Part 6 (1/2)

The Englishman turned to face him. His face was twisted with agony and fear.

'What else can we do? They'll kill us all.'

For a moment Barclay hovered uncertainly and then turned to the Cyberleader.

'What are you going to do?'

'You will see,' replied Krail.

The Cyberleader reached down and unclipped the long Cyberweapon that had killed the guard. He brought it up and took aim at the centre of the communications console.

'No! ' cried Barclay. He rushed forward and interposed his body between the Cyberleader's gun and the R/T set. 'If you destroy those, all contact with the s.p.a.ce capsule will be broken!'

Dyson turned to Barclay. 'For G.o.d's sake, man, do as he asks.' His voice quavered.

'Do you want the place destroyed?'

The tall Australian hesitated for a moment-and then nodded. 'All right.' He picked up the desk microphone.

'h.e.l.lo, Geneva. h.e.l.lo, Geneva.'

After a brief crackle of static, the waiting men heard the voice of Wigner over the R/T loudspeaker.

' Snowcap Snowcap-at last! What's going on? We received an emergency call from you on the micro-link.'

Barclay wiped his brow for a moment. 'Ah, yes-it was-an error, sir. We're working on it now. Sorry about the false alarm.'

'Where is this static coming from? We can hardly hear you-even on this band.'

Barclay looked round, desperately searching for an explanation. The Cyberleader, standing right in front of him, slowly raised the gun until it was on a level with his face.

'I-I-er-it's most likely to have been the reactor. We had the moderator rods out for a short while this afternoon.'

After a long pause, Wigner spoke again. 'I see. Contact us if you have ,any further reports on this new planet.'

'Yes, sir.' Barclay leant forward and switched off the R/T set with his trembling hand. Without looking further at the Cybermen and the other men, he staggered back to his console and collapsed into his seat. Dyson followed him over and put his hand on his shoulder.

'We'd have all done exactly the same, Dr Barclay. We had no option.'

Barclay looked up, pushed Dyson's hand off his shoulder and, with sudden resolve, stood up and walked across to the Cyberleader. His voice rang round the tracking room.

'Right. We've done what you asked. Now you must let us try to recover our astronauts.'

'I told you-it is impossible for them to get back now. The pull of Mondas is too strong.'

'You can at least let us try!'

'It is a foregone conclusion-you are wasting your time. However, if you wish to contact them, I have no objection.'

Krail turned to the other two Cybermen.

'He and his colleagues may use their equipment. Any attempt at deceit-kill them at once.' The Cyberleader pointed to the body of the dead soldier. 'Take that out of here.'

As the Cybermen dragged the body of the soldier from the room, Barclay desperately tried to make contact with the two stranded astronauts.

' Zeus Four Zeus Four, Zeus Four Zeus Four, come in please. Zeus Four Zeus Four, Zeus Four Zeus Four, come in.'

After what seemed an age, the voice of Colonel Williams came through.

'We have you. Over.'

'Prepare to check orbital vectors.'

Meanwhile, Ben had been edging closer to the Doctor. He now leant across and spoke in his ear.

'While they fight it out, Doctor, let's make a break for it.'

'Eh? Break for it?'

'Yes. We can get back to the TARDIS.'

'How, my boy?'

'We can run for it-down that corridor to the trap door, and bolt it behind us.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'They'd burn it down in a flash.'

Ben looked round desperately. 'There must be something we can do.' He spotted one of the carbines which had been dropped by the guard, and now stood propped against the wall. 'For a start, we can use that.'

Polly p.r.i.c.ked up her ears. 'Ben, don't be crazy. They'll see you.'

Ben shook his head. He started edging his way across the room towards the gun...

'Ground range computer.' All the men in the room were fully concentrating on the job in hand. They were relieved to be handling a familiar routine.

Williams' voice came over the loudspeaker. 'On target.'

'Steering jet fuel reserve?' queried Barclay. Schultz's voice answered. 'Adequate.'

Ben had almost reached the gun. He glanced around quickly. The three Cybermen were looking fixedly, immobile as statues, towards Barclay and the wavering television picture of Schultz and Williams.