Doctor Who_ The Power of the Daleks Part 18

He held out his hands beseechingly. 'Help me.'

'The best help I could give you, my dear Lesterson,' the Doctor told him just as kindly, 'would be to put a loaded pistol to your head and then pull the trigger.' Spinning on his heels, he stormed out of the room. Ben darted after him.

Lesterson stared at the open doorway thoughtfully. 'I'll need a permanent guard on my laboratory, Bragen,' he said finally.

'Very well,' Bragen agreed. 'But I think I have another way to keep the Examiner quiet.'

The Doctor was pacing about the room he had been a.s.signed like a caged tiger. He was muttering to himself darkly. 'Greed and ambition, that's all it is!' he finally burst out, startling Ben, who was deep in his own black thoughts. 'Wait until they find out what their precious production figures will cost them!'

'But what about Polly?' Ben asked him. The Daleks were still something of an abstract menace to him; unlike the Doctor, he had never seen them in action. On the other hand, Ben understood the human potential for evil pretty well. He'd seen it from his youth on the London streets, through his experiences in both English and foreign ports, and from his few travels to date with the Doctor. To him, there were only two possible explanations for Polly's disappearance: kidnapping and murder. Not knowing which to expect was tearing him apart. As he watched the Doctor pacing, he suddenly became aware that there was a square of paper protruding under the edge of the door.

Rus.h.i.+ng to the door, he flung it open. There was n.o.body in sight in the corridor, and no way of knowing how long the paper had been there before he'd noticed it.

As he closed the door, Ben picked up the folded sheet of paper. Before he could read it, the Doctor s.n.a.t.c.hed it from his fingers.

'Listen to this, Ben,' he said. 'The girl is safe. She will remain so as long as you leave the Daleks alone.' He glanced up, worried.

Ben took the note back and read it for himself. 'Who sent this, Doctor? Any ideas?'

The Doctor shook his head as he peered at the paper over Ben's shoulders.

'You don't seem very concerned,' Ben muttered angrily.

'We've got to get Polly back.'

'And if we can't?' the Doctor asked gently, as he s.n.a.t.c.hed the paper back again and held it up to the light.

The door opened behind him and Bragen strode into the room. Without looking around, the Doctor said: 'I didn't hear you knock'

'Perhaps because I didn't,' the Deputy Governor responded.

'I wanted to see you,' Ben told him.

'Really?' Bragen c.o.c.ked his head to one side. He looked at Ben with a bored air. 'And what about?'

'It's Polly,' Ben said angrily. 'She's missing. We can't find her anywhere.'

Bragen sighed. 'Very well. I'll have one of my men begin a chain of enquiries. She can't have gone far, so it shouldn't take long to find her.'

'It may take longer than you think,' the Doctor informed him. 'Read this. Do something about it.' He thrust the letter into Bragen's hands.

After a cursory scan, Bragen looked back at the Doctor.

'Interesting.'

'Is that all you've got to say?' Ben demanded.

'What else can I say?' the Deputy Governor spread his hands helplessly. 'I suggest that while my men look for her, you do exactly what this letter demands, to avoid placing her in any further danger.'

'And that's it?' Ben asked incredulously.

Bragen stiffened. 'I do have other concerns,' he replied, irritated. 'For example, some of my men have discovered a body in the mercury swamps. Quite close to where we found you, in fact. It was the body of a middle-aged man...'

He let his voice trail off significantly.

The Doctor a.s.sumed an air of boredom. 'And why should that be of interest to me?'

'No one has been reported missing from the colony,'

Bragen replied.

'Really?' The Doctor pulled out his recorder and tootled a couple of shrill notes on it. Then he pointed the instrument at Bragen. 'What about my a.s.sistant, Polly?'

'She's not a middle-aged man, is she? And she's not my main concern at the present.'

The Doctor glowered at him. 'You forget yourself. I am the Examiner and '

'If you were the Examiner, of course, I'd have every man I have out looking for her.' Bragen smiled nastily at the startled Doctor. 'But you're not the Examiner, are you?'

Ben stepped forward, his fists bunched. 'Don't try that on, mate,' he advised Bragen.

The Doctor placed a restraining hand on the sailor's arm. 'Wait, Ben.' He studied Bragen carefully. 'And on what do you base that a.s.sumption?'

'Who are you'?' The Deputy Governor smiled again. It wasn't a pleasant sight. 'Friends of Quinn's? Saboteurs come to build up the rebellion? Is it just a coincidence that all of these events have happened since you arrived?'

Ignoring the accusations, the Doctor pointed again with his recorder. 'There's only one possible way you could be certain that I'm not the Examiner.'

'Oh, really? And what's that?'

'Simple.' The Doctor played a couple of low notes.

Ben caught on. 'Right!' He pointed an accusing finger at Bragen. 'You must know what the real Examiner looked like.'

'And only two people met him after he landed here,' the Doctor finished. 'Myself and the man who killed him.

That's how you knew about the body and who it is.'

'Doctor,' Ben said urgently, 'we've got to tell the Governor that Bragen's the killer.'

Bragen laughed derisively. 'Do you think he'd believe you? I'd soon convince him that there's a much more likely suspect the stranger who showed up with his badge and claiming his authority.' He smiled at the Doctor. 'Which could put you in a serious amount of trouble, couldn't it?

Unless you can account for yourself?'

