Doctor Who_ The Bodysnatchers - Mark Morris [46]
'I say, Doctor,' called Litefoot from the rear,'how do you know this tunnel will lead to the grille in the basement?'
'Educated guess,' replied the Doctor. 'I'm hoping we'll come across a vertical shaft that will lead us up there.'
'What if a load of crap comes down on top of our heads while we're climbing up?' said Sam.
'We hold our breath and pray that we get the chance to have a hot bath later.'
'Great.'
The Doctor chuckled. 'Don't worry. The plumbing won't be back in operation for several hours yet. Our only worry is if the aliens get wind of our presence and decide to drench us with boiling oil or sulphuric acid or something.'
'Doctor, sometimes you say the most reassuring things,' Sam told him.
'I aim to please,' the Doctor said.
'Pardon me, but surely there's a rather more urgent probability that we appear to have overlooked,' called Litefoot.
'What's that then, Professor?' asked Sam.
'The creature. Is it not reasonable to assume that it will still be present in the cellar, guarding the peculiar artefact that we earlier uncovered?'
'Good point,' said Sam, but ahead of her she could just make out the Doctor shaking his head.
'I'm banking on the fact that the creature will have been given the run of the factory in order to prevent us or anyone else breaching the security of the building in the way that we previously did.'
'And if you're wrong? If the aliens have already worked out that this time we might try and get in through the sewers?' said Sam.
'Then we'll be in trouble. But if they don't kill us immediately, they'll probably take us into their base so that their leader can have a good gloat, which is where we want to be anyway.'
'Yeah, but if that happens, it'll be on their terms, not ours.'
'Ah well,' said the Doctor,'you can't have everything.' Their journey was a short one, no more than a few hundred yards. Suddenly the Doctor cried,
'Aha!' and next moment appeared to Sam to be rising into the air in front of her. She took a few more squelching steps forward and found herself standing at the foot of a metal ladder, which the Doctor was already half way up. Thinking ruefully of the clots of sewage that would almost certainly drop off his heels and splat down on to her head, she began to climb up after him.
Pushing aside the metal grille at the top of the ladder was a struggle, but eventually they were climbing out into the basement that they had left with such haste less than two hours before. After the pipe it was almost a relief to be here. Sam looked around nervously, peering into the darkest shadows for the cyborg, but the basement appeared to be empty. As the Doctor gave Emmeline and then litefoot a helping hand, Sam stamped her feet and scraped her boots on the rough walls to try to get as much of the gunk off as possible. Much to her amusement, Litefoot solemnly produced a small clothes brush and applied it vigorously to his overcoat. With a twinkle in his eye he told her, 'Standards must be maintained, particularly if one is about to be introduced to foreigners.'
The Doctor was already crossing the room to the small recess, sonic screwdriver at the ready. When the others caught up with him, he was crouching down beside the inverted crab that he had referred to as a lock.
As before, he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the thing's exposed 'belly'
and turned it on. The bulb glowed red, the device's high-pitched trilling filled the air, and the tightly meshed legs once again began to thrash and writhe.
'What is the Doctor doing to that creature?' Emmeline asked.
Sam looked at her. Her eyes were wide, full of concern. Sam realised that to Emmeline the Doctor must resemble a boy torturing