Doctor Who_ Last of the Gaderene - Mark Gatiss [70]
The Master rolled his eyes. ‘No, it’s not a game. It’s very serious. Very serious indeed. You have something which belongs to my friend here.’
Whistler’s face fell. ‘Oh. Well I must give it back then, mustn’t I?’
‘Yes,’ insisted the Master. ‘You must. It is a small thing, like a crystal.’
‘A crystal?’ Whistler appeared to be fascinated. Then his attention seemed suddenly to wander, like a small boy distracted by a colourful shape elsewhere. He watched the spinning spools of Bliss’s computer and grinned happily to himself. The Master sighed.
Bliss got to her feet. ‘You will forgive me if I seem unimpressed by your hypnotic talents.’
The Master glared at her. ‘The embryo within him is obviously preventing his personality from showing through.’
Bliss nodded. Naturally. It’s always like that.’
‘Then you shouldn’t have impregnated him,’ said the Master sternly.
‘I didn’t plan it!’ spat Bliss. ‘He attacked one of my men.
The embryo within him was released. It found a new home.
Rapidly.’
The Master nodded towards Whistler. ‘We could try getting it out of him. But it’s dangerous. He might not survive.’
Running her hand over her face as though feeling her skin for the first time, Bliss changed tack.
‘We have most of the village now. Why don’t we just tear it apart for the key?’
The Master shook his head. ‘You were right. We should be cautious. It may be damaged. Or overlooked by those zombies of yours. No...’
He stared thoughtfully at Whistler who was happily watching the spinning computer tapes. ‘I have a better idea.’
Jo shuddered as she recounted her experiences on the marsh.
‘It was horrible. Poor Mrs Toovey...’
The Doctor laid a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. They were sitting on the bench on the village green. Next to them, the Brigadier was trying to get in touch with Captain Yates on the R/T set.
‘You say there was some kind of creature?’ asked the Doctor.
Jo nodded. ‘It was on her neck. Just sitting there. Its eyes...’
She put her face in her hands.
‘It’s all right, Jo,’ soothed the Doctor. He glanced around at the village green. It was still covered in stalls from that afternoon’s fête, but they were completely abandoned. The eerie face of an illuminated clown grinned back at the Doctor.
He looked away.
‘By the way,’ he said, turning back to Jo. ‘I’ve forgiven you for going up there against my express wishes.’
Jo looked up and gave a tearful grin.
The Brigadier came over. ‘Right,’ he barked. ‘That’s that.
Yates and Benton are on their way.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘You managed to circumvent the exclusion order?’
‘Not exactly,’ murmured Lethbridge-Stewart. ‘The Secretary of Defence has disappeared.’
Jo and the Doctor exchanged looks.
‘In his absence, Mr Cochrane’s deputy – an eminently.
sensible chap – listened to my story and... er... authorised us to steam in with all guns blazing.’ The Brigadier seemed very pleased with himself.
The Doctor got to his feet. ‘Well, I suggest we adjourn to the Wing Commander’s cottage and await your reinforcements, Brigadier. We don’t exactly represent a fighting force on our own, do we?’
‘No.’ The Brigadier looked around the deserted village.
Rubbish littered the ground along with more sinister detritus: spectacles, handbags, as though their owners had no further use for them.
‘Place is like a graveyard,’ he concluded.
The Doctor looked up as a figure bounded across the road towards them. ‘Hello, here’s Noah.’
Noah strode up to the bench, shaking his head. ‘Still no sign of my dad or Uncle Max.’
‘Or anyone,’ said Jo grimly.
She shot an appealing look at the Doctor. ‘What do you think’s going on?’
The Doctor frowned. ‘Well, from what you’ve described, some kind of alien parasite. Living off the people of Culverton.’
Noah groaned disgustedly. ‘And the... the aerodrome staff are helping them?’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘I rather think they’re one and the same.’
Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton sat in the cabin of the leading UNIT vehicle as the convoy powered along the narrow East Anglian lanes towards