Doctor Who_ The Mark Of The Rani Part 11

'Do that Jack Ward and I'll blow tha's arm off!' The gun was c.o.c.ked.

Baffled, resentful, Ward let the chair drop.

'Tie him up!' Lord Ravensworth was also confused. He deplored having to resort to these measures. They refuted the very philosophy that he had subscribed to since inheriting the colliery. Reason was the guiding beacon of this enlightened era, but now it seemed to be regressing to barbarism. His own doubts nagged. Should he have taken further action earlier? Sent for the militia? With the woods infested by these disturbed wretches, that option was no longer available. Killingworth was virtually cut off from the outside world.

A scuffle roused him from his introspection.

Belligerently, Ward was straining at his bonds. To think this was the father of Luke; that gentle, reliable youth whose aspirations he'd so encouraged.

Totally subjugated to the Master's will, Luke impa.s.sively entered the workshop. Stephenson looked up from the iron f.l.a.n.g.e he was heating in the furnace.

'Tha's delivered note?'

'Aye.' The deceit came without hesitation.

'What did his lordship say?'

'Nowt.' The second lie.

Stephenson, interpreting Luke's dull tone as being the result of a wigging from the boss, suffered a twinge of conscience. ''Appen I should've gone meself. Explained.'

He rested the f.l.a.n.g.e on the anvil. 'In't office, is he?'

'Nay!' The first stir of emotion from Luke. He dare not let the two men get together; his subterfuge would be discovered. 'Tha'll stay put. I'll fetch him to thee. 'Tis safer that way.'

The proposal placated Stephenson who had no cause to believe Luke was other than the considerate apprentice he had always been. 'Thanks, Luke. Tha's a real thoughtful lad...

In the yard, there were further complications.

'Ah, Luke. I want a word with Stephenson. About this meeting.' Lord Ravensworth was en route for the workshop.

Luke had to stop him. 'He's nay in't workshop.'

'No?' Ravensworth was surprised. 'Where is he?'

'Down pit.' Mendacity was no longer foreign to Luke's nature. 'Wanted to arrange for visitors to see demonstration.' A plausible explanation. 'What about meeting, m'lord?'

'In my opinion it should be called off.'

Luke's face betrayed none of the emotion this a.s.sertion triggered. Surging through his head came the Master's mandate: 'If anyone tries to prevent the meeting, you destroy them!' Surrept.i.tiously, his fingers closed over a crowbar lodged on a crate.

'All this rampant brutality. We've no right to subject these people to such danger.' Lord Ravensworth was oblivious of his own proximity to danger.

'Mr Stephenson don't see any danger.' Despite the urge to kill, Luke continued to opt for persuasion. Perhaps there remained a spark of the original young man who rejected violence. 'Going to be fair disappointed he is if meeting doesn't take place. Eager to show off latest engine.' The crowbar was firmly grasped ready to strike.

'Somewhat selfish reasoning.' The censorious Ravensworth had no inkling of the dark forces haunting his protege.

'Not if he's convinced they'll come to nay harm, your lordship.'

As he awaited a decision, Luke's muscles tensed... his patron's life hung in the balance...

'Convinced, you say? Ah well, George Stephenson has always enjoyed my complete trust.' A reluctant shrug. 'On his head be it.'

The fingers relaxed.

Ravensworth turned to leave, then changed his mind.

'However...'

The grip on the crowbar tightened again.

'Be sure to tell him what I've said.'

'Aye. I will.'

This time his lordship did depart.

If Ravensworth, albeit unwittingly, was distancing himself from danger, the Doctor was doing the opposite. At least, that was Peri's vociferous conclusion.

'You can't be serious! You've only just escaped from there!'

The Doctor was advancing on the bath house. 'The victim returns to the scene of the crime.'

His gallows humour failed to amuse Peri. 'Look, let's be sensible about this.' She was terrified. 'Concentrate on getting the TARDIS out of that pit shaft.' Unbelievably, the Doctor unlocked the door and nipped in! Trailing after him, Peri's voice lowered to a whisper. 'Instead of shoving our necks into the noose again!'

Her forebodings carried no weight. The Doctor made straight for the bath chamber. He did at least stuff a towel into the gas pipe before examining the wall that part.i.tioned off the laboratory.

