Part 7 (1/2)

The Doctor rushed over to the controls and tried to release the two depressed b.u.t.tons. But they wouldn't come up. Rapidly the Doctor glanced at the rest of the panel, working out its possible function with supermind speed.

'What's the matter, Doctor?' asked Jamie. After all, nothing terrible had happened yet. They'd had far worse on this nasty planet.

As he spoke, the far wall seemed to lose its light and grow dark. They saw it was not a wall:, it was doors silently gliding open.

Out of the blackness loomed a huge figure. A silvery apparition with gigantic limbs and a ma.s.sive helmet for a face. Victoria screamed.

Behind her, Viner, who had just entered the room stopped, aghast, his mouth open.

But the silver figure with the blank face raised its metal fist and in its fist was something like a gun, black and menacing. Every human stood there, mesmerised with fear.

The Cyberman went on raising his gun, slowly, slowly. It was pointing at them, they could see the dark hole of the barrel.

'Down.' The Doctor pulled Victoria to the ground followed by Jamie and Viner. FLAs.h.!.+ There was a cry of agony. Lying on the floor they saw Haydon twitching, his eyes wide. Out of his tunic at his neck, arms and legs poured smoke, thick yellow smoke. Almost in slow motion his body crumpled up and he fell to the ground, his eyes open, staring.

7.

The Finding of the Cybermat The others clutched the floor in fear, but almost before they had time to look up again, the figure of the Cyberman had stepped back and the doors had glided shut.

They all lay absolutely still, expecting with every second another terrible flash and the Cybergun delivering its terrible, lethal charge at them. But as seconds ticked by and nothing happened, Jamie, impatient as always, raised his head.

'Wait!' said the Doctor. They lay there for another two minutes before he motioned them to their feet and went over to look at Haydon, signalling the others back. Then he took out his handkerchief and placed it over the man's face.

'Now, Jamie,' said the Doctor in a businesslike voice, 'what exactly happened here? What did you do? What sequence did you use?'

Jamie looked puzzled.

'Sequence? Och, I just pressed these two,' said Jamie, indicating black and white b.u.t.tons, now fully extended again. Then, realising, 'I've killed him, Doctor.'

Victoria turned to him and held his hand as Professor Parry bustled in, absorbed in his research.

'Doctor,' he said, 'if you could spare us a moment...' He gasped, seeing Haydon's body, ran over to it, bent down and removed the handkerchief from the wide, staring eyes.

'Haydon!' He turned round fiercely on the others. 'What's happened to him?'

Before anyone had a chance to reply, Viner ran forward hysterically.

'He's dead!' he shouted. 'Another corpse! It's this d.a.m.ned building. It's watching us, it's alive, it'll get us all, if we stay here.

We've got to leave!'

'Silence, man! Control yourself!' shouted the Professor. He looked down at Haydon again. He'd known him as a promising student and had been pleased when a few years later Haydon had come to his office to ask if he could do some research on the history of the Cybermen with him. He could see the young man now, standing eagerly in front of his desk in the old university building in southern England. So far away... now.

'Terrible,' said the Professor quietly. 'Terrible. Poor Haydon.'

He gazed down at the body. Then he stirred.

'How did it happen?' he asked. But Viner, still shocked, was pressed against the indifferent silvery wall, as far from the terrible doors as he could get.

'We've got to get out of this building,' he was muttering, gazing wildly about him. 'It's deadly. They'll kill us all if we don't get back to the orbiter.'

'They?' asked the Doctor sharply.

'The Cybermen!' whispered Viner. 'Didn't you see him?'

'A Cyberman?' asked the Professor. 'A live live Cyberman? My dear Viner, they've been dead for the last five hundred years.' Cyberman? My dear Viner, they've been dead for the last five hundred years.'

'I tell you there was a Cyberman and he came out of there.' He pointed to the doors. Parry looked unbelievingly at the hysterical man.

'He's right,' said Jamie.

The Doctor was examining the. doors. Parry moved towards the screen.

'Keep back,' screamed Viner. 'Keep back! You'll bring it out again.'.

'The question is,' said the Doctor calmly, 'what killed him?'

'But you you saw the Cyberman, Doctor,' said Victoria. saw the Cyberman, Doctor,' said Victoria.

'I saw something,' said the Doctor.

'For Heaven's sake, what else!' said Viner.

'Haydon looked at the screen,' the Doctor said, 'in the same direction as you were facing, right?'

'Of course,' said Viner, 'must you state the obvious?'

'Not quite so obvious,' said the Doctor, 'when you consider.

that he was shot in the back.'

'In the back?' exclaimed Jamie.

'Are you sure, Doctor?' the Professor interjected.

'See for yourself,' said the Doctor gravely.

The Professor and Viner crouched over Haydon's body and gingerly turned him over. They all saw a large ragged circular burn mark on the material. The Doctor looked round the room. 'If the Cyberman didn't shoot him, then who did?' he said. 'The answer lies over there, I think.' He went over to the wall he had been examining.