Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis - Kevin Clarke [9]
‘The hotel.’
Lady Peinforte and Richard were less comfortably accommodated among some bushes in the park, although Richard alone seemed aware of the rumble of approaching thunder: her ladyship was absorbed in more important thoughts. Richard slowly turned the rabbit he was roasting over the fire. ‘I am in a nightmare,’ he said to himself, ‘or mad.’
Lady Peinforte was jolted into reality by his voice. ‘This is no madness. It is England. Pull yourself together,’ she snapped.
‘But the noise, my lady. The foul air...’ A further look from Lady Peinforte was enough. Richard subsided unhappily. ‘Yes, my lady.’ There was a silence. Richard searched his imagination for some means of placating her.
‘What will my lady do when you possess the Nemesis?’
For the first time, something akin to warmth crossed Lady Peinforte’s face. ‘Do?’ she said. ‘Why, have revenge, first and last. First on that predictable little man who thought he could thwart me. He will soon arrive, Richard.’
Richard stared at her in disbelief. Not for the first time, her ladyship’s foreknowledge startled him. Lady Peinforte smiled, enjoying the effect. ‘Oh yes,’ she continued. ‘I expect him. And this time there’ll be a reckoning with the nameless Doctor whose power is so secret. For I have found out his secret. ’ Her voice was rising uncontrollably. There was a sudden flash of lightning, illuminating her face in sudden and brilliant silver light. A great rolling crash of thunder seemed to split the sky in two, releasing a torrential downpour. Lady Peinforte continued unheeding, her entire being animated by hatred. ‘In good time I shall speak it. I shall be his downfall.’
The three policemen who climbed from their car to investigate and guard the crashed meteor, as De Flores rightly predicted, had approached it without great interest.
It was only when the first, shining his torch on the smoking lump of rock now embedded into the ground near the half-completed building, had called several times to the other two in the car that a second got out to take a look. In the light of both their torches, and in mounting disbelief, they confirmed what the first thought he had seen. A woman’s face, cast in silver, was clearly visible through a glass panel set in the rock. It stared back at them blankly through the rain.
It was at this moment that the car’s engine, which had been left running, suddenly cut out with a strange grinding sound. It was as if the battery had suddenly and completely lost all its power. The driver, still in his seat, tried to restart the car, but discovered it was completely dead. He released the bonnet and, climbing out, opened it and began without success to try to identify the fault.
The first policeman reached for his radio and had given his call sign before he noticed that it, too, was completely inoperative. Its power had apparently evaporated instantly.
He shook it and tried again. His companion discovered that his radio was in precisely the same condition.
Occupied as they now all were by these mysterious failures, they did not notice the group of thin silver pipes which rose from the ground near them. Even had they done so, the gas that the pipes began to release into the air was invisible. The policemen immediately fell unconscious.
The silver face stared dimly out through its glass panel into the rain and the now silent darkness.
3
There was an outburst of clicks and whirrs from the cameras of the enthusiastic party of Japanese tourists on the North Terrace of Windsor Castle. The guide stood back smiling and glanced surreptitiously at her watch as the private after-dinner walk of Elizabeth the First was devoured by the cameras, which then turned equal attention to the magnificent view beyond. The roof of Eton College Chapel