Temporarily drying up, Chorley switched off and glanced hopefully round for more "copy". On the other side of the room, Captain Knight stood by an elaborate communications set-up, peering over the shoulder of Corporal Lane, as the young corporal spoke into his mike.
"Hullo, hullo. I say again, do you read me?" Lane looked up worriedly. "No good, can"t raise "em, sir."
Knight looked at his watch. "That supply truck was due twenty minutes ago."
Lane did his best to sound cheerful, "Wouldn"t worry, sir. Could be just a breakdown. We"ve never had trouble at Holborn before."
Knight nodded. "I hope you"re right, Corporal. Keep on trying."
He turned away from the set as the burly figure of Professor Travers bustled into the room. "There you are, Knight. That blast-meter working properly yet?"
"Your daughter"s checking it over now, sir."
Travers grunted. "She"d better get a move on. Must be able to measure the extent of the explosion." On the other side of the room, Harold Chorley saw his opportunity, and switched on the recorder. "I"m just about to have a word with Professor Edward Travers. Together with his daughter Anne, herself a distinguished scientist, he is responsible for the scientific side of things here." Clutching his recorder Chorley crossed the room. "Professor Travers," he began accusingly.
"So far you don"t seem to be having much success. How long do you think it will take you to come up with an answer?"
Travers, busily studying a row of complex dials, answered only with a grunt.
Unwisely, Chorley pressed on. "A week perhaps? Two weeks? Three weeks?"
Travers swung round. "It is more than likely that we shall be unable to defeat this menace at all," he rumbled. "In which case London, perhaps the whole of England, will be completely wiped out."
Hastily Chorley switched off the recorder. "Really, Professor!" he spluttered.
An attractive young woman came into the Operations Room, a complex piece of equipment in her hand. Forgetting Chorley at once, Travers turned to her, "There you are, Anne.
That blast-meter working?"
She nodded. "I"ll just wire it into the circuit."
"Let me help you," said Captain Knight hurriedly. He could easily have sent for a technician, but he welcomed any opportunity to work with Anne Travers.
Anne smiled. "It"s all right, Captain," she said gently. "I can manage."
Travers hurried out saying, "I"ll be in my lab. Let me know how things go!"
Anne moved towards a separate console of instruments in one corner. The panel was dominated by a large clock, and a red firing-b.u.t.ton. Knight followed her and Chorley bustled across after them. "Captain Knight, I"m afraid I must protest.
Professor Travers is being both obstructive and secretive. Miss Travers, perhaps you can help me?"
Anne had already started working. "I"m afraid I"m a little busy at the moment."
Chorley was outraged. Usually people fell over themselves to talk to him. "I must insist. The public has a right to be informed..." He broke off as Captain Knight took his arm in a painful grip and led him towards the door.
"I"m afraid Miss Travers is too busy to talk at the moment, Mr Chorley," said Knight with steely politeness.
"We"re approaching an important part of our operation."
Chorley freed his arm with an angry jerk. "You might at least tell me what you"re doing."
"Very well, Mr Charley, if it will keep you quiet. We are planning to destroy certain areas of the Tube System to stem the advance of the Web. We are just about to blow up Charing Cross Station."
The Doctor followed the trail of wire cable for what seemed an interminably long way. At last the tunnel opened out on to a station platform. Emergency lights glowed dimly.
The Doctor peered at the sign on the wall. It read, "Charing Cross".
The wire left the tracks and ran up on to the platform.
It ended in a small metal box, which stood at the foot of a pile of wooden crates. The Doctor realised that the wire led not to a communications network as he"d hoped, but to the detonating device for an extremely large pile of high explosive. He was about to climb on to the platform for a closer look, when he heard the sound of a heavy step.
Hurriedly the Doctor ducked down below platform level. The steps came nearer and nearer. Then silence. Slowly the Doctor raised his head.
He saw two huge clawed, furry feet, and quickly dropped down again, craning his head back at the same time.
He already knew what he would see. Towering over him was the giant form of a Yeti.
4.
Danger for the Doctor The Yeti"s feet were inches from the Doctor"s head, but luckily for the Doctor the creature didn"t look down. Instead it moved away across the platform. After a few moments the Doctor risked a cautious peep, and saw that the Yeti was standing by the pile of explosives. A second Yeti appeared from the shadows of the platform arch. Flanking the pile of crates, the two Yeti stood as if on guard.
For quite some time nothing happened. The Doctor waited. It would be dangerous to move with the Yeti so close, and anyhow he wanted to see what they were up to. More precisely he wanted to discover the plans of the Great Intelligence which controlled them. The Yeti themselves were no more than mindless robots, controlled by impulses picked up by the sphere nestling in their chest units.
