Doctor Who_ The Sea-Devils - Malcolm Hulke [47]
‘The dodo,’ cut in the Master, ‘the passenger pigeon, the great auk, the blue buck, marsupials in Australia... In the first seventy years of this century, humans have totally destroyed more than seventy species!’
‘I admit that,’ said the Doctor. ‘But Man can learn.’ He turned back to the Chief Sea-Devil. ‘Allow me to return to the surface, to arrange peace between you and Mankind.’
‘If you release him,’ said the Master, he will return with ships that can drop underwater bombs to destroy you. The Doctor is your most deadly enemy. I urge you to kill him now!’
The Chief Sea-Devil raised his green scaly hand. ‘We appreciate your friendship,’ he told the Master, ‘but you speak too much. I must now think.’
The lids of the Chief Sea-Devil’s eyes slowly closed, and for a full minute he seemed almost to be asleep. As he thought he gently rocked forwards and backwards. Then the eyes opened again. He was looking at the Doctor.
‘You will negotiate a truce between my people and the humans,’ he told the Doctor. ‘We shall return you to the shore unharmed.’ He signalled to his guards. ‘Prepare the capsule.’ He referred to the pod-like capsule into which the Doctor had been drawn from the diving-bell.
‘I warn you,’ shouted the Master, ‘you are throwing away the control of this planet. These humans will never make peace with you—’
The Master’s words were drowned by the sound of a huge underwater explosion close to the Sea-Devils’ shelter. It was followed by another and then another even more violent explosion that rocked the shelter. One of the Sea-Devils went to an electronic screen set in the metal wall, and turned it on. The screen showed twenty or more little blobs of glowing light. He pointed to the screen. ‘Ships on the surface above us. The humans are attacking us.’
‘You see,’ said the Master. ‘This is what the humans are really like.’
The Chief Sea-Devil stood up, gripping the arm of his metal throne as more explosions rocked the shelter. He pointed at the Doctor. ‘Take him away and kill him!’
Sea-Devil guards immediately gripped the Doctor’s arms to drag him away.
‘Listen to me,’ called the Doctor, but already he was being dragged out of the main hall.
The Chief Sea-Devil issued orders. ‘Send our best swimmers to the surface. Destroy each of these ships. Let no human sailor survive!’
The guards were about to carry out the order, but the Master called: ‘No! Wait. The humans will retaliate by dropping underwater bombs from their flying machines, and against that you have no defence.’
There were three more violent explosions, dangerously close now.
‘Would you have us killed?’ asked the Chief Sea-Devil.
‘There is a better way,’ said the Master. ‘To help revive the rest of your people from hibernation, I need time. We can gain that if we make the humans believe they have won. Send to the surface one dead member of your species. That will convince the humans that their underwater bombs have been successful, and they will go away.’
‘None of my people have been killed,’ said the Chief Sea-Devil.
The Master looked round at the guards, finding it difficult not to smile. ‘Then you will have to arrange that, won’t you?’
His arms pinioned behind his back, the Doctor was dragged from the main hall by two Sea-Devil guards. As they went down a long metal corridor, no doubt to the Doctor’s place of execution, the explosions outside shook the shelter so badly that a metal plate fell from the roof and knocked out one of the Sea-Devils. With one arm free, the Doctor was able to spring loose from the other guard. The surviving guard raised his raygun to fire, but already the Doctor had grabbed the raygun of his fallen comrade. The Doctor fired first. The surviving guard survived no more, and fell dead next to his unconscious companion. The Doctor sprinted down the corridor and quickly found himself in what seemed to be the penal section of the shelter. Lieutenant Ridgway and Sub-Lieutenant Mitchell stared at the Doctor through the bars of a cage. ‘Who the blazes are you?’ asked Lieutenant