第 32 页

'How many?'

'Er, about twenty, sir.'

Benton placed the bazooka missile in the bag and then shoved a grenade in as well, yanking out the pin. He drew back his arm and hurled the bag towards the sea creature. It landed between its legs and then exploded, setting off the biggest fireworks display Smallmarshes was ever likely to see.

The blast wiped out a few Silurians, but it was not that which stopped the sea creature. It was the sudden blinding flash of twenty flares all detonating at once.

The UNIT troops covered their eyes in anticipation, but still saw the huge white flash through their hands. The effect on those on the beach was devastating. The few surviving Silurians dropped to their knees, temporarily blinded. The sea creature itself gave a huge roar and then collapsed dead, crushing a hapless Silurian who had staggered into its path.

The UNIT troops began to move onto the beach to round up their prisoners. Suddenly, Champion yelled a warning as a Silurian at least three times bulkier than the others reared up before Benton.

For a moment, the sergeant hesitated, and Farley saved his life by emptying a clip of bullets into its back. Despite its horrific injuries, the huge Silurian still managed to turn, trying to use its third eye. For a second, it looked as if it would succeed, but its injuries were too severe and it fell, rolling away onto a clump of rocks, where it finally lay still, staring up at the sky with sightless eyes.

Auggi watched her people being massacred on a view-screen within the safety of her cruiser. Beside her lay two dead Earth Reptiles who had dared to suggest that all three of them join the attack. No, she had decided, that was Krugga's job.

Now she realized that Chukk had been right; the Apes were stronger than she had thought. It was down to Baal now. To develop a better strain of the virus and help her unleash it upon them.

She used the scanner to contact Baal in his laboratory. Seconds later his face appeared on the screen.

'Mother! What are you doing?'

'The Apes have wiped out my fleet, my son. It is up to us now to destroy them once and for all.'

Baal shook his head. 'No, Mother, you are wrong. We will aid the Apes, the humans, and they will aid us. Observe.' He moved out of her line of sight and Auggi saw Sula and the Doctor's Ape-woman friend working together, the image of the hybrid wire frame hovering around them. 'You... you have told her of our secret? Our shame?' Baal moved back into sight. 'No shame, Mother. It is our birthright, and we must work together to cure it.'

'But the Apes have killed your friends.'

'No, they have been killed by you. You led them on a foolhardy mission. This planet is no longer ours. We have to share it if we are to survive. We are like a tiny voice in a crowd of millions. If we have nothing positive to say, then we have no right to wake up the other Shelters.'

Auggi stared at her son. She stared at the two dead hybrids at her feet. She then glanced at another screen, showing the Ape warriors sifting through the carnage. 'I am betrayed on all sides,' she said, and cut the transmission.

She programmed in a new course, away from both the coast and from her Shelter. She would go to a place where no one would embarrass her further, and where she could plan her revenge against the Apes in safety.

The battle cruiser sped away through the waves.

Mike Yates threw himself through the door of Blackbird control, much to the astonishment of the two people inside, a black-clad armed guard and a white-coated young female technician.

The guard frowned. 'What's going on?'

'There's been a breakout. That Doctor from UNIT, he's causing trouble.'

The technician stared at the guard. 'See, Lawson, I told you the boss would want to know.' She looked back at Yates, pointing at her radar screen. 'UNIT helicopters, about three of them, surrounding us. They know we're here, somehow.'

Yates brought up his rifle. 'Probably homed in on me,' he said and clubbed the guard into unconsciousness. He trained the rifle on the now terrified technician. 'Where's the Blackbird?'

The technician pointed through a smoked-glass window, and Yates could just make out a dark outline. 'Open the hangar doors. Now!'

The technician pressed a switch and Yates heard a clang as the double doors directly above the Blackbird started to part. Sunlight streamed in.

The technician took advantage of his distraction, whipping out a sidearm, but the movement caught Yates's eye just in time. He feinted to one side and they fired simultaneously.

Yates fell back as the bullet ripped through his shoulder and out the other side. Blood trickled from the wound but, miraculously, it seemed to have missed any main arteries. His bullet found its mark, straight through the technician's heart, and the white-coated woman died soundlessly.

He looked back through the glass and could see one of the Brigadier's helicopters coming through the gap, UNIT soldiers leaping out, armed and ready.

