The Forgotten Army (12 page)

Listen carefully to him, write down everything he says, then throw it in the garbage on the way out.'

Strebbins realised that the cadet was still taking notes.

'You do understand that the last things I said weren't part of the message?'

The cadet blushed and hastily scribbled out the last few lines.

'Then,' Strebbins continued, 'after he's objected for five minutes exactly, give him this next message: "As far as I'm concerned, there is no other course of action open to us." Is that understood?' Strebbins paused. She felt a bit like an old-style general dictating orders like this. And she had to admit she liked it.

'Yes, ma'am.’ the cadet replied.

'Good.' Strebbins knew it wasn't going to be easy. She'd be explaining her decision for a long time to come. Yet, as she looked out of her window at the city below, she knew it was a place worth saving. Some people would squawk away, attempting to

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deny the facts of a situation, or pretend it was about something else entirely. But Strebbins knew what was needed was control. She needed to get the city running again, and nothing and no one was going to stop her.

Amy and Oscar chased after Bismarck the tracker dog, as he led them down Fifth Avenue. As they reached the Arch, Bismarck skidded to a halt and started to growl at something.

Amy could immediately tell that something was very wrong. The debris around this crossroads was worse than the other streets, with three of the roads blocked. Yet one roadway had been left clear. It was far too much of a coincidence for this not to be a trap.

Almost on cue, six blacked-out vehicles screeched up the road and swung into the crossroads. The police vans had blockaded the only passable road, and police officers piled out of the vans. In their full riot gear, they looked like modern-day gladiators, advancing their line towards the scene of the most debris.

One of the police officers lifted his visor and shouted to the street, 'This is now a police-controlled area. Make your way to your homes. The streets are now under police control.'

As they moved down the street, the officers started to wince. The first six riot police suddenly 128

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found that their shields had been replaced with an umbrella, a body-board, a poster of President Obama, a baseball glove, and a traffic cone.

They stared in disbelief, raising their guns, only to see those guns taken from their hands. The soldiers squinted in disbelief. On the ground, waving the guns around were groups of red-faced, angry trolls.

Now unarmed, the riot police clung together, watching with horror as their rifles danced around on the floor, being controlled by miniature soldiers.

Amy could see the Vykoids were laughing, and one of them was firing stones from a catapult at incredible speed.

Barely bigger than gravel, the stones stung the faces and hands of the troops. Every time they tried to move, more of their riot gear was taken from them.

Amy gestured for Oscar to duck out of sight behind a tree.

'Vykoids...' she whispered. 'There's an army of them out there.'

Oscar's jaw was set. 'Are they gonna shoot?'

Amy shook her head. 'They don't want to kill anyone. But they're going to do something far worse. We've got to stop them.'

Oscar stood bolt upright. 'I'll go tell the riot squad about them!'

Amy yanked him back by his belt. 'No! I meant we've got to stop the police. You've got to listen to me. We can't just charge in there, they can do

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amazing things to you, I haven't time to explain. Just believe me.'

Oscar was obviously torn. Amy could sympathise - his colleagues were under siege and he wasn't about to stand by and watch them be humiliated. Before Amy could say anything more, Oscar stepped out into the crossroads.

'Whoever you are,' Oscar called out, 'I don't care if we can't see you, I'm here now, and as long as you can see me, you better bet, you're not getting nothing from the city. Do you hear me? I said: Do you hear me?'

Buoyed by his upbeat voice, the struggling officers shrugged off their unseen attackers, and gave Oscar a tiny cheer. Amy wondered if she'd been wrong. Perhaps this was Oscar's chance to become a hero after all.

But then the square filled with what only Amy could make out to be the sound of hundreds of mini soldiers laughing.

They'd not been put off by Oscar's speech - they found it hilarious.

Amy watched in horror as she saw all the Vykoid troops turn away from the quaking riot police to descend on Oscar.

