The banging and yelling had begun again in the corridors of the prison. "They suddenly started up, Chief," said Prison Officer Green helplessly. "Just like the other times."
"All right. Let"s get them quieted down, shall we?"
Powers and Green and all the other warders moved along the corridors, admonishing, cajoling, threatening.
"All right, now, all right! Quieten down, will you? Quieten down!" But it was no use.
The noise became an angry roar.
The Doctor heard the distant sounds and looked up uneasily from his task. He was working under a sense of increasing strain, though he didn"t quite know why.
The Machine began to throb, slowly at first, then louder, and then there came a strange electronic pulsing.
It was unbearably hot.
Loosening his collar, the Doctor went on with his work.
There was something nagging at the back of his mind.
Something about the Keller Machine. No, not about the Machine, but about something like like it... something dangerous and evil. it... something dangerous and evil.
The Doctor"s Time Lord superiors had blocked off his memory of Time Travel theory when they exiled him to Earth. Unfortunately, other areas of memory had been affected as well. The information was there, somewhere, but he couldn"t reach it.
The Doctor became aware that the electronic pulsing was very much louder.
The Keller Machine caught fire.
Tendrils of flame leaped up from its base, shooting upwards, turning the Machine into a roaring fireball.
Floor and ceiling suddenly burst into flames. Rivers of glowing lava poured down the walls.
The Doctor was trapped in the centre of a blazing inferno...
4.
The Listener Driven back by the unbearable searing heat, the Doctor flailed wildly about him, as if trying to drive back the flames with his bare hands. He was crouched in one corner, about to be engulfed when Jo Grant came into the room, some papers in her hand.
To her astonishment she saw the Doctor lashing out wildly at the empty air. The room was filled with a strange electronic pulsing sound.
"Doctor!" she called. "What"s the matter? What are you doing?"
The strange sound died away.
The Doctor stared wildly at her. "The fire," he muttered.
"The fire..." Straightening up, he moved rather shakily over to a chair and collapsed into it.
Jo looked round. The room was perfectly normal. " What What fire?" fire?"
The Doctor stared dazedly at her. "What are you doing here, Jo?"
"You wanted that medical report on Kettering. I got it from Doctor Summers."
"I told you to take it to the Governor"s office."
"But I thought it was important."
"So are my instructions, Jo. You could have been killed."
" Me Me killed?" said Jo indignantly. "It seemed to me you were the one in danger. You looked as if you were fighting something that wasn"t there." killed?" said Jo indignantly. "It seemed to me you were the one in danger. You looked as if you were fighting something that wasn"t there."
"Oh, it was there, Jo, at least until you came in. Your arrival distracted it, broke its grip on my mind." The Doctor smiled, making Jo feel she"d managed to do something right after all. "Now, let me see that report."
Jo handed him the report. The Doctor studied it thoughtfully.
"You were right about Kettering, Doctor. Death by drowning he had a morbid fear of water."
"And so he drowned in a perfectly dry room."
"Doctor what did you you see?" see?"
"Fire, Jo."
"But why should you "
The Doctor was staring into s.p.a.ce as if re-living scenes of unimaginable horror. "Some time ago, I saw a terrible catastrophe. A whole world ended in flames."
The Doctor was silent for a moment, thinking of Project Inferno, of the time when he had seen a parallel Earth, quite real in its own dimension, explode in smoke and flame. "The Machine plucked that memory out of my mind, and used it to attack me."
"This fire you saw it wasn"t real?"
"The rats weren"t real or the water. Yet Linwood died, and so did Kettering. We believe what our minds tell us, Jo."
"If Keller"s Machine is so dangerous, why don"t you just blow it up?"
The Doctor rose. "Because the idiots in authority won"t let me. I"m trying to work out a way of controlling it instead. Now, if you"ve quite finished asking questions..."
The Doctor picked up a screwdriver and set to work.
"All right, I"m going," said Jo hurriedly.
She was heading for the door when it opened and Captain Yates strode in. "Mike! What are you doing here?"
The Doctor slammed down his screwdriver in disgust.
"Brigadier"s orders," said Mike crisply. "Doctor, I"m afraid you"ve got to come back to London with me."
"Nonsense. I couldn"t possibly leave Stangmoor at the moment."
"You"ve got to, Doctor."
"I tell you I"m not leaving." The Doctor turned back to his work.
