Doctor Who_ The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker [38]
‘What are you doing under there?’ asked Bronwyn, peering through the door.
‘Thinking!’
His only option seemed to be to unbolt the machine from the floor in order to reach the telepathic generators, and that was going to take time. He sighed. ‘I hope you didn’t have any other plans for the evening.’
89
He started to shrug off his coat when there was a terrifying screech from behind him and the flap of leathery wings. Something sharp hit him in the small of the back, sending him sprawling, his sonic screwdriver clattering into a corner. He scrabbled across the floor to get it, but a huge talon slashed at his feet, sending him tumbling to the floor again.
Looming outside the lamp room was a huge pterodactyl-like creature, wings beating furiously as it scrabbled to gain a purchase on the wet steel of the lighthouse. The Doctor could see his face reflected in its beady black eyes. The creature threw its head back and screamed, before lunging at him with its razor-sharp beak. Rose tried hard not to panic as the masked warders strapped her down to the metal-framed bed. Around her in the converted dining room the six sleeping figures lay still, their breathing slow and steady, the noise of the machines soft and rhythmic. Other warders sat at a bank of consoles along one wall, their hands moving in complex patterns over flickering controls, their eyes fixed on dozens of tiny readouts. Morton wheeled himself to Rose’s side.
‘You’ll find it less unpleasant if you don’t try to resist the machinery.’
Peyne crossed to his side, a complex arrangement of metal straps and coloured wires in her hands. It was some kind of helmet, a thick bundle of cables coiling across the floor to where two of the warders were setting up a console with a large screen attached to it. Peyne lifted Rose’s head from the pillow, jamming on the helmet. Rose winced as it tugged at her hair.
‘Careful, Miss Peyne.’ Morton’s voice was mocking. ‘We don’t want to damage that pretty head. Not before it’s told us what we want to know.’
‘And then what?’ Rose strained to pull against the straps. ‘Another accident on the beach with one of your monsters?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On whether you have a mind that is useful to our plans or not.’
90
Morton glanced up at Peyne, who was adjusting controls on the console now.
‘How long?’
‘We have to calibrate the machine. A few minutes.’ Morton patted Rose’s arm. ‘We won’t keep you waiting long.’
The Doctor tore himself free from the grasping claws of the flying monster, scrambling around to the other side of the lamp room as the creature’s beak slammed into the floor. Hissing in anger, it thrust its long scrawny neck in further through the window, claws scrabbling. Snatching his coat up from the floor, the Doctor used it to beat at the head of the monster, sending it flapping off into the night screaming. He watched as it wheeled against the boiling clouds before turning and sweeping back down again, slamming into the lighthouse and renewing its attack with fury. The Doctor dodged to one side as the beak snapped next to his head with a loud kklak! He darted around the machine once more, trying to keep it between him and the screeching thing. The creature had positioned itself in the window directly above the stairwell, so there was no way he could get there without coming in range of that wickedly sharp beak.
The Doctor craned his neck over the edge, desperately looking for a way to escape. The shrieking cries were starting to attract the other creatures and slowly, one by one, they were all converging on the lighthouse.
‘Doctor?’ Bronwyn’s voice was terrified. ‘Doctor? What’s happening? What’s that noise?’
The pterodactyl thing cocked its head to one side, its cold eyes fixed on the top of the stairs.
Before the Doctor could shout any warning, Bronwyn