He lifted the technician's chair, smashed it through the glass, and yelled, 'It's Greyhound Two. Don't fire!'

By now two of the helicopters had landed, one on each side of the Blackbird. Yates saw Tom Osgood open the hatch of the Blackbird and dive in, probably intending to disable it. Then he saw the even more welcome sight of the Brigadier, pistol in hand. 'That's Yates up there. Someone go and help him down here.'

Mike Yates let himself relax. The cavalry had arrived.

---

In his plush office the pale young man was shouting at Ciara and Cellian.

'Get him. Kill him. The Doctor must die, and I don't care who gets in your way.

Everyone here is expendable.' Ciara and Cellian nodded and left him. After they had gone, he stabbed at a button on his desk. A picture opposite slid away, revealing a screen. Bailey's face appeared on it.

'Where are you, Bailey?'

'In the east labs. Why?'

'Problems. Clear everything out to the safety zone. I'll meet you there in a couple of days.'

'All right, sir.'

'Oh, Bailey?'

'Sir?'

'Make sure you take the Stalker. One day it's going to be used to get the Doctor.'

'Yes, sir.' The screen faded.

The pale young man stared across the room at Sir Marmaduke Harrington-Smythe's dead body. 'Fat lot of good you were. A real waste of time.'

He pressed another button on his desk. 'Sorry, boss.' He straightened his tie, pushed his chair under his desk and opened the wall safe by Sir Marmaduke's body. Inside were microfiches, microfilms and video cassettes. Beside them were sheaves and sheaves of papers, all marked Confidential or Top Secret: Eyes Only. Department of Science and Technology. Or Ministry of Defence. All bore the C19 crest and motto: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Costodes - 'Who guards the guards themselves?' He picked them up and deposited them on his desk.

'Yes, who indeed?' He returned to the safe and pocketed the microfiches and films. He looked at the cassettes, then back at his watch. 'Ah well, I'll try and find some copies in Sir John's offices one day,' he muttered and threw them onto the desk.

With a last look around, he exited his office, checking the door was firmly shut. He counted off another ten seconds and moved forward, allowing a metal shutter to slam down behind him. Then he heard a muffled bang and a roar from within the office as it was reduced to fine ash.

'Cobalt. Always said you couldn't better Cyber-technology.'

---

The Doctor had battled his way past more than a few guards by the time he found the laboratory he was hunting for.

He pushed the doors open, knocking the surprised guard to one side.

'Hai!' The Doctor delivered a throat jab, and the man dropped unconscious.

He stared ahead of him. The room was massive, like a football pitch, but the high walls were covered in monitors, computer banks and switches for every kind of machine. To the left was a bed, on which lay Marc Marshall. Bending over him was a man in a white coat.

In the centre of the room was a chair, rather like a dentist's. Strapped firmly into it was Tahni, struggling as best she could, her third eye covered by a metal strap. A young, dark-haired woman, also in a white coat, bent over her, fixing electrodes to the Earth Reptile's breasts.

On another bed on the opposite side of the room sat a young blonde woman, scribbling frantically on the wall. She kept casting frightened looks back at Tahni and drew as if her life depended on the completion of her master work.

The female scientist looked up. 'The Doctor, I presume?' she said with a distinct American accent.

The man also stopped and looked over. 'From UNIT?'

'Yes. Move away from those people, if you don't mind.' He aimed one of the guns he'd stolen from a guard earlier.

The man complied, but the woman ignored the Doctor's threat. Instead she looked back at the man. 'Get on with the boy, Peter, there's a good chap. The Doctor has morals about using guns on us mere humans.'

The man called Peter ignored her, and instead undid the straps holding Marc down. 'I'm Peter Morley, from Cambridge. I'm a xenobiologist and I'm being forced to work here against my will.'

The woman looked up. 'God, Peter, you are a prat.' She took out a pistol and aimed it at Tahni's head. 'Retreat, Doctor, or your lizard girl-friend gets a fourth eye.' She smiled. 'Oh, I do love Raymond Chandler films.'

She was still smiling when the far door burst open and a massive pulse of energy blasted her literally in two.

Tahni instinctively flinched, and even the woman on the other bed dropped her pencil.