'Then why don't you arrest us us?' the Doctor demanded.

'Because there's just that spark of doubt, isn't there? That we might just might be able to convince Hensell that you're the one to blame and that you're the one who's framed Quinn.'

Bragen looked at the Doctor with grudging respect. 'All right. So neither of us can afford to make a move right now. But I'm warning you, leave Lesterson alone. And his Daleks.' He moved to the door, then looked back. 'After all, we don't want to lose a second Examiner, do we?' He slammed the door behind him as he marched out.

'Blimey!' Ben sat down on the bed with a thud. 'Now we know who the killer is, and we can't do a thing about it.' A sudden thought struck him. 'Here, Doctor, that letter said to leave the Daleks alone. And so did Bragen. You don't think he's behind her kidnapping, do you?'

'It's hard to be sure, Ben,' the Doctor replied. 'There are plenty of others who want Lesterson free to work.' He looked at his young friend bleakly. 'It seems our hands are being tied more and more tightly.'

Ben could see in the Doctor's face that he didn't have an answer to their problems. It was beginning to look more and more as if this were one fight that they were almost bound to lose.

In his laboratory, Lesterson was staring at what lay on his bench. Two Dalek guns. He picked one up, and then turned to face the Dalek he had repowered. 'You disarmed the other two?' he asked, amazed.

'Yes,' the Dalek grated. 'We are your servants. We do not need weapons.'

'I'm very glad,' Lesterson told it, relief flooding through him. 'I knew the Examiner had to be wrong about you.'

This simple act should convince even that hard-headed critic.

'Did you get our materials?' the Dalek asked.

'Yes,' the scientist told it, replacing the gun on the bench. 'Everything you need you can have'

'And a power plant?' the Dalek persisted.

'Everything.'

The Dalek spun around and glided across the floor towards the capsule. As it did so, two more Daleks emerged. Lesterson noted with satisfaction the gaps where their gun-sticks had once been sited. They moved to join the first Dalek.

'We will get our power,' it reported.

The three Daleks spun to face Lesterson. 'We will get our power!' they chorused.

As he watched the Daleks, a nagging doubt flickered across Lesterson's mind. Again, that concern for more power. Was it really to use it for the benefit of the humans?

Or did the Daleks have some more personal and sinister reason for wanting it?

'We will get our power!' they said again.

Lesterson couldn't repress a shudder. There was, for all the inhuman quality in the Daleks' electronically generated voices, a definite satisfaction in their chant. As if something were being planned by them.

18.

Insanity Disturbed by his thoughts, Lesterson crossed to the generator. He stood there for a moment, his doubts warring within him. Finally, he came to a decision. He reached out, twisting the power output from full to half.

Instantly, the three Daleks were affected. Their eye-sticks and arms drooped. One managed to twist its top section about slightly. Its eye-stick quivered up to the horizontal position, trying vainly to focus on Lesterson.

'Turn - back - the - power - supply,' it begged, its voice slurred.

'I will, I will,' the scientist agreed. 'But I want you to understand that I control you'

'We - are - your - servants,' the Dalek agreed weakly.

'I know,' Lesterson said. 'Remember that.' He surveyed the three Daleks carefully. 'I give you all a special charge, just as I have the first Dalek I brought back to life. Any further power you need must come through this generator.

And I control the power you need. Is that perfectly clear?'

'We - obey,' the Daleks chorused.

'Very well.' Certain that he had now impressed them, Lesterson restored the output to full strength. The waning appendages of the three Daleks immediately returned to their normal positions. Two of the Daleks spun around and glided back into the capsule. The third moved towards Lesterson. He frowned at it. 'Where are they going?' he demanded.

'To await your orders - master.'

'Good.' Lesterson liked the sound of that word. It was all to the good that the Daleks understood and acknowledged the hold he had over them. 'Did you prepare the blueprint on your new satellite programme idea?'

'It is ready,' the Dalek reported. It slid over to the workbench, its arm indicating a small pile of metal.

Lesterson joined it there. The pile turned out to be a number of thin sheets of some form of flexible metal he'd never seen before. Etched upon the surface were drawings and circuit diagrams. He began to scan them. As he did so, his excitement level rose: it looked as if the Daleks had some very sophisticated understanding of both computers and scanning methods. The sheets outlined a system that would indeed simplify the orbital mechanics of meteor detection. As soon as it could be implemented, his opinion of the Daleks would be justified before the Governor. 'This is marvellous,' he said happily. 'I'm glad that we understand each other.' Needing more light to examine the prints in detail, he moved to another bench, switching on a reading lamp.

The Dalek's eye-stick followed his movements. 'We understand the human mind,' it said softly. Lesterson didn't hear it.

Bragen sat behind Hensell's desk, carefully reading through the reports that had acc.u.mulated. It was astonis.h.i.+ng how much paperwork even a small colony like this could generate. If IMC supplied enough money for a good computer net, then a lot of this tedium could be abolished. But that was unlikely. Still, unlikely things did happen.

His new uniform as Deputy Governor had finally been delivered to him. He wore it now, proudly, but with an eye to its temporary nature. Soon he wouldn't be Deputy Governor.

Looking up from his work, he scowled at Valmar. The engineer had the comm unit built into the desk scattered about the floor in pieces. Some sort of diagnostic equipment was plugged into the gap. 'Isn't that finished yet?' Bragen snapped.