9.
Lives in the Balance "Your life in return for theirs?" The Master repeated his offer. "Well which is it to be?"
"You can"t kill them!" the Doctor protested. "You"re a human being you couldn"t be so heartless!"
The Master smiled and shook his head, then indicated the banks of TV screens. They all showed the same picture: the gigantic book had now been firmly closed, and on its spine, the Doctor could read the t.i.tle: The Story of The Story of Jamie and Zoe Jamie and Zoe.
"They"re neither dead nor alive," the Master explained, taking off his spectacles and rubbing his eyes. "They"re no longer human beings either merely fictional characters.
But " he paused, dramatically.
"But what?"
"But they could be released, and revert to their former status... If you consent to take my place."
"You would really do that?" the Doctor asked, suspiciously.
"No, no, my dear sir, you you would. That"s the whole point." He breathed on his gla.s.ses and began to polish them carefully with his handkerchief. "You see once you take up your new post, it will be your first official task, as the new Master." would. That"s the whole point." He breathed on his gla.s.ses and began to polish them carefully with his handkerchief. "You see once you take up your new post, it will be your first official task, as the new Master."
The Doctor looked suddenly very tired. "I see," he said, in a voice drained of all emotion. "So that"s your scheme...
Very ingenious... I congratulate you."
The old man purred with satisfaction: "I take it you do agree?"
But the Doctor squared his shoulders and replied: "I"m sorry... My answer is still no... And now if you will excuse me "
He turned to walk away and found that the White Robots were advancing upon him. He looked quickly to left and right, and saw that down every aisle of this vast library, more and more Robots were moving steadily towards him.
The Master said, with an edge of steel in his tone: "I shall be sorry to have to use violent methods, but you must submit. You have no alternative."
The Doctor glanced around desperately: realising that he was cornered. But if all the ways of escape at ground level were barred to him there was still another way he could go: upwards!
He moved swiftly to the nearest wall of bookshelves, and began to shin up thern, using each shelf as the rung of a ladder, and exclaiming: "Jamie was right I have yet to meet a Robot who can climb!"
Hand over hand he pulled himself up into the darkness at the top of the shelves, and disappeared from view.
Oddly enough, the Master did not make the least attempt to stop him. He did not even appear to be disturbed by the Doctor"s rapid exit. Replacing the spectacles on the end of his b.u.t.ton nose, he said with quiet confidence: "Very well we will play this game of hide and seek a little longer... The Doctor cannot possibly escape."
And the newly-polished lenses in their half-moon frames gleamed with a sinister light.
The Doctor climbed on through the dusty, cobwebbed shadows at the top of the bookshelves, and at last found an ancient ventilator shaft. He could smell fresh air cool and sweet, after the stuffy enclosed s.p.a.ce of the library. He pulled himself into the shaft, head first, and struggled upwards like one of the small boys that chimney sweeps used to employ in the olden days: hoping as the boys must have hoped with all their hearts that he would not get stuck.
After a few nasty moments, he found himself clambering out on to the roof of the citadel. Night had fallen, and now he looked up at the black velvet sky with tiny stars scattered across it like diamond dust.
All around him were the fairy tale towers, domes and pinnacles of the fantastic castle, rising up from a flat, tiled roof. He walked to the edge, and looked over the crenellated battlements... Even in the darkness, he could tell that he was staring down into a sheer drop... No escape that way, clearly.
He set off on an expedition round the roof and stopped short, flattening himself against the edge of a tower, as footsteps approached... Then, with a sigh of relief, he left his hiding-place...
"Zoe Jamie at last! Thank goodness I"ve found you."
The two youngsters smiled politely, and Jamie said: "Doctor! I"m certainly glad to see you again."
"Yes, indeed it"s a great relief," the Doctor agreed. "The Master tried to tell me that you were both "
But they didn"t seem to hear what he said, and interrupted him, talking to one another.
"Well, where do we go from here?" Jamie asked.
"Back to the TARDIS," said Zoe.
