Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis - Kevin Clarke [17]
Absorbed as Lady Peinforte and Richard were in these actions, neither of them noticed Karl snaking foward across the ground towards the flight case. Lasers flashed over his head but he continued, and retrieved it. He then leapt to his feet and ran full-tilt back across the scorched ground to where De Flores was waiting in the shelter of the partly finished house. Without a word being necessary, they dashed through the building to the back and were through the perimeter fence and into their waiting vehicle as the Cybermen lumbered into the front of the house. As the sound of the engine starting and moving off reached the Cybermen, the Cyber Leader raised a hand and the pursuit was abandoned. There were more important matters that demanded their attention.
The Cyber Leader turned to his Lieutenant. ‘Bring the bow at once,’ grated the metal voice.
There was the slightest hesitation before the Lieutenant replied: ‘The Doctor and the female companion have escaped with it, Leader.’
‘Escaped?’
A sudden rattle, similar to that of a Geiger counter, attracted their attention. They turned towards it. A Cyberman was passing a scanner over the body of the Cyberman from which De Flores had removed Lady Peinforte’s arrow. The Cyberman responded immediately to his Leader’s unasked question.
‘Terminated by another human female using gold, Leader,’ he said.
The Cyber Leader tightened his fist. ‘The bow must be located at all costs.’ His voice had risen slightly. It became even more ominous. ‘We must also discover who this woman is.’
In the crater, two other Cybermen began to use their lasers to cut the statue from its rocket sled. The two separated almost instantly and more of the rock crust covering the statue fell away. As it did so a sudden great wind seemed to descend from above, as if pushing down on the earth.
Wakened by it, one of the policemen lying on the ground some distance away stirred groggily and opened his eyes. It seemed to him that he saw a number of tall, silver robotic figures, and approaching them two men, identical twins, wearing silver headphones. As he stared in disbelief, all the robots gathered near the crater where the comet had landed. They seemed to be holding a silver statue of a beautiful woman. All the time the rushing wind from above grew stronger and stronger. He could hear it now. Dust and stray paper blew all around him. He looked up, but could see nothing and yet the sense of some large physical object was so strong he shivered. Strangest of all, the robots, statue, and the men seemed to begin to disappear from the tops of their heads downwards. After a moment their heads had vanished, and for a bizarre instant they became headless robots. The descent of invisibility, however, continued relentlessly: shoulders, torsos and legs steadily disappeared in a matter of seconds until there was nothing to be seen at all except the rocket sled. It was only then that there was another sudden rush of wind, this time much shorter than before, and then calm normality returned to the atmosphere. The policeman reached with difficulty for his radio and pressed the call button. The radio did not respond.
In a field outside Windsor, the TARDIS materialized. Out stepped the Doctor, carrying the eerily glowing silver bow like a water-diviner’s branch. Ace followed. It was almost as though the bow were pulling the Doctor along, with a momentum emanating from its own secret nature. ‘Aha,’
the Doctor called back over his shoulder, ‘I was right.’ He cackled happily. ‘They’re moving the statue.’
Ace looked disapprovingly at the bow. ‘I really don’t like this stuff,’ she said.
‘You shouldn’t,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Validium was created as the ultimate defence for my planet Gallifrey.
Fortunately, it’s never been used. None