• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

The Doctor nodded, smiling slightly.

'And you believe that Cybertechnology will deliver the future you so long for. By giving it to both sides you are trying to trigger a technology race. An arms race.'

'Precisely, Doctor?

'Hideously irresponsible!' The Doctor turned away angrily.

'Oh, come now. I was only trying to speed up the inevitable. It doesn't take a genius to see that the future is going to be poised in a... a balance of terror, if you will.

Unfortunately, by destroying the Peddler factory you have upset that balance. Thanks to you, Doctor, the Nazis will inherit the Earth.'

'If you think that any combination of threat and persuasion will induce me to give those people the secret of Cybertechnology

'I am an old man,' Limb interrupted. 'I am impatient. The future is my one and only motivation. That is what I live for. I will sacrifice anything to speed up history. To put the future within my grasp. But there are other ways. If the mountain will not come to Mohammed...'

'What do you mean?' queried the Doctor suspiciously.

'Time travel, Doctor.' The Doctor was silent. 'Back at my house in Belsize Park you said that the Cybermen had travelled backward in time to get here. I find that fascinating.

Moreover, I believe that you know far more about the subject than you care to reveal.

The Doctor said nothing. When Limb spoke again it was a low, urgent, rasping voice.

'Give me the secret of time travel.'

'Impossible,' the Doctor said curtly. 'I have certain responsibilities above and beyond this planet.'

'Hear me out, Doctor, please. A wager. If I win the game you will tell me what I most wish to know and I will make sure that Berlin closes this place down permanently. If you win I will still have this place closed, and face the consequences.

You and Ace will be free to go, your secrets intact.'

'An interesting proposition,' the Doctor mumbled, chewing on a rook.

'It would certainly save a lot of bloodshed and misery.

Check.'

CHAPTER 24

Captain Hartmann strode towards the room where Ace languished, a renewed sense of purpose driving him forward.

Heydrich had spoken: no one could stand in his way now.

The guard on the door snapped to attention.

'Open it!' barked Hartmann.

The door swung open to reveal Ace, slumped on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She didn't bother to glance at him as he entered the room.

'Stand!' he shouted.

She ignored him.

'On ' in two strides he had crossed to the bed 'your ' his hand reached out; he seized her ponytail in his fist 'feet!' He yanked. Ace let out a gasp. She felt her hair tearing away at the roots. In spite of herself she pivoted upward until she was standing in front of her captor.

'Until now you have enjoyed an undeserved status here.

Let me inform you of how your situation has changed. You are now simply a hostage. You will be used to force the Englishman and his insolent little friend to revive the Cybermen.'

'The Doctor's here...' For the first time since she arrived on this island Ace felt a real surge of hope. 'He'll never help you.'

'If they refuse I will shoot one of your fingers off. If they still refuse I will shoot another finger off. All of your fingers, all of your toes. Then your nose. Then I shall remove your tongue. Then I will blind you. I will continue this process until you are nothing but a bloody, limbless torso. Then I will shoot you. Then I will shoot them.'

'Then you'll shoot yourself, I hope.'

Hartmann smiled. There was nothing appealing in his smile now.

'You have spirit, girl. You would have made a good German wife. Come.'

He turned, dragging Ace by the hair, and marched from the room.

Like vultures, three blackclad soldiers, souldead, absolutely obedient to orders, clustered around one defenceless victim, waiting for the kill.

'Checkmate.' said George Limb. 'A delightful game, Doctor. You sacrificed your queen too easily.'

'Hmm...' said the Doctor. 'You know, I once played chess with a being from another dimension