Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [54]
Suddenly a grinding roar started to fill the room, grating and harsh. Ace’s head snapped up in horror.
‘Doctor?’
Trasker’s earpiece sprang into life. She smiled. It was time.
Ace struggled with the door controls. With a thunderous roar the door began to rise.
‘Come on! Come on!’
Ace kicked at them in frustration. The huge shutters had opened just enough, and she squeezed through. Trasker followed her.
Ace stood motionless in the middle of the cavernous space, staring around in despair.
The studio was empty.
Chapter Fourteen
‘Three. Two. One. Action!’
Lukos’s eyes sparkled with glee as the Master’s TARDIS
faded from the screens and Saarl’s grinning face loomed into view. The timing had been perfect. The well-oiled machine was running precisely as planned and the Doctor still hadn’t got the slightest inkling of the size of the problem he was enmeshed in.
Oh, how Lukos’s allies had worried. How they had feared that the Doctor would confound their plans. But Lukos had shown them how wrong they were, had got the Time Lord dancing to whatever tune he wanted, able to watch every move. Able to pre-empt every attempt the Doctor made to extricate himself.
Lukos sighed. It was immensely satisfying. This was the only part of the plan that had its risks, now that the TARDIS
was in the vortex and the thousands of cameras and transmitters set throughout the time ship could not transmit.
Lukos rubbed his chin nervously. This was the only part of the operation that he had no direct control over, this was where he had to place some trust in his allies – and he was a man who trusted no one.
He smiled. Fortunately he had his own contingency plans; he would have to be patient. In the meantime there was the matter of the girl. On the screens Saarl was getting ready with his introductions.
Lukos pressed a communicator. ‘Tell Rennie that we’re ready for her.’
Gatti tried to pull open the door, but Breame stepped into her way.
‘Let me go!’
‘Wait!’ Breame pushed her back into the room. ‘Do you know what they will do to you if you are caught?’
Gatti stopped struggling. Breame was right. It was Ace that they were after. She was unimportant, and that meant expendable.
She sank back into a chair, frustrated and angry. It had taken a while to get the information out of Breame. An endless stream of questions and answers until he had told the truth.
Trasker wasn’t an ex-member of staff with a grudge, she was Lukos’s top newshound. A journalist with a vicious, amoral streak that knew no boundaries, acknowledged no right of privacy.
Breame had shown her magazines and vidcubes that detailed Trasker’s ruthless route to the top. The lives that she had ruined on the way. If Trasker had her claws into Ace...
The latest broadcast had confirmed everything. Saarl was preparing something unpleasant, that much was certain. Gatti stared helplessly at the screen.
‘We can’t just sit here and do nothing.’
‘Chasing around the corridors could lead you nowhere.
We know exactly where they are going to take her.’
Breame pointed at the television.
‘Of course!’ Gatti scrambled to her feet. It was so obvious.
‘Trasker’s leading her to another studio!’
Breame clapped. ‘Studio Two! Exactly! Well done! Well done! I can see that we are going to have so much fun. You do get so many answers right.’
‘I’m assuming that you know a way for us to get to the studio?’
Breame nodded and scampered round the desk.
‘Let me just get my coat, and my notebook. I must keep score.’
Gatti opened the door and followed Breame out into the basement. He was giggling and chuckling to himself. He pointed at the flight of stairs that Ace and Trasker had used.
‘Now then, I’m assuming that you’ve already discounted that particular stairwell.’
Gatti nodded. ‘That’s the way that Ace went so I’m assuming that one leads to danger.’
‘Capital, capital,