Part 12 (1/2)

'What the h.e.l.l for?'

'Don't argue, Mailer do it do it!'

Mailer felt the force of the Master's will like a blast of heat. He nodded hastily. 'Yeah okay, okay!'

'Good. Meet me in the Governor's office when you've finished.'

The Doctor was completely unconscious now, his breathing very shallow.

Jo jumped up and hammered frantically on the cell door. 'You out there please, listen to me!'

'Oh, go to sleep, darling.'

'Please, open the door!'

There was a moment's silence. Then to Jo's vast relief there was a rattle of keys and the door was flung open.

Vosper looked down at Jo, who was kneeling by the Doctor. 'Proper little Miss Nightingale, ain't you?'

'Look at him,' said Jo indignantly. 'He needs a doctor.'

'Oh, what a shame!'

'At least help me to get him onto the bed. He's too heavy for me.'

Vosper helped Jo to heave the Doctor onto the bed. Jo gave him her most winning smile. 'Thank you. Now will you get Doctor Summers please?'

'Anything for you, darling,' said Vosper wearily. He left the cell.

The Master stood in the Process Chamber staring down at the Keller Machine.

As the Doctor had finally realised, it wasn't really a Machine at all, but a prison for an alien ent.i.ty that fed on men's minds. Now it looked as if the creature was growing strong enough to break out of its prison.

As if sensing the Master's presence, the Machine began to throb. 'You can't harm me,' said the Master contemptuously. 'I'm too strong for you.'

The throbbing increased.

'I brought you here,' shouted the Master. 'I gave you the minds you need to feed on. You are my servant.'

An electronic pulsing filled the room.

The Master ran to the console and frantically operated controls without the slightest effect. The creature had grown so strong that the force-field controlled from the console could no longer restrain it.

Angrily the Master glared at the Machine. Inside the central column the strange sponge-like shape was pulsating steadily. 'I'm too strong for you!'

The Machine blurred, s.h.i.+mmered and turned into the Doctor.

But no ordinary Doctor. This Doctor was a giant, towering high above the Master.

The giant Doctor threw back his head and laughed, peal upon peal of mocking laughter.

'No!' screamed the Master. 'No!'

The creature in the Machine had plucked the Master's one great fear out of his mind. His fear of the Doctor, of the Doctor's mockery, of the way that the Doctor could always make him feel small.

Summoning all his will-power, the Master turned and staggered from the Process Chamber. He slammed the door shut and lowered the locking bar into place. For a moment he leaned gasping against the door. 'No more human minds for you to feed on,' he muttered savagely. 'We'll see what starvation does to bring you to heel.'

Summers concluded his examination of the Doctor and looked up at Jo in total puzzlement. 'It's extraordinary.

Quite extraordinary. His whole physical make-up just isn't human.'

Jo said impatiently. 'I know. What's the matter matter with him?' with him?'

'He's been beaten up, physically and mentally. It's as if his system has suffered some enormous shock. He seems to be in a kind of coma.'

'Can't you do anything for him.'

'I very much doubt it.' Summers took a bottle from his pocket, and shook a couple of pills into Jo's hand. 'You might try giving him these if he recovers consciousness.'

He leaned forward. 'Miss Grant, do you have any idea who organised this second break?'

Before Jo could answer, Vosper came back into the cell.

'All right, Doc, time's up.' He nodded down at the still unconscious Doctor. 'What's the verdict? Is he done for?'

Summers rose. 'Not quite, though it's no thanks to you.'

'Come on, Doc. Don't forget to send in your bill.'

He shoved Summers out into the corridor, and the cell door was closed once more.

The Doctor stirred and muttered something. Jo hurried to his side with the pills. 'Here, Doctor, take these.'

Feebly he shook his head. 'No, Jo, wrong metabolism...

probably kill me. I'll be all right... just need... rest.'

His head fell back, and his eyes closed. Within minutes he had sunk back into his coma a coma that seemed to Jo very close to death.

The Master sat behind the Governor's desk still shaken from his ordeal as Harry Mailer noticed as soon as he entered the room.

'You all right?'