'What if the Master and that awful Rani are inside?'

'They won't be.' Was the Doctor as confident as he sounded? He certainly seemed sure of himself as he went into the hallway again.

With his usual lack of explanation, he began investigating his surroundings. ' "Cowards die many times before their deaths",' he quoted as he traced an indentation in the woodwork. ' "The valiant never taste of death but once". William Shakespeare.'

'What about that other piece you're so fond of spouting?

"Discretion is the better part of valour." That's Shakespeare too!'

Absently, the Doctor conceded she had a point.

'Interesting fellow, the Bard. Must see him again aaaah!'

He pressed a concealed b.u.t.ton. The wall slid apart.

Expecting trouble to emerge, Peri shied away.

'Control panel. Very unsophisticated. Not worthy of the Rani.' Despite his bravado, the Doctor was circ.u.mspect as he entered the laboratory.

The sight that greeted him dispelled all thoughts of his own safety. The two a.s.sistants were spread-eagled on the floor.

'Josh!' exclaimed the Doctor as he hurried to the pathetic corpse and felt its pulse.

'Is he...?'

He shook a grim negative. Sadly Peri stared at Josh's body and remembered his young wife and their baby. The Master had a lot to answer for!

The Doctor's verdict was different. 'Some of the Rani's handiwork, I imagine. Don't come any farther, Peri.'

Tentatively, she had stepped over the threshold. 'The Rani's quite capable of leaving behind some very unpleasant surprises.'

Crouching, he settled onto his heels. The wanton a.s.sa.s.sination had staunched his reckless streak. Soberly, he commenced a rigorous visual scan of the laboratory.

'Why the devil have you brought us to this miserable dump?'

The Master's querulous complaint echoed in the darkness. Bent almost double, the Rani was penetrating the low tunnels of the disused mine.

'I didn't bring you. You chose to come!'

'Why here?'

'It was my original base before I set up operations in the bath house.'

Cobwebs brushed her shawl and coal dust scrunched beneath her shoes. In the interest of self preservation, the Master lingered near the entrance.

'Did we have to walk? Couldn't we have used your TARDIS?'

She paused at an intersection. 'My TARDIS is performing a more important function.'

The Rani's arrogance in keeping her own counsel rankled. He glared after her. 'Is it too much to ask what that function might be?'

Resuming her progress, she was monosyllabic: 'Yes.'

Still crouched on his heels, the Doctor was pondering the same question the Master had posed. That the Rani would be nearby, he was certain; the Master's possession of the brain fluid would guarantee that. The price for its rest.i.tution? The Doctor's death? How?

'The red mark,' Peri indicated the crimson band that had garrotted Josh. 'The Rani?'

He nodded.

'What was she going to do to me?'

'Drain the substance from your brain that enables you to sleep.'

'But the results! Those other men! Hasn't she any conscience?'

'Like so many scientists, she believes we're simply walking heaps of chemicals. There's no place for the soul in her scheme of things.' He rose and began to patrol the laboratory.

'Why? I mean what would she want it for?'

'That's an aspect I haven't fathomed.'

'I knew the substance existed. Drug companies in the States and Switzerland are trying to reproduce it. Sleeping pills and tranquillisers would become obsolete if they could. People wouldn't need them any more.'

The Doctor was positive that alleviating human suffering couldn't be the Rani's objective!

'How come you know her?' asked Peri.

'The same way I know the Master.'

'But he's an exiled Time Lord.' 'Quite. Two of a kind.'

Carefully avoiding contact with the ornate room-divider, he studied the turbulent volcanic landscape. 'Odd... Very odd...'

'What is?'

'This screen. I'd've said Turner's too pa.s.sionate for the Rani's sterile taste.'

A forage in the cornucopian pocket of his coat yielded a ball of twine with a hook on the end.

'I guess she thought so too, since she's not taken it with her.'

Peri moistened her lips as, gingerly, with the dexterity of a bomb disposal expert, the Doctor fastened the hook onto the screen. Then, playing out the line, he withdrew to a far corner.

'Shall we?'

'Shall we what?'

'See if I've misjudged the Rani.' He jerked the line.

Instantly, the picture came alive.

The volcano erupted.

Yellow fumes spewed into the laboratory and billowed towards the Doctor...