Part 11 (1/2)

Sarg held up his hand for silence. 'Since troubles never come singly, we have another old enemy to contend with.

There is a renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor.'

There was another fierce, angry mutter. The Doctor's name had long been hated amongst the Sontarans.

'The Doctor's people claim that he is a rebel and an outcast,' Sarg went on. 'We suspect that this may be a cover for the fact that he sometimes acts as their agent. The Doctor has frustrated our plans in the past. It seems likely that he is meddling in our affairs again. He has been in contact with the Rutans, and there is evidence that he too is seeking Karne, both personally and through agents of his own. His intentions are unknown but they are unlikely to be of benefit to us.

Priority Two! The Doctor and his agents must be found and destroyed.'

Sarg paused. 'Until both priorities are dealt with, we dare not strike. The search for all our enemies is in the hands of our security service and their agents.' He glanced at a silver-collared officer in the front row. 'I am a.s.sured that successful results are imminent.' There was an edge of irony in Sarg's voice.

'Meanwhile,' he continued, 'the War Wheel will proceed as if on routine patrol, moving steadily but circuitously towards Rutan territory. As yet we do not wish to alarm the enemy.'

He rose abruptly. 'That is all. You may go. Commander Steg, you will remain.'

The Sontaran officers rose, saluted and marched from the room. Steg remained, standing stiffly to attention.

Sarg scowled at him for a moment and then growled, 'Sit, Commander, sit!'

He waved towards a chair beside the command desk. Steg sat, though he still sat to attention. Sarg opened a drawer in the desk and produced two silver goblets and a stone bottle of the fiery liquor called vragg vragg. Filling both goblets, he pa.s.sed one of them to Steg. Steg took a cautious sip, gasped and put the goblet carefully down on the desk. You had to be careful not to spill vragg vragg. It was reputed to be able to eat through a battle-cruiser's hull.

Admiral Sarg drained his goblet and poured himself another.

'Do you know what the High Council of Admiralty think of this operation, Commander Steg?'

'No, sir.'

'They think it is the last mad scheme of a senile old fool.

When it fails, as they are sure it will, it will give them the excuse they need to replace me.'

Steg said nothing. He knew that no answer was called for.

'Do you know the main strength of our Rutan enemies?'

Sarg went on. 'They are single-minded. Indeed, they are a single mind. They think, they move, they strike as one. And how do we counter them? We become like them. We too become single-minded, monolithic. Right, Commander?'

Again Steg made no reply. It seemed safer.

'Wrong!' roared Sarg. 'As long as we think like the Rutans, we can never defeat them. Look at the history of this war. A battle won, a battle lost, another fought to a draw. A planet conquered, a planet lost. The battle line wavers to and fro and nothing changes. Nothing! I tell you it needs original thinking to win this war. A single bold stroke like this one! That is why I chose you to help me, Steg. If we succeed we shall be immortal. If we fail, we may well be executed by our own side!'

Sarg poured them both more vragg vragg.

'You had a certain amount of trouble on Jekkar, Commander, with a guerrilla leader called Smith?'

'Yes, Admiral.'

'You actually had him in your hands, but he escaped?'

'That is so, Admiral,' said Steg woodenly.

Sarg smiled. 'I thought it might interest you to know that the name ”Smith” is a frequent alias of our enemy the Doctor.'

Steg thought of the scruffy little man with his querulous protests. The man who had fooled and defeated him.

'So that was the Doctor.'

'Since the Doctor is known to be concerned in this operation, it may be that your paths will cross once more.'

Steg's eyes burned red. 'I hope so, Admiral. I should very much enjoy meeting the Doctor again.'

6.

Trackdown Roz Forrester glanced impatiently down the long road. 'So where is he?'

Chris shaded his eyes with his hand. 'He's coming. Isn't that a dust-cloud in the distance?'

'No,' said Roz bluntly. 'Let's go back to Garshak and insist on a ride in a police wagon I gave him a big enough bribe to buy one! The Ogrons brought us here, they can take us back.'

Chris grinned down at her and saw the white spot poised just over her heart.

Chris's thought processes were sometimes a bit slow, but there was nothing wrong with his reflexes. He swept Roz out of the way with one arm, drawing his blaster at the same time.

A chunk of stonework exploded into dust, just where she'd been standing. Chris fired at the cloaked figure on the parapet and missed.

Another chunk of stonework exploded inches from his ear.

'Back inside!' yelled Roz, her own blaster in her hand.

'He's out of our range but we're not out of his!' Despite her words, she couldn't resist snapping off a quick blast herself. A window several feet below the parapet exploded in a shower of plasti-gla.s.s.

A ma.s.sive hand closed over her arm. 'Do be careful, that building is police property,' said Garshak protestingly.

'Someone up there's trying to kill us,' yelled Roz.

'Don't worry, it's all being taken care of.'

Garshak pointed upwards, and they saw a number of ma.s.sive figures closing in on their attacker.