Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [45]
There was a groaning, grinding sound behind them. Ace spun round
– to her horror the huge engine was moving... Slowly it upended itself and crashed on to its side. The creature, crushed and broken, somehow regained its feet and stood regarding her balefully.
‘Move back,’ said Rajiid quietly ‘It’s on its last legs, must be.
Maybe...’
With a hiss, the creature lurched forward, its claws scything the air.
Ace staggered backwards.
‘We’ve got to get past it,’ Ace whispered. ‘Get to the door.’
As she spoke the metal door clanged open.
‘Ace! Get down!’
Police, armoured and carrying heavy guns, were flooding into the little workshop. The Doctor swept in on the tide, carrying something huge and cylindrical in his arms.
‘Get down!’ he shouted again. ‘All of you!’
The police surrounded the creature and immediately began firing their guns into it. It jerked and twitched and howled, then fell back to the floor.
‘Stop firing!’ the Doctor shouted over the din.
The barrage continued. Bullets ripped at the creature’s flesh. Meat exploded from it in lumps. It was barely recognisable by the time the Doctor persuaded them to stop.
He surveyed the broken body sadly. ‘So this is a Krill,’ he said.
‘Nobody move!’ a police officer barked. He turned to the Doctor.
‘Thank you, sir, he said. ‘Now, the weapon, please.’
‘What? This?’ The Doctor clutched the cylinder to his chest. ‘I can assure you, officer, this isn’t a weapon. It’s a religious artefact.’
85
The officer held out a broad, sinewy hand.
‘I can smell weapons, sir,’ he said with a steely smile. ‘I’m going to have to impound it. It’s not registered. We don’t allow unregistered weapons on Coralee.’
The Doctor sighed, and handed the weapon over. He turned to Ace and smiled.
‘I’m afraid I had to bring the Seventh Cavalry,’ he said. ‘I had no choice.’
86
Chapter Ten
‘From what I can make of this mess, your observations were quite right, Rajiid,’ said the Doctor. ‘Almost no specialisation of body functions at all. Ingenious.’
‘What are you saying, Doctor?’ asked Brenda Mulholland.
They were crowded into the lab next to MacKenzie’s laboratory –
the Doctor, Ace, Rajiid, Brenda and Garrett, along with MacKenzie himself. The Krill lay dead on a bench; the Doctor stood over it, knife in hand.
‘I mean that this creature can withstand enormous amounts of damage to almost any part of its body,’ he said. ‘When one part is damaged, the others simply take over its functions. Ace was lucky. She hit a very vital area, and that and the damage it had already received were finally too much for it. It must have been repairing itself all the time it was on the beach. I wonder how long it was there... And more to the point, what damaged it in the first place.’
‘When I was out swimming,’ said Ace, ‘when we first arrived, there was this dirty great speedboat. It ran over something in the water –
gave the boat a hell of a jolt.’ She swallowed hard. ‘I was swimming out there.’
‘I’ll close the beaches,’ said Brenda. She pulled hard on her cigarette. ‘The tourists will love that...’
‘Yes, yes,’ said the Doctor wearily. In a way he was grateful for the intrusion of the authorities. He had a sense that things were starting to run out of his control.
The police had been waiting for the submersible when it had put into port. MacKenzie had reported it missing. The Doctor was being escorted back to the hotel in a police transport when the Signal from Rajiid’s emergency buoy had come through on the vehicle’s communicator. Now he had the feeling he was under arrest.
‘What else can you tell us about this creature, Doctor?’ Garrett asked.
‘Not a great deal,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s genetically engineered, of course. It’s a weapon.’
87
His gaze flashed between Brenda Mulholland, tense and chain-smoking, and Garrett, whose pale, craggy face glistened with sweat.
‘A living weapon, created by the people who once inhabited the planet.’
‘Doctor,’ Brenda asked, ‘how many of these things do you think are out there?’
The Doctor