"That is exactly what I mean to do... Let them find us."
Jamie exclaimed in dismay: "You mean just stay here - and wait for them to round us up like sheep?"
"Why not? We shall ask very politely for an interview with the Master."
Zoe said unhappily: "What makes you think they"ll give us time to ask anything at all? They may believe that actions speak louder than words!"
And then her words died upon her lips for the door opened once more, and three White Robots advanced into the room. They lined up, facing the three time-travellers and the circular compound lenses which they carried began to glow with a dazzling light: at the same time, a high-pitched bleeping arose above the continuing electronic sound urgent and menacing.
The Doctor enquired, as nonchalantly as possible: "Are you looking for us, by any chance?"
There was a long pause, during which the lenses threw out an even more blinding light, and the bleeping reached a shrill crescendo. Zoe put her hands to her ears.
"Very well!" the Doctor continued, raising his voice above the din. In that case I have only one thing to say to you... I demand to see the Master! I demand to see the Master! " "
At the sound of the Master"s name, the Robots seemed to retreat slightly, and the lights were extinguished immediately. The noise stopped, and for a few seconds there was complete silence until a low rumbling drew their attention to the wall at the far end of the room.
An entire panel slid back to reveal pitch blackness beyond. It was through this same hidden panel that Jamie had seen the last platoon of robots disappearing, some time earlier.
"Do you suppose we"re meant to go through there?" he asked.
No-one spoke, and no-one moved. The three White Robots stood like statues, cutting off the only other way out of the room.
"It rather seems so," said the Doctor. "I wonder if" the Master is a creature of nocturnal habits? He appears to live in total darkness."
Zoe felt a chill run down her spine for the response to the Doctor"s little joke was unexpected and somehow terrifying. A jovial chuckle emanated from the darkness, and a voice cried in welcoming tones: "Aha that"s very droll I must remember that... A nocturnal animal, indeed!... Do come in, my dear Doctor I"ve been expecting you."
The Doctor took a long breath: this was the moment he had been waiting for. Zoe felt for Jamie"s hand, and clutched it The voice continued genially: "Please don"t be alarmed...
Won"t you step into my parlour?"
"Said the spider to the fly... " The Doctor completed the couplet, and threw a grin to his companions which was meant to be rea.s.suring. "Come on it would be churlish to keep our host waiting."
He set off boldly into the open doorway, and the other two followed him.
The darkness was so thick it seemed to enfold them physically, like a blanket. Zoe felt it m.u.f.fling her from head to foot eyes, ears, all her senses completely swathed in that total, terrifying blackness.
Ahead, the Doctor cleared his throat and ventured: "It is a little difficult to um see one"s way... Where are you, sir?"
"Here... Where I have always been... Waiting to meet you," said the voice, now a good deal nearer.
And then they moved from the fog of darkness into a pool of light and Zoe gasped. The Master was not at all what she had been expecting.
He sat in a high-backed chair with the control desk in front of" him, and the bank of television monitor screens to one side. Behind him, a whole wall of computer equipment purred, blinked and flashed as spools revolved, stopped and rewound in meaningless patterns.
Somehow the Master seemed out of place amidst these highly technological surroundings for he was a dear little old gentleman: benignly smiling, white-haired, clad in an old dressing-gown and a skullcap, with half-moon spectacles askew on the end of his pudgy round nose.
He held out the hand of friendship, saying: "Doctor this is a great pleasure... And your two young companions now, let me see... "
He consulted an open file on his desk: "Ah, yes Zoe and Jamie quite so... I have your dossiers in front of me."
"You appear to be very well organised, if I may say so."
The Doctor spoke casually but his mind was racing; without appearing to do so, his eyes were flashing glances to left and right, searching for clues concerning the function of this bizarre establishment.
The Master acknowledged the compliment with a modest nod of his head: "Oh, yes, indeed but then we have to be... The running of this place requires enormous attention to detail. It"s a responsible position that I hold, but very rewarding."
He was, the Doctor realised, more than a little vain. And what were those two slim wires which seemed to grow out of his skullcap?
"Responsible I"m sure you are," the Doctor continued pleasantly. "But responsible to whom? To someone else in authority?"
