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Twin camera lenses stared out from the pallid, puglike face chrome and glass nestling into the clean white bone of the eye sockets. Wall writhed on the floor, flailing blindly.

'Light! Too much light!'

The Doctor crossed the lab to the Cyberleader's head, and began to wrench it from the pedestal. A Cybermat hissed at him, teeth snapping; the Doctor batted it away with his hat.

With a crunch the head came free.

There was a sudden cry from McBride.

'Doc, look out!'

A metal arm rose from the huge rent in the laboratory floor as a Cyberman hauled itself out of the sewers. The Cybermen in the sphere segments were beginning to stir.

McBride looked around for any kind of weapon. In a corner was a pile of army uniforms, torn and bloodied all that was left of Lazonby's troops. Nestling among the cloth was the glint of gunmetal. McBride bent down and snatched a rifle from the pile. Bullets twanged around the laboratory as McBride loosed off shot after shot against the emerging Cyberman.

Lazonby joined him, rummaging in the pile of uniforms and staggering to his feet clutching a heavy machinegun.

He snapped off the safety catch and unleashed a stream of bullets into the lab. The Cyberman reeled under the impact and vanished from view, crashing back into the sewers.

Lazonby smiled grimly at McBride.

Suddenly, the floor of the lab shattered as Cybermen punched their way up from underground. McBride couldn't see how many pairs of arms flailed through the smashed concrete. Four, no six. One by one the Cybermen hauled themselves through the floor. McBride raised his rifle and fired shot after shot. He could see the two that he and Ace had come up against the charred one and the one with the bent handle towering a good foot above their newly converted colleagues Lazonby's former troops. They swatted his bullets away as if they were flies. Mullen and his policemen scattered as energy bolts danced through the lab, sending brickwork flying.

Lazonby unleashed another barrage of shots against the advancing giants. They staggered under the impact, but kept coming. Equipment shattered around them, smoke and flame belching from the conversion machinery. The Doctor was suddenly at his side, the Cyber head under his arm.

'It's no good, Major. We have to get out of here, now!' He had to shout over the roar of the Bren gun.

Lazonby didn't look at him. He kept firing, tears streaming from his face.

'My fault, Doctor. All my fault. Get out of here. Find some way to finish this.'

He shoved the Doctor away from him and stumbled further into the lab, staggering from the recoil of the machinegun. He fired again and again. At the Cybermen. At their machinery. At the things that had once been people.

Firing as if that alone would erase the terrible mistake that he had made.

The Doctor staggered to his feet. McBride caught him by the arm, and hauled him towards the shutter doors, coughing from the acrid smoke that now filled the lab. 'C'mon Doc, there's nothing you can do for him.'

McBride hauled himself over the shattered remains of the prototype Cyberarmour. The Doctor turned and peered back into the blazing laboratory. He caught one last glimpse of Lazonby, wreathed in smoke, surrounded by Cybermen, his Bren gun still blazing.

Then a silver arm came chopping down, and the gunfire stopped.

The Doctor scrambled over the wreckage and out into the corridor, scooping up the ghetto blaster as he went.

Mullen and McBride were waiting for him, the policemen already heading for the front door.

McBride began to hare off down the corridor. The Doctor meandered after him, prodding at the head. Mullen exhaled noisily. 'Come on, Doctor, let's get out of here.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I don't think we're in any danger out here.

The Cybermen are going to be far more concerned with repairing their equipment than pursuing a handful of people like us.' McBride stopped and pointed at the head dangling from the Doctor's

hand. 'What about that?' 'Oh, I doubt that they consider