No-one's allowed to leave - we had to sleep in the canteen.'

The assembled officers were all staring at him, making him even more nervous than he naturally was.

I smiled at him, trying to put him at his ease. 'But if all you were doing was making fertiliser ... '

Ray became more animated. 'But we weren't. The project changed when the Martian arrived. Now we were growing some bacteriological weapon. A red gas.'

I stepped forwards again. 'This is the poison gas that the Martians used on Adisham - it's what killed the Doctor.' The members of the audience that had known the Doctor shifted in their chairs, Lethbridge-Stewart included. I continued: 'Adisham was just a test. I think the gas is the weapon that the Martians will use to destroy humanity.'