Mike Yates advanced towards him. As far as he was concerned refusal to obey a lawful order was mutiny. He"d been told to bring the Doctor back and he intended to bring him. "I"m sorry, Doctor, you"re coming with me. I"m quite prepared to use force if I have to." He grabbed the Doctor"s shoulder.
The Doctor swung round, shot out a long arm, and jabbed a bony finger at a point below Mike"s collar bone.
That was all but somehow Mike found that he couldn"t move.
"Venusian Karate," explained the Doctor. "Or perhaps Venusian Aikido would be a better description. You might find using force on me me rather more difficult than you imagine, young man!" rather more difficult than you imagine, young man!"
Mike Yates discovered that although he couldn"t move, he could still talk. "The Brigadier really does need you, Doctor," he gasped. "Things are in a very bad way at the Peace Conference. The Chinese Delegate"s dead we think he"s been murdered."
The Doctor released him. "Murdered! Very well, Captain Yates, I"ll come."
Mike rubbed his shoulder. "Thank you, Doctor."
"That"s right, Doctor, you go," said Jo brightly. "I"ll stay down here and look after things for you."
The Doctor groaned inwardly. The thought of leaving something as dangerous as the Keller Machine in the hands of this feather-headed child... Still, there was no alternative.
He put his hands on her shoulders. "Jo, for once in your young life, do you think you could do just as I ask?"
"Yes, of course, Doctor."
"Then get the Governor to lock and bar that door. No one is to come into this room. No one No one."
"Just leave everything to me."
The Doctor sighed. "I"m afraid I"ll have to! Try and stay out of trouble, will you?"
"Yes, Doctor," said Jo obediently.
The Doctor swung round. "Well, Captain Yates, what are we waiting for?" He strode from the room.
Mike Yates gave Jo a rueful look, and hurried after him.
Picking up the Doctor"s cloak, Jo followed, closing the door and locking it from outside.
The Keller Machine was left alone. After a moment it began to throb very gently. It was almost as if it was biding its time.
Sergeant Benton was being James Bond.
At least, he was on plain-clothes duty for once and somewhere in the back of his mind there lurked hopeful pictures of vodka martinis, shaken but not stirred, Bentley sports cars and mysteriously beautiful international spies.
His actual a.s.signment was considerably more routine.
He was tailing Captain Chin Lee.
Since the Chinese girl had a kind of semi-diplomatic status, the Brigadier had been unable to arrest her. Instead, convinced that she had something to hide, the Brigadier had decided to have her followed when she left UNIT HQ after her interrogation.
Unfortunately, the job of protecting the Peace Conference had left him very short of manpower, and he had been forced to a.s.sign the only available man, Benton.
The Sergeant had many excellent qualities. He was a burly, handsome young man, a fine figure in his military uniform. He was completely fearless and utterly loyal. But he wouldn"t have been the Brigadier"s first choice for an undercover a.s.signment.
For one thing, he was just too big. Benton lurking in a doorway with his raincoat collar turned up, was about as inconspicuous as an elephant at a tea party.
Still, he was was lurking all the same, in a doorway behind UNIT HQ keeping an eye on Captain Chin Lee who was making a call from a public telephone box. That in itself was suspicious, thought Benton. There were plenty of phones at UNIT HQ. Why come out into the back streets to find a phone box unless you had something to hide? lurking all the same, in a doorway behind UNIT HQ keeping an eye on Captain Chin Lee who was making a call from a public telephone box. That in itself was suspicious, thought Benton. There were plenty of phones at UNIT HQ. Why come out into the back streets to find a phone box unless you had something to hide?
Chin Lee came out of the box.
To Benton"s horror she stood staring fixedly at him for a moment, obviously well aware of his presence. She touched a hand to her neck, just under her hair...
Suddenly a strange electronic pulsing filled Benton"s mind. A sensation of terrible fear swept over him.
Everything began spinning around, and he collapsed against the railings, his hands to his head...
Chin Lee looked impa.s.sively at the writhing figure on the pavement, hurried around the corner and disappeared.
Benton heard a voice. "Hey, mate, you all right?" His vision cleared and he saw a concerned pa.s.ser-by staring down at him.
Struggling to his feet, Benton looked around him. Chin Lee was nowhere to be seen. He sighed, thinking of the Brigadier"s inevitable reaction. This sort of thing never happened to James Bond.
Crestfallen, Benton began walking back around the block to UNIT HQ.