Doctor Who_ Attack of the Cybermen - Eric Saward [35]
‘Come on,’ urged Lytton. ‘Keep moving.’
‘Hang on.’ Charlie ground to a stubborn, deliberate halt.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’
‘Taking you home...’ Lytton indicated ahead. ‘Back to Earth.’
Charlie wasn’t impressed. ‘Oh, I see,’ he said sarcastically. ‘You gotta taxi waiting?’
‘I have something better.’ Lytton walked on.
As Charlie ran to catch him up, he saw a figure step from behind a rock. It was small and slim like a youth or young woman and was wearing what appeared to be a very close-fitting white jump suit.
‘What’s that?’ he exclaimed.
Lytton raised a hand in greeting. ‘That, my dear Griffiths, is a Cryon.’
As the figure approached, Charlie could see that the creature was similar in build to that of an Earth woman.
The face, on the other hand, was quite different. Covered in a translucent membrane, with large bulbous eyes, the lower half sprouted what looked like course white hair.
The Cryon raised her hand in an identical greeting to the one given by Lytton. ‘My name is Thrust...’ The voice was high-pitched, but not unpleasant. And unlike a Cyberman’s, contained personality and cadence. ‘Welcome, Lytton.’
Charlie couldn’t believe what he had heard. ‘She knows you!’
‘Of course,’ the Cryon said pleasantly. ‘Lytton has come to help us.’
Charlie turned to him. ‘What’s all this about?’ he whispered frantically. ‘How can you know her?’
Commander Gustave Lytton cleared his throat and reminded Charlie about the robbery at the electronics factory. He explained he had built a transmitter from stolen components capable of slipping a signal through the gaps in the space/time continuum. The Cryons had received his transmission and told him about the Cybermen on Earth.
‘And now you are both here to help us defeat the Cybermen,’ added Thrust.
BOTH! Charlie screamed inside his head.
‘I haven’t told Griffiths about his part yet.’
Charlie was furious. ‘I was brought here on purpose!’ he exclaimed. Lytton nodded. ‘You never did intend to do that diamond job.’
‘Would you have come if I’d told you the truth?’
‘You bet I wouldn’t!’
Thrust stepped between the two men. ‘We realise this must be confusing for you.’ Her tone was sweet and placating. ‘But Lytton didn’t lie: there is a way to get home...’
Mendacity was a stock in trade for most crooks, and therefore something even the beginner quickly learned to access. But Charlie had been told so many lies in the last couple of days, he no longer knew what to believe. ‘All right,’ he said at last. ‘Convince me.’
The gaze from her large, round eyes seemed to bore into his brain. ‘First we must discuss the fee for your services.’
He grunted his disapproval, knowing that his high street bank would react with a telephone call to the nearest psychiatric hospital, should he present them with a cheque drawn on the Bank of Telos. ‘Are you trying to wind me up?’
Thrust didn’t understand the colloquialism and referred to Lytton. ‘He implies that you’re attempting to annoy him.’
Aghast, she waved her hands. ‘Certainly not,’ she said, tugging at a pouch stuffed into her waistband. ‘That is the last thing I should want to do.’ She handed the bag to Charlie.
‘Approximately two million pounds in uncut diamonds,’
said Lytton, watching him open the leather container and empty the contents into his hand.
‘We were surprised you should want so little,’ she demurred. ‘Diamonds are common on Telos.’
Turning the stones over in his hand, Charlie wondered how many atrocities he would have to commit to earn such a wage.
‘You will help us?’ simpered the Cryon.
He didn’t know what to think. ‘What’ve I got to do?’
Lytton grinned broadly. ‘Help me steal back a time vessel.’
Before meeting the Doctor, the Cyber Controller had decided to humiliate his prisoner, hoping to soften his will to resist. It was to this end that the Time Lord had been thrown into a massive refrigeration unit.
Cold and desperate, the Doctor peered into the gloom around him...
‘A time vessel,’ Charlie Griffiths was incredulous. ‘You gotta be out of your mind!’ He anxiously rubbed the back of his