Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [44]
Trasker nodded. ‘We head over to this TARDIS of yours first, get your gear. As for getting inside the studios...’ She held up a small credit-card-like code key. ‘How about legal access to the newsroom?’
The Doctor peered at the read-out on the small control device.
The tiny lights were blinking steadily.
‘The control node should be in this Vicinity.’
‘Then you had better hurry up and access it, Doctor. We seem to be running out of time.’
The Master was peering out of one of the shattered windows. The Doctor followed his gaze.
Out on the plain below them the Zzinbriizi were beginning to gather. Long sloping shadows were breaking away from the darkness of the jungle and slipping though the cool twilight, the pack moving as one across the dunes, searching.
The Master looked grimly at the Doctor. ‘They are bound to have our scent. The barricades that we set up at the door aren’t going to keep them at bay for long.’
On cue there was a pounding from the rooms below followed by a long mournful howl. The Doctor felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. If the Zzinbriizi trapped them in here they didn’t stand a chance.
He rolled the sphere in his hands, tapping at the tiny control panels. ‘The readings are very erratic. There is a control node here, I’m certain of that, but it’s doubtful that we can access an auxiliary control room.’
‘Well it’s better than nothing.’
The noises below them got louder. There was a splintering and a howl of triumph.
The Doctor’s fingers started to dance over the control pad.
There was a low distant throb of power. At the end of the corridor the door suddenly shuddered under an enormous impact. The Master took a step back.
‘Hurry, Doctor!’
‘What do you think I’m doing?’ The Doctor snapped.
The door vibrated again. Then there was a gruff, echoing growl.
‘Doctor...’
The Doctor looked up in surprise.
‘Doctor, we need to talk.’
The Doctor began to walk back down the corridor, shooting a wary glance at the Master. ‘Really. I had no idea that Zzinbriizi were the chatty type. Barrock I assume?’
The jackal gave a throaty chuckle. ‘No doubt your companion has mentioned me, though it’s unlikely that he will have given me the best of character references.’
‘Oh I don’t know, cunning, ruthless, vicious... nothing that I didn’t already know.’
‘That is true of most of my race, Doctor, but I am no ordinary Zzinbriizi. I’m sure that there is no need for the crudity of this hunt. If we could just sit down and discuss things like civilised beings...’
‘Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure.’ The Doctor’s hands continued to fly across the surface of the control sphere. The more time he could gain, the more chance he had of accessing the disabled TARDIS systems. ‘I’m sure that in different circumstances we could while away the hours discussing the various ways of disembowelling a gazelle, or keeping claws clean.’
There was a snarl of anger from the other side of the door.
‘Take care Time Lord. You will find that I am not someone that you wish to cross.’
The Master started to haul a chunk of masonry in front of the door. There was a crack and a razor-clawed arm appeared, slashing at him.
‘Now, that’s not very nice, is it?’ called the Doctor. ‘I think that we’ll just stay on our side of the door if it’s all the same to you.’
‘Damn you, Time Lords!’ The Zzinbriizi’s voice was little more than a throaty roar. ‘There is no escape!’
The Master backed down the corridor, snarling. The cheetah in him was starting to emerge. The Doctor barely looked at him. Instead he took his eyes briefly away from the read-out on the control sphere. In front of him a section of wall was beginning to glow, a familiar pattern of roundels emerging beneath the stage-set trappings of the corridor.
He punched at the controls. ‘Come on, come on!’
Behind him he could hear the Zzinbriizi tearing the door apart. The section of roundels solidified in front of him. He tore one of them away revealing the circuitry underneath.
The howling of the Zzinbriizi was deafening. The Master’s snarling was almost as bad.
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