Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [27]
She dived in under the monster's flailing arms and hauled McBride to one side. The private eye was pale and obviously in considerable pain.
'McBride, are you OK? Cody!' He glanced up at her, then his eyes widened in horror as he got his first proper glimpse of the thug he'd hit. 'Holy Mother!' 'Come on, McBride, we've got to get out of here.' Ace glanced back at the giant figures.
To her satisfaction and delight her attack had managed to put a dent in the handle that protruded from the side of the Cyberman's head. That satisfaction was shortlived as each Cyberman pulled a stubby silver tube from inside its coat.
Cyberguns. When they had proved no danger the Cybermen might have ignored them, but now that she had attacked one... Ace closed her eyes and braced herself for the shots, but they never came.
Silently, and in unison, as if responding to some unheard message, the two silver figures turned away from her and crossed back over to the sphere. One of them pressed a control and there was a hissing, like a million steam baths, as the two halves of the sphere neatly resealed themselves.
With childlike ease, the Cybermen picked up the sphere and carried it out through the shattered double doors. McBride turned to Ace.
'What the hell were they?'
***
The Doctor threw himself to one side as the silver creature hurled itself across the office. It bounced off the wall and clattered to the floor, chittering angrily. The Doctor skipped nimbly into the centre of the room, snatching up the homing device from McBride's desk. He'd been expecting this, or at least, something very like this. Cybermats. Small cyborg killing machines. And if there were Cybermats in London then their cybernetic masters couldn't be very far behind.
He peered into the gloom. He couldn't see any sign of the little assassin.
A noise from under the window made him start. He was being hunted. The Cybermat was lurking near the skirting board, waiting for an opportunity to pounce. The Doctor tried to move towards the light switch near the door; there was a blur of silver to his left. He dodged to one side as the Cybermat came screaming at him from under the desk. He felt the rush of air as it sailed past his head and bounced off McBride's filing cabinets with a resounding clang.
The Doctor regained his vantage point in the centre of the office, his eyes darting around all the gloomy corners, trying to determine where his attacker was lurking. He had encountered the tiny killers on several occasions, and each time they had been equipped with a different form of weapon.
Some emitted piercing sonic waves, others injected a lethal strain of poison all forms of attack that he had been able to deal with. This one seemed to be in possession of nothing more than a sharp set of big pointy teeth. The Doctor frowned. No subtlety at all. His solution would have to be equally unsubtle.
There was a sudden glint of metal from the corner of the room. The Doctor slowed his breathing to a whisper. 'Now then. Are you movementsensitive, heatsensitive ' he waggled the business card 'or are you just after this?' There was an explosion of movement from the other side of the office. The Doctor dropped to his knees, flicking the card across the room. The Cybermat flew after it straight into McBride's open safe. The Doctor hurled himself against the heavy safe door, slamming it shut and spinning the dial. Inside he could hear the sound of splintering lead crystal as the thrashing Cybermat destroyed McBride's expensive glasses. The Doctor slumped to the floor and mopped his forehead with a large paisley handkerchief.
'Oh dear. Mr McBride isn't going to be very happy about this.'
The Cybermen carried the sphere into the