Doctor Who_ The Doomsday Weapon - Malcolm Hulke [34]
' Split ,' said Jo, and immediately darted away from Winton, so that Allen would not be able to catch them both.
Allen turned the buggy to head straight for Jo. She sidestepped the machine, then fell heavily on to the rocks. Allen stopped and dismounted, and by the time Jo was on her feet Allen had his arm round her. With his free hand he pulled his gun. Winton had paused some little distance away, not knowing what to do.
'Keep running,' Jo shouted. 'Go and tell them where I am and what's happened!'
Winton turned and began running away, Allen took aim with his gun and fired. But the shot missed. In a moment Winton was over the crest of the hill.
Allen pocketed his gun, and pulled out his little two-way radio. ' Security Guard Allen to Captain Dent, ' he said into the radio. ' Male prisoner has escaped, but have recaptured female. '
Jo wriggled in Allen's grip, but the arm now round her waist was like a steel vice. After a moment Dent's voice replied over the little radio. ' Captain Dent to Security Guard Allen. Re-attach female to explosive charge, and from now on stay where you can see her. if f intend to activate the explosive, I shall give you ample warning. '
' What about the escaped male? ' Allen asked.
' Other guards will be sent to pursue, ' said Dent's voice, ' and he need not be brought in alive... '
Winton stood gasping for breath at the top of another of the little hills. The position of the sun told him which direction to go to get back to the colony. He fingered the bullet graze that ran along one shoulder. There was some blood, but it wasn't serious. His heart had stopped pounding now, and he started to jog-trot down the slope. Then he saw an IMC buggy coming over the crest of another hill. It wasn't Security Guard Allen this time, it carried four men in IMC uniforms, and they carried long guns. They spotted Winton almost instantly, and the buggy started to come towards him.
He stopped, and looked about him. There was no hiding-place, only open dusty ground and the little hills. For a moment he thought of giving in to them. He was tired and exhausted and the wound was beginning to hurt. All they'd do was take him prisoner again. He turned back to look at the buggy, with the half-formed idea of raising his hands in surrender. To his surprise, the buggy had stopped. Two of the guards were aiming their long guns at him. They both fired at the same time, and Winton heard bullets whistle past him and hit the ground beyond. These men had no intention of taking him prisoner they were there to hunt him down and kill him.
In panic he ran away from the buggy, then suddenly realised he was making for a sharp incline of craggy rocks that the buggy couldn't possibly climb. Two more bullets were fired. One hit the rock ahead of him, and the other ripped through the trousers of his old work-denims. Now he started to dart from side to side as he climbed the steep embankment of rocks, thus presenting the IMC men with a more difficult target. As he climbed higher and higher, he looked over his shoulder to see what the IMC men were doing now. The driver had brought the buggy to the foot of the rocky steep, and now three of the IMC men were climbing after him.
But Winton was already well ahead now. He reached the top of the incline, raced over its crest, and then stopped dead when he saw what lay in the valley now below him. Next to a big plastic tent carrying the letters 'IMC' was a mechanical robot using a drill in the ground. An IMC man emerged from the tent and stood watching the work of the robot, but hadn't yet seen Winton. Winton calculated that on this downward slope he might be able to flash past the tent and the IMC man before the latter knew what had happened. Winton started running downhill at full speed.
The three IMC security guards found the rocky slope hard going. They weren't used to this kind of physical activity, and