"No, we can"t," said Jamie. "It fell apart, don"t you remember?"
"Well, it"s over now, thank goodness," said Zoe. "I want to sit and rest for a while."
"The TARDIS broke up it fell apart, don"t you remember?" asked Jamie.
"Yes, I know you told me about that... " The Doctor tried to interject, but they weren"t even looking at him.
"What"s wrong with you both?"
"Well, where do we go from here?" asked Jamie eagerly.
"Back to the TARDIS?" suggested Zoe.
"No, we can"t it fell apart, don"t you remember?"
retorted Jamie.
The Doctor went up to them, with a horrid realisation dawning upon him... They kept saying the same things, over and over again... He snapped his fingers in Jamie"s face: Jamie didn"t even blink, but remarked tonelessly:
"I"ve been in a fog no, I mean really really in a fog ever since the TARDIS broke up." in a fog ever since the TARDIS broke up."
The Doctor remembered him uttering the self-same phrases when they first found one another in the forest of words... So the Master"s threat had been carried out: they were no longer human beings simply fict.i.tious creatures, doomed to repeat the same speeches again and again.
He turned away, unable to look at them: two-dimensional replicas of his dear friends. With a heavy heart, he found himself gazing down through a gla.s.s skylight into the room below and recognized it as the word-processing laboratory. As he watched, the teleprinter clattered out a stream of paper ribbon. Straining his eyes, he could just make out the words: " ... ambushed by a party of ... ambushed by a party of roboi guards and overpowered... roboi guards and overpowered... " "
So that must be the master tape. He tried to think constructively: "I wonder... Perhaps if I were to create a few immortal words of fiction myself, I might give the story a happier ending?"
He looked back toward Jamie and Zoe, who stood as he left them, still quietly repeating their stereotyped conversation: and he made up his mind. Anything Anything was worth trying. was worth trying.
He tried to open the skylight but the huge pane of gla.s.s in its thick wooden frame was far too heavy for him to shift by himself. He strained to move it but it wouldn"t budge.
"This is hopeless," he muttered breathlessly. "What I need is the strength of the Karkus... "
At once there was a lurid flash, and the green muscleman appeared by his side, grunting: "I... am... at...
your... command."
"Oh! Well, that"s extremely obliging of you. I wonder, could you lift this window frame for me, my dear fellow?"
The Karkus raised it without the slightest effort, pulling it off its hinges, and holding it high above his head, enquiring: "This... is... what... you... want?"
"Ah well, I don"t actually want want it... Just get rid of it, will you?" it... Just get rid of it, will you?"
Obediently, the Karkus tossed a huge piece of gla.s.s over the battlements, and the Doctor heard a distant crash a few seconds later as it shattered on the rocks, far below.
"Thank you so much," he said. "Now, all I have to do is to get down into that room somehow... It"s too far to jump I really need some sort of "
Another flash and the Princess Rapunzel was standing beside the Karkus, holding out her long plait of blonde hair, and saying: "A rope? Allow me."
She let the plait drop through the open skylight. The Doctor blinked at her doubtfully: "Your Royal Highness I take it you must be the Princess Rapunzel but are you quite sure?"
She sighed, and said: "Please everyone else uses it, for climbing up and down I don"t see why you shouldn"t... I suppose you"re not a prince, by any chance?"
"I"m awfully sorry to disappoint you, no, I"m not... " The Doctor swung his leg over the edge of the frame and added consolingly: "Never mind, your Highness some day your prince will come to coin a phrase... Now, if you could very kindly take the strain?" And using the rope of hair, he lowered himself slowly down into the room below.
As soon as he reached the floor, he made for the nearest word-processor and began to type. Behind his back, one of the toy soldiers emerged from the open doorway into the library and stood observing him, its seeing-eye lens focussed upon his activities.
