Doctor Who_ Rip Tide - Louise Cooper [52]
But Ruth was not.
Nina climbed clumsily to her feet, swaying as the wind snatched at her clothes and hair. Then, fighting the protests of her aching muscles, she began to stumble down the cliff path.
Nina didn't care if half the village heard her hammering at the door of the cottage. If the Doctor didn't answer this time, she'd break in, she'd —
'Nina?' The door opened so suddenly that she nearly lost her balance and sprawled full-length into the hall beyond. The Doctor saw her white, strained face and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the house and shoving the door shut again. 'What's happened?' he demanded.
She told him in breathless, truncated sentences, and as soon as he grasped the gist of the story he hurried towards the living room and the TARDIS.
'What are you going to do?' Dizzily Nina followed him through the
TARDIS door and watched as he started to hit controls and keypads. The timeship responded with a rising whine, and lights danced in rapid patterns across the console.
'Co-ordinates,' the Doctor muttered. 'I need co-ordinates.' He swung round. 'Nina, have you got a grid reference for that cave?'
'A grid reference? No way! I know where it is, but –'
'Not good enough! If I'm going to use the TARDIS to get Ruth out, I have to have an accurate bearing, or we could materialise in the middle of solid rock.'
Nina's jaw dropped. 'You mean, you can take this – this thing to where Ruth is?'
He gave her a hard glance. 'I can take it anywhere – if I know exactly where I'm going.' Another rapid taradiddle on the keys; more lights danced, then a brief, ear-splitting whine made Nina jump.
'No good,' the Doctor said. 'I can't locate her. There's too much interference from the composition of the rock – it must be that that stopped me from finding her hideout in the first place.' He swung to face Nina. 'The tunnel that fell in – where does it lead?'
'I don't know,' said Nina helplessly. She racked her mind. 'Though ...'
'Yes?'
'I didn't keep track of the way the passage turned, which direction I was heading. If I had, I could be sure, but ...'
'Never mind; no one could expect you to! But anything might help; just tell me what you're thinking!'
'Well ...' The second tunnel led off to the right, I know it did. And when I was in the cave, the other tunnel, the one that fell in . . . it was almost dead opposite . . . 'I think,' Nina said, crossing fingers and toes, 'that the air-shaft comes out in one of the sea caves.'
The Doctor's eyes lit up. 'Whereabouts? Do you know?'
'I've got a rough idea. But you can't reach it; only a boat could get there, and the sea this morning's too wild –'
'Can you see it from the cliff path?'
'Not see it, no, but the path goes above it –'
'Show me!' Then he hesitated. 'If you're up to it?'
She nodded, though she wasn't sure whether it was the truth.
'Grand!' he said. 'Right – let's go!'
'Is this the place?' the Doctor yelled.
'I think so!' Nina shouted back. They were on the cliff path, about fifty metres beyond the stone wall where they had stopped the previous evening, and she did not want to look to where clumps of sea-pinks danced madly in the wind on the brink of the sickening drop to the sea. She dropped to a crouch – it reduced the giddiness a little – and pointed, still without looking, towards the heaving grey of the water. 'There should be a group of yellow marker buoys about a hundred metres offshore. Don't stand so close to the edge!'
'I see them.' Ignoring her warning he leaned alarmingly outwards and peered down at the sea boiling and churning below. 'Nasty. Those rocks down there. I wouldn't give anyone much chance of surviving a fall:
She shuddered violently. 'Neither would I. Get back, will you?'
'Oh, don't worry about me.' He leaned even further, and Nina shut her eyes, feeling sick with fright. Then he said,