Doctor Who_ The Web Of Fear Part 4

See 'Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen'

discovered, more or less by accident, how to activate a control sphere, he was now reversing the direction of his researches, and trying to find a means of jamming these inside the Yeti. If he could manage this, he would be able to render the Yeti harmless.

Absorbed in his work he didn't notice his daughter Anne come in. She had to speak twice before he looked up and grunted, 'What is it? You can see I'm busy.' Suddenly he remembered. 'Oh yes. How did the demolition go?'

'Apparently it didn't! Captain Knight has sent some men to investigate. I didn't come about that, Father. The soldiers found two youngsters in the tunnels. I've just been talking to them. They seem to know a great deal about the Yeti. They know they're robots, they know about the control spheres.

And they talked about something called the Intelligence, which first appeared in Tibet.'

Travers put down the control sphere he was working on. 'I think you'd better take me to see them.'

Jamie and Victoria stood up as Anne and Travers came into the Common Room. Travers didn't speak. He just stood staring in utter disbelief. A small dark girl and a boy in Highland dress. The Doctor's two companions-Travers remembered meeting them on the snowy mountain path outside Det-Sen Monastery, remembered the incredible adventures they had shared. Now they were here, over forty years later-but looking exactly the same.

Jamie and Victoria looked curiously at the white-bearded old man who was staring at them so strangely.

Victoria stared back, then a strange feeling of familiarity came over her. Beneath the white whiskers, the mop of white hair and the wrinkles of age, she could recognise a familiar face.

'It's Mr Travers, isn't it?' she said politely. 'I believe we met in Tibet.'

Travers sat down rather shakily. Anne stared at him. 'Do you mean these are the two you told me about? The ones with the Doctor all those years ago?' Travers nodded. Jamie peered into his face. 'Och aye, it's Mr Travers right enough.

He's got awful old though,' he added tactlessly.

Slowly Travers said, 'When I met the Doctor in Tibet, he told me he'd already visited the Monastery -three hundred years before. He implied he could travel through Time.'

'Well, of course he can,' Jamie said impatiently. 'The thing is, do you know where he is now? We lost him in those tunnels.'

Anne shook her head. 'All I know is some soldiers were sent to look for him.'

Travers jumped to his feet. 'But this is wonderful! The Doctor's the one man who can help us. Come on, Jamie, let's see if they've found him.'

Travers bustled Jamie out of the room. Anne and Victoria turned to each other, both feeling rather abandoned.

'I'm still a bit puzzled about how you got here,' Anne said slowly.

Victoria sighed, 'Oh dear, I'm afraid it's all very very complicated... You see, the Doctor has this machine called the TARDIS...' complicated... You see, the Doctor has this machine called the TARDIS...'

In the Operations Room Travers found Sergeant Arnold, just returned from his fruitless search. 'Did you find the Doctor?' he demanded.

'Not a sign of him, sir. And he wasn't killed by the explosion because there was no explosion.' Briefly Arnold explained what they'd found on the platform. 'Somebody must have interfered with the charge. Probably this mysterious Doctor.'

'Nonsense,' said Travers stoutly. 'The Doctor is an old friend of mine. He's-a scientific colleague. It's vital that we find him.'

Arnold looked sceptical. 'Well, whoever he is, he's vanished.'

'Maybe the Yeti got him,' said Jamie gloomily.

'If he isn't on their side.' Clearly Arnold hadn't abandoned his suspicions. He turned to Jamie. 'Look here, lad, if you want him found you'll have to help us. Any idea where he's gone?'

Jamie looked doubtfully at him. Although their coats were khaki rather than red, Jamie found it hard to forget that English soldiers were his traditional enemies.

'Now, lad, out with it,' Arnold said cheerily. 'Got some idea where he might be, have you?'

Jamie considered. It was at least possible that the Doctor would go to their arranged rendezvous. That or back to the TARDIS.

'Well?' persisted Arnold.

'I might have,' Jamie answered grudgingly.

'Then you'd better take me there-hadn't you?'

Jamie looked at Travers, who nodded. 'Better do as he says, Jamie. The sooner the Doctor's found, the better for all of us.'

Captain Knight and his men were fighting a rearguard action in the tunnels. They'd made their way down the Northern Line to Tottenham Court Road, then along the Central as far as Holborn. Outside Holborn Station they had discovered the wrecked ammunition lorry and the bodies of the soldiers who'd been guarding it. The Yeti were nowhere in sight. Cases and boxes of explosives and ammunition were scattered everywhere.

Working as quickly as possible, Knight had ordered his men to gather up as much of the precious cargo as they could carry. Heavily laden they were making their way back through the tunnels. They had almost reached the Goodge Street Fortress when the Yeti attacked.

While the rearguard of his party fought desperately to hold off the Yeti, Captain Knight supervised the construction of a barricade of explosive-boxes across the tunnel where they'd been attacked. 'Right, that'll have to do,' he ordered.

Standing up he cupped his hands and yelled, 'Corporal Lane-fall back!'

Lane and the other men were already in retreat, driven by the inexorable advance of the attacking Yeti. Roaring savagely the creatures stalked forwards, ignoring the bullets of the soldiers. His rifle empty, one of the soldiers reversed it and swung it like a club. A Yeti brushed the blow aside and smashed the soldier to the ground. Lane and the rest turned and fled, scrambling over the barricade to shelter behind it.

From there they hurled their remaining grenades. As the explosions roared in the confined s.p.a.ce, the Yeti staggered back and seemed to pause, waiting.

Captain Knight crouched beside Corporal Lane. 'Well done, Corporal. How many of them?'

'Only two, sir, but we couldn't hold 'em. Couple of the lads copped it.'

