Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [30]
He noticed Ace and McBride crawling through the wreckage. 'Somebody get those civilians out of here.'
In the drizzle outside in the yard, Wall cowered at the sound of, gunfire. He hopped from the cab of the truck and scurried over to the loading bay. There was another burst of gunfire and the crackle of energy weapons. This wasn't how the operation was meant to be at all. He chewed at his nails.
The Cybermen were invulnerable to most forms of attack, but if the soldiers managed to get reinforcements... He peered into the gloom through his little black glasses and hissed under his breath. 'Withdraw Do you hear me? Retreat. We will regroup.'
He scurried around to the cab of the truck and clambered in, fumbling with the keys and bringing the diesel engine into roaring, shuddering life. Inside, the Cybermen straightened, hearing Wall's instructions. They turned in unison and strode out of the shattered laboratory. Bullets bounced off their huge shoulders as one of the bolder troopers tried to halt their retreat. A slicing chop broke the neck of the soldier and he slumped to the floor in a crumpled heap. The Cybermen vanished through the external lab doors. In the office overlooking the workshop floor, Ace's ears pricked up at the sound of a truck engine. 'They're getting away!' McBride winced as he nursed his throbbing his hand. 'Thank God for that.' Ace turned, her face set with grim determination. 'But I know what they are. I'm going after them, McBride.' Before the American could object, Ace had dodged past the soldier on the door and was sprinting across the lab. She could hear the cultured English tones of the officer, and the American twang of McBride shouting after her. 'Stop that girl!' 'Ace!
Goddamn it, come back here.' She bounded over one of the shattered workbenches, feeling glass crunch under her Doc Martens. She darted out into out into the cool evening air, ready to duck back into the lab at the first sign of Cybermen.
The truck was just rounding the gate and heading out on to the road. She sprinted after it. She could hear people close behind her. McBride called out again. 'Ace! What the hell d'you think you're doing?' The truck was picking up speed, now Ace began to run faster. She didn't have a plan, she hadn't even begun to think about what might happen if she was caught. She just had to find out where the Cybermen were going. The back edge of the truck was almost within her reach, now, the spray from the tyres splattering her face. Her heart pounded in her chest. A trailing rope dangled from the flapping canvas covering the back of the truck she caught it and hauled herself up on to the back of the speeding vehicle.
McBride caught a glimpse of her smiling face as the truck vanished in a cloud of spray. He threw his hat down on to the wet tarmac in dismay and disgust. 'Goddamn it!' He'd lost the sphere, the what had she called them? Cybermen, and now Ace. How the hell was he going to explain this to the Doctor?
He turned to head back into the factory, to find himself confronted by a grimfaced Lazonby. 'She's gone.' 'Yes, so I see. Very convenient. We'd better make sure that you don't make any sudden disappearances then, hadn't we?' Lazonby raised his gun.
CHAPTER 8
Cybermats were unpredictable little biomechanoids; this the Doctor knew. You could never tell quite how their brains tiny, dedicated computers interlaced with thin skeins of primitive, animal nervous system would react to a given set of circumstances. It all depended on the way their masters had programmed them. This one was revealing a spirit the Doctor had never before encountered in the lethal little machines.
Having successfully homed in on the tiny transmitter, it had seemed dormant for a while. Listening from outside the safe, the Doctor had ohso gingerly eased the latch back. Slowly...
nothing. Silence within. Gently he had eased the door open a crack and a minihell had broken loose. The thing had hurled itself at the shaft of light that had pierced