Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [72]
„...round the entire perimeter. What about you?‟
‘Niente. Not a thing. I think Signor Cabot is maybe a little punch-drunk, eh?‟
The voices were getting nearer. Sarah shrank back, as if to hide herself more. The Doctor pressed her arm to stop her moving.
Whoever they were, they were just around the corner.
There was no hope of getting away. Their only hope was to keep as still as possible.
„The sooner the Limey ship gets going, the sooner I‟ll...‟
Two guards had come round the corner and stopped dead.
„Holy cow!‟ said the Australian.
Not exactly an appropriate reaction from a devotee, thought the Doctor. And as for the other crossing himself...
‘Madonna mia! It‟s... him...!‟ he breathed.
They both knelt down and the Aussie reverently touched the Skang as if to make sure that it was real.
„He is dead, isn‟t he?‟
„You‟d better believe it, Giovanni, me old cobber.‟ As he spoke, he was digging out his walkie-talkie. „Brother Will, this is Brother Ed. Do you read me? Over?‟
No reply.
„Brother Will, come in please. Over.‟
Giovanni looked up, startled. „Say that again!‟
„What?‟
„Say something, anything. Keep talking.‟
„What you on about?‟
„Do it.‟
He shrugged and spoke into the handset. „Mary had a little lamb. One two three four five...‟
As he spoke, Giovanni was feeling through the robe of the dead Skang, and soon pulled out another handset, which announced its presence with the piercing shriek of howl-round.
The counting stopped. In the silence, the two guards looked at each other, nonplussed.
„We‟d better get it up to the temple. Mother Hilda‟ll go spare. If the Skang is dead, that fouls up the reward ceremony completely.‟
As he spoke, the Doctor felt an involuntary movement from Sarah. He tightened his grip on her arm, and as soon as the guards disappeared round the corner carrying the body, he slipped back into the jungle.
„What was it? What did they say?‟ he hissed to Sarah as soon as she caught him up.
„It was the word “reward”! The reward ceremony. That‟s what Jeremy said they were coming here for, to get their reward!‟
That settled it. It was all falling into place. „Right,‟ said the Doctor. „One way or another, it‟s got to be stopped. The guard was wrong. It‟ll go ahead even if one of them is dead. There must be at least twenty other Skang to take part.‟
She still looked bewildered.
„You still don‟t get it, do you? That was the significance of the walkie-talkie. They were calling Brother Will, weren‟t they?‟
„You mean that the dead Skang...‟
„...wasn‟t all that he seemed. Brother Will fell from the cliff, or was pushed maybe, and when he landed and was killed, he resumed his real shape.‟
„Every one of those teachers, from Mother Hilda down, is a Skang!‟
Bob Simkins, staring unseeingly at his cup of black coffee, removed his head from his hands, and said, „Do you have to make such a bloody clatter with your knife and fork?‟
Sorree!‟ sang Chris, his mouth full of sausage and fried egg.
Funny, he thought, he seemed to be the only one who was finding life as jolly as they all had yesterday. Never mind about last night‟s piss-up, they‟d come back on board as happy as a crowd of soccer fans after they‟d won the cup.
And now - well, the blue mist had long gone, but it was as if the whole ship was sitting in a black fog of gloom. When they were about to go home! But then he‟d never been able to understand why people fluctuated up and down the way they did.
The CO had sent a message to say that he wasn‟t to be disturbed until it was time to weigh anchor; the Brigadier, the Doctor and Sarah hadn‟t surfaced at all; and if Bob, as the acting Number One, hadn‟t had to get up to make the ship ready for sea, he‟d still be crashed out, no question.
It had been a good party.
The Cox‟n appeared in the doorway. Bob didn‟t even open his eyes. „Excuse me, sir...‟
Bob sat up with a jerk. „Ah yes, Cox‟n. Everything in hand?‟
„I couldn‟t say that, sir. The Doctor and Miss Smith have gone ashore, it seems.‟
„Oh no!‟