Part 10 (2/2)

Quelling a tinge of alarm over the possibility, the Master changed from banter to bribery. 'Read this.' He gave her the note taken from Luke.

A perfunctory glance. 'So the meeting's been cancelled.'

She was unimpressed. All she'd agreed to do was help get rid of the Doctor.

'No. This was never delivered.' He s.n.a.t.c.hed the note.

'You disappoint me. A scientist, yet you're not thinking objectively.' He recited the names of the inventors. 'Over twenty men of genius! Have you no conception of what we could do if we controlled them?'

Her indifference should have stemmed the flow. It did not. The bombast continued unabated. 'Harness their genius and this planet could become the platform for the most devastating power in the Universe!'

'You're forgetting, I already rule a planet. Miasimia Goria.'

'I'm forgetting nothing!' This Machiavelli had antic.i.p.ated her response. 'Help me and I promise you all the facilities you need!'

An astute offer. The Rani listened.

'Instead of sneaking back here in disguise, you will be able to set up a laboratory and process as many humans as you choose! A hundred. A thousand. There are millions of them!'

His cynicism began to erode her hostility. This new proposal had its advantages. Having to establish processing laboratories every visit was abysmally tedious. But she was not to be won over that readily. 'What guarantee would I have?'

'My need. That unique box of parasites will not go far.

Only you have the formula.'

The Rani was almost persuaded... but there was a flaw.

'The Time Lords will never permit it!'

'And who is going to alert them?'

Who indeed? Not the Doctor. She'd make sure of that!

Unlike her incompetent partner, she was going to allow their adversary to take the initiative. These earthlings had a saying: 'fools rush in where angels fear to tread'. She considered the Doctor to be a fearless fool.

When the dust had settled, all that could be seen where the 'fearless fool' had stood was a smothering pile of coal.

Peri, still captive, scratched and kicked in an effort to get free and salvage the Doctor before he was suffocated.

Tame submission was not her style, but sadly her strength did not match her spirit. Dobbs restrained her with ease.

'Let la.s.s go or I'll blow brains out!' The barrel of a flintlock pistol was rammed into Dobbs's temple by a patrolling guard. 'You, too, Jack Ward. Come down from there!'

Released, Peri began clawing frantically at the mountain of coal 'You're making a frightful mess of that pretty dress.'

The Doctor's voice! Clear, unm.u.f.fled, not from the grave! She turned to be rewarded with a genial smile as he stepped out from behind a stanchion.

'I thought... the coal... how did you?... I mean, you were directly underneath!'

'Peripheral vision. All I needed was a split second's grace.' He sounded more casual than he felt. He hadlearned the technique from the s.h.i.+kari, on the Planet of the Hunters. It enabled him to see not just what was in front, but in a much wider arc. He contemplated the pyramid of coal. Without the art of peripheral vision, that would have been his burial mound.

A more blinkered vision was being employed in the laboratory where the Rani was ensuring that all evidence of her occupancy, except the room-divider, had been whisked away. A final adjustment to the spectacular mural and she was satisfied.

'Haven't you forgotten something?' The Master indicated the two a.s.sistants pa.s.sively awaiting her bidding.

'You can hardly take them out onto the streets.'

'No. You're right. I can't.'

The Rani might almost have been swotting flies for all the emotion she displayed as she tapped the annihilating code on her mini-computer.

Josh and his companion clutched at their throats.

Excruciating pain forced them to cry out. But the crimson mark continued to spread until it had throttled them to death...

12.

An Unpleasant Surprise Chafing the crimson scar that blemished his neck, Ward preceded Dobbs into Ravensworth's office.

'Only two! What about the others?'

The guard, holding his gun on the two aggressors, was chastened by his employer's reprimand; he had been expecting praise. 'Don't know, m'lord.' 'Got away, you mean!'

'Good luck to 'em!' The gun had not completely subdued Jack Ward.

'Be quiet, Ward.' The mine owner's ire was still reserved for the guard. 'My orders were to round up the lot!'

'Us hasn't finished yet!' came Ward's interjection.

'I said that's enough!' The peer was florid with anger.

He had never experienced such insubordination. Cra.s.s insolence from an employee struck at the very roots of nineteenth-century society.

But the mutated miner was not now a product of that age. He grabbed a chair to hurl at Ravensworth.

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