Doctor Who_ The Ice Warriors - Brian Hayles [31]
Storr turned on Penley. ‘You’re not letting her walk out of here just like that! Once she gets back there, she’ll have this place swarming with security!’ Desperate for a weapon, Storr snatched up a knife—but Penley’s voice brought him to a halt.
‘Storr—no!’ The gun was pointing at Story now. He dropped the knife back on to the table.
‘It’s the only way!’
‘It’s not my way—or yours.’ replied Penley calmly, then switched his gaze to Jan. ‘She won’t give us away. I’m sure of that.’
‘I give you my word...’ Jan said quietly.
Storr turned array, disgusted by Penley’s weakness. ‘I don’t trust any of them,’ snarled the burly hunter, ‘whatever they say!’
Penley pointed to the door with the gun. ‘Return to Base, Miss Garrets’
‘And wait for Doomsday,’ she murmured with a resigned shrug of her shoulders. She gave him one last look, then moved to the door while Penley held the screening skin to one side. For a brief moment they were out of earshot of Storr, and Penley took his opportunity quickly.
‘If you still have trouble from the Ioniser,’ he murmured, handing Jan back the gun, ‘look up my notes on the Omega Factor. Good luck...’
He pushed her outside into the snow, and returned to the warmth of the stove. Storr was standing by it, his face unusually thoughtful.
‘These aliens,’ he brooded. ‘They really exist, then...’
Penley was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to wonder at the fact that Storr was expressing such interest in what was, after all, a scientific supposition.
‘Yes,’ declared Penley firmly, shrugging on his snow garments, ‘and I intend to find out more about them.’ With hardly a glance back, he shuffled quickly outside, and began his uphill trek to the glacier.
Somehow, Victoria had managed to snatch a few hours of fitful sleep. Every time she had woken up, Varga had been moving from one melting block of ice to the other, almost willing the creatures inside back to life... At dawn she awoke fully, and, shivering with cold, stared towards the glacier face in numb disbelief. Only two blocks of ice remained, and these were rapidly disintegrating as the creatures inside strove to break out—almost like dragon-men from monstrous frozen eggs, she thought. Their comrades stood around them, urging them into life with a chorus of hissing. Frightened yet fascinated, Victoria began to notice the differences between them: Varga’s bearing and style of helmet and reptilian armour seemed of a superior nature to the others. He seemed to delegate more and more of the physical tasks to a second-in-command—whose name, Victoria gathered, was Zondal.
He was just as gigantic in stature, but his whole aspect was fiercer and more repellent; and he snapped at and bullied the others. The remaining four warriors, including the two who had at last broken free of the ice, were less elegant and more clumsy than Varga, whose majestic bearing, seen in daylight, fitted all Victoria’s ideas of a warlord. Zondal was harshly ordering the warriors into a simple formation, ready for inspection. Varga turned and, seeing Victoria crouched and awake, strode over to her.
‘You see?’ He proudly gestured towards his warriors. ‘It has worked! All my crew are alive! The ice is our friend!’
‘Then you don’t need me,’ replied Victoria. ‘Let me go back to my own people, please!’
The Martian warlord stared at her coldly. ‘You will stay here with us,’ he hissed. ‘If you value your life, obey—and do not anger us!’
‘But I’m no use to you!’ protested Victoria. ‘You don’t need me —you have your warriors now.’
Ignoring this plea, Varga turned and summoned his second-in-command. ‘Zondal!’ As the warrior approached him and saluted in the Martian fashion—clenched fist to left shoulder—Varga continued, ‘You will locate our buried spaceship without delay!’
‘That will not be difficult, Commander,’ came the harsh reply.
‘You will then gain access to it by excavating into the glacier...’ Varga paused. ‘The cave that you will form will also act as an efficient trap. Proceed!’
Zondal saluted again, turned, and began to