Doctor Who_ Daemons - Barry Letts [41]
A corporal appeared in the doorway of the Mobile H.Q., and handed the Brigadier a signal.
'Excellent,' he said as he read it. 'Right, Osgood, we've fixed it with the electricity wallahs for the power to be off for fifteen minutes. Are you ready to link up?'
'No, sir.'
'Well, when will you be ready, for heaven's sake?'
Osgood shrugged. The Doctor answered for him. 'Christmas after next, I should say. A rough estimate, of course.'
Stung by this sarcasm, Osgood could not stop his feelings from spilling over. 'If you push 10,000 volts through this lash-up, you'll blow it, anyway,' he complained.
'Just do what you're told, Sergeant,' said the Brigadier calmly. 'The Doctor knows what he's doing.'
'Yes, sir,' replied the Sergeant, obviously not believing a word of it, and moved away to sort out the junction boxes ready-for the link-up to the electricity supply. The Brigadier moved as dose to the Doctor as the heat barrier would let him.
' Do you know what you're doing?' he asked quietly.
The Doctor smiled charmingly. 'My dear chap,' he said, 'I can't wait to find out!'
That Jo did not sleep right through the earthquake caused by the appearanee of Azal was perhaps somewhat surprising, as she only recently had been injected with a powerful sedative by Doctor Reeves. When Mike appeared in the pub carrying the still very woozy Jo, Bert at once helped Mike to take her upstairs, while Miss Hawthorne and the Sergeant went out to find the busy Doctor Reeves. By the time he had been found (visiting Lily Watt's youngest, whose measles turned out to be painted on with a ball-point pen) Jo was apparently quite awake, but obviously suffering the effects of the blow on her head.
'In the Cavern,' she moaned, as he examined her. 'He said the danger was in the Cavern..!'
Doctor Reeves filled a hypodermic syringe. 'Just lie still, my dear. Try to relax. This won't hurt.'
'But the Doctor...' she gasped, trying to sit up. 'I must help him; I must help him to find the Master.'
Mike made her lie down on the bed again, so that Doctor Reeves could give the injection.
'Take it easy, Jo,' said Mike, as she weakly struggled against his firm but gentle grip, 'as soon as the Doctor gets back, we'll all go and sort out the Master. Now, don't worry!'
By this time the injection was beginning to take effect. 'No, no, most go now...' protested Jo, feebly, '... there's no... time to... be...' Her voice trailed away and Mike felt her relax. He disengaged himself and looked anxiously at Doctor Reeves.
'That's better,' the physician was saying. 'A few hours' sleep and she'll be as right as rain. How did she come to fall out of the car?'
'Well, you see...' began Mike, and stopped as he realised the enormity of the tale he had been about to tell. 'It's a long story, Doctor Reeves,' he said, steering him to the door...
The heavy sleep induced by the sedative should have lasted for two or three hours, but when the house began to shake she was instantly awake, sitting up clutching the bed-clothes, with a nightmare fear filling her stupefied mind. As the shaking started to die down, her fears, if not forgotten, were overcome.
'The Cavern...' she mumbled to herself, climbing shakily out of bed. 'I must get to the Cavern...'
She weaved her way to the door. The 'quake had in fact stopped, but to Jo it seemed that the floor was going up and down like an airliner in bumpy weather. She opened the door but stopped, when she heard Mike Yates's voice.
'I'm going to see what's happening,' he was saying.
'You mustn't. It's too dangerous...' That was Miss Hawthorne.
'The Doctor did want us to stay here, sir,' interposed the voice of Sergeant Benton. 'So did the Brigadier for that matter...'
Jo gently closed the door. They would stop her! Mike had prevented her from going before; she wasn't going to give him a second chance.
As she opened the window, hanging on to the pretty flowered curtain to help keep her balance, she remembered the first time she met the Master. He had hypnotised her and had nearly succeeded