"Not to someone," the Master corrected him. "I take instruction from a higher power higher than any you could begin to imagine... Although I must not underestimate your amazing imaginative ability, Doctor and I really must congratulate you on the great skill with which you tackled the various stages of your examination."
"Well, I soon realised I was being put to the test but the problem was to find out the purpose behind all those tests. I couldn"t make head or tail of that."
The Master chuckled again, rubbing his hands sympathetically: "I know, I know when I was first brought here myself, I was just as bewildered as you are now!"
Jamie ventured to ask: "How long have you been here, sir?"
The Master"s eyes grew mistily. reminiscent: "I left England in the summer of 1926... It was a very hot day, I remember I think I must have dozed off over my desk and when I awoke... Ah, but that"s a long story... And talking of long stories did you ever hear of the Adventures of Captain Jack Harkaway?"
Zoe and Jamie looked blankly at one another, and Zoe said politely: "I"m afraid not... Have you heard of him, Doctor?"
The Doctor appeared to be lost in thought: he had been trying to see where those two leads were attached. They seemed to be connected to the bank of computers, behind the Master"s desk or rather to the strange abstract object that stood at the heart of the computer display... A huge, whirled shape, imprisoned in a gla.s.s case: patterned like coral, and shaped like the kernel of a walnut, it pulsed with an inner light now white, now gleaming with a deep rose... What could it be?
Jamie tugged at the Doctor"s sleeve: "Hey, Doctor Captain Jack Harkaway have you heard of him?"
"What? Oh, I beg your pardon I was daydreaming...
Harkaway? wait a moment wasn"t he a character in a serial? I seem to remember it appeared in a schoolboy magazine "
The Master looked highly gratified: "Too kind, too kind, my dear sir... The magazine was The Ensign The Ensign and for twenty-five years I delivered five thousand words every week." and for twenty-five years I delivered five thousand words every week."
"So you"re a writer!" Jamie exclaimed, and Zoe using her phenomenal mathematical talent made a rapid calculation: "Twenty-five years five thousand words every week that"s well over six million words!"
"It was probably some kind of a record, I dare say,"
smiled the Master. "Anyway, that is why I was selected to take charge here."
Jamie looked around: "You"re in charge of all this this?"
"In one sense, I am."
Suddenly the Doctor recognised that complex coral-like shape it was a gigantic brain... And the leads from the Master"s head led straight into it.
"Might it not be more accurate to say that all this these computers, this equipment is in charge of you you?" he enquired.
The Master"s smile grew chilly, and his eyes were no longer friendly as he stared back over his half-moon gla.s.ses "Not at all," he said flatly. "They couldn"t do without me... My creative genius is the source of power that keeps this whole operation going. I am at the very centre of the organisation."
"So I see," said the Doctor. "And you are virtually a prisoner isn"t that right?"
The Master drew himself up indignantly and began: "I have sole charge of "
But before he could complete the sentence, the giant brain changed colour once more, through crimson to a throbbing mauve: and all the computers began whirring and clicking away busily. The Master closed his eyes for a second, as if fighting off an overpowering headache, and then said with an effort: "You must excuse me for a moment..."
He picked up his pen and began to write in the open book that lay on the desk in front of him, totally absorbed in his task.
Jamie and Zoe edged closer to the Doctor, and Jamie whispered: "Come on, Doctor let"s get out of here I"ve had enough of this place."
And Zoe urged: "Yes, let"s there"s something going on here that gives me the creeps!"
The Doctor shook his head: "I can"t leave yet I need to know more."
"Aye, well you keep the old fellow talking," said Jamie, "while Zoe and me try to find a way out. Look at all those alleyways they must lead somewhere... "
Now that their eyes had grown accustomed to this twilight world, illuminated entirely by the great brain, they could see that they were in the centre of a colossal library. From the control-desk at the centre, alleys ran off in all directions like the spokes of a wheel, each one lined with bookshelves shelves stacked so high that their tops could not be seen: they ran up into darkness and disappeared.
Now the light changed once again, and the busy computers halted their frantic activity. The Master put down his pen and smiled: "So sorry to have deserted you but needs must... Now where had I got to?"
The Doctor remarked: "I hope you were about to answer my question... Are you a prisoner here?"
