Doctor Who_ The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker [18]
White-coated figures padded softly from bed to bed, adjusting tubes, peering at machines, their faces masked and anonymous. The Doctor and Rose walked between the beds, watching as one of the nurses – if that’s what they were – jotted down a set of readings from one of the machines.
‘What are they doing to them?’ Rose whispered.
The Doctor shook his head. ‘I’m not sure.’
When he moved as if to examine a sleeping figure, the white-coated attendants immediately turned as one, pushing him backwards. The Doctor held his hands up. ‘All right, all right, I was only looking. I wasn’t going to touch.’
The door behind them swung open again and Rose turned to see Miss Peyne pushing Morton down the length of the room. The old man had a face like thunder.
‘What are you doing in here?’ he hissed.
The Doctor tried his best to look apologetic. ‘Took a wrong turn. Sorry about that. Thought we were heading for the front door and 43
ended up here.’
‘You have no right to be in here. No right at all!’ Morton was almost shaking with fury. ‘You could have caused incalculable damage.’
Rose suddenly felt guilty. Perhaps this was just a nursing home after all.
‘Look, we didn’t touch anything. But what’s going on here? Who are these people?’
‘No business of yours!’ snapped Morton. ‘As I told you, we came here for seclusion and that is what we want. Seclusion. Now, get out!
Both of you!’
The Doctor shot a quick glance at Rose, then nodded. ‘Of course. Sorry for the intrusion.’
Morton just glowered at him.
The Doctor shrugged and, with a final glance round the room, ushered Rose back out into the hallway. Miss Peyne followed, closing the door behind them. She gestured to her left and when she spoke, her voice was like ice.
‘The front door is this way, Doctor. Miss Evans.’
The Doctor smiled at her. ‘So easy to get lost in these big houses, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, indeed. They can be dangerous places if you’re not careful.’
They walked in silence to the front door. When they got there, Miss Peyne pulled a heavy key from a chain around her neck, unlocked the door and slid back the bolts.
‘I trust you’ll be able to find your way to the end of the drive without any further assistance.’
The Doctor and Rose stepped back out into the morning light, blinking after the gloom of the rectory. The door slammed with a loud thump and they could hear the bolts being slid back into place. The Doctor looked at Rose with indignation. ‘Was that a threat? It sounded like a threat. I’m not sure we deserved to be threatened, are you?’
‘Oh no, not at all.’ Rose rolled her eyes. ‘We did a runner from his office, unlocked his secret hospital ward and had a nose about without 44
his permission. Don’t see what he was getting all worked up about.’
‘Exactly! And you know another thing? I’ve got no idea what he saw in the psychic paper. Not a clue. Normally I get some kind of after-image, but this time, not a sausage. Odd. Definitely odd.’
‘So, d’you think it’s got something to do with the creatures?’
‘Do I think?’ The Doctor turned and looked back at the rectory. ‘Oh, I’m certain of it.’
Nathaniel Morton watched from his office window as the Doctor and his companion turned away from the house and trudged down the drive and out of sight. He heard the door open behind him and Miss Peyne joined him at the window.
‘You were foolish, Morton, letting him get into the ward like that.’
‘You think I had a choice?’ Morton snapped. ‘You think I could have done anything more to stop him?’
‘Who was he?’
‘He claimed to be a government inspector, but. . . ’
‘But what?’
‘The credentials he showed me. The paper. It was a mind trick of some kind.’
‘You think he’s on to us?’ Peyne