In the Control Centre, the Master hugged himself with glee and held his breath, watching two television screens simultaneously. One threw up the picture that the toy soldier was "seeing" the Doctor, in quarter-profile, busily typing a new addition to the story of Jamie and Zoe while at the same time the other screen relayed the words as the Doctor wrote them: " ... with a daring plan for their escape. The ... with a daring plan for their escape. The enemy had been finally defeated... enemy had been finally defeated... " "
The Master chuckled in antic.i.p.ation: "Yes, yes don"t stop go on!"
The Doctor, still unaware that he was being watched, stopped typing to read back what he had written: " ... The ... The enemy had been finally defeated by enemy had been finally defeated by " He stopped and continued more slowly. " " He stopped and continued more slowly. " Defeated... By the Defeated... By the " "
Then he slammed both fists on to the machine, making the keys seize up. "No! I can"t do it... If I write about myself that will be the end of me!"
He turned, and found himself face to face with the toy soldier. Too desperate to feel alarmed, he addressed the Master directly through the camera lens on the soldier"s helmet: "A nice try, and I almost fell for it, didn"t I? A moment longer, and I should have turned myself into fiction!"
Furiously, the Master thumped the desk in frustration, and shouted: "Arrest that man! We shall play games no longer!"
But as the toy soldier lumbered forward, the Doctor was too quick for him. Grabbing the rope of hair he swung himself up and climbed hand over hand until he was standing on the flat rooftop once again.
Cursing under his breath, the Master decided to settle accounts with his adversary once and for all: he picked up his pen, and began to write.
But the Doctor was safe and sound for the moment dusting himself down, and thanking his new-found allies.
Rapunzel smiled sweetly, as she coiled up her hair: "Only too happy to be of a.s.sistance... "
The Doctor looked around for Zoe and Jamie but they had disappeared. In their place, Gulliver sat, surrounded by the Edwardian children whom the Doctor had met in the forest, when they besieged him with their riddles and word-games.
Crossing to speak to them, the Doctor asked: "Where are Jamie and Zoe? Have you seen them?"
Gulliver replied civilly: "They had to make a departure
it was necessary."
The boy in the Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers chimed in: "They"ll be back soon, don"t worry."
Then they crowded round the Doctor, all talking at once: "What"s been happening? What will you do? Is it a game? Can we all play? What are we going to do?"
The Doctor put his hands over his ears, protesting: "Please! You must give me a chance to think... There must be some way out... There"s got to be!"
At his desk in the Control Centre, the Master was writing swiftly, his pen skimming across the page. A satisfied smile crossed his face, as he paused to read through what he had just created.
"Jamie and Zoe realised at last that the Doctor was in fact the most monstrous and cunning villain. There was no punishment most monstrous and cunning villain. There was no punishment too severe for the crimes he had committed. It was for this reason, too severe for the crimes he had committed. It was for this reason, that they proceeded upon a plan to put an end to his nefarious that they proceeded upon a plan to put an end to his nefarious activities... " activities... "
A sharp, insistent bleeping sound broke his train of thought, and he glanced up from his ma.n.u.script. A warning red light flashed, and the Master pressed a b.u.t.ton, saying: "Permission to enter... "
A moment later, Jamie and Zoe emerged from the darkness, walking towards him. They looked as if they were sleepwalking: their faces were completely blank, without expression of any kind.
A pace behind them, two White Robots followed as their escorts although now that they had no minds or wills of their own, this was perhaps an unnecessary precaution.
"Ah, splendid, splendid." The Master greeted them jovially. "Come closer, my children."
Jamie stood rigidly at attention, gazing straight ahead, and saying: "You sent for us, Master."
"Yes, indeed... Now then you do know, don"t you, what your friend the Doctor is really like? There is no possible doubt on that score, I trust?"
Zoe repeated like a bright schoolchild reciting her lessons: "He is the most monstrous and cunning villain... "
Jamie echoed her dutifully: "... Monstrous and cunning villain no punishment is too severe for the crimes he has committed."
Gleefully, the Master explained: "Well done; you are word perfect... That is why I sent for you both. At this moment of crisis I need your a.s.sistance in a little scheme I have devised... I flatter myself that it is rather ingenious."