Doctor Who_ The Paradise of Death - Barry Letts [104]
‘But not for long. Doctor!’
The rolling tones of Chairman Freeth had completely lost their teasing, bantering note. His voice was sharp.
decisive, vicious.
‘No, Balog; said the President, quavering with the effort of resumed authority. ‘As long as I am President of the world, and of the Corporation, there will be no more – ’
But his son rode over the old man with all the callousness and cruelty he had for so long contrived to conceal. ‘Hold your tongue,’ he said. ‘You are a foolish, blind old man. It’s time you opened your eyes. You are not in charge any more; I am. Stand out of the way, everybody!’ And he snatched the gun from the guard and aimed it at the Doctor.
‘Goodbye,’ he said.
But before he had time to pull the trigger, the weapon was dashed from his hands. ‘No!’ cried Jenhegger. ‘You shall not! He is a good man!’ Picking up the great body as if it were stuffed with feathers, he lifted it high above his head.
Freeth was screaming in a paroxysm of terror, and squirming in the big man’s grip like a prime codfish about to be gutted. With one stride, Jenhegger carried him to the rail of the President’s box, and pitched him over the edge into the depths of the pit.
‘President! Don’t look!’ cried Onya, over the gleeful croaking roars and hog-killing squeals coming from below.
‘I have turned away my face too many times,’ answered the President. ‘If I had not, I might still have a son.’
The squealing stopped. The Great Butcher Toad was not to be cheated of his dinner after all.
Sarah sat in the high-backed tapestry chair which the others had insisted she should take (rather than the rickety old deck chairs also on offer) and tried not to listen to the Brigadier and Jeremy behind her, swopping arcane male anecdotes about life at Holborough, and wondered briefly what it must be like at public school. A cross between a high-security jail and a kindergarten, judging by the sound of it.
The Doctor’s head was hidden underneath the TARDIS
console. Occasional grunts and imprecations were the only indications of the progress of his repairs. It was when it became clear that they were going to be stuck in the Time Vortex for some while that he had rather grumpily found something for them to sit on.
Ought she to be afraid that they would never get back to Earth? Maybe. Yet it felt so safe to be in the TARDIS with the Doctor, especially after all the really scary things she’d encountered during the last few days.
Only a few days? Ridiculous. It seemed that she was leaving a large part of her life behind on Parakon. ‘I left my heart in San Francisco...’ The song lilted through her mind. God help us, she thought, I even feel in clichés.
It was no good. She couldn’t keep Waldo out of her mind forever, and though the pain of her grief wasn’t extinguished, it was cushioned by the clear knowledge that the world could still be joyful. The memory of how the weight of fear fell away when the Doctor was saved and all was well, all was very well, rang through her like a peal of triumphant bells.
And what had Jeremy said, that other time? ‘Life must go on – that’s what he would have wanted.’
She got out of her regal chair and went over to address the feet sticking out from under the console.
‘Doctor,’ she said, ‘where do you keep your teapot? I could murder a cup of tea.’
Document Outline
Front cover
Rear cover
Title page
Copyright
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four