Doctor Who_ The Green Death - Malcolm Hulke [37]
She was just about to dip her mop into the bucket of warm soapy water when she saw the maggots. They were packed tight on the other side of the transparent port-hole in the wall. They were two feet long, and they were squirming in one living mass. For a moment she remained static, horrified at the sight, unable to speak or move. Then she began to scream.
Mark Elgin, coming along the corridor, heard the screams. He rushed into the room in time to see Blodwen Williams collapse in a faint. He looked at the port-hole and felt he wanted to be sick.
Ten minutes later, after Elgin had carried Blodwen to the staff rest room, he stormed into Dr Stevens’s office.
‘You’re talking nonsense,’ Dr Stevens protested.
Elgin repeated his story. ‘The pipe’s packed full of them, sir. Come and see for yourself.’
Dt Stevens did not move from his desk. ‘There’s a simple solution. We shall have to pump down more waste and flush them away.’
‘That’s just shoving the problem underground,’ said Elgin. He had never spoken up to an employer like this before. ‘Haven’t we poisoned the mine long enough?’
‘Poison?’ said Dr Stevens. ‘I don’t like the words you choose, Elgin. Anyway, the mine is now sealed.’
Elgin turned to go. ‘If you intend to do nothing, sir, I must go and find someone who will.’ He tried to open the door but it seemed jammed.
Dr Stevens took his finger from the button he had just pressed, the one that automatically locked the door to his office. ‘Come and sit down, Elgin,’ he said, soothingly.
‘Will you unlock this door, sir?’
Dr Stevens pressed another button on his desk console. A deep humming filled the air. Elgin shook his head; he was suddenly feeling a little dizzy.
‘Sit in that chair,’ said Dr Stevens, pointing to the chair where Dr Bell had once sat.
Elgin obeyed. Dr Stevens quickly got out the special earphones and went to put them on Elgin’s head.
‘Don’t worry, Elgin,’ he said. ‘I shan’t hurt you. Very soon you will see everything from the Company’s point of view. Then you’ll be happy again.’
The Brigadier burst into Professor Jones’s laboratory. ‘They’ve broken out. They’re all over the slag heap!’
‘Who’s broken out?’ asked the Doctor, who was helping the Professor by putting smears on slides.
‘Maggots! They’re burrowing their way up through the slag heap!’
‘So much for sealing the mine with your explosives,’ commented Jo.
The Doctor turned to the agitated Brigadier. ‘Have you tried killing them?’
‘Of course! Bullets bounce off them. We even threw insecticide at them.’
‘What happened?’
‘The darned things ate it!’ The Brigadier took off his cap, wiped his brow, and perched on a high wooden stool. ‘It’s up to you scientific chaps now.’
The Doctor thought quickly. ‘Can you make contact with Mike Yates in the Panorama building?’
‘Yes. By phone. I say that I’m the Ministry of Ecology calling from London.’
‘Tell him we want some of the Company’s oil waste,’ the Doctor said, ‘and we want it quickly.’
‘All right. Where’s the phone here?’
‘I’ll show you. Jo, take over from, me.’ The Doctor hurried out with the Brigadier.
Jo asked, ‘What do you want me to do?’
Professor Jones was squinting down a microscope. ‘Hand me things when I ask for them.’
‘When I got this job with UNIT, the Brigadier made me the Doctor’s assistant and said I’d spend most of my time like this—helping him in his work.’
‘Really?’ said Professor Jones, adjusting the microscope. He did not seem to pay much attention to what Jo was saying.
‘It never worked out like that,’ she said. ‘Not quite.’
‘Pity,’ he murmured, seeming to take no interest. ‘Next slide, please.’
Jo looked along the work bench frantically. ‘Which one?’
‘The next one.’ He straightened up, rubbed his eyes. ‘On the other hand, I’ve got a better idea.’
She didn’t understand. ‘What?’
‘This.’ He put his