Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [76]
He has been working for us for six years or more. He has been a vital source of information to the Reich.'
There was the sound of screaming and breaking furniture, a brutal electrical crack, then silence.
The Doctor leaned down and snapped off the cassette player. Lazonby stared at him in silence. His finger slackened on the trigger.
Wall gripped him by the shoulder. 'It's a trick. A trick, do you hear me. This man is cunning, ruthless. He's a traitor.
Don't listen to him, Lazonby!'
The Doctor took a step towards the pale and quivering army major.
'Have you ever seen the results of partial Cyberisation on a human subject, Major?'
Lazonby raised the gun again, in trembling hands.
Mullen drew in another breath as the Doctor took a step closer.
'Has Mr Wall shown you what the Cybermen do to their human subjects?'
The Doctor transferred his gaze to Wall. The little man cowered behind Lazonby, peering at the Doctor through his blackened glasses.
'Don't listen to him, Lazonby. We're partners. A British Cyberarmy, remember.'
The Doctor kept his voice low and calm. 'Have you ever wondered why Mr Wall never takes off his glasses?'
Lazonby swung his gaze towards the cowering Wall.
Those damned reflective little glasses. Sweat began to run down his brow. He was an officer of the British army. He had to do what was right for his country. If Limb was in league with the Nazis...
With the enemy...
The Doctor took another step closer. His eyes switched to the barrel of the revolver, now only inches from his face.
'Ask Mr Wall to take off his glasses.'
'Shoot him!' screamed Wall.
'Ask if you can see his eyes.'
'Kill him!'
'Now, McBride! Now!'
The Doctor ducked.
The gun went off.
A wall of the corridor exploded inwards as an engine of hissing pistons and cold metal crashed through it. Peddler's prototype Cyberarmour creaked and groaned as McBride tried to control it. A gangly collection of metal beams and crude electrics, lashed to the American with leather straps.
A metalclad arm flailed out and bricks scattered across the corridor. The Doctor and Mullen threw themselves to one side as the ceiling collapsed.
'Concentrate, McBride!' yelled the Doctor.
'That's easy for you to say, Doc!'
A metal arm punched through an office door.
'This thing seems to have a life of its own!'
The Doctor dodged as McBride stamped towards the shutter doors. The Cyberarmour was crude and unsophisticated, but very powerful. McBride struggled with the joystick, desperate to bring the machine under some sort of control.
Bullets ricocheted off the metal framework as Lazonby fired shot after shot at him. He could hear the Doctor shouting at him, urging him to open the doors to the lab.
McBride raised both arms of the clumsy metal suit, and brought them slamming down on the metal shutters.
There was a screech of rending metal, and McBride felt himself toppling forward as the doors gave way. The suit collapsed into the lab with a resounding crash. McBride struggled out of the wreckage. He hauled himself to his feet, and found himself face to face with a scene from hell.
The smell hit McBride first. A dark, rich stench of decay, laced with the coppery tang of blood. The smell of a charnel house. The smell of death. He staggered to his feet, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and covering his nose. There was another odour an earthy, human scent. There was a huge rent in the floor. Concrete lay all around, shattered like toffee. McBride could see wet brickwork glistening through the hole. The sewers.
Around the walls of the lab were tall, curved bays interlinked with tubes and cables. With a start, McBride realised that it was the sphere, split apart like an orange.
Each segment held a body, but there was no way that McBride could describe any of the occupants as human.
Pipes and wires wound around exposed bones; raw, wet, torn flesh glistened between chrome plates. Blood pooled on the floor and thick hydraulic fluid pumped through transparent tubes into chest cavities that had once held hearts and lungs.
A corner of the lab