Seeing them advance, Oscar put his hand up to signal a halt.

His jaw dropped in amazement - his black NYPD gloves had been replaced with pink lacy ladies gloves, sparkling with Swarsovski crystals.

'What?' As Oscar brought his hands together to 130

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take off the gloves, his baseball cap was suddenly swapped for a pink tiara. He tried to draw his baton, but pulled out a fairy wand. Its tiny bells tinkled as, unable to stop his movement, he waved the wand at the watching soldiers.

The Vykoid troops were doubled up with laughter. It was as if they'd never seen anything as funny as Oscar trying to take them all on.

With increasing horror, Amy realised that, since they moved at lightning speed, Oscar would seem to be moving slower than a tortoise in treacle to the Vykoids. Each of his gestures would take up several minutes of time as the Vykoids experienced it. In the time it would take Oscar to click his fingers, Amy thought, the Vykoids could easily run up and down his body and do whatever they wanted.

As if to confirm the theory, two marker-pen-wielding Vykoids spent a few seconds of Oscar's time drawing a pair of comedy glasses round his eyes and a fake moustache that curled out from under his nose right up his cheeks.

'Stop it now!' Oscar yelled. 'I'm an officer of the New York Police Department, and I will not be played with!'

Unfortunately for Oscar, his authority was undermined by the Vykoids stealing his trousers. Oscar stood in the middle of New York, in his spotty boxers, pink lace gloves and pink tiara, and listened to the sound of tiny aliens laughing. Amy's hand

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went to her mouth as she struggled not to laugh herself.

'Not funny,' she muttered. 'So not funny.'

Despite the circumstances, Oscar seemed determined no t to beat a retreat. He went for his gun, and this time he seemed to have got the better of the speedy tyrants. He took aim at the Vykoid troops.

'Halt! Be aware that I will shoot. As a real and presen t danger to the safety of New York, I am arresting you...'

Oscar tailed off. The Vykoids were still laughing at him.

One of them put a hand up and, speaking very slowly, asked Oscar, 'Can I have a drink, officer?'

They all burst out laughing again, harder than ever.

Oscar stared at his hand in shock. While he'd been talking, they'd replaced his gun with a water pistol.

He fired anyway. In the same instant, a police riot shield appeared between him and the Vykoids, and the water splashed back in his own face.

'I will not surrender to you!' Oscar fumed, as a short miniskirt appeared around his legs.

Amy watched in frustration. She wished he'd listened to her, instead of playing the hero. She couldn't let herself be captured, and was helpless on the sidelines as the Vykoids moved in on Oscar.

'Stay behind the line!' Oscar shouted.

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The Vykoids didn't listen. As they spread around him, Oscar turned in a circle, trying to keep his eyes locked on the creatures. Like hummingbirds' wings, they became blurs of movement on the ground, zooming around Oscar's ankles.

'I said stop!'

It was too late. A cord tightened around Oscar's ankles.

'Focus, Oscar!' Amy shouted. She had an idea, but he'd have to be quick. 'Stand on one leg, and move the other round as fast as you can!'

Oscar probably didn't have a clue what Amy was trying to do, but he kicked his left leg high in the air, and waggled it as fast as he could.

As high up as you can get it.’ Amy yelled.

With obvious difficulty, Oscar pulled his leg right up into the air.

Amy's hope was that, in Vykoid time, Oscar now presented them with a technical challenge. They needed to tie his legs together to trip him up or secure him, but the left leg was now too far away for an easy fit. Undeterred, the Vykoids continued to methodically secure their ropes to his right leg, and sent a second team to attach the cords to his left leg, far away, but moving very slowly towards them.

'Now! Swap over, and kick!' Amy screamed, talking as fast as she could, desperate to avoid the Vykoids hearing her plan before Oscar.

Some of the Vykoids on the right leg realised 133

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what was happening and started to scarper, but Oscar kicked out, ripping all the ropes from the Vykoids hands and sending a few stragglers flying off into the air.