Morley ran to the Doctor's side. 'It's the Irish Twins. Ciara and Cellian. What are they doing here?'

The Doctor stared at the newcomers. They both held their right arms outstretched, palms flat. The fingers had dropped away on a hinge, revealing a stubby muzzle emerging from just under the thumb.

'We were one of the Vault's earliest experiments, Doctor,' said Ciara calmly.

'You're not Autons, not in the truest sense, surely?'

'No, not at all,' said Ciara. 'We're humans, but the Vault replaced our blood with the Nestene fluids from the tank at AutoPlastics. These little additions' - she nodded towards her arm - 'were our commander's little touch. The fluids provide the energy for the weaponry. Ingenious, don't you think?'

'You were the forefront of his little hybrid army then,' the Doctor said. 'The ultimate killing machines. Humans with alien technology grafted on.'

'We were his main inspiration. With our armaments and that thing's genes, he would have made an invincible army.'

Understandably angry at being referred to as 'that thing', Tahni began to struggle. Ignoring her, the Irish Twins walked around her until they were face to face with Morley and the Doctor.

'Resistance is useless,' said Cellian.

Morley gaped. 'You can speak! You've never spoken before.'

'Never had anything worthwhile to say.' Cellian aimed his energy weapon at the quaking scientist.

'Not much worthwhile now, either,' muttered the Doctor.

Unseen by the Nestene-adapted twins, Marc Marshall had dropped off his bed and was pulling himself painfully across the floor, his progress hampered by his painfully distended skin. He had reached Tahni, and was trying to undo her restraints when the woman on the other bed began screeching, like a terrified chimpanzee.

C鑜lian calmly swung around, blasting her apart with an energy bolt. Ciara was about to do the same to Marc and Tahni when the door through which they had come was blown off its hinges. Through the resulting gap rushed the Brigadier followed by about thirty UNIT troops.

The Irish Twins threw glances at each other and then barged between the Doctor and Morley, running out through the door by which the Doctor entered.

Leaving the soldiers to follow them, the Doctor rushed to Marc and Tahm, while Morley went to the woman on the bed.

The Brigadier stared down at the Silurian. 'Good to see you again, Doctor.'

'Brigadier, you must warn your men, those two they're chasing are effectively Autons.'

'Right you are, Doctor.' He whipped out his walkie-talkie. 'Greyhound Leader to all Traps. Male and female you are pursuing are highly dangerous. Auton facsimiles. Approach with caution. Use explosives if necessary.' He looked back at the Doctor. 'How are your patients?'

Tahni stared back at him. 'I am fine thank you, furry Ape. But the hatchling is dead.'

'The strain was too much for his young heart, I'm afraid.' The Doctor closed Marc's staring eyes. 'He tried his best. Brave to the end.'

Tahni placed a clawed hand on the Doctor's shoulder. 'I am sorry, Doctor. Baal will be too, I know. He has much to learn.'

Morley walked over. 'WPC Redworth is dead. Cellian didn't leave much of her.'

The Doctor looked at the Brigadier. 'LethbridgeStewart, I think you need to get old Scobie, Sir John Sudbury and your Prime Minister up to see the abhorrence that is the Vault.'

'Yes, Doctor. A good idea.' He turned to go. 'By the way, where is Miss Shaw?'

---

Three days later, Liz and the Doctor were going over some photographs in their laboratory at UNIT HQ.

'That's Krugga,' said the Doctor. 'Poor chap. But what on Earth is that?'

Liz looked at the photo, which showed a massive sea creature. She touched it with the hand that wasn't still in a sling. 'If I didn't know better, I'd say it was the Loch Ness Monster, but I think it's a Myrka.'

Sergeant Benton placed a cup of cocoa on the bench for each of them. 'Yeah, bloody great thing killed a few of the lads. We killed it with the flares. Bright light just seemed to burn its brain out.'

'Do you have to be so graphic, Sergeant?' asked Liz.

The Doctor touched Liz's hand. 'How are things on L'Ithe this morning?'

Liz sat on a stool, her good hand in her lap. She smiled tightly. 'Baal and Tahni have taken control. We've returned Sergeant Benton's prisoners, under the terms of the Geneva Convention, and everything seems calm. They've asked me to work with them, to try and find a cure for their problems. I said I would think about it.'