Doctor Who_ Last of the Gaderene - Mark Gatiss [82]
‘Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.’
The Master smiled affably. ‘How nice to see you again, Doctor. Do you know, I think I’ve actually missed you.’
The Doctor’s face was serious. ‘I wish I could say the same.’
Jo came out behind the Doctor and quietly closed the cottage door behind her.
‘You’re working for these creatures I take it?’ said the Doctor.
The Master inclined his head a fraction.
‘Dear me.’ The Doctor rubbed his chin. ‘Always the bridesmaid, never the blushing bride. How does it feel always to be someone else’s lackey?’
The Master bristled. ‘As the Brigadier’s pet monkey, I should think you’re better placed to answer that, my dear Doctor.’
The Doctor glared at him. ‘What do you want?’
‘The encoder, of course.’
The Doctor avoided his gaze. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t play games with me. I don’t have time.’
The Doctor looked around. ‘For once you seem to have forgotten to surround yourself with thugs. Your threats don’t seem entirely persuasive.’ The Master dropped his hands.
Benton’s finger tightened on the trigger.
‘Despite your amusing efforts, Doctor, these people are still quite capable of killing. They will do my bidding. If I order them to attack, they will do so. Do you really want your soldier friends to cut them to pieces?’
The Doctor considered this. ‘Well, exchange is no robbery. I may give you the encoder... if you’ll give me information.’
The Master inclined his head to one side. ‘Go on.’
The Doctor pulled the crystalline key from his coat pocket and tossed it into the air, catching it deftly a moment later.
‘These creatures. Who are they?’
The Master kept his eyes on the key, twitching slightly as the Doctor toyed with it. ‘They are the Gaderene,’ he stated.
‘They came to Earth some thirty years ago and... marked it.’
The Doctor frowned. ‘Marked it?’
‘Like a cat marking its territory,’ said Jo quietly.
The Master nodded. ‘A crude analogy, Miss Grant, but essentially correct. Two of them arrived in embryonic form.
They had this planet down as a useful fall-back should anything unforeseen occur.’
‘And what happened?’ asked the Doctor.
‘Something unforeseen occurred. Their world is dying. I managed to get them back in touch with their nearest and dearest. They need a new home?
The Doctor set his face into a stern frown. ‘But this planet is occupied already. They can’t just be allowed to... move in.’
‘Oddly enough, Doctor, that’s not the way they see it.
They do not intend to ask the human race politely to leave.
They intend to... ah... what is the modern parlance?’
‘Squat?’ said Jo.
‘Squat,’ replied the Master. ‘Yes. And now, if you’ll hand over the encoder, I shall help them get on with it.’
The Doctor regarded him steadily. ‘You know I can’t allow that.
The Master sighed. ‘Good old Doctor. Always so tiresomely fair.’ He clicked his fingers and two of the recovered villagers appeared, dragging Noah between them.
Jo cried out in horror.
The Master picked up an abandoned UNIT pistol and pointed it at Noah who was now crouching at his father’s feet.
‘Don’t move!’ he commanded, glaring at Benton on the upper floor. ‘Get up, boy. Move here, next to me.’
Reluctantly Noah did so. The Master tugged at his arm and pressed the cold barrel of the pistol to Noah’s cheek. ‘Now, Doctor, the encoder. Or this boy dies.’
The Doctor thought at once of General Gogon. He wasn’t about to go through all that again. He glanced towards the horizon, as though expecting a distant pyrotechnical display to distract the Master. Nothing happened. He stepped forward.
‘Doctor!’ called Jo.
The Doctor glanced back at her. ‘I’ve little choice.’
He threw the key to the Master who caught it in one black-gloved hand. ‘Thank you, Doctor.’
The Master pushed the barrel of the pistol further into Noah’s cheek.
The boy whimpered. Suddenly he seemed very young indeed.
‘You know, I seem to remember we had a little falling out, you and I. Back at the Academy,’ mused the Master, as though he were at a summer garden party. ‘That