'Somersault!' Amy commanded.

Oscar froze.

Amy shouted again. 'Forward roll, then.'

Oscar did as he was told and, moving forward like a human woodlouse, he reached Amy. It seemed he was too awkward and too mobile a shape for the Vykoids to have any way of holding him, and the Vykoids signalled a retreat.

There were more and easier targets than Oscar, no matter how much fun he was to tease.

'I'd lend you some of my clothes, Oscar,' Amy said, 'but I'm not sure I'd wear a skirt that short.'

Oscar hugged her with relief. 'How did you do that?' he asked.

Amy shrugged. 'I guess I pick things up being around the Doctor. Also,' she said with a smile, 'you weren't getting anywhere by yourself, so I thought I should chip in.'

Oscar's face fell as he looked across the square. While they'd been occupied, the Vykoids had moved in on the riot police. There was not a single NYPD officer left on the crossroads.

'They'll be OK, Oscar,' Amy reassured him. 'The Vykoids don't want to hurt them.'

Amy didn't tell Oscar that they were going 134

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to be taken to an alien planet to mine Space-Boar droppings.

She didn't want him doing anything stupid. Again. She told him to go and wait in one of the empty police trucks.

With the scene now clear, Amy walked to the middle of the crossroads and picked up the torch and truncheon the Vykoids had taken from Oscar. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Oscar's gun lying on the ground. She picked it up, surprised by how heavy and cold it felt. She knew the Doctor wouldn't want her to use it, and she knew in her heart that he was right. But all the other police officers had been taken. Commander Strebbins's crack troops had disappeared, leaving their high-tech vehicles and weapons idling uselessly on the tarmac.

Amy had to admit that the Vykoids had been true to their word. In everything she'd seen, not a soul had been seriously harmed. Teased, yes. Beaten up, a little bit. Kidnapped, and taken as slaves, certainly. But the Vykoids weren't murderers.

This left Amy with a dilemma. She was standing at a crossroads in New York with a gun in her hand. She couldn't just leave it there for anyone to find, and she didn't want to give it back to Oscar...

She walked over to Oscar, who had wrapped himself in a blanket, hiding his legs from the world. The pink gloves and tiara were on the passenger seat of the troopers' vehicle.

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'Why did you get rid of those?' Amy teased him. 'It was a good look.'

Oscar smiled. 'I can't thank you enough.'

He was going to go on, but Amy interrupted. 'First thing, you're not having this back.' She popped the chamber out of the gun and emptied the bullets into her hand. She wandered over to a drain cover, intent on dropping the bullets down into the dark.

As she reached into her pocket, her fingers touched the psychic paper. On an instinct, she took it out - and saw a message:

Oi! I'm down here!

Amy's heart leapt with joy. It was the Doctor. The writing on the psychic paper was faint, but then it clearly changed: I'm below you!

Amy looked from side to side. All she could see were grand department stores, interrupting a steady line of doughnut shops and takeaway coffee stands. A gush of hot air disturbed the ever-present pigeons and they fluttered into the dark sky.

'What's down there?' Amy asked, pointing to vents in the pavement.

Oscar shrugged. 'The Subway. There'll be people trapped down there...'

"That's it!' Amy thought. 'The Vykoids have taken the Doctor underground...' She turned back to Oscar. 'Why do you have a Green Globe to show it's a subway?' she protested. 'Couldn't it just say

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"SUBWAY" in big letters?'

Leaving Oscar on the sidewalk, she rushed to the entrance.

'And don't you start asking me to buy a ticket, I am so jumping the barriers.'

Oscar shouted out after her. 'I'd better come with you. It isn't safe at this time of night.'

Amy held up her hand to stop him, and said firmly. 'I'll be fine by myself. It's not the crazy New Yorkers on the Subway I'm worried about right now. Thanks for the help.'