Doctor Who_ Last of the Gaderene - Mark Gatiss [88]
‘I think the Brig’s got company,’ said Benton quietly.
The fence had been flattened as the creature passed over it and they clambered over it comparatively easily. The remaining UNIT troops were close behind them. Legion men and villagers were milling around, seemingly disorientated.
Benton tapped Jo on the arm.
Jo shielded her eyes against the glare of the light column.
She could just make out three figures at its base, close to the hangar. Bliss and Noah were moving a series of what looked like hospital operating tables out on to the airstrip. The Master was close by, gazing up at the light.
‘Come on,’ said Jo urgently.
Swiftly, she and Benton ran the remaining distance.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Last of the Gaderene
The Doctor put the Spitfire down behind the hangar. A section of road, cracked and broken, connected some of the aerodrome’s outbuildings with the control tower. Black Legion lorries had been neatly parked at one end but there was enough room for the old plane to touch down, her heavy rubber tyres screeching over the tarmac.
As soon as the fighter came to a halt, the Doctor threw back the hood and clambered out. He raised an arm to shield his eyes from the incredible glare of the blue light and ran as fast as he could towards it.
For a few moments, there was silence around the Spitfire.
Then a figure emerged from behind the metal stairs which led to the control tower.
Wing Commander Whistler, hobbling and exhausted, stumbled towards the plane, smiling ecstatically, and patted the fuselage as though it were an old friend.
The Doctor approached the base of the column of light in silence. He spotted Jo approaching too, and Benton peeling away from her and heading for the Brigadier. Behind them, the UNIT troops were still being pursued by the possessed villagers.
Jo raced to the Doctor’s side and took his hand. She looked over at Noah and gave him an encouraging smile. The boy looked miserable and scared.
‘A magnificent spectacle, don’t you think, Doctor?’ said the Master, without turning round.
The Doctor looked into the light, his eyes hidden in the lines on his face. The column’s unstable pattern showed that the ninth key had yet to be inserted.
‘The dimensional bridge isn’t completed,’ he cried.
‘There’s still time. You don’t have to go through with this madness.’
The Master turned round, his features bathed in blue light.
‘Don’t I, Doctor? I’ve made a deal with the Gaderene. I can’t deny them. Isn’t that what we all fight to defend? Hearth and home?’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘But not like this. Earth does not belong to them. There must be another way. If they make the leap, every living thing on this planet will be at their mercy.’
‘Exactly!’ The Master’s eyes were blazing. ‘They will drain this little world dry. And I shall have my revenge.’
He glanced over at Bliss who was still smiling her wide, wide smile. ‘You have defeated me more times than I care to admit, Doctor. But now, at last, the hour is mine!’
Without another word, he tossed the ninth key over to Bliss. The alien caught it in her spade-like hand and hugged it, briefly, to her chest.
‘No!’ cried the Doctor, stepping forward.
The Master’s hand reached into his tunic and brought out a long, black cylindrical object. He resembled a gunslinger. a UNIT pistol in one hand, trained on Noah, and his deadly tissue-compressor in the other, pointed squarely at the Doctor’s chest. ‘Stay where you are, Doctor. It would be a pity if you missed the... fireworks.’
Bliss strode forward and calmly inserted the final key into the ground. The pitch of the humming roar changed again, rising, rising, rising. Jo shielded her ears.
The Doctor looked back. The creature was still keeping the UNIT troops at bay. There was nothing he could do.
And now the journey nears its end.
The twelve elders stream through space in their component particles, bridging the dimensional gulf between their world and Earth. They feel no pain, no fear, no exhilaration, sleeping still and cocooned in the power of the nine jade keys which