Part 5 (2/2)

'Of course,' said Merdeen instantly. He reached for the flask, but the Doctor waved it away. It was a very small flask, he thought.

'I'm sorry, I'd forgotten how important that stuff is down here.'

Ever-curious, the Doctor peered up into the camera. 'A mono-optic system... interesting. Is the Immortal on the other end of that?'

The Doctor's inquisitive face filled the monitor screen in Drathro's control room.

The robot switched off the screen.

Incongruous beside Drathro's towering metal form, two small fair-haired youths stood ranked beside him. They wore white coveralls with yellow s.h.i.+rts and scarves and both had identical expressions of almost palpable smugness. After all, were they not the chosen ones, the elite, superior to all in the undergrounds, servants to the Immortal?

They had a tendency to get above themselves.

One was called Tandrell, the other Humker: apart from that they were pretty much identical.

Tandrell turned away from the monitor screen with relief. He hadn't cared for he look of the Doctor at all.

'He's extremely ugly.'

'Hideous,' agreed Humker. 'In the extreme.'

'Physiognomy is irrelevant,' boomed Drathro.

'In so far as' began Tandrell.

'Appearance has no function,' went on Humker.

'But function has an appearance,' Tandrell pointed out.

'Which is irrelevant to the function,' concluded Humker triumphantly.

'Perfect!' said Tandrell.

Humker clapped his hands. 'I must write that down.'

'I shall make an equation of it,' said Tandrell.

'Cease your prattle!' roared Drathro.

The robot studied them through its sensors. They had been chosen to serve the Immortal because theirs were the highest intellects available. Unfortunately they took their roles and their importance far too seriously, and insisted on intellectualizing everything. They enjoyed nothing more than demonstrating their own cleverness. Sometimes Drathro wondered if there was something wrong with the selection procedures.

'Activate the service robot,' he ordered.

'Of course, sir,' said Humker.

'Immediately, sir,' said Tandrell.

They scuttled to the console.

Peri was thrust into a very much smaller hut, with straw on the floor and bars on the windows. Its other occupants were two gaudily dressed but villainous-looking men.

The smaller and gaudier said, 'We seem to have a pretty visitor. I'm beginning to feel better already.' He bowed.

'My name is Sabalom Glitz, my dear. This fellow with the vacuous expression and single-track mind is Dibber.'

Peri decided she wasn't exactly crazy about her new room-mates. She also decided it might be safer to be polite.

'I'm Peri.' She studied them for a moment.

'You're obviously not from round here.'

'Merely visiting, like your good self,' said Glitz airily. 'I hope my visit's going to be a very short one.'

She peered through the barred window at the towering metal obelisk.

'That doesn't look as if it's from round here either.'

'It's a light convertor,' explained Glitz.

'It funnels black light energy down to the L3 robot,'

explained Dibber earnestly.

Glitz silenced him with a look. 'I'm sure our friend Peri isn't interested in our professional problems, Dibber.'

'Yeah, of course... you're right, Mr Glitz.'

Resuming his smarmiest smile, Glitz turned back to Peri. 'When we first saw you, you weren't alone.'

'Yeah, that's right,' said Dibber. 'You were with some dilly in a long coat. But you dropped out of sight before we could'

'Before we could leap out and make your acquaintance,'

interrupted Glitz hurriedly.

'Yeah, that's it,' agreed Dibber.

'Er - where is your friend now?' asked Glitz casually.

'The Doctor? Oh, he's probably still down there somewhere - underground. For a Time Lord he's not very good at keeping time.' Dibber and Glitz exchanged glances.

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