Doctor Who_ The Sea-Devils - Malcolm Hulke [40]
The thing like a flashlamp suddenly blazed red, and the scaly green hand moved it from side to side. Four ratings screamed, dropped their weapons and fell dead.
Ridgway shouted, ‘Fire!’
There was an explosion of rifle and revolver fire in the tiny confined space. The flashlamp again flared its brilliant red and three more ratings fell to the deck. Ridgway realised their position was hopeless.
‘Cease fire,’ he shouted.
The firing stopped. The scaly hand disappeared, the movement could again be heard from inside the conning tower.
‘It’s probably turning round,’ whispered Mitchell, ‘so as to come down the ladder. We can pick it off then.’ He levelled his gun at the top of the ladder.
In a strained voice Ridgway said, ‘Everybody lay down their guns.’
Mitchell stared at Ridgway. ‘Are you crazy?’
Lieutenant Ridgway shook his head. ‘Whatever that thing is, it’s not on its own. We’ve got to give in.’ He raised his voice again to the men. ‘I said, put down your guns!’
One by one the ratings put their guns on to the deck. Then the feet of a Sea-Devil appeared through the hole in the hatch. It clambered slowly down the rungs of the ladder, then turned round to face the humans.
‘You will now obey our orders,’ it said. ‘This vessel is under our command. You will take us to the Master.’
9 Visitors for Governor Trenchard
Trenchard strode along the corridor to the Master’s room. The prison officer on duty jumped to attention and unlocked the door. Before entering Trenchard paused to think exactly what his position was. Losing the Doctor and his friend probably meant ruination of everything. Trenchard was angry with the Master, very angry. Telling lies to Captain Hart was bad enough, but what really upset him were the lies that he had had to tell his own men. After the Doctor and Miss Grant finally escaped through the minefield, Trenchard had had to give some reason to his prison officers why he had let the prisoner out of his cell. ‘Tell them,’ said the Master, ‘that I am the Doctor’s friend, and you brought me along so that I could call upon him in friendship to give himself up.’ It was a complete and ridiculous fabrication, but that is what Trenchard had had to say to cover up his own guilt. Then there were those extraordinary monsters, and surely that was no coincidence. As he walked into the Master’s room he told himself the time had come for a reckoning.
The Master was calmly working on his mysterious black box, and barely looked up as Trenchard marched in.
‘You should stand up when I enter,’ said Trenchard.
The Master looked up for a moment. ‘Really? Why?’
‘Listen,’ said Trenchard, ‘I think this has gone far enough! You said it was foreign agents sinking those ships. You said we’d catch them. You lied to me.’
‘My dear Trenchard,’ said the Master, carefully adjusting a control on the black box, ‘if I’d talked about monsters, would you have believed me?’ Because Trenchard didn’t answer, the Master looked up again. ‘Well, would you?’
Trenchard tried to control his temper. ‘I sometimes think that you are the Devil. Now tell me the truth!—you had something to do with those disgusting lizards, didn’t you!’
‘Those creatures you saw belong to a race of intelligent reptiles with a deadly hatred for Mankind,’ explained the Master. ‘They have established themselves in the sea. Now they plan to emerge and conquer the world.’
‘How on earth do you know all this?’
The Master paused in his work and fixed Trenchard with his eyes. ‘Because I am the Master. Didn’t they tell you that I’m not human?’
Trenchard scoffed, ‘Oh, I can believe that!’
‘I mean it seriously, my dear Trenchard. I have two hearts, a temperature of only sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and, if you care to observe closely, my breathing rate is four breaths to the minute compared with your twelve to sixteen. Didn’t you check the prison doctor’s medical report that was sent along here with me?’
‘Don’t bother about those things,’ Trenchard blustered. ‘Couldn’t really understand it. But we’re getting away from the point. If what you say about