Doctor Who_ The Sea-Devils - Malcolm Hulke [50]
Walker shrieked, ‘We come in peace! Don’t kill us!’
As one Sea-Devil raised its raygun to fire at Walker, the Doctor leapt at it and felled it with a Venusian karate chop. The other Sea-Devil came up behind the Doctor, and brought its hand down on to the. Doctor’s head. He fell unconscious on to the concrete. The Sea-Devil raised its gun to exterminate Walker, Hart, and Jo.
‘Stop!’ It was the voice of the Master. He came running from the quayside. ‘They maybe useful as slaves.’ He looked down at the Doctor. ‘And so may he.’
Jo, Captain Hart, and the Rt. Hon. Robert Walker were locked in a stationery cupboard in the administration building. It had shelves piled with typewriting paper, envelopes, and other office equipment. By peeping through the keyhole they had seen that a Sea-Devil was standing outside on guard. Captain Hart was now standing on a shelf using a twopenny piece as a make-do screwdriver to remove the screws from a ventilator grille.
‘If we escape from here,’ said Walker, ‘we’re only going to make them angry.’
‘If we don’t escape from here,’ replied Captain Hart pointedly, ‘we are only going to be killed.’
Walker pulled from his jacket pocket a little packet of sweets and helped himself to one. ‘Why didn’t they lock the Doctor in here with us?’
‘Probably,’ said Jo, ‘because the Master needs his help. Why don’t you offer your sweets round?’
Walker blustered, and tried to think of a reason. ‘They are specially made to suit my taste. I don’t think you’d like them.’ He pushed the packet back into his pocket.
Captain Hart carefully lifted away the ventilator grille. ‘There’s a shaft leads straight outside,’ he said, ‘but it isn’t very big.’
Jo climbed up on to the shelf. ‘I’m the smallest,’ she said. ‘Give me a hand.’
Captain Hart looked at her. ‘You realise the danger?’
‘You have just told us,’ she reminded him. ‘If we don’t escape we’ll be killed. Help me get into that hole.’
As the Captain helped Jo into the ventilator shaft, Walker watched on from below, and secretly helped himself to another sweet.
Jo dropped down cautiously from the outside opening of the ventilator shaft. She was at the side of the administration building. At the other end of the roadway she could see five or six naval ratings walking along with their hands raised, guarded by two Sea-Devils. The group went out of sight behind an outbuilding.
The problem was, she told herself, where to find the Doctor? The Master had saved the Doctor’s life, and that meant he must be using the Doctor for some purpose. Then she remembered where the Master had gone when he was brought into the Naval Base by the late Mr. Trenchard: the electronic stores. She worked her way cautiously along the wall of the building, and was relieved to find a signpost giving directions to various parts of the base. One finger in the signpost pointed towards ‘Stores’. She made her way in that direction, keeping a careful look out for Sea-Devils. Hiding whenever she saw one of the monsters, sprinting quickly from the shelter of one hiding place to another, it took her a long time to reach her destination. The door of the stores shed was open, but she thought it wisest first to try and look inside before entering. She found a window, and peeped inside.
The Master and the Doctor were working on some elaborate piece of electronic equipment. Standing watching them was a Sea-Devil; it kept its raygun aimed at the Doctor all the time as he worked. Jo could just hear what the Master was saying.
‘... With this, we shall be able to re-activate homo reptilia all over the world.’
Jo remembered hearing the Doctor use that term to describe the monsters that had been found in the caves in Derbyshire. It also described their underwater cousins.
‘How will that benefit you?’ said the Doctor.
‘Us,’ said the Master. ‘I can make you a partner...’
The Master went on talking about how he and the Doctor would rule Earth through the Sea-Devils.