Doctor Who_ The Sea-Devils - Malcolm Hulke [54]
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ the Master protested. ‘I am your friend. We made a pact.’
‘We make no pacts with apes,’ said the Chief Sea-Devil. ‘Take them away!’
‘I am a Time Lord.’ screamed the Master as the guards dragged him away. ‘They will destroy you!’
The Doctor walked quietly with the guards to the prison area of the shelter. Ahead in the seemingly endless corridors, the Master struggled between two Sea-Devils, and was partly dragged to the cages. They were put into the same cage, the door was locked, and the Sea-Devils went away. The Master grabbed at the bars of the cage and shouted: ‘I am the Master! I demand to be released!’
There was no answer.
‘You seem to have lost your touch,’ said the Doctor quietly.
The Master turned on him, his eyes blazing. ‘Once they see that the device really works, they will release me!’
‘I doubt it,’ said the Doctor. ‘Just before you switched on, I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.’
The Master was appalled. ‘You did what? There’ll be a reverse feedback into their entire power system! This whole shelter will explode. We’ll be killed!’
‘That’s right,’ said the Doctor, ‘in about ten minutes from now.’
The Master turned back to the gaping hole of the corridor they had been brought down. ‘Guards! Come back! You’ve got to release me!’
‘Even if they listened to you,’ continued the Doctor calmly, ‘which I doubt if they will, it would be no good. I built a destructor mechanism into the major control switch. It cannot now be turned off.’ He felt into his coat pocket and brought out his sonic screwdriver. ‘Now, if you will stand away from that lock, my friend, let’s see what we can do.’
‘Even if you can open that lock,’ said the Master, ‘what then? We’d drown before we ever got to the surface.’
‘Not necessarily,’ said the Doctor. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the lock. From inside the lock they heard a number of clicks, as the internal bars and levers fell back into the unlocked position. ‘There, that seems to have done it.’ He pulled open the door. ‘Now follow me and do exactly what I tell you.’
The Doctor led the Master to where the Sea-Devils had dumped equipment taken from the submarine. They seemed to have lifted out everything removable, including the submarine’s escape apparatuses. The Doctor selected two sets of oxygen canisters, harnesses, and face masks. ‘Get that on,’ he ordered, and the Master obeyed without question.
‘How do we get out of there?’ said the Master, strapping on the harness.
‘The way we came in,’ said the Doctor. ‘There must be an airlock somewhere—the place they brought us in in those pods. Nov follow me.’
As they hurried away from the cages to seek the airlock, the humming sound of the sabotaged re-activation device began to fill the entire underwater shelter.
Fifty feet above the choppy surface of the sea, young Lieutenant Scott held his helicopter in a hovering position. His petty officer navigator looked down at the surface.
‘What are we supposed to be looking for, sir?’ asked the petty officer.
‘One, possibly two, men,’ replied Lieutenant Scott. He looked to a point about a mile away from the oil-rig. A light cruiser was coming in fast. He knew it carried underwater nuclear missiles. Captain Hart had told Scott to do whatever he could to save the Doctor before the missiles were dropped.
‘Down there!’ shouted the petty officer. ‘There’s two of them!’
Lieutenant Scott looked straight below where two heads were bobbing about in the water. ‘Get winching,’ he told his petty officer, then gently lowered the helicopter to within a few feet of the surface. The petty officer threw out the cradle on its long line, and lowered it to within inches of the Master. The Master grabbed at the cradle, heaving himself up out of the water. The petty officer set the electric winch in motion, and wound up the cradle towards the belly of the helicopter. Reaching out, he grabbed the Master’s hand and pulled him inboard. Then he dropped the cradle again to the Doctor. A minute later the Doctor, too, was scrambling inboard.
‘Welcome on board,’ shouted Lieutenant