Doctor Who_ The Ice Warriors - Brian Hayles [27]
Victoria realised that this was her chance. While Varga studied the surface of the glacier, she prepared to make a silent escape—but she hadn’t reckoned with the fragments of loose ice half-buried in the snow. At the first step, her ankle twisted, her foothold gave was and with a sharp cry, she found herself sprawled helplessly at the feet of the Ice Warrior. She waited for him to show his anger—but he seemed almost preoccupied. Slowly, Victoria got to her feet, and backed away into the shelter of a vertical crevasse, with Varga’s harsh whisper in her ears.
‘Do not try to escape,’ he hissed. ‘You are not equipped for survival!’
He was right, of course. Sheltered from the keening wind, Victoria shivered and realised how small her chances would be out there on the open snow plain which stretched away into a silver whiteness under the cold eye of the moon.
Here at least there was a possibility of staying alive—if only as Varga’s prisoner. She stared back at these strangely glowing eyes, and spoke bravely.
‘Where are we? At the glacier?’
‘Yes.’ Varga whispered. and sounded pleased. ‘I have located the position of my men inside the ice. At last!’
Victoria was puzzled. Obviously the Ice Warrior had used some sort of detection device. But how had he known where to start in the first place? As though in reply to her question, Varga pointed to the crevasse in which Victoria crouched.
‘The place where you stand,’ he whispered, with no sign of misted breath showing on the frosted air, ‘is where your scientists cut me free.’ Wonderingly, Victoria looked all about her. She saw the regular grooves of a boring tool or drill, and frowned. If it had taken that sort of equipment to carve Varga from the living ice, how could he possibly hope to release his buried companions? She shivered again and started to stamp her feet and beat her hands together. If she stood still for much longer, she’d end up frozen inside the glacier herself!
‘Do not waste energy,’ commanded the Ice Warrior softly, and indicated that Victoria should move away from the ice face and stand by his side. At first, she objected.
‘I’ll freeze to death unless I keep my circulation going.
At least I’m out of the wind in this cranny!’
‘You will maintain your Earthling body temperature by helping me,’ ordered the Martian.
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Victoria in surprise.
How on earth did he expect her to help?
‘I most release my comrades,’ Varga replied. ‘Then, when your friends come after us, we shall have a surprise ready...’
Irritated, Victoria didn’t notice the quiet threat in Varga’s words. She still couldn’t understand what the Ice Warrior was going to do. ‘But you’ll never break that ice apart with your bare hands!’ she cried petulantly. ‘Arden used a heavy drill to get you out. Any other way is impossible!’
Without replying, Varga drew her to his side and into a position facing the glacier. Making a surprisingly delicate adjustment to the device on his right forearm with his massive fist, he pointed the device at the ice. The tip of the device pulsed with light—then, as Victoria watched in amazement, the rock-hard ice face began to disintegrate and shatter.
Without tools, without even touching the surface of the ice, Varga was freeing his comrades as easily as carving a block of salt with a penknife...
Breathless from ploughing his sway through the deep, soft snowdrifts leading up to the glacier face, Penley paused to take refuge from the vicious sting of the wind. Storr would have battled onwards uncomplainingly, of course—but Penley was honest enough to admit his weaknesses. Besides, it was unwise to travel at night through the near silent landscape