Doctor Who_ The Green Death - Malcolm Hulke [39]
Captain Mike Yates came along the corridor with his faithful Panorama Chemicals guard.
‘I really can find my own way out of here,’ said Yates.
‘That’s all right, sir,’ said the guard. ‘It’s a pleasure to accompany you.’ He conveyed by tone, if not words, that he wasn’t going to let Yates out of his sight. ‘The lifts are just along here, sir,’ he added, as they turned a corner.
Down by the lifts a cleaning woman was smearing white fluid on the windows preparatory to cleaning them. The guard pressed the button for the lift, and he and Yates waited. Yates happened to glance over his shoulder. Using a finger on the glass, the cleaning ‘woman’ had written the words ‘Get rid of him.’ Yates stared at the face under the frilly cap. The Doctor stared back for a moment, then quickly rubbed out what he had written.
The lift arrived, the doors slid open. ‘After you, sir,’ said the guard.
Yates and the guard stepped into the lift. The guard pressed the button for the ground floor. ‘Good gracious,’ said Yates, ‘I’ve forgotten my brief case. See you downstairs.’ As the doors were closing he leapt out of the lift. The doors dosed carrying the guard down to the ground floor.
‘Good work, Mike,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve no time to explain anything. Just tell me this: where can I get some of the oil waste?’
‘Not a chance,’ said Yates. ‘It would be like stealing the Crown Jewels.’
‘Could you get me the formula?’
Yates shook his head. ‘Everything important is isolated on the top floor—at least I’ve found out that much. Only the Director can get up there. There’s a special lift at the end of this block. It works with some sort of key, and Dr Stevens is the only person who’s got one. And another thing, the Director isn’t the real boss. He takes his instructions from someone else:’
‘Who?’
‘I’ve no idea. Whoever lives on the top floor.’
The lift doors started to slide open. The Doctor quickly turned back to cleaning the windows.
‘Got your brief case now, sir?’ asked the guard.
‘What? Oh, perhaps I don’t need it after all.’ Yates stepped into the lift. The guard looked at him quizzically, then pressed the button for the ground floor.
Professor Jones looked up from his microscope and rub-bed his eyes. All his efforts to find an antidote for the green death had proved useless. Whatever living thing the maggots or their slime touched would go on being trans-muted into maggot cells. Then he noticed the slides where the fungus powder had been spilt. Quickly he put one under the microscope. The cells of the fungus had destroyed all the cells of the maggot. With a whoop of delight he swung round.
‘I’ve got it! We can cure it, Jo!’
But Jo had gone. The professor scratched his chin. He knew he was very absent-minded sometimes, and often forgot where he put things. But he had never mislaid a person before. He went out into the corridor.
‘Jo,’ he called.
He ran to the kitchen where Nancy was baking bread. ‘Did you see Jo?’
‘She went out,’ said Nancy, sticking her fingers into the dough. ‘She said she’d left you a message.’
The professor remembered the piece of paper Jo had given him. He ran back to his laboratory, looked through all the papers carrying calculations on his work bench. Then he found it, turned it over. The message read: ‘I’ll bring back a maggot for you. Jo.’
He hurried out of the building.
The Doctor had found the special lift, and with his sonic screwdriver managed to make it take him up to the top floor. When the doors slid open he found himself in a room filled with dials, little flashing lights, and wires. Dominating one end of the room was a massive computer.
‘How kind of you to drop in, Doctor,’ said the voice of Boss. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this.’
The Doctor looked around. There was no one in the room. ‘Where are you? Who are you?’
‘I am the Boss,’ said the voice. ‘I am all around you.’
‘You’re the computer?’ said the Doctor, beginning to understand.
‘Correct.