Doctor Who_ The Ice Warriors - Brian Hayles [32]
The warlord looked down at her distraught face proudly. ‘We do not need help. We are superior!’
Victoria protested, close to tears. ‘You’d still be dead and frozen solid in there,’ she cried out, pointing at the glacier. ‘if it wasn’t for us humans!’
‘You are a child!’ he sneered, then turned to watch Zondal organise the other warriors. Victoria wasn’t going to be put off that easily.
‘But what are you going to do with me?’
‘A trap needs bait,’ hissed the warlord. ‘You will be the bait that draws your friends towards us.’
‘No!’ cried Victoria, in dismay. But there was no appeal against the cruel decision.
‘Be silent!’ ordered Varga. The violence in his voice quelled his prisoner completely. She huddled silently close to the snow crevasse, sullenly watching Zondal and his men.
At Varga’s command, the sounding sensors on their breastplates glowed and pulsed—just as his own had done when he set out to locate his comrades. Zondal then strode forward, marked out a target area on the ice face, and gave the order.
‘Sonic destructors at the ready!’
The four warriors raised their forearms in unison. The four tubular devices, pointed towards the target area.
‘Set to wide impact,’ Zondal paused briefly as his men made the necessary adjustments. ‘Fire!’ The effect of the combined sonic weapons was devastating. The ice face crazed, shattered and erupted into fragments under the impact of the invisible beams, which clawed their way deeper and deeper into the heart of the glacier. Inside minutes, the once jagged mark on the ice had been gouged hollow—then it became a cave, and still later a massive crystalline cavern...
Victoria was not the only amazed observer. Hidden by an outcrop of frozen snow, Penley was taking in the scene from below. What the purpose of this task force was, he had no way of knowing—hut they were armed, and had a human hostage! He looked towards the girl. Rescuing her was not going to be easy. Until the opportunity arose, he could only watch, and wait...
Clent stood in the doorway of the medicare laboratory, and nodded his head in disbelief. The area that had been assigned to the Doctor was no longer a neat and tidy desk unit—it was almost buried under an untidy mountain of torn and crumpled paper. And the Doctor—totally unaware of C1ent’s presence—was on his knees, searching desperately for the vital scrap of calculation... Clent moved forward until he was standing almost directly in front of the scavenging Doctor.
But he still wasn’t noticed—until the Doctor came to the particular piece of paper that Clent was standing on. ‘Excuse me...’ he murmured, and snatched it up. Suddenly his face broke into a broad grin. ‘Ah! I thought so! Of course! Reverse the sequence and it gives a density ratio to the power of ten!’
he exclaimed gleefully, throwing his arms into the air and discarding the items that he had just been grovelling for so diligently—and at the same time seeing Clent for the first time.
‘Genius at work, I see,’ remarked the Base Leader drily.
‘Wouldn’t it be simpler if you used our computer?’
The Doctor paused in his frantic scorrving about. and, catching sight of a marker scribe in Clent’s lapel, snatched it with a smile.
‘Just the thing!’ he exclaimed, and started writing an extended series of calculations at shoulder height all along the nearest bare wall. Suddenly the Doctor stopped, bit his lip thoughtfully, and shook his head. ‘Its not right!’ he muttered.
‘Somethings missing!’
At that moment, Jan Garrett entered, carrying a small sheaf of notes. She handed thetn to the Doctor. He took them eagerly.
‘Your instructions were to help the Doctor, Miss Garrett,’ said Clent coldly. ‘Where have you been?’
‘Obtaining these notes from Scientist Penley’s file.’
‘You had no authority