Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [81]
Presently, as the sibilance became almost unbearable, he noticed a scintillation, a web of sparks, dancing over the skin of the dead Skang, which spread and expanded until it was one unbroken sheet of fire.
Soon the blaze of light was too bright to bear, illuminating the arena, shaming the sunlight itself. The Doctor had to close his eyes and look away.
A whoosh like the take-off of a Guy Fawkes rocket; and the light on his eyelids was gone. The sound of the Skang faded away.
The Doctor looked up. Alex and the others had dropped their hands; and where the burning corpse had been there was nothing but a little dust, and a wisp of smoke.
Incandescence.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
„Were you really going to go without us?‟
„Well, it hadn‟t actually come to that, you know. We were keeping an eye out for the launch. We felt sure that you‟d be back in time.‟
Pete Andrews seemed a bit sheepish.
Quite right too, thought Sarah, glancing at the Brig, who for at least five minutes had been motionlessly standing and staring at the shoreline through his binoculars.
Surely he wouldn‟t have abandoned his old chum the Doctor, even if he was prepared to sacrifice her. But then, of course, they‟d still thought everything was all gas and gaiters. Extraordinary cliché, that. What on earth could it mean?
She could hear the brisk sounds of the crew, as they prepared themselves for a resumption of the original plan for an armed landing. Bob Simkins, who, in addition to his other duties, had taken on the role of First Lieutenant, was still on the foredeck with his little crew of seamen in charge of the anchor cable. She could see him casually leaning against the mounting of the fearsome-looking missiles, as he waited for the bridge to make up its mind what to do next.
As she was looking at him, the Brig turned round.
„The book. That book. Have you got it?‟
Chris, who‟d been lurking at the back of the bridge keeping out of the way, jumped forward. „The Pilot? Yes, sir! Right here, sir!‟
He darted across to the chart table in its little protective hood, and turned to find that his CO and the Brigadier were on his tail. „Here you are, sir. A hundred and twelve, I think the page was.‟
The Brig took it and riffled through. Sarah sauntered across and did her best to peep past his arm as he found the page.
„Yes, here it is,‟ he said. „I thought so. There‟s a sketch map as well as the drawing of what it looks like; and it shows the other landing place. Look here, Andrews. See it? An opening in the cliffs. I know that it‟s only rough, and it was drawn in nineteen thirty-three...‟
„Nineteen twenty-three, actually,‟ said Chris.
„Whatever. And they were Swedish...‟
„Norwegian, I think.‟
„Pipe down, Chris,‟ said his Commanding Officer.
„Sorry, sir.‟
„Not British, anyway,‟ went on the Brigadier. „But it does show that there‟s an alternative route, which is pretty clear of scrub, up to where the spring comes out. And that‟s at the foot of the hill. We‟d be foolish in the extreme to attempt a frontal assault up the road...‟
Sarah frowned. That‟s just what he‟d been planning to do before the mist changed everything, wasn‟t it? Oh, but of course, then it was just a matter of arresting some men and women. Now they were actually going to attack a gang of alien monsters.
„Lord alone knows what sort of weaponry they‟ll have,‟ the Brig was saying, „so we need to take them by surprise.‟
Pete Andrews took the book from him and studied it. „Mm.
And with any luck, they‟ll see us leaving the lagoon, and take it for granted that we‟ve sailed back to Bombay.‟
„Exactly. But we have to get a move on. Okay?‟
„Come in, Doctor! I was half expecting you.‟
He paused in the entrance to Dame Hilda‟s room. No longer the marble apartment, albeit small, that would have graced the palace of a Roman emperor, its rough walls of volcanic rock enclosed a space that was more homely and snug than luxurious. There was a couch