Doctor Who_ The Doomsday Weapon - Malcolm Hulke [2]
The young Time Lord touched the button. One line of bold handwriting appeared on the screen from the first inside page of the secret file. It said: ' Thank you for letting me know where to find the Doomsday Weapon. - The Master. '
The three most superior Time Lords, known simply as the First, Second, and Third Time Lords, sat round a small oval table in their meeting-room. On the table before them was the report from the Keeper pf the Files, which included the Master's message.
'At least the Master has a sense of humour,' said the Third Time Lord.
'He is also exceedingly dangerous and vicious,' said the Second Time Lord. 'If he finds the Doomsday Weapon he can control the entire Universe through terror.'
The First Time Lord turned to a microphone set by his chair. 'Status report on the Master,' he said. Within a moment a voice answered from a loudspeaker in the ceiling above them.
'Last monitored on planet Earth,' said the voice. 'Late twentieth century Earth Time.'
'Earth?' said the Second Time Lord. 'Isn't that where we exiled the Doctor?'
'Yes,' said the First Time Lord, 'because he interfered too much in the destinies of other species.' He turned to the microphone again. 'Status report on the Doctor.'
The voice from the ceiling answered: 'Exiled to planet Earth by the High Tribunal, late twentieth century Earth Time.'
'I think,' said the First Time Lord, 'we might use the Doctor to deal with this problem.'
'Never,' said the Third Time Lord. 'He will not help us. He resents his exile too much.'
'That's true,' said the Second Time Lord. 'We also immobilised his TARDIS, taking away his freedom to move in Space and Time.'
'Then,' said the First Time Lord, 'we have no alternative but to restore his freedom.'
'Never!' exclaimed the Second Time Lord. 'If we seek his help he will hold it over us for ever more, and if we restore his freedom we shall have no control over him!'
The First Time Lord listened patiently to the outburst. Then he spoke quietly. 'We shall only let him think he is free again. We shall let his TARDIS fly, but only where we want it to fly.'
'What about afterwards?' asked the Third Time Lord.
'If the Doctor is unsuccessful; said the First Time Lord, 'and is killed by the Master, or by those who protect the Doomsday Weapon, there will be no afterwards. Only time will tell.' He smiled at his own joke, and the other two Time Lords respectfully smiled with him.
2 Into Time and Space
Jo Grant squeezed her white mini between the Brigadier's big black staff-car and a military half-track vehicle in the UNIT car-park, got out and walked purposefully towards the main administration block. Overnight she had come to a big decision, either the Doctor must give her some work to do, or she was going to hand in her resignation.
It was really her uncle's fault. While still at school she decided what she most wanted to do, to become a spy. One half-term she took herself to London and sought out her uncle who worked as a Senior Civil Servant for the Government. 'I want to be a spy,' she said. He laughed, and sent out one of his many secretaries to buy her an ice-cream. 'There really are spies,' she insisted earnestly, 'and I want to be one.' She never knew whether her uncle took her completely seriously, or just wanted to please her, but the day she left school a letter arrived inviting her an interview at the Security Training Establishment, somewhere in Surrey. She was accepted, and spent a year learning how to code and decode, how to speak two foreign languages, and how to read economic reports on wheat and oil production. At the end of the year she was given top marks, and told that her training was over. She was then offered a job as a filing clerk in the British Embassy in Bangkok .
Furious, Jo went to see her uncle again. 'I don't call that being a spy,' she complained. Her uncle tried to explain, most 'spying' in the world was carried on by clerks working in embassies; in fact most embassies, British and foreign, existed in order to send home reports on the economy