He stepped closer to the desk, and at the same moment Jamie and Zoe slipped back into the shadows. They hoped that the Master would be so fascinated by this discussion, that he might not even notice them creeping out. From the corner of his eye, the Master noticed and pursed his lips in satisfaction, as he continued his conversation with the Doctor.
"I wouldn"t put it quite like that. I am extremely happy here I have everything I could possibly want this amazing library, with every known work of fiction all the masterpieces written by Earthlings since the beginning of time... "
His voice faded as Zoe and Jamie drew further off, out of sight behind the endless walls of books.
"I don"t think he saw us," whispered Zoe.
"Let"s hope not," said Jamie. "Come on, take a look along here and see if we can find a way of escape."
The Doctor too was aware of their departure, and he too pretended that he hadn"t seen them go. Playing for time, he continued: "I begin to understand at last... Of course, only the human race has the power to create fiction the power to imagine."
"Exactly," the Master concurred. "This is one field in which the intelligence that I serve cannot compete. They need man a man, of boundless imagination as a power-house... Which is why they selected me, all those years ago."
"But that still doesn"t explain why I have been brought here," the Doctor cut in. "And just what is this intelligence this higher power you speak of? What does it want with me?"
The Master shrugged, and spread his hands wide: "As you see I am no longer young. Whereas you, my dear Doctor, are timeless. You exist outside the barriers of s.p.a.ce and time: therefore you are the perfect choice to replace me... To take over my post in this unique situation."
"So that"s it... " The Doctor folded his arms. "You should have said so in the first place it would have saved us both a lot of trouble. Because my answer is no!"
"You refuse?"
"Emphatically!"
The computers began to whirr again, insistently and angrily: lights flashed, and the imprisoned brain darkened from mauve to purple. The Master"s face was not benign now: his expression became threatening and inhuman.
"Refusal is impossible," he said and the Doctor recognised the clipped metallic tones of the voice he had heard issuing orders over the loudspeakers: "You are here to serve us... There is no alternative!"
Zoe and Jamie, still searching through the library, were lost in a spider"s-web of alleys that led nowhere.
"There"s got to be a way out," Zoe repeated desperately.
"Of course! There must be another door somewhere,"
agreed Jamie. "If we can get the Doctor away before "
They turned another corner, and stopped dead in their tracks. They were face to face with one of the White Robots.
"Quick! Run for it!" Jamie exclaimed. "Back the way we came "
" Jamie Look out! Jamie Look out! " cried Zoe. " cried Zoe.
For there, immediately behind them, were two more White Robots, cutting off their retreat. There was no escape.
In the soulless, computer voice, the Master continued: "Resistance is useless... Submit your will for the sake of a greater good... It has been decided."
"That is something I prefer to decide for myself,"
retorted the Doctor.
The computer clicked off, and the lights came up again to a normal level. Instantly, the Master returned to his old self, affable and ingratiating but now the affability was false and unreliable, and his friendliness could not be trusted.
"My dear sir," he continued blandly; "I think you will find there is only one decision open to you... Why fight against it? You are clearly destined to take over my task you and I are the only two beings in the Universe who could tackle it... I realised that the moment I set eyes on you we are both Masters, in our own way."
"Your way is not mine," said the Doctor stubbornly. "I shall never agree."
"Of your own accord perhaps not... But with a little persuasion you might change your mind." The Master gestured to the open book before him, and read aloud the sentences he had just been writing: " Jamie and Zoe Jamie and Zoe attempted to escape, but on making off through the library, they attempted to escape, but on making off through the library, they were ambushed by a party of robot guards, and overpowered... were ambushed by a party of robot guards, and overpowered... " "
The Doctor looked round anxiously: "No! It"s another trick Zoe ! Where are you?"
By way of reply, the Master switched on the television screens: they all showed an identical picture.
Zoe and Jamie were being forced back by the troop of White Robots back to what seemed to be two white walls... But the walls had words upon them, and the Doctor realised that they were the pages of an enormous book. The Robots pressed in from either side, and began to push the covers shut. The Doctor saw Zoe open her mouth to scream for help, but he could hear nothing. All he could do was watch helplessly as the mighty book began to close, and Zoe and Jamie were slowly trapped between its pages...
Caught for ever in the dimension of fiction...
"Now, then," continued the Master, looking over his spectacles, "are you prepared to co-operate? Your life in return for theirs? Is it a bargain?"