Movement behind sent them both spinning round, gums at the ready. A familiar voice called, 'Don't shoot, it's me.' The burly form of Sergeant Arnold sir, appeared from the semidarkness, Jamie behind him. He took in the situation at the barricade with one swift glance. 'Yeti attack, sir?'

'That's right, Sergeant. Two of 'em, back down the tunnels.'

'What about the Holborn detachment, sir?'

'All done for. We got the ammo, though-some of it.

Had to leave the rest.'

Arnold nodded, looking down the tunnel. The two Yeti were lumbering slowly forward again.

'Pull hack and let them come on,' Knight whispered fiercely. 'Half this barricade's made of high explosive boxes.

When the Yeti reach the barricade, I'll fire into the boxes and blow the lot sky high. With any luck it'll bring the roof down on them.'

'Maybe down on us too, sir.'

'We'll have to risk that. Now start moving the men back.

I want you as far away as possible before I fire.' The small group of soldiers retreated back as the Yeti came steadily on.

By the time the Yeti reached the barricade, Knight and the others were almost out of sight round a curve in the tunnel.

The two Yeti pushed aside the undefended barricade with ease. Then they stopped again. 'Now's the time, sir,'

whispered Lane. 'They're standing right over the ammo boxes.' He peered down the tunnel. 'They seem to be using some kind of gun,' he sounded puzzled. 'It's spraying that cobwebby stuff over the boxes.'

'I'm going to blow them sky-high, cobwebs and all,'

Knight said grimly. 'Give me your machine-gun, Corporal.

The rest of you get down.' As the soldiers dropped to the ground, Knight stepped round the curve of the tunnel.

Steadying the gun, he fired a long raking burst, right into the ammunition crates, then threw himself to the ground. There was a m.u.f.fled thump and a blinding flash. Knight looked up.

The two Yeti, quite unharmed, were standing beside the shattered crates. There was no sign of any other damage.

Slowly the Yeti resumed their advance. Knight turned.

'Its no good,' he yelled. 'Run for it. We'll have to get back to the Fortress.'

To his surprise no one moved. 'Too late, sir,' Lane said hoa.r.s.ely. 'Look!' He pointed in the other direction. To his horror Knight saw two more Yeti coming up behind them.

They were surrounded.

Victoria wandered aimlessly round the Common Room, wondering what to do with herself. Jamie had rushed off with his usual impulsiveness, forgetting all about her. Anne Travers had been very kind, but now she'd disappeared to help her father with his work. Victoria decided to go and look for them. Perhaps they'd let her make tea or wash test-tubes or something. Anything would be better than waiting on her own. She left the Common Room and found herself in a long corridor painted a depressing War Office green. A soldier pa.s.sed by carrying a clipboard and Victoria stopped him.

'Can you tell me where to find Professor Travers's laboratory please-I'm one of his a.s.sistants.'

The soldier seemed unsurprised. 'Just down there, miss, it's on your right.'

Victoria walked along to the laboratory door. She opened it cautiously, fearing to disturb some vital experiment, and heard the voice of Anne Travers say, 'Did you ever see see this TARDIS, Father?' this TARDIS, Father?'

She peeped through the door to see father and daughter working side by side at an equipment-crowded bench. Travers grunted, 'No, not really. Caught a glimpse of it. Thing like a Police Box, perched up on a mountain ledge.

Then I got distracted. Saw a Yeti, a real one, not one of these blasted robots. Went chasing after it-lost it though. When I came back the Doctor and his friends and the Police Box had all vanished.'

Anne nodded. 'Its odd though, isn't it? Last time you saw the robot Yeti the Doctor turned up, and now here he is again.'

Travers grunted once more, not really listening. Anne developed her theory. 'Perhaps the Doctor is really at the back of all this trouble. Maybe he's he's the one who controls the Yeti I' the one who controls the Yeti I'

Victoria didn't wait to hear any more. She tiptoed away from the door as quietly as she'd come. There was only one thought in her mind. She must get away from the Fortress, find the Doctor and warn him that he was already under suspicion.

It was a pity Victoria didn't stay to hear the rest of the conversation. Travers, thoroughly exasperated, put down the control sphere he was working on. 'My dear Anne, you're talking the most absolute rubbish,' he growled. 'The Doctor risked his life and the lives of his friends to defeat the Yeti and save Det-sen Monastery. Do you think he'd have done that if he was in league with them?'

Rea.s.sured Anne smiled. 'No, I suppose not. I must be getting jumpy, suspecting everyone!'

Travers sighed. 'Small wonder in a place like this. I only wish the Doctor would turn up now. I could do with his help.'

Jamie too was wis.h.i.+ng that the Doctor would reappear.

Together with Captain Knight, Sergeant Arnold and the rest of the soldiers, he was trapped in a section of tunnel, Yeti on either side. But strangely the Yeti made no move to attack.

Instead they waited, occasionally exchanging the weird electronic bleeping sounds that served them as signals.

'This is getting on my nerves,' muttered Corporal Lane.

'Why don't they do something?'

Sergeant Arnold was imperturbable as ever. 'You just think yourself lucky, my lad. Good thing for us they are are quiet.' quiet.'

He turned to Captain Knight. 'What about that explosion, sir?

The explosives went off, but there was no blast.'

Knight said ruefully, 'Presumably that cobweb stuff absorbs the blast, dampens the whole thing down.'

'That'll be it, sir. Same thing must have happened at Charing Cross.'

'So I've blown up all our high explosive for nothing.'

Lane was still feeling the effect of the waiting. 'Can't we make a run for it, sir?' he appealed. 'Only two each end, we might get through.'