Incongruous at they were, in the setting of the London Underground, the Doctor felt no great surprise at seeing the Yeti again. Ever since that mysterious Web had held the TARDIS suspended in s.p.a.ce, the Doctor had suspected that the Great Intelligence had returned to attack him. Exiled from some other dimension, the Intelligence was a malignant disembodied ent.i.ty, condemned to hover eternally between the stars, forever craving form and substance. It possessed the power to take over human servants, who became totally subservient to its will, their own personalities utterly swallowed up. Yeti provided the brute strength and terror, human puppets supervised and controlled their actions. That was how the Great Intelligence had operated in Tibet, and the Doctor felt sure the same pattern would be repeated.*
The electronic bleeping of a Yeti signal broke in on his reflections. It came from the darkness of the tunnel. The Yeti guarding the explosives answered the signal, then a third Yeti appeared, holding a squat, broad-barrelled device shaped like a gun. It made straight for the pile of crates, and the other two moved to make way for it. The Yeti aimed the device at the crates and fired. A fine mist came from the barrel and the Doctor saw thick cobwebs beginning to form on the boxes...
In the Operations Room, Anne Travers was completing her final checks, Captain Knight still standing beside her.
Watching the slim fingers as they deftly checked terminals and connections, Knight said, "What"s a nice girl like you-"
"Doing in a place like this?" Anne smiled as she completed the old cliche for him. "When I was a little girl I decided I"d like to become a scientist like my father. So I did."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
Sergeant Arnold flung open the door, marched across the room and crashed to attention in front of Captain Knight, throwing up a quivering salute. "Sir!" he bellowed.
Knight returned the salute. "So there you are, Sergeant.
You"ve been quite a time. Any trouble?"
"Not what you"d call trouble, sir, but-"
"Is the cable connected?" interrupted Knight. "Where"s the other end?"
"Cable connected as ordered, sir," roared the Sergeant.
"Lads are bringing it in now-hurry up, you dozy lot, chop chop!"
* See "Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen"
Weams and Blake walked in paying out cable as they came. They were followed by Chorley, who used their entrance as an opportunity to slip back into the Operations Room. He looked on as the two soldiers began wiring the cable in the control console. "Isn"t all this a little primitive?" he demanded. "Surely you could use something radio-controlled?"
"We tried that," said Knight patiently.
"And?"
"No use. Some force in the tunnels prevented the detonating signal from being transmitted. So we"ve returned to the old-fashioned method. It may be primitive-but it"ll work." Knight turned back to Sergeant Arnold, who was obviously bursting to speak. "All right, Sergeant, what is it?"
"We found a couple of youngsters, sir, boy and a girl.
Wandering about in the tunnel, refused to give a proper account of themselves. I"ve got "em in the Common Room under guard. Thought you"d want to see them, sir."
"Oh blast," Knight said irritably. "Well I can"t be bothered with them now. This demolition job"s over-due as it is."
Anne looked up from her work. "You"re sure there were only two of them?"
"Two"s all we found, miss. Why?"
"That whole area was supposed to be cleared. I don"t like the idea of blowing up the station if there are people wandering around."
"There"s still a few minutes to detonation," Knight pointed out. "Better have a word with them, Sergeant, make sure there was no one else with them."
"Sir!" Arnold saluted and marched out.
Jamie and Victoria were waiting in the Common Room, an armed sentry at the door. It was a largish room with armchairs and tables scattered about. Heaps of old magazines lay on the tables, there was a darts board, a couple of chess sets, even a table tennis table. A trestle table in the corner held a tea urn and some thick, chipped mugs.
Jamie scowled at the sentry and whispered to Victoria, "The Doctor was right, ye ken. First thing they do is lock us both up."
Victoria looked round. "Well at least we"re not in a cell.
And they don"t seem too unfriendly."
"I dinna trust them," Jamie muttered darkly. "They"re just trying to win us over."
Sergeant Arnold came into the room, his tough, craggy features fixed in a smile. "Looking after you, are they?" he began heartily. "How about a cuppa?" He filled two mugs from the tea urn and pa.s.sed them over.
"How long are you keeping us here?" Jamie sounded truculent.
"Till the officer"s got time to see you, that"s all."
"What is this place anyway?" Victoria asked. "And what are you all doing down here?"
Arnold gave her a reproving look. "Ah now, Miss, everyone knows what"s been happening. You shouldn"t have come down into these tunnels." Victoria started to speak but Arnold held up his hand. "Not so many questions, if you don"t mind. You"re here to answer questions, not ask "em. To begin with, were you on your own?"
Jamie looked doubtfully at him. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I want to know, lad. Now-was there anyone with you?"
Jamie and Victoria glanced at each other. Again Victoria started to speak. This time it was Jamie who interrupted her.
"No," he said firmly.
"You"re sure of that?"
"Aye, I"m sure." Jamie was determined not to give the Doctor away. If he told these soldiers about him, they"d send men straight out to find him. Then the Doctor would be locked up too, which was just what he didn"t want.
Sergeant Arnold looked up as Captain Knight popped his head round the door. "We"re all ready, Sergeant." He looked enquiringly at Jamie and Victoria. "On their own, were they?"
"Yessir."
"Jolly good." Captain Knight disappeared.
Jamie looked after him. "What was all that about?"
Arnold,poured himself a mug of tea. "Lucky for you we found you, my lad. We"re just about to blow up some of those tunnels."
Captain Knight strode into the Operations Room and nodded to Corporal Lane. "Its all right, apparently, they were on their own. Carry out final checks, fire when ready."